What would the perfect companion app for the OP-Z?

Hi, I started reverse engineering the OP-Z with some promising results. In the first video you can see an app updating data real-time from the device.

While in the second one is opening and visualizing .opz projects

In dependently from how it gets the data (device or file) now I have been able to parse and successfully read through most of a project:

  • steps notes, duration and velocity.
  • amount of steps per track, step length,
  • BPM,
  • mutes
  • all sound parameters
  • etc.

Wondering, what kind of features people would love to see in a custom companion app for windows/mac/linux.

14 Likes

Awesome, I think you can cooperate with @BKLronin on Underbridge.

1 Like

This is cool! Some thoughts:

  • Ability to save a project along with a title and description, plus the current config file (I tend to use different midi channel settings for different projects, it‘s a nuisance to keep track of that)

  • Ability to copy and paste projects and patterns incl undo functionality. Today it’s too easy to mess up and lose things

  • Overview of Synth/Sample Banks used in Projects (so you can avoid messing with these because you have other projects using the same sounds)

  • Mass updates across multiple patterns (e.g if I really want to change that Synth parameter across the whole project with lots of patterns, this can be frustrating)

Happy to beta-test :sunglasses:

1 Like

Cool!
This would be a nice project and sample manager.

1 Like

Having a clear interface to manage tonality en chords progression will be really nice.

1 Like

As a software Product Manager myself the main comment I would have would be:
I would concentrate on getting a version 1.0 out there without adding all the features and let people give feedback otherwise you can get stuck into adding features and end up never getting anything out there.

A good solid v1.0 with minimal features is always a good core on which to then build other features.

I’m sure you know that already but it’s always worth a reminder :slight_smile:

Looks awesome by the way and something I would love to try out.
Nice work!!

4 Likes

Yeah cause I was struggling to think of what to suggest. I DO however wanna register sincere interest in the project!

The opz doesn’t work well for me on desktop so any basic features from that would be useful (changing midi config is a pain for me without a screen). I also LOVE the monochrome UI

Let’s see more of your vision @patriciogv and then it might be easier to share feedback

1 Like

Very interested in this.

How far could this be pushed? Could it be possible to make the op-z a true 64 or 128 step sequencer?

No, this doesn’t change the OP-Z firmware really. It’s more about adding ways to interact directly with the OP-Z or with their project files (*.opz).

I added a way to visualize midi notes that’s not as steps… I’m following mostly conventions that I see on other programs. So far all this is just reading the data… haven’t jump into editing through the app yet.

Here a video of it working Adding note tracks to custom OP-Z companion app - YouTube

2 Likes

Looks great - I would be interested in a Mac or iPad version…
One question - the melodic tracks seem to be arranged in the opposite direction to every piano roll I have ever used, is that intentional? And, if so, why?

2 Likes

Sure. What I meant is a functionality for this in the app, not on the op-z itself. I assume once you figure out how to manipulate project files directly, this could be a feature. Change the project file offline and then copy it back onto the op-z.