Wanted to put a little example together of how i could use OP-1 Field’s tape to transition between songs on OP-XY. Also showing a new song im working on. Tried to go in a Boards of Canada vein thanks to the awesome sound pack by John Gordon / Colors in Space. My routing & setup is pretty simple:
- OPXY is connected to OP1Field via USBC.
- OP1 is sending clock sync and transport (other) to OPXY
- OP-XY is sending audio to usb input source on OP1-Field
- OP-1 is then routing out to some guitar pedals (Hologram Microcosm + Chroma Console) to make it sound blurry.
Then:
- OP-1 sets the master BPM, so i set the OP1 to BPM of my song on the XY
- Important: Start the “Set” with the play button on the OP1 Field, this should trigger OP1 to start rolling tape and also start the song on the OP-XY
- Then i perform, mix, etc on OPXY as desired.
- When i have a part i want to loop for the transition i can hold record on the OP1 to get it on tape.
- After its recorded to OP1 tape it will start looping (so either have the volume already off, or else mute those sources on the OPXY so it doesnt double up)
- Then basically prepare for transitioning the song – make sure OP1 is playing the loop, and bring out the OPXY audio to silence.
- Now that the loop is playing primarily on the op1, I can load up another project on OPXY
- Note that any BPM changes to OP1 will modify the Pitch of the loop that was recorded, but the OPXY should still sync to whatever BPM is being sent to it.
- Then begin the new song on the OPXY.
- Since there is no ‘synced start’ now that the OP1 is already playing you could do one of 2 ways:
- Stop+Stop (return to start point) the OP1 tape before it ends the loop and hit play again on the OP1, which should also trigger play on the XY, so theyre in sync again.
- Just hit Play on the OP-XY in time to the loop on the OP-1. Maybe harder to get perfect though.
The main issue is you cant modify the OP-XY bpm to beatmatch it if you’re off on the start trigger, so if you are off by enough of a margin for it to sound bad, you will have to hit stop on OPXY and re-attempt the trigger start to get better time.
Shouts out to u/bsheairs on reddit who gave the idea and inspiration to try this out!