It’s not about which sounds the best ,or even how good my music is (I can make brilliant music with a KaOscillator) -its about fun factor .The OP-1 is a total Swiss Army knife of audio and a joy to explore. Yes the workflow requires a customisation (Tape arrangements) but it keeps me on my toes and makes me work on my weaknesses, while throwing up unique happenings. For sample play its very effective (resampling etc).
Hi, I’ve got them both, OP-1 and the Electribe 2.
I have been using Electribes since the early models and own a few of them; I’m in love with that series. I’ve owned so many machines, including Elektron and stuff but never had so much fun as I’m used to with the Electribes, so yes I am a huge fan of Korg.
The OP-1 and the Electribe 2 are very different machines, I like them both the same way and I couldn’t say which one is better, they’re just different and unique at the same time. I do prefer the Electribe workflow to create music and entire pieces; here for instance you can see what an EMX is capable of: Harlequin · The Clockworks · Electribe MX Remix - YouTube on a remix I made about an old Amiga videogame music, Harlequin “The Clockworks”.
Yesterday I just finished an entire remix on the Electribe 2, which is great for experimental music and ambient stuff (I think techno is the useless thing you can do with an Electribe… unfortunately that’s most of the stuff you find documented around; many just buy these machines to make that kind of noise and give these machines a very low reputation). Also I read somebody mentioned the gap between patterns, that is not true anymore, a firmware update fixed it. Song mode is gone in the E2 and that was a very bad move by Korg, really stupid, but there’s a sort of workaround which is called “event recording”; you can’t chain patterns like you would do in song-mode on an EMX but you can record live events, so yes you can still come up with an entire piece recorded as an event.
On the other hand the past summer I made an entire sci-fi soundtrack EP on the OP-1, “Earth 2.0” (which I will be releasing soon) not using its own sequencer because for me it just sucks and it’s so annoying that I gave up immediately after a few tries. Sketches and song ideas yes, you can do that, but proper songs and nicely arranged things as is, I really doubt it. If you really commit you would probably be able to do that, but do u really wanna spend that time using such a primitive sequencer like the OP-1’s current one? You would immediately lose all the inspiration and creativity… not to mention aligning patterns and avoid gaps and clicks… Instead I had a lot of fun sampling on it from its own radio and anything else external which came in my mind then creating sounds with its own several synth engines and using Cubase as the main sequencer for the whole project, that was really fun and inspiring all the way till the end of the EP. Keep in mind the OP-1 does sound a little thin in general, even using samples. But if you know its own limits and sound capabilities then you know how to take the best out of it. Also if you use it for music creation in general and then you treat the sounds in a DAW like I did in Cubase, you would probably never guess the whole thing was done using an OP-1 only!
I also release convenient sample packs for the OP-1 regularly through Cremacaffè online shop.
Hope this helps! 
Ciao,
Andrea.
@quarantequatre
thank you for the welcome! I have the novation circuit, its my first hardware ever, before that i used to create music with a daw only.
Which instrument did you use for this mellow soundscape?
"you can plug in everything you want": being somewhat a noob regarding hardware, does this mean that its possible to use only one track of the OP-1 to play some external gear (or vst) while the other 3 tracks are playing the OP-1 synths/drums/samples ?
Novation circuit seems to be a pretty cool gear !
Since I had the OP-1, I’ve never really been back to my daw :)…
I’ve never tried the midi sync with the op-1, I mean that you can plug everything with a jack in the input, then you can record (only waveform, no midi notes). You can record on a tape track (4 tracks), on the drum patches (then you can split your record to keys) or on the synths patches (every keys change the pitch of the record). Sorry my english is rusty.
For the track I posted above, I’ve recorded my Ultranova directly on the tape on 3 tracks, to keep the sound “clean” and non sequenced. Then I played with the tape movements to make some mellow effects as you said :). All drums are from the OP-1.
You can see the OP-1 (just a part of it because it’s a lot more) as a 4 track tape recorded…And that ! That’s awesome.
One last thing, I think it stimulates creativity, and don’t worry if you don’t manage to use it as you wanted to, you’ve got to discover it, and the way you wanna play it 
Anyway, this community is fantastic, you’re in the right place
Keep in mind the OP-1 does sound a little thin in general, even using samples.
I thought this at first, but then I turned the drive up and it got a lot better. Now the drive setting stays between 10 and 30 and it sounds great 
I agree. The compressor thickens it out considerably. I do mostly sample based stuff on the OP, and it sounds fantastic. Not thin at all.
@sternklar, I was interested in producing soundscape tracks for a while, and I’ve recently spent some time trying to do that on OP-1. (Not exactly the same as “ambient”, but there are similarities.) Here is my summary of experiences.
Pros:
- OP-1 can synthesize a variety of pads and drones. Some of them are pretty sophisticated and unique.
- It is great for synthesizing noises and sound effects. Some of them would be very difficult to replicate on conventional subtractive synth.
- Some engines and effects have parameters ideal for real-time sound morphing and transitions. You can do some really interesting things simply by turning the right knob at the right time.
- Sampling and re-sampling is extremely easy.
- Radio receiver requires no effort to use and provides really cool “raw material” for tracks.
Cons:
- Spring reverb is… not your typical reverb.
- Some pads/drones will be noisy or have “built-in” LFOs-like artefacts that change frequency depending on which key you play. So if you want to replicate a specific “classic” pad sound it can be challenging.
- Looping a tape segment with drones/pads will usually give you clicks on the transition to its beginning.
- You will only be able to play one engine with one effect (and one master effect) at a time. It’s not like Electribes/Elektrons/Etc where you can sequence and tweak several virtual instruments at once. Also, forget about complex step-based automation and parameter locking.
Overall, I think OP-1 is more capable in this regard than it first seems.
yes, this is what matters primarily also for me!
thanks for the detailed review, this cleans up a few questions that i had… thats what i thought, sequencing could be a bit tricky on the OP-1… ill have to look i if i can use the sequencer from the circuit with the OP-1, this could work fine together i suppose.
Ok, so you can only record some external gear and then use the audio of this, right? Sorry for my lack of understanding, but for example is it possible to play external gear (or vst´s) on the OP-1 keyboard, while on another track, theres a drumloop playing ?
Circuit is great regarding the sequencing: its so easy to sequence on the fly without menudiving, thats what make me hesitant to get an Electribe. You can also create weirds sounds while tweaking parameter knobs & switching FX , without pattern gaps (but OP1kenopi note, that Korg fixed this also now for the Electribe). But at a certain point, with only 2 synth tracks and 4 drum tracks (and no resampling!) im always feel that im missing more tracks to develop my musical ideas. Also, the FX are only presets (reverb and delay) and most of them are not very usable at least for me. And i hate automatic quantization, sometimes…
thanks for your summary: did you find a workaround to get rid of this clicks while looping? I imagine, this could be annoying…
At least, all this makes me rethink my decision… its difficult
@quarantequatreNo, you can do much more ! That's just the sampler/recorder part, but the op-1 have many generators.Ok, so you can only record some external gear and then use the audio of this, right? Sorry for my lack of understanding, but for example is it possible to play external gear (or vst´s) on the OP-1 keyboard, while on another track, theres a drumloop playing ?
I don't know if it's possible to midi master an external gear, while playing other tracks on the OP-1.
I don't use midi for the moment, maybe one day but I prefer connecting audio signals to a mixer and having fun with my few hardware :)
Maybe Circuit and Electribe are in the same category..? For sure, OP-1 is not in any category :D
Hey @OP1kenopi, good to hear from ya! Gotta say I disagree with you on the OP-1 sequencers, especially the endless is great, and most of all, with a little practice you can play polyphonic sequences “live” into it, after you learn to tap the rest notes in as you play. And this is coming from a non-keyboard player!
Just wanted to defend the OP-1 workflow a bit, since it really works for me.
Hi! @vehka
you’ve got a good point. My fault I wasn’t clear enough, as I didn’t mention that with sequencer, what I was referring to is using OP-1 tape-recorder as a main sequencer to build entire songs on, aligning drum-parts avoiding cliks and make a whole arrangement on it as you would do in a DAW like Cubase for instance… in that sense I don’t find it easy or flexible at all, it’s fine to sketch out ideas but as an arranger is very rudimental.
Hey @OP1kenopi, good to hear from ya! Gotta say I disagree with you on the OP-1 sequencers, especially the endless is great, and most of all, with a little practice you can play polyphonic sequences "live" into it, after you learn to tap the rest notes in as you play. And this is coming from a non-keyboard playerOne other thing I like a lot is just switch octaves up and down on a drum sequence, it's very immediate with the OP-1 and you can get great results.
The fact that you can even play notes makes it possible to play "melodically" some drum sentences...
Decision done: I will order next week an OP-1
Great community here, i hope i can contribute something in the future .
I had an E2 and didn't get on too well with it but then again I was looking for it to also be a MIDI workhorse sequencer. In many ways I think it covers some of the same ground as the Circuit. Between the E2 and the OP1 I'd pick the OP1 all day long, it does ambient really well.
The coolest standalone tool I have found for ambient music though is Sunvox, a modular tracker which you can get to run on most platforms, it's free for Windows and OSX. The echo sounds really good and the freeze reverb is a great way to add droning tones. You can share the .sunvox file between files for when you are travelling.
thanks for your summary: did you find a workaround to get rid of this clicks while looping? I imagine, this could be annoying..At least, all this makes me rethink my decision.. its difficult :)
There is a thread dedicated to workarounds. I am lazy, so I just avoid looping anything that has continuous sounds in the background.
allrigth, I see, there are some different attempts to avoid this.
Anyway, its not damping my anticipation
By the way, here some nice ambientsound i found created with OP-1 (and Volca):
Early Morning OP-1+Volca Ambiance - YouTube
Damn I thought this video was yours ^^
No, unfortunately not mine, first i have to order my OP-1 next week ^^
But this guy is very inspiring, also his usage (in other videos) of analog delays & reverbs with OP-1 sounds great…
To me the Electron always sounds like it is in demo mode in a keyboard shop in the 90’s. Which could be cool if you are into that. The drones you can get out of the Op-1 are always interesting and if you use the gforce lfo you can morph sounds in a really expressive way. I think you’ll make better music with an OP-1. (full on opinion)