I went through a lot of discussions in here and I’m about to pull the trigger for an OP-1.
It’s years since I don’t do music and I feel I want to get back to it, purely as a passion/hobby thing.
The last piece of kit I had around 2000 was an MPC2000 and I must say that I loved it, cause It allowed me to put together loops and beats pretty easily without the need of much else( for my limited skillset ). Since the MPC2000 many things changed and the op-1 seemed a perfect fit. I would like to use it for sample based hip&hop-jazzy loops/moods (Gramatik…)
I was wondering if there is anybody in here that have a similar background or can share his experience in this direction. I’ve seen the MPC-live but I really like the OP-1 form-factor more, but I fear to regret that by coming from an MPC2000 angle I won’t find myself comfortable with the OP-1…
Thanks again to all of you for such an amazing community and all your threads, videos and tunes that brought me here, you 've been very inspiring to me to wanting to get back into making some noise!
You sound like the perfect OP-1 candidate! It may not do exactly what you’re used to, but I 100% guarantee it will be FUN. Especially for the type of music you mentioned. I came from a Maschine workflow and the OP-1 changed everything for me.
aside from the remix at the end, I produced this entire album with (in) the OP-1. All tracks recorded to the “album” and then simply mastered in Ableton.
@n_one you’re in the right place! The OP1 is massive fun. You won’t be able to get as high fidelity/clarity with multiple layers as you do an MPC (as it has low headroom, you’ll hear it start to dirty up. KILLER for hip-hop IMO), but you will have wayyyyy more fun with it.
Some users off the top of my head to check out that are on the Hip-hop tip are @GrumpySnorlax and @le_filou
Just for expectation management: While most of the workflow on the OP-1 is straight forward it does have quirks and limitations. Some of them are by design (e.g. no editing in the Endless sequencer, no quantization, weird drum envelope), some are probably just not implemented (e.g. side chaining or more steps in the pattern sequencer) and some are due to the limits of the hardware (e.g. only one instrument FX possible at a time or the UI lagging sometimes, but without the sound dropping out). Maybe give the “Tipps and Tricks” thread a read as well to see how people work around some of the limitations.
Make sure you’re okay with those quirks and limitations befor shelling out the money so you don’t feel buyers remorse afterwards. Don’t assume any of the issues will be changed/fixed and consider them a final property of the instrument.
As people have pointed out in other threads: You could do all the OP1 does for less money on a computer (provided you have one already) if you’re just interested in the functional aspects.
Having said all that, I like my OP-1 and would not want to live without it anymore
i also come from an mpc background. i currently use these samplers – akai s3000xl, roland mv8000, ensoniq ASR10 and ensoniq EPS.
as crudeoperator mentioned, the OP-1 is quite limited. the sampler sounds inferior to all my other samplers, and the samper features are very limited. similarly with the synth section compared to my other synths – roland analogues and yamaha digital FM synths. the effects and filters are either completey missing or just second rate. despite this the OP-1 is a great music machine.
to think of the OP-1 as limited as I mentioned is to overlook something – while the OP-1 obviouly works well as a stand alone unit, it also intergrates very well with a computer via USB. worried about the sampler features and sound and filters? no problem. drag and drop your sample into a DAW, apply high/low pass filters, compress it etc. and drag it back into the OP-1. it takes no time at all. similarly, you can drag tracks from the tape into a DAW and finish things up there, adding ping-pong delays, panning and other feautures not on the OP-1.
it is worth taking a shot on buying an OP-1. maybe you won’t like it. i highly doubt it. but if you don’t like it, then you can easily sell it in a week or two at pretty much the price you paid.
and a last point – the music I love was made by teens on non professioanl equipment that they didn’t even know how to use “properly” – sometimes on the very day they bought the equiqment, before they even knew how the machines worked. the music i hate (prog rock) was made by very accomplished professionals with mega expensive instruments in the best studios in the world with endless overdubs and revisions. so any supposed limitation of the OP-1 don’t matter at all.
Sweetwater pushed the date out even further for new OP-1 shipment for another month. I was on the OP-1 facebook page and saw that DJ Tech Tools which happens to have a distribution point of sales in SF bay area, in Brisbane had OP-1 in stock. I called them up and bought the last one that they had available so I cancelled by Sweetwater order and yesterday picked up my new OP-1. Even though I have been watching all the youtube videos on how this beast works, I am learning how to use it now. Love it! For me at least it is a bit of a learning curve but I am enjoying playing with it to see what it is capable of, very impressive so far. Good luck to all of you still waiting for yours to show up in the online stores.