This is pretty much how I’m feeling in my second week of ownership! It’s far from perfect, but it’s really fun to use and I keep pulling it out for 10 mins here or there and just sampling some random crap off the radio and smiling at wherever the end result takes me.
I can see if you approach it as a “serious” music making tool (like you have an end result in mind that you want to achieve, or you need automation/arrangement, or you want to integrate it into a studio) it would be frustrating and a waste of money… if you’re able to take it for what it is then I think it’s a very unique and inspiring thing. I’ll see how I feel in 6 months but right now, after a few period of feeling skeptical and thinking about returning it, I think I’ve found its “groove” and I’m really impressed with what they pulled off.
agree I have tons of synths and modular now that I use if I need to create serious music. OP-1, Korg Volca, Roland TB03, and my Elektrons and Roland TR-08 are fun jam sketch machines for me. If I just want to mess around they are a blast. I have to admit the pads for a few synth engines on the OP-1 sound amazing and would be great to record for house and trance pads and use other stuff for drums and bass. Drums are the strong point on the OP-1 but my other synths cover percussion well.
Does any OP-1 guru have any experience with the OG OP-Lab? I’m not getting it to work… it’s seems like the USB ports aren’t doing anything… are they supposed to shine like the CV and Midi whenever a signal is coming out of the port? Cause it is not doing that.
Is there some secret handshake I have to perform on the OP-Lab?
I’m going back through all of my OP-1 backups/tape dumps to computer. I stumbled upon some of my very first recordings and sketches. This one kind of blew my mind. I have no idea how I did some of this stuff. Well, I kind of do- I spent every waking moment with my OP-1 when I first got it back in 2014. Enjoy. Really crazy-sounding stuff.
Thanks! If I’m remembering correctly, it was off of some vinyl and I just played the drums in manually over the top. Lots of wild stuff going on. I need to get this approach back. Much too careful and precious now.
Hey, does anyone have a clever solution for getting the op1 to get midi information from other hardware without using a computer? I’ve had mixed results sequencing with ableton and would rather just use my octatrack, that’s where I make ideas anyway. Just want a small, cheap box to go between midi 5 din and op 1’s midi… somehow. I have googled this and haven’t found anything that feels helpful.
When I had an OP-1 I used the Retrokits RK-005. It may be discontinued now, can’t tell but it worked well. That being said, I found it more inconvenient to use midi with my OP-1 so rarely ended up using the RK-005.
It crosses my mind regularly to get an OP-1 again. The rapid sampling, especially the radio, are so much fun. I could never get my head around the tape though. I’ve been tempted by the op-z but it just doesn’t look as appealing to me. Maybe I should just go for the OP-1 again, 3rd time is a charm after all…
I bought an Op-Z as an expander (of sorts) for the Op-1. But it just feels like I’m using any of the other groove box type instruments that I’ve owned. And I find that unappealing.
I had these expectations as well when I had an op-z. I’ve tried to use the op-1 with a number of different devices and finally realized it works better for me on it’s own, with the occasional guitar, bass, or synth plugged into it. I’ve been having a renaissance with my op-1 lately while the Polyend Tracker, Octatrack, and MPC 1000 just sit there gathering dust. op-1 is just so quick when it comes to getting ideas down.
