New OP-1 Field šŸ˜®

I think price is always a contentious issue. I havenā€™t even watched the video but like I said above to the chap looking at an original OP-1 for $800ā€¦ Itā€™s only worth what the buyer will pay for it. TE control the price and will either sell bucket loads or it will fail miserably. Either way thatā€™s for them to decide and for you to vote with your wallet. Thereā€™s loads of things Iā€™d like that are overpriced or out of my price range :man_shrugging:t2: Iā€™m not defending them either, itā€™s just business. In truth I donā€™t think Iā€™d be an early adopter of TE kit again, that said Iā€™m happy with my OP-1 and OP-Z.

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Here-here @sentientminority and @jonesy_op1.

Compare it to the Juno X for about the same $. Or any of the Sequential analogs. An MPC X. Also updated classics but Iā€™d choose this over those if I didnā€™t already have an original OP-1. I love mine.

I can see this isnā€™t for everyone and not everyone can afford it (including me). Thats life.

But I applaud TE for creating a better, modern version of a true classic thats loved by many. Thereā€™s a huge amount of work and creativity in this thing. The work on the software and graphics must represent thousands of hours or work. An incredible investment for company of this size. Updating the platform means they can keep adding new features to the software which is good news ā€” they have probably pushed the original as far as they can. Honestly, we live is era where amazing music tools exist. You probably donā€™t need this. There are lots of amazing all-in-box boxes alternatives if you donā€™t value this combination of design, portability, unique workflow etc.

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Something came into my mind, do you guys know how Elektron used to update the Octatrack?
They introduced the MK2 and still kept updating the software of the mk1. Of course you canā€˜t use all features of the MK2 software on the MK1, but at least you as a musician will get most out of your ā€žinvestmentā€œ.
That was a very cool move by Elektron.

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They also created OverBridge which I think is only now working :rofl: I do have a mk.i Rytm and A4 btw. It will be interesting to see if the OP-1 gets any further updatesā€¦

OP-1f target right now has been matching very exactly the OP-1 perimeter and add one thing in each dimension.
Itā€™s far from finished, there is more power inside, TE must have ideas on what to extend (please let it receive MIDI from OP-Z and other gear).
And so far they havenā€™t played the game of leaving some features aside, just to make it desirable to own both OG and field.

I see the apparition of this new OP-1 as a good sign: TE definitely consider the OP-1 like an instrument they wonā€™t let down soon. Letā€™s hope OG gets some updates when they are compatible, there is still some room for this as the unofficial firmware showed it.

As for the price I believe resellers will be cheaper than TE store, just because they always are. Yes itā€™s extremely expensive, but a company makes such a choice for good reasons.
This could be communication (so many people discussing about this, even if itā€™s not positive).
This could be a way to slow down the orders when they are not in position to refrain them, if they need to for logistics reasons.
This could also be for strategic reasons, e.g. to get rid of OP-1 OG stocks for now and get a lot of orders ones stocks are full and Black Friday is here, etc.

The price right now is set for people who can afford it and REALLY want it (and may be the first to post videos on YT about this).
I do believe weā€™ll see the OP-1 field at a more reasonable price at some point.

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Haha yeah Overbridgeā€¦ this is actually working for a while now.
Yeah i had the Rhytm MK1. Since pre pandemic i am on Octatrack MK1, Digitakt and OP1.

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yeah and manufacturing in Malaysia is actually also more expensive than in China.

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Even though the overall sample storage has increased it seems that the individual sample length remains at a limit of 6 seconds per sample. The 6 second limit on the OP1 is something I am constantly running up against.

As for the price of this thing - I got my Op1 when they were sub Ā£800. At the time I was hesitant about spending so much. Especially as the meme was that it was ā€˜an overpriced toy for hipsters that canā€™t create musicā€™ (some of the anger and vitriol that gets thrown at TE and their users really astounds me).

Almost 10 years later and I still love this thing and in retrospect it would have been worth double the price (if Iā€™d had it) given the amount of joy and inspiration it has given me over the years.

The Op-1 field isnā€™t for everyone - TE couldnā€™t make enough units for it to be a mass-market device - but that is clearly not what they are aiming for.

I suspect anyone that buys it will end up loving it as much as I love my OP-1. And I have to say it does look very nice :slight_smile:

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I donā€™t think people were ever expecting Behringer type prices for this.

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Totally agree, not everything needs to be aimed at the lower end of the market. This is a massive update for an already very capable instrument.

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Disappointed to learn that the tape length is still limited to 6 minutes. Though the 8 tapes certainly solves the problem of managing multiple on board projects, that 6 minute limit will still cause issues for lifting and dropping song sections / takes / parts etc. as you build out a track.

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I like that guyā€™s channel, but a lot of the hot takes right now seem to be mostly emotional knee jerk reactions to the price. Iā€™d love to see a more in depth analysis of the features because it seems pretty clear that this isnā€™t just the same OP-1 with more bells and whistles. Iā€™ve heard some demos on YouTube and the sound quality seems to be greatly improved. That alone makes it hard to dismiss outright. And it seems they also did a lot to make it integrate better with other gear. It doesnā€™t have 5-pin MIDI, but it seems like you could probably just use a USB-MIDI adapter.

Thereā€™s a lot of other gear you could buy for that amount of money that is way more powerful, but I think a lot of people that see the appeal to this are paying for the portability and battery power. Until more companies start doing that TE has that market pretty well cornered. Personally I wouldnā€™t pay that amount of money for a larger synth just because I donā€™t have the space to keep it out. And if Iā€™m paying over $1k for something like this I had better be getting use out of it.

Plus letā€™s be honest. Itā€™s very easy in the synth world to avoid sales tax, for some reason. Donā€™t order direct from TE and youā€™ll save yourself a good amount of money, although you may have to wait. And itā€™s also not impossible get 10% off if you wait for sales to happen. That brings it down to $1,800.

Then find a local buyer for your OG OP-1 so youā€™re not incurring fees on eBay/Reverb, and maybe now youā€™re effectively paying about $1,000. Still not an amazing deal, but I love the original OP-1. I paid about $1k for it and I would easily have spent that again if anything happened to it.

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TE added a great bunch of updates to the OP-1 over the years. Iā€™m amazed what they have coaxed out of the hardware that is now far from current. Incredible job.

If the OP-1 field is at todays best baseline hardware, imagine what they can do with it over the next 10 years. One of the reasons for the price is probably the fact they pick hardware that is currently expensive and more than necessary for the launch software, so that they have somewhere to grow it in future.

I suspect they are quite maxed out on the original OP-1ā€™s capabilities at this point but with all the OP-1F development going on, I think that some new ideas might trickle back to the OP-1 for a while.

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Saw it in the video with Gaz. Itā€™s less a sequencer and more a performance thing, similar to a sostenuto pedal. It will hold a chord for you, while you solo on top.

Was wondering if now the tape tracks are stereo, would it not be possible to make them into 8 mono tracks somehow? One of those OP1 type tricks, where you pan the input hard left or right while recording?
Other than that of the best thing about the stereo tracks is that you will be able to bounce everything down in stereo.
However Iā€™ll be sticking to my OG as the price is beyond me.

One thing they say they have improved tape looping in the OP-1F - this is something the OP1 could really benefit from.

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Iā€™m not sure what does or doesnā€™t qualify as ā€˜mass-marketā€™ and how that effects production costs? but the OP1 was the best selling synth on Reverb for 2021

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@Kja still waiting on a response to this one, genuinely curious!

Wouldnā€™t this only means it changes hands a lot?
FWIW, on Thomann, itā€™s #13 of new sales in synthesizer segment.

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Interesting point!