GEARacle - A thread to honor the OP-Z

I had a lot of gear over the years. Kept some sold more. But never had I the chance to spend time with a device as genius and thought through like the OP-Z.

Have mine since January and everytime I come to the point to think now I know everything a new function comes around that i didn‘t know.
Today I learned to randomized synth presets. I didn‘t miss this before but now that I know it‘s there I can‘t imagine going on without this simple but so useful feature to come up with new sound ideas.

I think the OP-Zs greatest achivement is that its functionality is - planed by TE or not - build like a pandoras box.

You can have fun with it after a few minutes of use but with every hour you use it sucks you deeper in.
Because you’re free of a computer and power and the lightweight and small measures you’re free to take it everywhere you go.

I think of it as the Nintendo Switch of Music Sketching and Creating.

I know there are a lot of thinks to criticize hardware wise and TEs response to them but there are enough threads for that out there.
Let us be positive in this thread and i‘m happy to hear what you think workflow and functionality wise.

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+1

This machine gives everybody the chance to make complete songs without a pc or a complete studio.

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Always great to see another positive review, makes me feel I’m in the right place! Been obsessed with the op-z since launch, using it daily for about 6 months now and still can’t wait to turn it on every day. Had the op-1 for about 18 months before that and have barely touched it since working with the op-z.
Yeah, I get double trigs, random freezes - doesn’t slow me down, I just work around them. Maybe a problem if I was performing live but in that case I’d make sure I had a second op-z on deck.
With the opLab module I got really crazy trying to connect to all sorts of other synths but I always come back to using the op-z by itself; it’s just really great at what it does and endlessly surprising for me. Granted I’m not a trained musician, never worked with a DAW so maybe I’m just easily amused. Still thankful for the op-z!
What really excites me is that it’s just getting started - years of cool updates ahead.

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I think that‘s exactly what makes the OP-Z such an amazing tool and so special. You don‘t have too be a musician to come around great inspiration, creativity and good results with the OP-Z.

That‘s what it differs the OP-Z very much from the OP-1. The OP-1 is a one-stop-shop for people who already have music skills. I personally have one too but never really got warm with the workflow and as much as i love playing with it - for the haptic and pure potential alone - I constantly ended my session frustrated.

I NEVER ended an OP-Z Session frustrated.
I always was happy with the result and looked forward to play with it again.

Like fallen_lassen said everyone can make a song with the OP-Z.
I think it‘s a little bit like the gamification of music making. Like a puzzle you have to solve.
You just need a little bit of curiosity and time to get rewarded constantly with new features and ideas.
And that we‘re talking about hardware, something physical and not software alone is an amazing Achivement from TE.

I know a little bit about userbility design but how it is even possible to design so much functionality in such a small box and still make its use intuitiv without a display guided by led lights alone is something i can‘t get my head around.
I can‘t imagine how many hours of workshops, concepts, hardware and software design went into this thing.

Maybe that sounds a little strange but I always have mine with me in my backpack. When i‘m at the office i put the box on my desk even when i know i will not have the time to take a break with it. The fact alone to know how powerful this small thing is is joyfull and makes me happy.

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Does someone knows what OP module to expect after the first one ( midi cv ) ?
i just dream about a module which turn the opz into a nasty sampler / looper , with a line in àd a SD card !!!

Think there‘s is nothing announced at the moment. Don‘t know if a Sampler Module would make sense for TE when they still want to sell the OP-1.

I think a Audio Module would be cool for separate Audio-Out Channels. There‘s room for four Audio-Jacks (like in the CV Module) and it would be really nice if you could solo or group tracks to the different jacks.

For example choose Module Track and hold shift while pressing 1 to 4 and then activate or deactivate the tracks you want to go out on that audio-jack.

Makes recording to a DAW or sending specific tracks to external effects really easy.

Yes I agree , but on the other hand , I have both the op1 and the opz , but My wish is still there for seeing a sampler module . Of course the op1 has the abilities to record something , but it is always not very natural and easy to use it as a real time sampler pie à looper .
And secondly , I don’t think the opz would makes a shadow to the op1 if it had a sampling function , just because there is many ways to consider a sampling system ; the op1 has got its own and the opz could have another one , totally différent.

Anyway , I have integrated my opz into a set up who needs a sampling function , and if the opz does not have it in the future maybe I will be oblige to switch the opz for another device wich is capable of , for instance the DELUGE , seems to be very cool