Would you swap an OP-1 for an old MD MKII UW+ & $ ?
Had the OP-1 for 3 month, it’s a great companion to write ideas and leave your imagination into some crazy ways to make music but most of the time I am in the studio & just use my DT/DN and software and leave the OP-1 only for fun and little bed jam.
Always heard good things about the MD and how it sounds,
Is the sampling capabilities on MD is better than DT ?
Is it easy to load new samples into it ?
And does it work like the AR with sample layer on each tracks ?
What would be the Pros & Cons between those 2 beasts ?
I’d probably do it. Machinedrum is awesome and can be bent to do almost anything you want.
It sounds great.
Sampling capabilities probably not up to DT snuff, but still unique and powerful.
Easy to load new samples is either kind of a pain via computer or you can sample in realtime.
No you can’t layer unless you resample.
As someone who never gelled with the MD I’d say it seems okay as a deal but I’d bet in time you’d want both side by side!
Comparing the two is like asking if the colour green tastes better than Belgium looks…
I’d say go for it but be prepared to hanker after the portability etc of the mighty-whitey!
longtime MD UW aficionado here, never owned the OP-1 but a few things you might want to consider:
the MD is a lot bulkier and can’t run on batteries … usable in bed i can attest but be warned.
i’ve heard the OP-1 can be kinda noisy, so you might be into the MD’s 12-bit sampling engine. for me it’s a feature not a limitation, but not everyone agrees.
you’ve also only got access to 2.5 megs of samples at any given time. 48 sample slots mostly geared for short one-shots. loops will be limited to 2 bars/8 beats in length and they eat up space quickly. nothing like the OP’s multiple minutes of recording time.
the MD can do melodic stuff but not nearly as easily as the OP-1. if you’re into composing tonal material sticking with the OP-1 might be wiser.
all that said, the MD UW is an amazing instrument that remains a central part of my setup eight years after i bought it. well worth trying and exploring for awhile if you can get a good deal on one.
I sold my OP-1 to get a machinedrum, but then sold that to get an octatrack. I’ll never sell the OT (except to get a mk2 if the desire overwhelms me), but I do kinda want an OP-1 again.
MD is very deep. I mostly sold it because I wanted deeper sample mangling than it could offer. I also think that I just wouldn’t have used it to its full potential, especially alongside the monomachine. On its own though, definitely a big and weird sound.
I’ve got both. For me, the OP-1 excels at tonal generation/synthesis. I’m always ending up with inspiring, usable synth sounds within minutes of playing with it. I never was into it for the sampling or the drums, though. The drums always ended up a bit tinny and lacking heft for me, and the sampling workflow never caught my interest. The Machinedrum, on the other hand, is aces at both. A classic drum machine for all time, with its own strange, organo-digital character. And the sampling sounds great, feels great, and is fun to mess with (never underestimate the fun and power of parameter locking).
So, I love both, and use both for different things. I’ve sometimes gotten the notion of selling the OP-1 for other more “serious” machines, but never could do it.
A major underexplored aspect of the OP-1, in my opinion, lies in automating and sequencing the four knob CCs. get the hang of doing that (either with your computer or an Elektron box) and suddenly the OP-1 gets crazy and modular-sounding.
