I’m a newbie to the OP-Z but I’ve also picked up Novation’s Circuit Rhythm recently. One thing I really enjoy about the Circuit is that I can “live slice/chop” a sample by pressing the step buttons in time with the beat. Here’s an example of that (via Gabe Miller): The Ultimate Novation Circuit Rhythm Tutorial - YouTube
You can also select how many slices you want to start with (4/8/16) which helps as a starting point.
On the OP-Z, it seems like my only option is to record a full sample, hope the OP-Z does its best to slice/chop the sample sensibly, and spend a bunch of time with the green/blue knobs tweaking each sample until it sounds right.
On Circuit Rhythm is it possible to sample to individual pads in a kit at different times? Or do you need to record all sounds in one go and then chop to pads like the OP-Z?
Doesn’t seem faster but of course that would offer the most flexibility.
I’m mostly looking for a DAWless workflow on the device itself. Watch the video above (I’ve got it set to the right time) and you’ll see what I mean. It’s fast!
Right, but chopping a sample evenly is not always desired. Take a look at the video above, you’ll see what I mean. Look at the way he chops simply by pressing the buttons in time, that’s a really powerful feature.
The Circuit is a wholly different beast. I don’t know if you can sample to individual pads directly yet but the online software allows you to assign any sample (wave files!) to any pad, and you can swap out every sample as a pack if you have an SD card. It’s a fun and flexible sampler but it’s way more limited than something like the OP-Z (no usb audio, no synths since those are on the sister product Circuit Tracks, and a few other things that make it half the price of the OP-Z).
My holiday wishlist from TE includes a “live chopping” feature, a latching record button for sample mode, the ability to store more than one sample per bank, and an SD card module so we can swap out entire sample packs on the fly and maybe bounce entire songs.
Sure, but a Circuit Rhythm and Circuit Tracks together total price is about the same price as OP-Z. 8 sample tracks, 4 drum tracks, 2 synths and 2 midi tracks for external synths sounds quite powerful. It gets me thinking…
i dont really like the sampling on the opz. i can do it. but i find myself not enjoyin it as much as the ko33. which is odd since the z has so many more sampling features.
If I think about it, it really isn’t a horribly fiddly workflow but the reality is different. For drum tracks it isn’t sound by sound, pad by pad. So, the reality is all your sounds need to be prearranged so you actually do sampling on a computer and op drum app. Then the OP-Z is just a sample player not a sampler.
I come from the akai MPC2000xl world so perhaps this is why I dislike the sampling workflow on OP-Z.
Would love for this to be improved in a future firmware update.
If you want to sample a whole drum loop and then slice it up, then the op-z workflow is fine. Or if you want to sample a drum machine and press each pad within 12secs, also fine.
But if you want to sample into the sample track some hits/stabs/noises for a song or few songs then the op-z workflow is terrible. You can’t progressively add sounds to the kit so you can’t build tracks by demoing and then adding sounds. This absolutely kills creativity.
With sampling op-z is stuck between this workflow issue and limited storage capacity, which in today’s age seems nuts.
I really hope TE can change it.
Probably one of the biggest reasons I think about swapping to another sequencer/sampler/groovebox.
I have always had another sampler available and never have seen the opz as anything more then then a quick capture from the internal mic thing for whatever I’m working on RIGHT NOW soon to be deleted… if not used right then, it gets moved over to wherever real sampler I have at the moment… right now that is the retro live 2. Samplers come and go but the opz stays though… for what that is worth…
but of course that would offer the most flexibility.