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Ten years of OP-1

teenage.engineering

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Re: Ten years of OP-1

#171

Post by bmitc »

intrasight wrote: post #44
Toutouxc wrote: post #4

I use a Mac. I have a PlayStation AND a Switch, I can come up with reasons to buy almost every gadget imaginable, but no matter how lovely and enchanting the OP-1 is, €1121 is just too much for something that wouldn't make me more money (as my job is not in music production).

Also, for that much cash, I'd expect something bigger (therefore better interaction unless you have tiny hands) and more robust physically.

The base casing is milled out of an aluminum block. It's quite robust. Alessandro Cortini toured with one with NIN on the Tension tour.

Re: Ten years of OP-1

#172

Post by baby »

nemothekid wrote: post #167
smoldesu wrote: post #56

Teenage Engineering is a frustrating company. On the one hand, they set out to create some of the most fun music equipment you can own: their Pocket Operator line is awesome for beginners of the hardware world, and they've consistently innovated with their grooveboxes. The problem? They have absolutely no respect for their pricing model. The OP-1 used to cost $800, which was already a big ask for a microprocessor, OL…

> The OP-1 used to cost $800, which was already a big ask for a microprocessor, OLED screen and plastic enclosure I'm not sure it makes sense to price a hardware product on it's BOM. This kind of thinking is what leads to most hardware being absolutely crappy. Good product designers need to be paid, and design choices don't show up in the BOM. The same goes to hardware. When I see an ARM chip and an OLED screen going…

Bom?

Re: Ten years of OP-1

#173

Post by sandermvanvliet »

baby wrote: post #172
nemothekid wrote: post #167

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The OP-1 used to cost $800, which was already a big ask for a microprocessor, OLED screen and plastic enclosure I'm not sure it makes sense to price a hardware product on it's BOM. This kind of thinking is what leads to most hardware being absolutely crappy. Good product designers need to be paid, and design choices don't show up in the BOM. The same goes to hardware. When I see an ARM chip and an OLED screen going…

Bom?

Bill of materials: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_of_materials

Re: Ten years of OP-1

#174

Post by wayvey »

smoldesu wrote: post #56

Teenage Engineering is a frustrating company. On the one hand, they set out to create some of the most fun music equipment you can own: their Pocket Operator line is awesome for beginners of the hardware world, and they've consistently innovated with their grooveboxes. The problem? They have absolutely no respect for their pricing model. The OP-1 used to cost $800, which was already a big ask for a microprocessor, OL…

> The OP-1 used to cost $800, which was already a big ask for a microprocessor, OLED screen and plastic enclosure. A great machine, but a hard to swallow price to be sure. Once YouTubers started picking up on them, they chose to increase the price (blaming it on a supply shortage, since we all know how hard it is to find ARM cores and OLEDs /s), leaving the OP-1 at a bewildering $1100 total.

I gotta point out that the price increase was because the original OLED screen went out of production and they had to use a different one which required major changes to the hardware and probably software (at least that's what they say). Also the enclosure is actually a solid block of CNC machined aluminium which is quite nice and robust.

Re: Ten years of OP-1

#175

Post by Doxin »

smoldesu wrote: post #57
tenaciousDaniel wrote: post #2

I randomly came across the OP-1 on Youtube a few months ago and was blown away. Keep in mind that I know next to nothing about music, so I don't know how the OP-1 compares against other tools of its kind. But still, it seemed like an incredibly cool gadget and made me want to experiment with making digital music.

Teenage Engineering also makes a little device called the PO-33, which gives you the sampling capability of the OP-1 in a much smaller (and much cheaper) form factor. Check it out if this stuff interests you.

The PO-33 is clearly nowhere near as powerful as the OP-1. That said: they are great fun to mess around with. My current favorite is the PO-20.

Re: Ten years of OP-1

#176

Post by koolhaas »

smoldesu wrote: post #65
thenewwazoo wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sorry for the meta-discussion (which I know is against the guidelines), but I'm finding it really hard to respond kindly to your comment, given the overarching tone ("no respect", "hard to swallow", sarcasm about parts, "shitty pricing"). I'd love to engage with you on the merits of pricing for what the market will bear, CoGS including software and craftsmanship, etc, but I am not able. Perhaps that's my failing, but…

If my tone comes off as "acerbic", I guess I'm a little surprised. I love Teenage Engineering (and own a few Pocket Operators too), but I gotta call them out on the pricing issue here. When the price of the OP-1 did start to skyrocket in 2012, Teenage Engineering said absolutely nothing, and then discontinued it in 2013, sending the secondhand market soaring again. Of course, their response is to put it back into pro…

> I have no doubts that a simple redesign could bring the BOM down to sub-$200

lol gotta love armchair HN

Re: Ten years of OP-1

#177

Post by Cthulhu_ »

scottious wrote: post #23

I'm a musician but I honestly don't really understand this thing. I even tried playing around with one for a while. It just didn't click at all. You could have convinced me that it was a children's toy and I probably would have believed you. Obviously I'm missing something. I've seen some YouTube tutorials but they all seem to produce the same kind of music and honestly I don't find it super impressive. Maybe it'll c…

It's (functionally, not cost-wise) an entry level device for people with some money to splurge to fiddle with; your comment already starts with "I'm a musician", so this one is probably not for you.

Re: Ten years of OP-1

#178

Post by Cthulhu_ »

capableweb wrote: post #9
okprod wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Same, I haven't touched playing music in maybe 20 years but the OP-1 and their pocket operators are really fun just to mess around with.

Two or three connected Volcas are a great start into making music with hardware as well, so much fun.

I went with an Uno Synth, it's a bit larger but in the same price range and target audience as the Volca line and it has a lot more functionality.

Re: Ten years of OP-1

#179

Post by tomduncalf »

smoldesu wrote: post #56

Teenage Engineering is a frustrating company. On the one hand, they set out to create some of the most fun music equipment you can own: their Pocket Operator line is awesome for beginners of the hardware world, and they've consistently innovated with their grooveboxes. The problem? They have absolutely no respect for their pricing model. The OP-1 used to cost $800, which was already a big ask for a microprocessor, OL…

> Octatrack

Depending on your musical tastes and tolerance for UI complexity, you may be better served by other Elektron devices as your first purchase. The Octatrack is very powerful but pretty complex to wrap your head around.

Personally I’d go for the Analog Rytm mk2, especially if you like drum-based electronic music... it sounds fantastic, is a great analog drum machine but each track can also be used as a synth or sampler track, which makes it much more than just a drum machine, you can really quickly make great sounding full tracks on it. It also has a really fun interface with far fewer button combos to remember etc. than the Octatrack.

Of course, it doesn’t matter too much because once you buy one you’ll eventually end up buying them all ;) I agree that Elektron are making some of the most fun and exciting music gear out there, I love all their stuff. Quite a strong tracker influence to their sequencer which I like too!

Re: Ten years of OP-1

#180

Post by atoav »

smoldesu wrote: post #56

Teenage Engineering is a frustrating company. On the one hand, they set out to create some of the most fun music equipment you can own: their Pocket Operator line is awesome for beginners of the hardware world, and they've consistently innovated with their grooveboxes. The problem? They have absolutely no respect for their pricing model. The OP-1 used to cost $800, which was already a big ask for a microprocessor, OL…

I design and build modules for the eurorack modular synthesizer system. And I can vividly remember that in the beginning, still being a student my one thought was: Why is this stuff so expensive.

Five years later, I find myself arguing the opposite in many cases. Most modular synth stuff is not too expensive, but has just the price you'd expect it to have given the number of units sold and the BOM.

Yet when I was starting out my comparison were e.g. guitar pedals, which is a much much bigger market. Electronics scale like that. Whether you sell a hundred, a thousand or ten thousand units really makes a difference in terms of pricing. And quite frankly, if you worked 2 years on development it is a bit bold to expect from you that you did this for free.

That doesn't mean there are overprized things in synth bussiness. The OP-1 definitly seems pricier than one would expect, but I don't know enough about it to say thia with confidence.

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