OP-1 Field recreates a vintage studio.
You can record to a click from a mic’d instrument or vocalist, you can use built in synthesizers and samplers each which can be played live into the tape machine. In the old days you had to rewind and record again if you made a mistake you didn’t like. On the Field you have undo - you can Lift a track prior to recording and drop it later to revert it to the prior recording state. You can also cut and paste and slide around tape tracks next to each other, you couldn’t do that on hardware four tracks. And with 32-bit float, you can overdub layers on a single track with essentially no loss of quality.
The OP-1 Field also includes for built in synths, samplers or external midi devices, basic sequencers that are best thought of as step sequencers or arpeggiators, again like what was used in early studios.
Anyway, one nice thing is the OP-1 Field effectively has unlimited polyphony because you can keep adding layers to the tracks. I’ve enjoyed sitting it on a music rest on a piano in a hospital for example, one earbud in to hear the click and recording some playing, later adding layers with built in synths and samplers etc, and drums where appropriate.
Programming in midi, is a very different experience, and is infinitely more flexible in many ways, but it’s definitely not superior - it’s just a choice. OP-XY leans more sequencer, OP-1 Field leans more Audio. OP-1 (the original) has always been shunned by those who down get the tape workflow. And that’s ok - it’s great we have choices.
The launch of the OP-XY made me look into it a bit, and really force myself into getting in to the OP-Z I’ve had for ages and not used much. Some love the OP-Z, and find it quick to build tracks on. I can see its appeal but my favourite thing was to program in something I’ve already composed then use its tape loop effects to shutter it and create some variations I hadn’t thought of. But then I went and made those variations elsewhere. I sold my Woovebox, didn’t get on with that either. I’ve learnt a lot about the OP-XY and read its manuals and I love gear but as a giant super OP-Z, it doesn’t speak to me as someone who doesn’t love the OP-Z, whereas the OP-1 Field did speak to me as someone who loved the original OP-1 but hated the lo-fi mono nature of it.
My research of OP-XY however did lead me to the Deluge, and obviously this is a TE focused forum but I sold lots of gear and bought a Deluge, with open source community firmware and OLED display now, it’s crazy. Deluge has no limits except CPU, I can make a new ‘synth’ tap browse and point it at a folder on the SD card, it instantly detects and corrects pitch of all samples in that folder and maps them access the keyboard in one pass. I now have multisamples of lots of my hardware synths I can take with me, then at home again with one tap (push MIDI button for a clip rather than synth) the midi part I’m working on plays through that hardware. Then an audio clip I can arm and it resamples the Deluge or samples external audio on the beat and disarm it and it stops recording audio perfectly at the end of the bar, or 8 bars, or whatever. Just WAV files on the SD card. Then load that WAV into the synth engine, set it mono-legato with pitch independence (so pitch and time aren’t linked, pitch and time separate like Ableton) and I can ‘play’ the playing WAV file in real time adjusting its pitch, from the pads or external midi. It just streams stuff from the SD card.
Deluge has an internal user replaceable 18650 battery, a built in speaker, a built in mic… it’s very comparable to these TE devices. Has 4 gate outputs sync in two CV outs, midi IO, multiple usb midi ports over the USB port. Unusually, and crucially for me, the CV gate outputs can be set to 12V, not 5V, allowing it to actually work with my 2600 and other older designed gear. OP-XY is limited to the 5V eurorack standard.
So for me, OP-1 Field and Deluge are the ultimate portable setup.
I think if you’re going to stick to the “as best the OP-1 Field is just a subset of what OP-XY can do” mindset then you’ll miss the advantages each piece of gear has. So for me while Deluge can just record audio for half an hour to a clip and go again with multiple tracks or realtime pitch shift incoming audio and all sorts, the simplicity of the tape workflow on OP-1 Field and how editing works (as opposed to setting start end and loop points by zooming in etc on Deluge) means I’ll always enjoy the OP-1 Field for that sort of thing.
As a sequencer / daw in a box, I see OP-XY as a step between the OP-Z and a Deluge. But I can definitely see legitimate reasons why many would prefer the OP-XY, it’s nice to have options.
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