"160 user programmable patterns, endless patterns chaining" with the ability to store multiple songs ?
I guess one song at a time, with a disk mode similar to the OP-1 to save it to a hard disk. In this way you can have as many songs as you want to, but work on one at a time
Is that stopping you from getting one? I think it will be worth the wait. More time to save money for it on top of all the cool stuff coming out right now for NAMM 2017.
lol, yeah plenty of time to save now. It seems the PO have taken preference in the production schedule which is fine, maybe they should of announced the OPZ this week and not at last years Namm though. My 2 cents though.
I’m sure I’m in the minority by saying this but I’m glad I’ve held out on buying an OP-1. The PO’s are just my speed (as someone with zero music background who prefers sequencing to anything live), and this looks like a big, awesome, complex PO with some of the cool features from the OP-1 (tape!) and new video features too.
This is exactly what I want! Hope it’s $400 or less, but honestly I’ll end up paying whatever they charge
I cant help but think this is a companion for the pocket operators. we know it has 4 jacks on the back. fairly clear indication of master control of Pocket operators. The Opz is all about modular modulations. Layers upon layers of chaining different timed events and effects. The control system seems like those four ports on the back could be configured to spit out w/e the user desires in line with these layers of events. In the case of the Pocket Operator thats just a click clock. I wonder if running one channel on a normal clock another on a half speed clock and a third doing 3rds could force the pocket operators to play odd signatures(poly rhythms.) i.e. the fast clock on your robot or factory making arpy leads. the half speed clock doing sub bass lines. and another of the outs doing an oddtime thats still in time with the other tracks for drums etc. that seems very plausible to me but hopefully some of the brilliant minds on this forum can chime in if such a thing is possible musically. From a hardware point of view it 100% seems like what TE is intending. click clocks are simple and from my experience functionally transfer over to Modular synthesizers without much issue.
So my real question is can the four jacks on the back also output Control Voltage. This would require an extra, fancy DAC ontop of the other hardware. I worry TE is warry of this modular realm with the “failure” of the OP-Lab.
----Comments on the OPLAB-----------
My Modular consists of a Monolith sized case and several controls peripherals in front of it. While the Op1 and opLab filled many of the needs Im now gonna talk about the addition of another eyesore of circuitry never appealed to me and my modular. plus at most on the op1 I could save a sequence in each of the sequencers and thats it.
--------What modular really needs.------------
I often find my self spending inordinate amounts of time arranging, composing, sequencing to get my modular into grooves I wish to work with. But that isnt what modulars are, atleast to me. They offer incredible amounts of flexibility in modulation, aleotoric music, new tones. These are the things I prefer to focus on while standing infront of my modular. The majority of my time using my modular is wasted writing music. Tweaking sequences, nudging oscillators, quantizing, and arraging trigger paths sequential switching logic summing, etc… This is a Huge waste of time when usually what im really after is searching for new and ear catching sounds and phrases. For the most part I can simply write my music at an instrument, come up with riffs and counterpoints to later use when producing music. I waste so much time doing exactly that at my modular before I actually start patching unique ideas ive had or exploring things some musicians might balk at. This is were I see the OPz coming in. Its a super portable form factor with endless sequencing potential. I could for weeks come up with countless songs, arrangements, counter points. all things that musically fit together for my personal taste. If I could just simply assign some of those tracks to spit out CV and GATE(click clock essentially) I could skip so much of that wasted patching time at my modular (something that generally finds me ignoring my modular as its daunting when all I needed was a jingle for a simple advertisement.) i really am hopeful the OPZ is going to fill these roles for me. it seems simple enough. given the Highly modular workflow we have been shown on the opz Im assuming this is very plausible. I have one concern though. Nobody in the modular world is talking about this or thinks its coming.
[...] The majority of my time using my modular is wasted writing music. Tweaking sequences, nudging oscillators, quantizing, and arraging trigger paths sequential switching logic summing, etc... This is a Huge waste of time when usually what im really after is searching for new and ear catching sounds and phrases. For the most part I can simply write my music at an instrument, come up with riffs and counterpoints to later use when producing music. I waste so much time doing exactly that at my modular before I actually start patching unique ideas ive had or exploring things some musicians might balk at. [...]
sounds like a long-winded and roundabout excuse to just get the opz, considering there’s Yarns and Frames and who knows what else to take care of triggering. not that anyone would judge [:
they list a DAC but that could just be for audio. 24bit though which i believe indicates a high lvl of fidelity which is only really necessary for outputting control voltages.
confirmed im an idiot those are buttons. confirmed im an idiot those are buttons. but (
midi, cv and trig track sequencing
) extra jacks maybe?
We Know TE has a habit of including stuff and not adding its functionality until many years in the future. like the press on the encoders of the OP1/
Mention of the full synth engine can run on the app? not sure if thats such a great idea. sounds like the app might cost real money? app is IOS only. thats incredibly lame but A good reason to go finally buy an ipad pro.
looking forward to an eventual Teardown. the flat encoder knobs on the opz are blowing my mind and I want to incorporate something similar in my designs!
My impression is that it is 16 tracks directly linked to the listed tracks. If you look at the row of 16 buttons, there are symbols for all of those there. I wouldn't think that you can set 16 tracks of all drums, as that would involve some button presses that might not be as straightforward without a screen.
And those things on the top -- they looked like jacks last year, but now they look like they might be buttons. As in, you choose what mode you are in using those buttons. That conclusion is based on the other jack being labeled with "out" and that (unless they use old-school PAL/NTSC), I wouldn't think they would output video via an audio style jack.
Pretty sure it has a mini-HDMI out, but could be wrong. I thought I read that about it at some point last year.
I really don’t think those labels are for jacks on the back. Check out this video at 3:21 and you will see that he presses 4 buttons, saying “this is how you set the pattern,” “this is how you set the tempo,” and stuff like that. He is pressing the buttons and then adjusting the encoders.
BUT what you also see from this angle are jacks that are not shown on the OP-Z spec sheets. So there are possibly some hidden things that they still haven’t committed to. I really hope that is the case since they list CV patterning as a feature on the page posted today.
You can also see that there are a few extra jacks not listed with cords plugged into them. So perhaps we aren’t getting quite the full story yet. Maybe our man-on-the-inside Cuckoo can get some additional info!
yarns requires Midi to function. So either I add another Controller or a laptop. both very cumbersome and not even remotely similar to the uber portable OPz. didnt realize frames pulls double duty as a trig processor event etc… i thought it was just a VCA. but no mutable stuff is just one thing… Ive got a CV pal if I ever really need that sorta thing. but I dont I avoid it. ive got a temps utile as trigger source so im covered I just hate the endless nerve system I have to patch on my modular before I can actually patch what I was thinking. Im hoping the Opz atleast helps cut down on the start time.
I have a void in my workflow and As ive written off laptops and ipads for that I hope the OPZ can fill it. I just wanted to present my use scenario and how I hope the OPz will fill that for me.
Sorry that my post came off as glad-handing.or as incessant prattle. Ive noticed of late people are far more critical on this forum about that sorta thing. As a result I limit my posts these days. and as a side effect those occasional posts are usually quite long like the one you responded to.
im not saying you were being critical btw. just in general a sentiment ive been seeing around this forum these days. I suppose its with any community experiencing new people excited about a new product. not enough info lots of speculation etc… I have always enjoyed your posts eesn your a valuable member of this community. just venting a wee bit. I shall return to the shadows now. and wait for the bigboys to science the shit outta this.
The OP-Z page says “51 mechanical keys in total”. There are 47 front keys, so those 4 gray lumps at the back must be 4 more keys, not jacks. No idea how CV would work, unless it uses the line out.
^^^^look a big boy sciencing the shit outta it^^^^
aww yes I see those labels are for buttons. but next to that on the old model certainly looks like jacks. hopefully not just prototype debugging stuff. I really want one of those modular blocks to be CV and Gate routing potential. Everyone keeps saying CV trig is guaranteed? so…
I heard that this thing doesn’t do onboard video output - the output is tapped from the idevice being used as a screen. Is this true or will you be able to connect a projector straight to the OPZ in addition to the utility screen?
Tbh the video stuff on this thing is still really confusing to me.
Sequencer tracks: 4 drum tracks (kick, snare, percussion, sampler), bass, lead, arpeggio, chords, 4 FX tracks (FX slot 1, FX slot 2, tape, mixer), and 4 for controlling external systems (midi, cv & trig, light, motion). Looks like CV/Trig is one of those 4. The current website list is in parentheses – which sheds more light on what has evolved since last year. Maybe the 4 ports on the prototype are assignable or multiple voices of CV/Trig (or 2 pairs of CV/Trig for 2 voices).
