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TX-6 – Teenage Engineering
251–260 of 343 posts
Re: TX-6 – Teenage Engineering
#252Earlier quoted context omitted.
Chip/hardware complexity. We actually put some serious resources into trying to get this to work, wish we could have made it a reality And no, open sourcing would be incredibly difficult to do with hardware that has multiple chips and requires people to have expensive programming tools. If it was an ARM you could just plug a USB cable into that'd be one thing, this just wouldn't work without a ton of support And glad…
Interesting. There are those pre-installed samples there already, they couldn't just be swapped out with an imported file – there's something special about those files? Anyway I think it's hugely underrated, hopefully you guys can do a v2 sometime. I'm blown away whenever I use it, it feels like a huge technical achievement.
Technically they could and that as well was something we looked into. Honestly it was the most complicated thing I've ever done. Would love to give it another shot some day!
Re: TX-6 – Teenage Engineering
#253Earlier quoted context omitted.
Lucky for you. Once I tried to copy a single audio file to my ipod without going through the whole itunes journey. Spoiler alert: In the end I just stopped using apple stuff.
I tried the same with a mini disc player. Knowing what a product does and how it does it is kind of key though.
It worked before the firmware update through a Winamp plug in. But to your point I will be avoiding this product in the same way I avoid Apple products.
Re: TX-6 – Teenage Engineering
#254"Why is it so expensive?" - commentary from someone who does this for a living at Sequential Small Volume - each unit is more expensive than a large volume product, you don't get price breaks on any components or tooling costs Design focused - Who is the product for? It isn't for people who want to spend 250$ on a Behringer mixer. It is for people who want something that is high quality and doesn't break. Reliable. F…
> $250 on a Behringer mixer.
Yamaha, Mackie, Allen & Heath, Soundcraft, and ART all make mixers with at least 6 channels on them in the $250 price range. So, there's more to the mixer landscape than Teenage Eng. and Behringer.
I can't comment on all the brands, but I've used Yamaha and Mackie for years, with virtually zero problems. My old Yamaha 12 channel (which would retail for $300 today) was an absolute tank. It did countless shows in dirty warehouses, clubs, fields, and never even had a road case! Which, I I'd qualify as pretty reliable.
> If you are trying to figure out why you'd pay for this you aren't their target market
I actually think that I am their target market. I've got many thousands of dollars worth of eurorack modular (which is the same niche), synthesizers (including Sequential), guitars, and studio equipment. I obsess over this stuff, and spend money on it.
But, I cannot figure out why I would spend $1200 on this 6 channel mixer. The Burr Brown ADC? I guess you could argue the size is the selling point. But, that seems more like a solution looking for a problem. And, frankly, if you intend to use a mixer in your performance, the size could do more harm than good.
Re: TX-6 – Teenage Engineering
#255Earlier quoted context omitted.
> doesn't break Can get behind the rest of your comment but I don't think anyone's ever accused TE of making durable products. To their credit though, they replaced my broken PO without a fuss, so I'm not a detractor.
I have used TE products on occasion and looked into them deeply from a bunch of engineering perspectives. Compared to other products in a similar price point and form factor the likelihood of a problem is far lower. When you reduce the size you eliminate structural components and if you can't mill aluminum you're left with a lot of difficult choices to make to keep things stable. TE does a good job of balancing those…
this has not been my experience with several TE products.
My experience suggests that TE charges a lot because they 1) they're a status symbol so they can and 2) they replace a lot of devices.
TE to me does not at all signify high quality or 'good build quality'. Just 'ok' and 'it will likely fail long before its purchase price justifies itself'.
They're the pre-intel apple of the synth world - overpriced and not worth the cost, but status symbols for those who want them.
Re: TX-6 – Teenage Engineering
#256Once, just once, I would like to see someone say “why is this so expensive, it’s just […]” and then build one themselves, and bring it to market, for that lower cost. Go ahead, just try.
not understanding this argument. i'm not a synth manufacturer. korg and roland put out plenty of gear with great features for a lower price than this
Well, someone should tell TE then, because they obviously don't know they're making a huge mistake and this will fail miserably.
Re: TX-6 – Teenage Engineering
#257Interesting that they have different T&Cs (e.g. warranty length) for the US vs rest of the world.
Re: TX-6 – Teenage Engineering
#258Small, portable mixers with lots of stereo inputs are relatively rare. That plus the Teenage Engineering "tax" (think Apple tax but for synth-heads) is driving the price. A cheaper, but slightly less tactile alternative is the 1010 Music Bluebox: https://1010music.com/product/bluebox
Most synth heads I know don't like teenage engineering and see them as overpriced underengineered nerd tech. I own an op-z and used to own some pocket operators. They will be the last teenage engineering products I own. Everything they release seems more ridiculous all the time. Just the ob-4 is enough for me to say "these are not products for synth people but tech nerds who want synths"
As with all things, YMMV. I've had my OP-1 for nearly 10 years and I've gotten a hell of a lot of use out of it. As a super portable, battery powered instrument with lots of different synth engines and diverse FX it's been great for travel, noodling on the couch, and jamming with friends.
I also have to give TE props for their long term support and updates on the OP-1. I mean, just last fall they added USB audio in/out on a 10+ year old synth! Few other major synth manufacturer I know of hav as good a track record (Novation is actually pretty good in this respect as is Elektron, but for the most part they're fixing bugs not adding new features).
Compare this to another boutique synth outfit like DSI/Sequential -- my DSI Pro2 purchased in 2014 only got about 4 years of support before they dropped it like a hot potato. Tempest suffered a similar fate. Never buying another DSI/Sequential instrument again...
Re: TX-6 – Teenage Engineering
#259"Why is it so expensive?" - commentary from someone who does this for a living at Sequential Small Volume - each unit is more expensive than a large volume product, you don't get price breaks on any components or tooling costs Design focused - Who is the product for? It isn't for people who want to spend 250$ on a Behringer mixer. It is for people who want something that is high quality and doesn't break. Reliable. F…
> $250 on a Behringer mixer. Yamaha, Mackie, Allen & Heath, Soundcraft, and ART all make mixers with at least 6 channels on them in the $250 price range. So, there's more to the mixer landscape than Teenage Eng. and Behringer. I can't comment on all the brands, but I've used Yamaha and Mackie for years, with virtually zero problems. My old Yamaha 12 channel (which would retail for $300 today) was an absolute tank. It…
Yeah, these knobs look very small to be adjusting in a hurry in the dark backstage but I’m not the target market.
Re: TX-6 – Teenage Engineering
#260Earlier quoted context omitted.
> doesn't break Can get behind the rest of your comment but I don't think anyone's ever accused TE of making durable products. To their credit though, they replaced my broken PO without a fuss, so I'm not a detractor.
The PO series are a different beast entirely. You can’t compare their $80 toy synths made of PC board to their high end stuff.
OP-Z - bends straight out of the box and causes double trigs, keyboard is plastic welded so can't be repaired outside of depot. custom battery only so once TE stops supporting it this thing is dead.
OP-1 - commonly has power switch issues, as well as other quirks that are harder to nail down, as well as keyboard issues.
Teenage engineering support is extremely slow sometimes taking a week+ to reply to support issues. I've heard of people not getting responses at all.
Their high end stuff is just expensive - the high price tag doesn't mean high quality.
I say all this as an op-z owner and former owner of multiple pocket operators who wishes it was a better device than it is. It isn't. I wouldn't pay them $1200 for anything.