@RTK Nicely stated! I watch the Sonic Talk podcast every week and recently there was a small discussion regarding having too much stuff and what to keep. Both of the guests stated emphatically that the OP1 was an essential piece of equipment and would never be sold. It’s certainly an inspiring piece of hardware that does everything you state incredibly well.
Since the launch I’ve raved about the tape thing to people, but you know - so many ideas pour out of the OP-1. Using CWO, the industrial noises drum pad… it’s the best audio scratchpad produced for electronic musicians because nothing gets in the way, there’s no multitasking OS, no touch screen, just simple, direct control.
So here’s a thing. I’ve recorded very little in my life, I love making music but am untrained and rarely have a clear goal; it’s all emotional, reactive, and sometimes I’ll play something that lasts an hour whilst frantically hitting sequencers and hold pedals and arps and tweaking the mixer (I used to do this with over 13* instruments available, a Behringer MX8000A recorded on a pair of blackface ADATs with a BRC, and then tried to move to computers and it was horrible, it ruined my confidence trying to just make the levels and sequences work). When I’m in that mood it doesn’t matter what I have to hand - I could have a Korg OASYS workstation, or a Casio VL-tone. Once I rearranged all the metal pots on a shelf in IKEA’s garden-thing section by rough pitch and spent about 10 minutes playing them with anything I could find (a brush and a spoon). No way of recording that on me - these days I’d probably drop my phone on a shelf and make it record.
The OP-1 is the thing that captures that moment for beats, for pads, for bass, and lets you keep it. I dare say that a good workflow in those moods is actually to record the inspirational bit, bring it home and take the audio into something like Ableton or Maschine; but the vital thing is that it is there and ready.
A workstation, you have to sit down at. When I’m playing something on the Karma (and yes, I do use the Karma presets, because they make my core idea feel so good and impressive. Unimaginative, yeah, but who cares - I like it) and if you want to hit record, it’ll still want the BPM right or it’ll quantise, the interface gets in the way of the process unless you’re the sort of musician who understands they begin with a beat, with a key, and works methodically. I don’t. I’ll pick up an out of tune guitar and if I can’t tune it right, I’ll tune it where I want it and play it anyway.
* So a snapshot of my studio in, say, 2004 would have been something like this:
MX8000A, two ADATs, Mac G5, Hammerfall DSP, a big Z-series workstation desk with a Korg T1 or Trinity Pro X V3 with two 20" monitors, either side of that at an angle two 3-tier keyboard stands with on one side, SH-101, D-50 and JV-50 and on the other, JD-800, Prophecy and Moog Rogue, another stand behind with “random” - JX10 or Juno last I can remember - a rack with TX816 fully populated going into a DMP digital mixer, controlled by a QX1 5.25" floppy sequencer (it controlled the TX and the mixer, so I could make huge complex pads with 8 layered DX7s, the mixer automation creating fading effects), a Casio VZ10M, Korg Wavestation A/D and Akai S900 sampler. That sampler had a long wire to an Akai AX73 synth, which also had a Jen SX1000 near it, there were a couple of Korg Polysixes and a D70 about but not hooked up. Then the upper rack had Multiverb, AVP-1, MIDI interfaces, Waldorf Pulse+… a computer table on the same side as the D-50 had an Apple //e with AlphaSyntauri system (elsewhere in the studio was a trolley with a BBC B “Music 5000” system), a couple of AHB Inpulse One drum machines, a Sequential Sixtrak…
…then on the wall behind the Mac, a Roland G-505, G-707 and G77b plus 5 string HM5 bass and Pacifica guitar, on the other wall a Roland TD3KV and electric cello, electric violin…
It was total insanity. Sync boxes, MIDI leads, ground hum all over the place, immense amounts of cable (oh, forgot the SuperNova II I had then)… just… insanity. I collected as much as I played - the JD800 had every single voice card from Roland, for example, the 101 had the mod grip, all my kit was bought with faults, cheap and repaired so there were worn out backlights in drawers because I seemed to forget to throw them away, spare keys and contacts…
Now it’s much simpler. Simplicity aids creativity. That’s one of the main reasons I love the OP-1.
Very well put @RTK I agree that the tape alone is one of the strongest features of the OP-1. I haven’t done it yet, but I could imagine doing an entire track of external sound machines, using the OP-1 purely as a four track recorder.
I was trying to understand what I wrote about this yesterday, that to make an OP-1 you need vision and the ability to sacrifice, and what that meant. I mean, I was sure it was right, but could I actually defend it. Here goes a “loose” attempt at clarifying, in case it wasn’t obvious before:
Imagine the pitch like this, “we’re going to build a synth with knob per function, but only four knobs and no menu diving.” If you think about that, it’s impossible. It requires an amazing amount of vision to imagine one could build such a machine. At the same time, you can’t get there, you can’t have a 4 knob synth without some sacrifices, but how do you make the machine appealing despite all the sacrifices that one has to make to retain the 4 knob design? It’s both inspired and mental. Genius and mad. And yet, they made it work.
Recently, however, with the latest updates, I feel the machine isn’t even sacrificing anymore. With CWO, we have a modulation effect. With D-synth, we have traditional synth controls. With Nitro, we have a filter. So, even a lot of the “sacrifices” have gone away over time, and the OP-1 has been able to function more like a traditional synth, without losing any of it’s former charm or quirkiness. The OP-1 still has limits I wish it didn’t have (limited internal memory, only one song on tape, only 2 songs on album, limited saving options for sequences, etc . . . ) but I can live with them.
TE have demonstrated the kind of UI genius that Apple did with the Lisa/original Mac. Show and tell.
CWO is amazing. The more I learn how to use it in a subtle way, instead of wild… you see there’s a FireworX in my rig? That’s for BIG synths. The OP-1 doesn’t need it (it does get to play sometimes, but it’s like, too much. The OP can do it itself, if you remember you can effect the master mix/tape). It does make you think “how can I do this”, but not “where is this function”.
And what have the big guys learned? Well, for a decade or so Roland has been rehashing their old stuff in increasingly better ways - so from MC303/EG/JX cynical packaged romplers, we get SH-201 and 32 (I just had a 32. Not my bag, but it could do some neat tricks). And all from the JP-8000, itself a “we’re done trying to be new, let’s use new to appear old”. So 2014, almost 17 years after the JP and I think, 10 after the SH-201? Certainly after the SH-32… we have System-1.
What is system 1? Well, it has direct controls like an analogue synth. It has a NEW synth engine - and it is new as far as I can tell, no 4-tones per patch thing. It has loadable synths which are actually lesser things than the synth it is, but are classic filter recreations and yes, they are good, and I bought the second one the moment it was released. But they are still rehashing old ground, giving us 1979 but without flaky pots, failed caps and eBay sellers.
This is NOT good. This is lovely for old people like me who remember the SH-101 first time around. It is not good for a new paradigm of music; the DX7 and D50 MADE musicians, MADE the charts sound a certain way. Now what? Neuron went nowhere. Does anyone know if the Solaris has made an impact? Of course it hasn’t. Sunrizer, countless other iOS apps are already making these things obsolete.
And in the middle of it, there’s OP-1. Solid. Easy. Doing things differently.
Teenage Engineering are consultants as much as they are inventors and producers of kit. I wish to $deity that Roland, Korg, Yamaha, whoever is making big workstations now would pay attention to what they have done, license/consult/retain the team behind it and LEARN.
Imagine if a Korg M3-88 with expansions had an OP-1 style speed of multi-track construction and the loose, HUMAN (sorry, gotta emphasise that) attitude to timing. So I loved my QX1 with 5.25" floppies because it would quantize to 384 parts per quarter note resolution. That’s pretty forgiving. Still not enough. OP-1 feels analogue, timing can drift. That’s what’s so adorable about it. It’s not a teacher with a metronome going “No! You are out of step! Your timing drifts! DO IT AGAIN!”.