I think the OP-Z had the potential to be 10x better than it is with a little more effort in the design stage and build quality, in that sense is it a good design? For me I’d say compared to the OP-1 then no, and the OP-1 has a few design faux pas of its own, albeit much less serious.
Is it a good design compared to other manufacturers? Conceptually yes, in practice no, the build quality and fiddly size let it down. Sound quality is down to personal taste, build quality isn’t.
Overall it has some very good features and functions, but feels like 75% of the way into the design someone got distracted by designing another product instead of finishing the OP-Z first.
For me TE stuff is no longer an insta-buy, aside from the Pocket Operators every device I have bought from them has had quality issues and hardware failures due to poor design choices, like these:
Oplab board faulty LEDs, returned and exchanged
OP-1 mic, 3 replacements
PO-400 modular faulty badly designed PSU, sourced my own replacement
OP-Z on my 3rd replacement
Oplab module on my 2nd replacement
Also their customer care can be hit and miss, sometimes things get resolved quickly other times not.
So I’ll wait until the next TE product is in the wild for a while if I am interested in it, my days of being an early adopter are over, it seems that early batches are always plagued by issues.
I loved my OP-Z and and made some nice music with it. I just knew it was a part time love affair as it was going to disappoint me sooner than later. Like I was on borrowed time with it when I used it.
I would be happy with a 2-3x bigger OP-Z with a ton of new features of course. I really like playing with it and the engines have some power to them but the tiny factor which drove me to it is also why I never use it. Especially as I don’t go anywhere anymore
These FXs or even the synth engines could be very versatile if TE releases a kind of software editor to give OPZ owners the chance to create their own. In this way this machine could get a second life but actually is quiet limited.
They’ve been pretty good about releasing new features for OP-Z since it came out. Onboard sampling was probably the biggest, but this year they’ve released a few new synth engines, “choke group” style playback for samples, and a few more things I’m probably forgetting. I have no clue if they’ll actually ever release a custom synth engine designer, but if they did it’d be a huge feature for the device. It’s not unprecedented at this point though - some of the past software updates have added huge swaths of functionality.
Thanks for saying this. I couldn’t quite put my finger on it, but my time with the OP-1 was exactly like this.
I think the initial stage of exploration is something that melds well with the playfulness of TE products. They’re fun to explore and fun to use as you discover they’re unique abilities, quirks, and limitations. But eventually the clock runs out on that.
Getting an OP-1 the first time made me explore a genre I’d never explored before. It was just so fun and playful, and the workflow had me thinking in new ways. I made an album with it. Then I took that exploration in a new (for me) genre to my other, less limited Elektron gear and ran with it.
GAS for a Push 2 made me sell it.
Once I bought another one a couple years later, the magic was totally gone. I knew what to expect from it. There was nothing new to learn. I barely lasted a month with it.
Whatever TE drops on us, I hope it is deep enough feature wise to overcome this phenomenon.
Even if it is just a coffee maker.
I must have been lucky with OP-1 and OP-z - no big problems - my OP-1 is 6 years old and I thought it might have a battery charging issue but after a full discharge / recharge I still get 5 hours plus out of it. I love that thing.
I don’t use them very much I must admit and I am super careful and precious about these pieces in particular. The whole idea of portability and ‘throwing’ gear in your backpack is nonsense to me. I wrap them up like babies and make sure they’re super safe before I do anything. I wouldn’t be surprised if heavy handed people have problems with these units.
They’re quirky - not perfect at all but what is - really? Why the comparing to Elektron gear - that’s kind of pointless. If you can embrace them for what they are then they are both truly brilliant.
TE are about to release a heavily futuristic design breaking full on TE branded pack of Lincolnshire sausages. I have insider knowledge.
I don’t use their workflow at all (unless I sketch with it while traveling). and I still think the OP1 is worth having around just for the sounds. I think you could get some of them elsewhere, but they’re very easy and (as you say) fun to get with the OP1. I wouldn’t use it for all my voices, but it’s a great digital counterpoint over an otherwise analog bed of sound.
definitely arguable that it’s not worth the price just for the synthesis engines and effects though.
They’re very very different and I like them in different ways.
Dont get me wrong - I still have my op-z and I really love the sequencer and the ideas - the design concept is absolutely amazing - fantastic, fun, effective, portable, really great with external stuff eg eurorack (with the oplab module). It’s exactly what I hoped it would be when I was following its development eagerly over the years.
I just feel really cheated and taken advantage of at the quality and the issues I’ve had with mine, given the incredibly high price for the poor manufacturing quality (again - dont get me wrong - I wouldnt complain about the price at all, given the functionality and concept, if the implementation and quality of manufacture wasnt so ridiculously bad - it’s so bad that it’s an insult to purchasers and means that I will never touch a TE product again). I also wouldn’t say anything if mine was an isolated incident (I’d shrug and accept that some bad quality units are sold) and if it was dealt with quickly by TE but their support is as laughable (in my experience of trying to deal with them) as is the quality of the manufacture and their contempt of their customers.
In summary - awesome idea, nothing like it, love the concept, still own mine but feel really upset and cheated at how many issues I have had to deal with and how poor TE are at dealing with them. (I have never had to deal with another musical instrument or company that has been so poor).
This is why there are so many TE-bashing commments on all the music forums that I frequent…
Neither would I, given that mine are used minimally, always kept in cases and never handled roughy, yet still had problems. I’d never trust them being “tossed in a bag” or used in a live setting, they are not built well enough. IMHO.
I sort of think “yeah, I agree” but at the end of the day - they can charge what they want and if people pay it, then they have chosen the right price. We can choose to pay it or not…
What they shouldnt be allowed to do is charge a high price for a faulty product that they dont recall or address…
By the same logic, if they can decline to address problems with their product and yet people still buy them, then they’ve chosen the right strategy.
Of course they are free to do these things, but I think it has probably eroded the good will that people have for the company. Speaking personally, I used to own a lot of their products but have sold most and stopped buying new ones.
Those cases are both very much capitalism. Even the potential for payouts from consumer protection lawsuits can be factored in as a cost risk. (sorry to go OT)
I kind of liked my OP-Z when I had it. Never had any issues with it, but eventually the internal synth sounds just weren’t all that rich. It handled samples well enough, tho. If the input and sampling had been stereo, I might’ve used it still. A few looped seconds from my Prophet-12 and them internal synths would be an issue no longer.
Step resolution never bothered me, but I almost always record my sequences live so that resolution thing was just a theoretical issue. The fact that it could handle stuff beyond sixteen steps was enough for me to like it.
From a personal point of view - if I knowingly bought something very expensive but it did as was advertised and worked as described, I’d be happy.
If I bought something expensive and it fell apart with many issues, lacking promised functionality and the manufacturer did nothing, I’d feel irritated, express my opinion of the manufacturer and advise friends and colleagues to avoid that manufacturer like the plague…
