OP-1 Cuts Sound When Switching Synths-- Ever possible to update that?

Hello all,


I LOVE my OP-1. What a special device. I have FUN making music on it!
Today I played at the ECU and did some live looping tunes on the spot and also did some pad stuff to go with my ambient piano improv. When I switch synths sound just cuts instantly. What if those pad sounds could hang over while switching to a new synth? Is this possible? This would really enhance live use.

I guess I could get another… hmm

Anyways do you think that’s a firmware possibility? Please don’t consider this another “Why can’t it do this blah blah blah” post-- I totally respect that you get whatcha get. What do you think about this?

I doubt it. I think people always need to understand that the OP1 is (IMO) a tape recorder/player/machine first, and a synth second. In this way, the tape is there to “carry” your pads, etc across to the next section. I personally like the fact that the sounds cut off, because if you are recording to a 4-bar loop and you’re recording some pads to Track 1, and want to do bass on Track 2, you can switch to the bass patch right at the end of the loop, and when it cycles around it won’t have the pad hanging into your bass track.

For a technical explanation: The OP-1 can only play one synth engine at a time it seems. Hence no “lingering” is possible [1] since the would mean two synth engines running at the same time. There are even single patches that are so taxing that the UI frame rate drops notably.

[1] FX like reverb and delay are not part of the synth engine and only work on sound buffers which might carry over to the next patch (can’t test it atm)

Korg call this ‘Smooth Sound Transition’ on their flagships Kronos workstation. Just to put this into perpective, back in 2007 when they released the Oasys Workstation (£5300) it wasn’t capable of doing ‘Smooth Sound Transitions’ i’m not sure if it simply wasn’t implemented or if it wasn’t actually possible due to lack of processing power.

From the Kronos manual.

“SST works between two sounds at a time: the current sound and the previous sound. If you select a new sound while two older sounds are still overlapping, the oldest sound stops.

SST requires that the effects for both the old and new sounds fit into the available processing power. For factory sounds, this should almost never be a problem. In the unlikely event that the effects don’t fit, the older sound will be silenced, including all of its notes and effects.

I doubt it. I think people always need to understand that the OP1 is (IMO) a tape recorder/player/machine first, and a synth second. In this way, the tape is there to "carry" your pads, etc across to the next section. I personally like the fact that the sounds cut off, because if you are recording to a 4-bar loop and you're recording some pads to Track 1, and want to do bass on Track 2, you can switch to the bass patch right at the end of the loop, and when it cycles around it won't have the pad hanging into your bass track.

Mmm! Good point that it works that way if the design is focused on tapability!