Some breaking Op-Z news!

We’ll I can also now confirm the sweetwater story, they said 599 dollars, I’m gutted at the high price

We'll I can also now confirm the sweetwater story, they said 599 dollars, I'm gutted at the high price

This is what’s on my pre-order bill. Pretty safe to call it. Despite the form factor, I think this is a competitive price for all the multi-track sequencing that we already know is there. Really excited to see how far I can take the video options without diving into programing. It might not be right for everyone… myself included, but I’m taking the early adopter route to find out.

I’m still all like TAKE MY MONEY

but it’s come at a shitty time for me, financially…

At this price, I think i’m gonna wait for the release and some reviews

I guess they could probably sell a lot more units for $399 (or whatever the breaking point is), but the net result would still be the same, so why bother? That works because there is no direct competitor to force the price down and a pressure to increase market share. That capitalist way of thinking sucks. I feel sad about it because I can’t justify spending that money for the use I would give it (I did that for the OP-1 already).

I hope they are charging this price to keep the quality up…


As I have no real idea about the costs of the componentry, etc… Or their plans around DLC… I am hopeful that they’re not just goughin…

Ouch… That’s expensive for a TV-remote sized chunk of screenless groovebox. Interested to see vids of what’s there to justify it at that price.

I feel like when buttons/keys are that small then the ‘physical ui’ benefit kind of starts become less significant. No better than playing bigger keys or pads on a screen. And for £600 could buy -

128gb 2017 iPad

  • GrooveRider (electribe synth and sampler groovebox app with p-locks and trig conditions and bells and whistles)

  • BM3

  • ppg infinite

  • zeeon

  • idensity

  • rozeta

  • syntronik oberheim (+ the free moogs etc)

  • kq dixie

  • fieldscaper

  • fugue

  • small audio/midi interface.

  • bluetooth keys controller.

Still super portable. Still battery powered. Still has built in mic and speakers. And waaaaaaay more powerful/flexible and built in screen… And some of those apps are killer to have on phone too (Fieldscaper definitely…), which would be like a free bonus as can install on up to 5 devices…

The CV would be missing but for me (and anyone else not interested in the visuals aspect of opz) that’s about it from what I’ve seen so far… Think TE are gonna struggle to sell a lot of these…

Thought these would roll out under £400 and even then I wasn’t sure I’d grab one… A little ‘too’ fashion over function for me this time… But I would have been all over a legit, beefed up op-2 :frowning:

I read all about you guys getting so excited about getting your OP-Z and I am totally wondering ...why?

I don't wanna sound like an heretic but I fully agree with Callofthevoid's post above. Personally I sincerely can't see this as more than a fun experimental device with little applicability for most people, aside from the fun of toying with the buttons and get funny sounds and video in return. Well, without an iPad maybe not even video ;-) And how many people have a need to control lights with the DMX protocol?

I'm not a pro musician so maybe that's the reason I just don't "get it"... But I tried! I've looked at most videos out there and to be frank, as much as I fell in love with the OP-1 the instant I saw it, I just can't see the big breakthrough with the OP-Z.

I`m not here to attack the OP-Z: I'd love to buy a new gadget as much as anyone else! But creating music on these clumsy little buttons with no screen feedback? Sounds like a very serious downgrade. Really.

I would have very much preferred a real OP-2 upgrade with more piano-like touch-sensitive keys, more tracks, even more independence from a computer, etc...

Oh well, the good news is I get to keep my money ;) That said, I can't wait to see what you guys do with this new device! Wouldn't be the first time I'm proven wrong, ha ha, so tell me why exactly you love it?!

Another thing that makes me think twice at that price is that they said when you connect it to an iOS device the entire audio engine is running on the iOS app it to enable the video/audio to be in perfect sync. So basically the OP-Z becomes a very expensive controller for an iOS app.

Another thing that makes me think twice at that price is that they said when you connect it to an iOS device the entire audio engine is running on the iOS app it to enable the video/audio to be in perfect sync. So basically the OP-Z becomes a very expensive controller for an iOS app.

That’s interesting, I hadn’t heard about this. I can only assume there will be a decent amount of latency if they were worried enough about the sync to do things this way.


I’m excited to see what the OP-Z does but doubt I’ll jump on it. If my iPad is involved in any way in music making I end up writing posts like these on forums rather than getting down and being creative! :smiley:

^ It use Bluetooth (LE) which suffers a bit from latency…

You can field that iPad argument that @Callofthevoid made against practically every hardware instrument there is, but the fact is, some people keep buying hardware. I love sketching music with Blocs Wave, Gadget and Loopy HD on the iPad, but I’m still not ditching my OP-1 (immediacy, flow, hand-on approach) or Octatrack (reliability in live use, performance controls). I’m looking forward to check out the OP-Z’s workflow. We’re all fans of TE’s design philosophy. TIme wlll tell if the OP-Z will bring something new to the table or is it just an extension of the design thinking that came out of the Pocket Operators.

I’m sure that upon release I will be convinced to purchase, however I must say that if £600 is the correct price then I am a little disappointed as this does feel rather high.


As proven with the OP1 size doesn’t necessarily mean that the device will be any less powerful than something similar but larger, but due to the teeny tiny size of those keys / buttons, I’m afraid that I may find this slightly limiting - hence why I wouldn’t bother with the roland boutique stuff - I like the hardware but the operational side I found rather frustrating.

Don’t know what people’s thoughts are, but it seems you can grab a digitakt for not much more which would appear to have way more playbility in a live setting.

If the pricing is correct then I feel TE may have a harder time selling as many units than if it was £400 let’s say.
You can field that iPad argument that @Callofthevoid made against practically every hardware instrument there is, but the fact is, some people keep buying hardware. I love sketching music with Blocs Wave, Gadget and Loopy HD on the iPad, but I'm still not ditching my OP-1 (immediacy, flow, hand-on approach) or Octatrack (reliability in live use, performance controls). I'm looking forward to check out the OP-Z's workflow. We're all fans of TE's design philosophy. TIme wlll tell if the OP-Z will bring something new to the table or is it just an extension of the design thinking that came out of the Pocket Operators.

Know what you’re saying but feels bit different on this one maybe? Ot and Op1 are both pretty standard sized ui and have screens. I wouldn’t trade those boxes for ipad buttons/keys either :wink:

Opz looks like it’ll be fun and throw out some good stuff. But as a playable/programmable/experimental instrument I just don’t really get its appeal compared to an iPad. Or possibly even just compared to GR16 on a big phone… (which someone would get for free if bought it for iPad)…

Feels like for me opz would probably just be another distraction and a luxury item - More unifinished songs. More file transfers. More muscle memory training. Another box to accommodate/integrate…I don’t mind that stuff if I get what feels like unique results/portability/workflow enhancement but for £600 I’m yet to see the payoff on this one. Feel like I could set BM3 with a bunch of killer apps over 8 tracks and build a better portable instrument for me personally… More depth, more flexibility, bigger onscreen keys, better quality synths/sampling features, any fx I want, more memory, easy export stems to daw etc…

I hated ios for music the last time I tried it like 3 years ago but this time it feels totally different. Kinda feel like I’m switching on my OT in terms of not knowing what I’ll end up hearing at the end.

I’m still in to hardware, just increasingly seeing iPad as a piece of hardware in its own right, compared to other digital portable options especially. following recent AU/midi AU developments and apps like Rozeta, hosts like BM3 and more and more high quality synths, sequencers and experimental sample apps. Seems like the scenery/workflow has changed a huge amount over past year or so… hard for portable things like the opz to validate themselves at that price. For the audio stuff at least, the visuals seem like a good selling point for many too though.

Either way I hope it sells well and funds dev for an OP-2!

I’m still totally excited for the OP-Z. Some good comments here though. I wonder if a higher price might be so they can include licensed code (bitspeak, microtonic) in the OP-Z. Or would they sell things like this separately as plugins?


I was expecting under $500USD but over $399 :wink:

Is there some new info released? Or is the new price info being judged against that pre beta sneak peak from like a year ago? …confused over here.

I’m impressed at the relatively calm and civil reactions to this latest news, compared to the drama I usually see elsewhere in the weeks before and after NAMM.

No doubt the OP-Z is going to be an amazing sequencer and to come up with ideas on the go, come back and plug it into my modular via CV is awesome!

However, 680 euro (599 dollars) is just too much money! And if this price point remains for the release I’m very disappointed mainly because TE said they wanted to make an affordable machine.

Let’s hope there’s a msrp price, and a “street price”. $600 seems really high.

Is Sweetwater offering any discount on the OP-Z? I ask every time something new comes out that I want. I got 10% off on Digitakt and Organelle preorders from elsewhere. It always seems worth asking.