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OP-1 field

teenage.engineering

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Re: OP-1 field

#221

Post by filoleg »

dmcginty wrote: post #217
zimpenfish wrote: post #191

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Even at ~1300 or whatever the old model is going for [...] you can get both a digitakt and a digitone You could probably get an iPad, a USB midi dongle, a midi keyboard, and a whole suite of software for that, too.

And for the $2000 MSRP of the OP-1 Field you could buy a brand new 13" MacBook Pro, an Ableton Live Standard 11 license, a Scarlett Solo audio interface, an M-Audio Keystation 49 USB MIDI controller, and still have some money left over.

That's like telling someone that for the price of a new BMW S1000RR motorcycle, they can instead buy a really good Honda Civic, because a Honda Civic can carry more passengers, you can sleep in it, it is more reliable, safer, cheaper to service, holds resale value better, more versatile when it comes to different weather conditions, etc. You are missing the point that those in the market for BMW S1000RR are often aware of all those factual advantages that a Honda Civic has, they just prioritize different factors in their choices than you might. Someone who is looking to buy a motorcycle isn't gonna suddenly be swayed by looking into all the factual advantages a Honda Civic can provide over a motorcycle.

Despite both items serving fundamentally the same base purpose (getting from point A to point B for cars/motorcycles; making music for OP-1/your list), and one of them is cheaper overall and on paper has a lot of factual advantages, they might simply prioritize different things and both be extremely good at different things they prioritize. I, personally, love the workflow of the original OP-1 way more than almost the exact list you produced (because it used to be pretty much my setup, except I used a different midi controller).

Re: OP-1 field

#222

Post by Gigachad »

mrkwse wrote: post #149
alin23 wrote: post #133

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well there’s this guy on YouTube who demos all kinds of synths and got a huge following from his OP-1 videos: https://youtu.be/7z4hoazra_g The video shows me that OP-1 is a pretty cool all-in-one package, but it probably needs honing a special skill to work with it as smoothly as that guy does.

Even with RMR though, he's pretty much moved away from the OP-1 videos, I can't recall the video where he explained why 100%, but I think he found it a bit creatively constraining.

He got upset a while ago because someone else started making a similar style of OP-1 videos (Top down, subtitles, wooden desk) which he felt was theft of his creative property.

Re: OP-1 field

#223

Post by Gigachad »

spoonjim wrote: post #152
krnlpnc wrote: post #139

I was so excited to see the announcement! Finally some new OP-1 stock will drive the prices back down to the original ~$700 mark. Nope! On what planet is this actually worth $2000? I'm really disappointed to see TE become this lifestyle company and continue jacking up their prices.

TE is following the Apple playbook to a T: fanatical obsession with appearance/image/brand positioning PLUS absolutely excellent engineering PLUS extreme price markups. The result is a product that has a bananas price tag but also has no real substitutes.

I'm not sure that really holds true for Apple. Almost every one of their products has huge competition where Apple usually still holds the title for best value product.

They have a few products like the Studio Display which don't have many direct replacements but all of Apples mainstream products are just good value.

Re: OP-1 field

#224

Post by ben174 »

enneff wrote: post #63
bravura wrote: post #35

The people complaining about the price tag: I get it. But the OP-1 is literally the only piece of music gear you can bring on an airplane and write a whole song. Why has no one else figured that out? With all these groove boxes etc, why has no other music gear taken the step of being portable and all-in-one. Show me another way to write a song in an airplane, and you can have my money.

> But the OP-1 is literally the only piece of music gear you can bring on an airplane and write a whole song. Apart from the several other great options mentioned in other replies, there’s also the Dirtywave M8. It, and the other tracker-style devices like the Polyend, actually make it much easier to write proper songs than the OP-1’s finnicky and unforgiving tape-based recording interface. (I own all these devices a…

Is the M8 obtainable? It seems like it's constantly backordered.

Re: OP-1 field

#225

Post by elihu »

323 wrote: post #148
krnlpnc wrote: post #139

I was so excited to see the announcement! Finally some new OP-1 stock will drive the prices back down to the original ~$700 mark. Nope! On what planet is this actually worth $2000? I'm really disappointed to see TE become this lifestyle company and continue jacking up their prices.

> see TE become this lifestyle company TE always was a lifestyle company. All their products, including their gaming device, are about looking cool. Which is why device thinness is extremely important and the first thing they talk about. Just like Apple. You don't buy a TE device to actually make music, you buy it to impress people about how creative you are, how you are not a pleb consumerist.

The original OP-1 was kind of expensive, but it was a unique product that a middle-class person might buy if they're really into creative music making. Sort of like how a middle-class person might buy a high-quality guitar -- because they feel it's worth it and there isn't n less expensive option that they'd be satisfied with.

I feel like at a $1999 price point, though, they've crossed into territory where their products are going to increasingly be seen as being only for rich people, and I think it's starting to hurt their credibility. The coverage of their new mixer on /r/synthesizers was overwhelmingly negative. It's like if Apple suddenly decided that going forward all their products would be gold plated and cost twice as much. If you make it too obvious that the point of the product is to flaunt wealth, then that detracts from it being just a product that's interesting, pleasant to use, and useful in some context.

Re: OP-1 field

#226

Post by tmountain »

chaosprint wrote: post #202
tmountain wrote: post #154

I owned and sold an OP-1. It is a beautiful piece of hardware and its analog controls and mashable buttons provide a more tactile experience than an iPad does. That said, the sounds it ships with really leave something to be desired. My subjective opinion is that anyone who's played with a best in class software synth (i.e., equator2) is going to find themselves feeling pretty limited by the blippy tones that you get…

I am wondering if you can recall that whether one can create complex rhythm like this on OP-1? https://glicol-tidal.netlify.app The BPM can be changed in real-time and not limited to 4, 8, 16, 32 grids of sequences.

It has 4 dedicated sequencers. They're locked to whatever tempo the metronome is configured for. You can mix durations pretty fluidly with the endless sequencer (8th, 16th notes/rests), but you definitely cannot change tempo in a given beat--at least not without jumping through a bunch of hoops bouncing and re-recording tracks, etc. There's a basic grid type sequencer as well, but that doesn't meet your criteria.

Re: OP-1 field

#227

Post by enneff »

ben174 wrote: post #224
enneff wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> But the OP-1 is literally the only piece of music gear you can bring on an airplane and write a whole song. Apart from the several other great options mentioned in other replies, there’s also the Dirtywave M8. It, and the other tracker-style devices like the Polyend, actually make it much easier to write proper songs than the OP-1’s finnicky and unforgiving tape-based recording interface. (I own all these devices a…

Is the M8 obtainable? It seems like it's constantly backordered.

They do new production runs every so often. Gotta watch closely to be informed.

Re: OP-1 field

#228

Post by nkingsy »

nkingsy wrote: post #182
evo_9 wrote: post #163

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah I agree, it's not really a great choice as your 'main synth'. I think it's really meant to be a self-contained portable 'music sketchpad'. I owned 2 at one point thinking maybe that was the issue, I like to double up my gear (for example I like to use two TB-303 layered); when that didn't work out the way I hoped on the OP1s I sold them and both were bought separately by traveling musicians that wanted something…

Korg Module is the best noodler out there and it’s 20 bucks. I’ve tried a few portable hardware sequencers, but module on my phone fits the bill so much better. Just finished a verse and got halfway through a chorus on a 30 minute ferry ride and I didn’t even have to remember to bring anything but my phone.

Too late to edit if someone stumbles on this. I meant Korg Gadget. Module Pro is free with gadget, so don’t buy that oops.

Re: OP-1 field

#229

Post by aa-jv »

agentultra wrote: post #185
aa-jv wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I guess you're not yet familiar with the Synthstrom Deluge: https://synthstrom.com Far better than the OP-1, by miles .. See also the 1010music BlackBox: https://1010music.com/product/blackbox Easily set up on an airplane seat-table for production.

The Deluge is huge (size-wise) compared to the OP-1 and doesn't run off batteries, have wifi/bluetooth connectivity, sample editing, etc, etc. It's a nice groovebox but I don't think it really compares. $2k is a steep price but there's a lot going on here that's not immediately obvious to a lot of folks.

My Deluge has a Wifi+SD card in it, I can mount its filesystem remotely, transfer samples and do backups over Wifi with great ease.

Deluge is a very, very fun device, very powerful and feature-rich, and far superior to the OP-1 in every single way. OP-1 is Ikea, Deluge is Henge.

Re: OP-1 field

#230

Post by lucidlive »

$2k? Yikes. I’m sure it’s cool cause I had the original OP-1 and it was lots of fun. But that’s just too expensive. You can get a serious analog synth at that price.
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