OS basics.

Finally getting round to attempting to do a full track inside OP. Kinda stressful so far. Lack of stereo bouncing is potentially a brick wall for the workflow I had in mind. I can live with that tho as it’s maybe beyond the OP cpu for TE to add stereo options etc. But little things like the inability to delete a section of 90+ seconds tape on a track just feels like the dark ages… Seems like this is the kind of stuff TE should be focused on putting in an update before worrying about adding synths/sequencers etc? Just to round off the overall workflow. Having to trawl through a 4 minute tape section and cut it in to pieces that are small enough to be able to delete is ridiculously tedious and total vibe killer… If I can’t delete 90+ seconds can I at least have option to straight up record over it (not overdub on it… Just wipe over it)? Maybe that option already exists and I’ve missed it?

The need to delete a 4 minute section of a track came from user error, I accidently left ‘ear’ switched on when recording some keys. Hands up for being an idiot but felt like heavy punishment getting rid of my mistake…

I found the way of working you mentioned impossible on the OP-1. It was how I first started out trying to use it. Are you familiar with the Shift+> Loop skip method. Creating loops and changing between them to sequence your song is great. Kind of like clip mode in ableton(session?). Record your performance to an album. Boom you have your sequenced song. Use track mutes to bring in and out different elements of the song.

@virtual_flannel thanks for your take on it dude. Yeah I hit the frustrations straight after laying out a song with the shift+loop workflow you mention. Got a song structure down on album from that workflow then I recorded it back to a tape track, then I realised it was kind of cluttered in mono but carried on, then I forgot to turn off ‘ear’ during a full length take of keys/samples etc on a different track and had to trawl through and delete it in sections under 90secs…

None of it is an OP deal breaker for me yet, just some pretty embarrassing loose ends in the OS workflow IMHO. Being able to delete a section of tape of any length is a no brainer…

I was trying to stay totally inside OP from start>finish on a track for the beta OS battle. I’ll see this track through but in future I think that for my own workflow that way lies madness :wink:

Sounds like a good learning experience. I tried the method @virtualflannel and several YouTube OP-1 users do, and it is a different kind of challenge. Definitely takes some practice.


I don’t think there is any ‘delete’ function on the OP-1. It is exclusively, Lift, Drop, and Cut. That’s why they are unable to delete more than 90sec. Because they would have to Lift 90sec and hold it in memory until you decide to Drop it. Have you ever copied a huge amount of data in Microsoft Excel and then been asked whether it is ok to dump it from memory when you close the program? Same issue, just a more powerful machine is required for Excel compared to OP-1. But maybe they should add a spreadsheet sequencer…

@GCF yeah I figured the 90+ secs limit was memory related but the lack of a straight up ‘delete’ button shortcut seems like an oversight. Standard delete wouldn’t require any memory. I only had my op a little while and reached for that missing function a couple of times. Maybe most people are working exclusively with shorter sections of tape and it isn’t a problem for most users tho.

you can always delete all of the tracks with shift+tape. Much faster than chopping it up. You wanted to save the other 2 minutes of tape, this would of course not work for you…


you can always delete all of the tracks with shift+tape. Much faster than chopping it up. You wanted to save the other 2 minutes of tape, this would of course not work for you...


Thanks but yeah that’s no good for this. I don’t want to delete the full length of all tracks or an individual track (Some short Ideas recorded on it at start of tape I need to keep). I just want to delete 4 minute section of tape on one track…

For anyone making 6 minute tracks in Tape on OP and doing song-length, un-sequenced takes the lack of delete must be kind of a nightmare unless they never make mistakes.

I worked on that track some more last night and every time I screwed up a take (bad playing/timing or deciding i didn’t like the sound after all etc) I had to go through and cut the track in to sections shorter than 90 seconds before I could delete it and make another pass. Total vibe killer. Especially when trying to record difficult phrases etc this could take forever!?

Please add ‘delete’ TE…

Yeah it’s not very convenient but eventually you find your way through this. I go to the end of the recording (stop+right) the lift, and so on. Don’t take that long.
But you now, I’ve used Win 3.1 so I feel the nostalgia behind this pain :smiley:

@lyingdalai Yeah I think after trying to work this way on OP-1 (recording/resampling long passages) I’ll probably abandon that route and mostly stick to smaller chunks. Kind of annoying though as being able to record long non-sequenced passages was one of the things I was hyped about on OP as it’s something I’ve missed when using Elektron sequencers and on paper the OP tape seemed perfect for it. But the lack of delete (or record/wipe over) for 90+ secs makes it too tedious for redoing takes etc. I’d rather export basic idea from op to daw and carry on in there.

Still a lot of mileage for me in OP in other areas tho.

I understand you.


Now for going fast to the 1:29 point there may be a quicker way like changing the tempo to get bigger spaces between tape marker and then Shift+Right to go to the right place faster.
In the end you may find that it’s not such a pain…

Anyway, this kind of lo-fi approach doesn’t bother me that much anymore ^^
When you’ve worked with floppy disks by dozens, you know what “lost time” means ^^
And this Tape cutting seems just a little pain compare to these “good old times” :smiley:

Fast forward / rewind is faster when you hold "play" as well. Stop and forward takes you to the last recorded point.

Yes, and when you press rew/ff together with the little 4 button it’s immediately at the highest point of speed

Yes, and when you press rew/ff together with the little 4 button it's immediately at the highest point of speed

Never heard about this before, thx dear :slight_smile:

@callofthewild. I so hear you and am having the same frustrations within these limitations at this time.

I simply would rather work on a 3 min or so track w/o looping (seq too limited I feel) …as in 4 seperate performances and the lack of delete options is a vibe killer for me.

I’m new w op-1 and love the fun and creative potential but to not have this type of erase option (or a good quantize) may lead me to selling.
Trying to hold off in that decision for now.
But the jury is still out as to much op-1 frustration level is just not ok in my world.
Hell I’ll go into the daw for that! :wink:

(or a good quantize)

Is there any quantize other than punch into the sequencer and then having the sequencer play back with 16th note quantization?

Yes, and when you press rew/ff together with the little 4 button it's immediately at the highest point of speed

Never heard about this before, thx dear :slight_smile:

Have this from either lymtronics or mushroots, or someone else. He said it’s a bug, very useful one lol !

Sorry if I’m missing something here but, on this subject, and in considering sections less than 90 sec…


I you want to simply edit a take or takes for example, trim the end or whatever, where you made a mistake but keep the rest…

-It seems best to simply use the “scissors” tool to cut the piece, and then lift it. Then you could punch in again etc.
However, I often end up with pop/clicks at those edit points (if there’s a sustaining note of course) which can’t be trimmed or cleaned up.
Without an editing function for these cuts it just seems to me to be an issue that’s tough to swallow.

For me, I’d just prefer to not work in loops but as an old school 4 trk of sorts while using a 1 bar metronome count in so it could later be synced in daw or whatever if I want to do further stuff rhythmically.
…That said, The same seems to go for “looped sections” as far as clicks at the loop end points (again, unless I’m missing something)

The challenges introduced by the op-1 for simple editing are to me, so far, one of the only things I’m really not digging.
So much so, that I sadly get a vibe killing impulse to sell it lately.
But I’m torn as it’s clearly such a cool tool in many other ways.

I guess a simple “fade” type tool at these cut points is too much to hope for in the upcoming new OS?
Just sharing a new users thoughts.

The new OS (if the beta is anything to go by) mitigates the pops and clicks by adding fades on the tape loop points, rather than individual cut points.

The new OS (if the beta is anything to go by) mitigates the pops and clicks by adding fades on the tape loop points, rather than individual cut points.

Ahh good to know. That’s is at least some good news for loops.

I wonder if this would apply in some way to individual track “cuts or edits” that aren’t actual loops?

@chet yeah just cutting out the section with the bum note etc is an option a lot of the time depending on transients and reverb etc. But if you decide you just don’t like the sound and wanna switch it to something else. Or if you get a better idea and have already used 4 tracks and want to ditch one etc, you still have to go through the tape and cut it in to ‘liftable’ sized chunks. I know it doesn’t take that long but it’s a vibe killer and makes the OS feel kind of sloppy in some areas. It’s not a deal breaker but it bugs me there’s no simple ‘delete’ function…