Hey just curious what y’all set your Drive and Release on the OP-1 Field ?
Is there a sweet spot you prefer or does it vary?
I (og-1) tend to 40-60 drive and 100-150 release.
but I’d bet the “best” settings are pretty personal. not just because of varying taste in driven-ness, but also because of how you personally level your tracks on the tape.
I’ve always been curious about this too. I tend to keep mine pretty low simply because I’ve never truly known how it works and what it’s doing (is it a compressor, limiter, what is this beast?) and the manual is famously vague (OG op-1 and field). I’ve been an operator since 2014 and have never explored this facet of the op-1 or op-1 field. Please be forthcoming with the hopefully detailed illumination.
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dang for real
drive // release is where most (all) the magic is
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I know, I’ve been missing out. My issue/question is, when does the nasty unwanted digital distortion start? and what does everyone do to avoid it? When I turn the drive up, it starts getting into the red.
like the homie said above
its really all relative and interconnected
your master levels (blue and green knobs)
where you set your drum/synth levels
the actual sounds u are using
and how u have your tape levels set as well
all play roles in how the drive & release react
i think its more of a play around with kinda thing
rather than a hard this number does this
this number does that kinda thing
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But what does it do, when it’s at its most magic? I agree with the others here, the only thing that happens when I use it is that it boosts the signal, and not in an entirely pleasant way. I make sure to push the gain staging when I record as much as I can to make sure I don’t need to use the drive to get a decent out from the Field, only using the drive subtle to get slightly extra oomph. But really, if there’s some kind of magic going on here, I’ve yet to find it.
the only generic advice really is that higher drive, lower release are more aggressive. don’t push either too far in those directions, unless you want your audio smashed.
it’s just a compressor/limiter. compressors and limiters are really the same thing anyway; when the volume crosses a threshold, change gain so that it only crosses the threshold by some ratio of how much it originally crossed.
what conventionally distinguishes compressors from limiters, and what makes individual examples different, is how they approach all the details of that general concept.
what ratio and threshold? does the ratio depend on volume? does the ratio ease in and out, attack/release? is the threshold looking at peak or RMS level? does it affect different frequencies differently? are all of these parameters fuzzed by some adaptive algorithm?
the OP-1 chooses one path through all of those details. it’s not worth thinking too hard about it; just see how it feels
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I can’t find the original thread, but someone asked a while back about the drive and release, and you gave a much better explanation than that thread happened to have. Someone there mentioned that they were unsure if the OG-1 Drive/Release settings would be the same on the recording of the OP-1F (due to the 32-bit at 96 kHz of the Field, compared to the 24-bit at 96 kHz OG).
I should preface this next part with a disclaimer, that I am not a doctorate or masters degree holding DSP R&D expert, but I am well versed enough with 10 years of synth nerd’ing, and some experience working with experts that do hold those credentials, and beta testing a few of their applications.
I did some curious exploring, to try and get to the bottom of this mystery, and it seems that, despite the upgrade of the sound engine, the recording to tape is exactly the same (16-bit at 44.1 kHz - CD quality) as mentioned in the comparison of specs. So as far as the original recipe vs. extra crispy chicken [recording], the final result of how you eat [use the drive/release settings], can reasonably be expected to remain the same.
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