Any new feelings in the past 27 minutes? I haven’t even finished watching the video yet haha.

It’s tough out here! 😂

Maybe you finally felt like you expired its possibilities? xD

I think you made the right decision, plenty of other options out there.

I bought an OP-1. I like it, I quickly found out its limitations (and workarounds). I won't pay $1000 more for a reverb.

guilty as charge😅

@@Julajuck same! I end up taking everything to my computer and rarely get to finishing a track

This is totally not true at all. Everyone I know who uses it (including me) bought it because we can afford it...because we....finish things.

I've been playing synths since the late 80s, and have finished more songs on the OP-1 than any other device. It's absolutely, without a doubt, the single most inspiring instrument I've ever played.

I actually don’t agree. I think the OP is a terrible introduction to musical production. The OP1 was my first piece of gear after having bounced off of my first DAW (FL Studio). My musical background was as an acoustic drummer, and I knew exactly nothing about everything that went into digital production. Compressors, EQs, LFOs, phasers, flangers, sequencers, hi/low pass filters, delay, chorus, sample and bit-rates, FM synthesis, midi, stems, etc. we’re all completely new concepts to me. And the OP-1, though intuitive to people who already know these things, makes for a terrible introduction to these concepts, predominantly just because of how they’re presented. Everything is vague and has a goofy name, zero built-in explanation, weird animations not grounded graphically in any kind of traditional sound design interface or representation of how you’re altering the parameters. It made seeking out information about the fundamental principles of each component far more difficult because it all had to be translated out T.E. design language into traditional terminology, and vice versa. (Not to mention how unforgiving the production process on the OP-1 can be or how parameter/utility over here affects something else on down the line.) It just wasn’t clicking for me, and therefore sat in the box for a couple years. It wasn’t until I forked out another $1200 on an MPC Live II in 2020 that I was in an production environment that made sense and was linguistically and visually consistent with all the other non-device-specific resources out there; if I came across something in the MPC that I had no idea what it was, like a Limiter, I could just search “what is a limiter/how does it work?”, and the information I found would be helpful regardless. On the OP-1, everything is Nitro or Phone or Grid or a goddamn cow. Six months into my MPC primer I did go back to the OP-1, and only then could I really make sense of it. That’s not to say a beginner couldn’t have faired better if they were more diligent. I’m sure discipline is a factor, and it does feel incredibly simple to me now. But I had not discovered YT as the wealth of resource for tutorials at the time (YT was more for entertainment), and 5+ years ago there were certainly less OP-1 breakdowns than their are today. I think RMR was maybe about halfway through his De-Mystifying the OP-1 project at the time I picked it up, not that I would have seen any of it for a few more years, I guess

@@joshualane1716 You make a lot of good points. It seems like the OP-1 is almost intentionally obtuse in many ways. I got my OP-1 shortly after getting into eurorack, so I had a little bit of vocabulary and I was able to mostly figure things out (although there were a few things that never quite clicked with me). The OP-1 might not be a great introduction to music production per se, but for a person who doesn't have a lot of other gear, it packs a ton of features into a small (and fun) package. I guess that was the point I was trying to make. My main complaint is probably the same as everyone else's: By the time the average person can justify shelling out $2000 for a piece of music equipment, they've likely grown as a musician to the point where their money might be better spent on something else, or something more niche. Not trying to knock the OP-1, and obviously everyone has different needs and financial situations. It's just a strange piece of gear at a strange price point, in my opinion. Furthermore, an extremely petty part of me just doesn't want to support TE if they're going to keep releasing things that I think are extremely overpriced, even if another part of me thinks they look like fun

Newcomer? A single synth for $500? I presume you mean a newcomer who's daddy is already rich? I would argue in fact the best buy for that money would just be a laptop! 🤣🤣

@@Bthelick Macbook air and an audio interface boom.

The mystifying thing about the price is theres absolutely nothing stopping someone like Behringer coming in and kicking their legs out with a $200 clone. Then *all* they will have to sell it with is the "boutique" reputation.

Think about how much people spend on vintage monosynths. This really misses the point. That being said, it is overpriced

@@ryanthompson4423 And if I offered you a 15 year old laptop or this, you'd choose this.

@@ryanthompson4423 isn't that where the sound quality come in?

I love reminding people how an old macbook and focusrite can be their stage piano, synth, sequencer/looper, mixer, fx processor, the list goes on. that said obviously you wont have the streamlined process that those independent modules would provide you and you would need something like ableton. but as an anarcho-software engineer all software is free.

@@station2station544 well this is a price of a brand new top of the line 2022 laptop. Would you rather have this or a 2000 dollar laptop for free? Or a 1000 dollar laptop loaded with 1000 dollars of audio production software?

You have chosen wisely CH. You will be fine,

if the original op-1 cost like $250 it would have done gangbusters and i would have two of them. but it's a boutique thing, it was never meant for the general public.

@@littlesnowflakepunk855 it’s like those collectable sneakers that go on the shelf instead of on your feet

One oversight among thousands of others. 15$ FL mobile can do more than the field.

It's not on brand to make something useful

and they are more ignorant to criticism, and their fans are more fanatic than apple ones :) yes I bought a tx6, and kept it despite at least one very annoying thing - it cant be used properly with most normal 3,5mm audio cables because making the plugs have enough space for those would have made the device a huge 5mm broader - its just there are not many 12 channel interfaces, and there is exactly none even 1 channel Interface at that size… It might be the combination of features and size that makes this thing unique as for me the tx6 - actually no device similarly sized and weighted besides an ipad would offer a similar list of possibilities, but the ipad has no haptic real knob control… it can be added, but then the size isnt comparable anymore… Probably the best situation for everyone is not having the money at all to just think about buying something in that price range - or having that much money that you can just buy anything interesting that comes out, no matter a few thousands more or less you spend per month… being in between and expecting great quality for a significant price, is rather unpleasant with that device…

habe to correct myself, probably the M8 tracker is similarly sized and has interesting features… but also very special…

The MG Midget comparison is excellent. A neighbour of mine used to have one, but I only saw him actually driving it around a handful of times. The rest of the time it sat there in the garage. Then one day it was gone! So I guess he sold it.

srobhgien naibres

>compares op-1 to a daw with huge midi controller Oh, God.

@@31pas0 hey I dont make the rules. I compared them because they are both physical pieces of equipment with similar uses. They have almost completely opposite features and intended purposes but at the end of the day they both make music one just does it wayyy better. Call me crazy say they arent in the same ballpark youre probably right. This is just my experience owning both of these devices for years and my reason for liking one over the other. Push 2 is my little hipster quirky synth or whatever people are calling the op1 nowadays.

@@ApolloMclaren What's "hipster" about a Push 2? It's the official controller for perhaps the most mainstream DAW of 2022.

@@HammyHavoc the joke is teenage engineering is always being referred to as hipster its just the dumbest word idk why people still use it

@@ApolloMclaren so if you if you had, idk, Moog One for example, you would’ve been comparing it to OP-1 too?

They went back on sale today! Check the website!!!

I second this! The m8 is one of the coolest grooveboxes out there. I even released an EP with just M8 songs which I have never even considered with another device.

I have one. I dig it

I mean trackers have a very different history and technological-phylogeny from mobile synths and grooveboxes. While you can use both to sketch musical ideas, a portable tracker is basically a mini Amiga. Hardly apples to apples, no?

Yeah I believe the plan is to open sales for m8's on Mondays. I borrowed one and loved it.

Okay boomer

Its a scam, through and through its a scam. Twice as much as the previous with no improvement.

Agreed. I see this as a pretty direct competitor to something like the Digitakt but at over double the price and with less freedom. The tape-based workflow would be a fun mode to have in something that *also* had a more standard workflow available, but as the only approach, it feels extremely limiting. 10 years ago, back when I was just a simple pianist making plinky-plonks, the OP-1 seemed incredible, in part because I had no points of comparison. Now that I'm a simple pianist who also makes bleepy-bloops, I don't think I could ever justify the price of this, when I could spend the same ballpark amount of $ to get a MacBook to install Ableton on (which I already own).

@@MrOhioutod just picked up a Digitakt for a quarter the price of the field. Very happy with my choice.

@@mattbrown-mb did you get a used one for that price? sounds like a great deal

@@fellowfreak Yep, like new £500 from reverb 👍

Same here, Andrew huang kinda sold me a lie and im glad I woke up before I wasted 1k.

if you can believe, in 2017 OP-1 was the cheaper option of the 2

also liked the size and stuff but fuck it, just too damn expensive and not worth it.

Would you look as cool though? The price includes a lot of hipster chic, built for the field of an NYC coffee shop

I must agree. For a newbie it is essential. Maybe for everyone!

Thanks for the tip. Makes perfect sense to me.

@@geraldhenrickson7472 Glad to hear it!

Its perfect for the Andrew Huangs of the world, always traveling and finding little moments to make ideas Then finish them when they get home.

@@stitchfinger7678 If someone primarily uses a computer, but wants to sketch out rough ideas in odd places sometimes, and has enough money that a four-figure sketch pad isn't a big deal, it's an interesting device. Pretty small niche though.

They failed to add or fix anything people wanted but still made it cost twice as much, it could not be more of a scam.

Korg Gadget.

GC?

@@fellowfreak guitar center

Teenage Engineering pricing is always EXTRA EXTRA.

That's capitalism. That's not me excusing it, it's ridiculous - but so is capitalism. Maximizing profit, no matter what, is the name of the game. (Capitalism sucks, it's outlived its benefits by a long time.)

@@slipknotboy555 that _isn't_ capitalism, that is profiteering, and the country doing the profiteering in this case isn't even a capitalist country. As wonderful as the ideas of people like Marx, Lenin, Kropotkin, etc. are, _none of them_ have yet been implemented in a way that hasn't led to either the collapse of the system itself or the death of millions of people, and sometimes both! Although capitalism sucks for many reasons (accumulation of wealth in the hands of a small elite, for one), it's the best solution we have, probably because it is the system that best fits the way the world actually works. It's really fashionable to crap on capitalism, but it has done a lot for people - more for some than perhaps others, but still.

In opposition to what the Chinese government says, it is a highly competitive capitalistic country, both nationally and internationally.

@James Foard from Wikipedia: "Capitalism is an economic system based on the private ownership of the means of production and their operation for profit. [...] In a market economy, decision-making and investments are determined by owners of wealth, property, or ability to maneuver capital or production ability in capital and financial markets-whereas prices and the distribution of goods and services are mainly determined by competition in goods and services markets." So, as slipknotboy555 stated, in a purely capitalistic country, prices are determined by competition and are set for maximizing profit. In capitalism there is no rule that forbids acting like those chip traders are acting. It is just another market strategy to accumulate capital; in a purely capitalistic society, it is perfectly fine.

And if only Rolex would sell their watches for 1500$ etc :D

My first thought was that a Rolex is not the best comparison but after thinking about it it’s perfect. A Rolex is great at two things. Keeping time and being a status symbol. I have a Garmin watch that cost me $600. It does far more than a Rolex will ever do. It tells me how well I’m sleeping, keeps me motivated to be active and does a great job at telling time. Sure it’s not as pretty as a Rolex but ¯\_(ツ)_/¯. The OP-1 does a few things well but is seriously lacking for a $2000 piece of musical gear in my opinion. No option for velocity is one unforgivable thing. Sure some styles of music don’t need expression and some people aren’t skilled enough. It should be an option you can turn off if you want. I do however think the keys would be hard to play anything expressive though so there’s that.

@@mattuskamusic Good point, but I think one thing that is missing from the feature comparisons betweeen DAWs, other gear and the OP-1 is that the OP-1 because of the limited and quirky interface often sparks ideas and musical concepts that would not have been possible on other gear, and not at all a DAW. The physical interactions with well built hardware and the novelty and creativiy sparking limitations of the workflow has a value in it self. Also - it has velocity sensitivity now :)

@@filiprasmussen oh snap! Sign me up. I totally agree with you on that. I could see myself making rough ideas on it and transferring it to a DAW to finish it. Unfortunately I don’t have an unlimited budget.

@@mattuskamusic Same here - I don't even have it myself, but still defending it's price on KZfaq 🥲

Literally looks like a big ole mixing desk in the background

Funny enough, it's around 2000 monays as well. The difference is: Erica can justify the price tag in many ways.

I have watched a few videos on them but had no idea they were that HUGE until I saw this vid lol

There's some lens distortion. It *is* a pretty chunky piece of drum synth, but it looks much larger here than it actually is.

I was really impressed with their design language and thoughtful application of things like color and form. That said, you are absolutely correct that it seems this has been at the expense of pragmatism and leveraged as a means to make their products less accessible as they pursue a high-spending demographic-famously not something that primarily includes creatives, generally speaking anyway. Very disappointing.

I agree with you, but unfortunately, Teenage Engineering IS a design company that happens to make really cool synths, they have made collaborations with clothing brands, they make backpacks, computer cases, Bluetooth speakers, water bottles, bags, even incense haha, I still think it rly sucks but it is what it is

You could easily recreate the track made in this video with a couple p.o.s and a little effects unit like the nts or monotron. If the main goal is lofi music then $2000 is not it, ahhh. I also love my pocket operaters but have just accepted TE is ever gonna make something like them again for the same price range. I mean, they've already jumped up the price of the originals quite a lot 🙃

@@diegojuarez3830 i am aware that they are a design company in first place and not just a synth-factory, but still, their "philosophy" of high prices is....well, just not my cup of tea, as somebody who fell obviously in love with their most "garbage"product.

velocity.

plug any midi keyboard and you get it. Arturia mini or other . portability is key . the low profile velocity is never really usefull, it will not give you the necessary travel to express the fine muscle difference( i am pianist). So if they had put it , it will be just for youtube demo, not for real playability.

@@Frakaphoto Excuses. If someone didn't find it usable, they could switch it off.

@@Frakaphoto Velocity is just an another modulation source, you can use it for a lot of things that don't require the precision of piano. If portability is key, you should probably be able to do basic velocity effects without carrying an extra controller everywhere.

@@Frakaphoto So a major musical component was left out of a 2k$ device and your response is "buy something else to drag around with you"

well, now they did... via software update. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

At $899 I don’t think the MPC One is 1/4 of the price, are you thinking of used listings being around $600? Because I’ve seen used listings of the field going for $1,500 and it’s a much newer product. I’d say at best you’re looking at the MPC One being 1/3 to 1/2 the price.

With all due respect, most of these are workarounds to emulate features that should be implemented in a $2,000 sequencer. 🙂

@@BennJordan only the undo is a workaround. Everything else I talked about is the op-1 workflow. For what it is, it's still very good. And everything I talked about are things on the original op-1 which is half the price. 😆