Teenage Engineering OP-1

Well i sold mine due to the very lofi and bland reverb, I don’t think the stimming box would add a half-decent room hall pr plate effect :slight_smile:

Stimming’s take on Tombola was similar to mine - loved the concept as described in the literature, struggled to get desirable results in practice.

It was only later that I learned it can be pretty good for ambient stuff when used with long release synth tones. Also great for musique concrete-ish sample mangling. Hainbach otoh seemed catch on to stuff like that in short order, but then again I’m guessing he thinks about sound and music very differently.

I kinda came to appreciate more and more the synth engines. Particularly the digital and dr wave ones. With a slow free running LFO modulating one of the parameters they become alive in unpredictable ways. Little fuzzy clouds of digital randomness emanate from the main sound every now, making it irresistibly interesting. This is my latest attempt to capture the beauty of the synth engines.

From stimming’s review I had the revelation that the phone fx on the master channel is stereo and holy cow it sounds absolutely gorgeous on rhythmic material! I need to experiment more in that domain.

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will his mastering chain remove the ground hum?

It was not worthy of connecting to his mastering thing

I am sorry. I did it again :grinning:
Continuing my most successful video “The poor man’s OP1 for Casio VL-1 and Monome Norns”, I thought about making a new try with a different setup. This time using the new Dirtywave M8 Tracker and (again) a Casio VL-1.

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Just bought back an op-1 (after selling it a long time ago.). This machine still gets me. The design, the programming, the simplicity and quirkiness and the community (unfortunately almost dead now, huh?).

What an amazing invention. To think this was their first product, and they never made anything that surpasses it (imo).

I’m an Octatrack fan - but this is a complete different ballpark to me. I love using these two ‘opposites’ together.

Just a brief love letter.

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Even if I should sell all my instruments some day, the op-1 would probably be the last one to leave the house.

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yea its a beautiful piece of kit. :heart:

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It realy is a beauty and lot of fun. But i’m letting go of mine to fund some eurorack. Although i know i’ll miss it at some time.

OP-1 and Octatrack is a killer combo!

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My opinion: The OP-1 really shines in its sampling philosophy. It’s super on the fly and hands-on. Simple but powerful.

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Also, I think I prefer the old rev1.

Considered buying a new rev2. Tried it in store, and noticed the details on the screen cutout is very roughly done on all rev2 units.

I came home, found an older unit (from 2017) on Craigslist, and bought that instead. Screen is beautifully done on the rev1 in comparison.
Minor detail though - anybody noticed? Must be because they changed the screen part for the rev2.

I also believe on rev1, that there are inscriptions and drawings on the DSP board - those are not on the rev2.

By the way. Can someone explain, why USB AUDIO is so useful?
‘Headphones out’ into ‘audio in’ on my MacBook Pro always worked just fine for recording op-1 into my DAW.

So what is different here, except it’s now bypassing the two DAC’s (I’m the one in op-2 and the one on MacBook Pro), to get ‘better sound quality’ which I can’t really hear, because op-1 is so lo-fi already…

More convenient in my case, much less cables to control and sample from iPad.

That’s it. Bypassing the two DACs. Also, it leaves the headphone jack free.

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I don’t think any newer MacBooks have audio in ports

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This is why the Octatrack and OP-1 is such a great combo… at first I was flustered with how hard it was to sync them, but I came to realize that just having the same tempo and pressing play takes you 80% of the way… plus sometimes a bit of phasing can be cool…

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Bought myself one of these from Bax for £750 (see HW Deals thread), couldn’t justify it at the full price but for that I’ll give it a go for a fresh source of fun/inspiration!

A couple of newcomer questions which may already be answered in this huge thread:

  1. Any particular recommendations for things to watch/read ahead of getting it to make the most of it? (Or any general tips of course). It will be a couple of weeks as it’s not in stock so I have plenty of time to get ready and excited!

    I’m watching Red Means Recording’s video series and watched Stimming’s (more entertaining than informative, I just enjoy his style!). I came across this https://github.com/ratbag98/op1tips and of course there are tonnes of tips that come up when googling, might have to start my own collection.

  2. Can you see the screen OK when it’s sunny out? I have this romantic vision of jamming some lovely ambient on it by the beach or whatever, I just kind of assumed the screen would be easy to see outdoors…

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Check out Cuckoos OP-1 videos. They’re a great way to get to know what it can do. I like to come back to them, as I always learn something new.

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