OP-1 review

Sat Dec 31 2022E.W.Ayers

Edited:

Last Christmas in a drunken stupor I bid on Ebay for a second-hand, battered OP-1 by Teenage Engineering (TE). It's a pocket synth/arranger that you can sketch songs on. I've written some thoughts on it, they aren't going to make much sense if you haven't used the device. I might write a 'design lessons learnt from the OP-1' post which doesn't need this.

Edit: I've since sold this and traded up to an OP-1 field (OP-1F), which is refreshed hardware but exactly the same UI.

Listen to the songs I made with it, the audio is taken straight from the device with no mastering.

The main takeaway: it's a toy for hipsters. You can get PC / tablet apps that do everything this can do ... and yet. Something about having a dedicated interface with tactile buttons and twiddly knobs makes me more likely to play with it. This is because I spend all of my time using a PC, tablet and phone. I don't want to spend more time prodding around a load of menus and clicking things. Clicking is too slow, prodding relies you to do hand-eye work to find the button. If I learned all of the KB shortcuts for Bitwig I could replicate this, but it still amounts to holding the command key a lot.

Some apps, games and objects are so beautifully designed that I can't help but think about them. The most recent example I can think of is a game called The Witness. A lot of the value I derive from OP-1 is in exploring the design decisions that they made.

The main thing OP-1 has given me is given me new ways to think about design. OP-1 has a design philosophy that sets it apart from other music tools:

As well as this, the hardware is solid and beautiful. It is minimalist in its own way without looking like an Apple product. The software is so clean and playful. Every module and mechanic has a unique and interesting UX represented with a whimsical visualisation. The parameters all have cryptic names like 'power' and 'telephomatic' or are nameless and modify the visualisation in some way, just twiddle the encoder and listen! The DSP of each module is a cute twist on the usual implementation of an effect or synth: the Nitro filter has a follower-modulation feature; The random note generator is a spinning tombola; one of the pattern sequencers is a pair of monkeys that can chain patterns together.

The synths and effects (except DNA and Grid) sound great straight out of the box. In contrast, most DAW synths have lots of knobs and features and it can be quite difficult to get something sounding good without knowing what you are doing (even if you do, it still requires lots of time that could be spent playing).

And yet, the main thing I daydream about when using the OP-1 is being able to code my own modules with the same design philosophy, but you can't because it is locked down.

Wishlist

Here are the main daydreams I have about the OP-1.

Sequencer workflow

The sequencers are nerfed, I think some of this is a deliberate design decision to force you to use the tape and play stuff directly on the kb.

The Endless sequencer is the most powerful. it took me a while to realise:

But you can't save patterns or load the patterns you create into Finger or Pattern! Argh! I wish lift and drop worked on on patterns.

These limitations make it quite hard to build interesting drum patterns with variations. The best I've come up with is to program Finger to have different layers of the drums, and have other ones be fills. Then you can build up complex drums. But editing patterns in Finger is very tedious and not fun.

Tape workflow

Looper tape mode

OP-1F has different tape modes, but they just change some subtle audio qualities.

I think there could be a tape mode called 'Looper' that emulates an RC 505. Each of the T1-4 is a separate loop track. Loop length is locked to bars, but you could have one track looping every 2 bars and another looping on 4 bars. The length is dictated by how long the first recording to that track is, but it's always snapped to a multiple of bars. I think all of the transport controls from standard tape workflow have clear analogues. (green encoder would change loop bar multiple). But also it frees up In, Out and Loop buttons. Maybe shift ← and → could move a track between different loop recordings so it's easy to have variations in drums etc. Then you can use the OP-1 to do fun improv performances like ARIatHOME.

Limitations of existing modules

Modules that I wish existed

Should OP-1 be jam-packed full of modules and extras? There is a tradeoff, an explicit goal of the OP-1 is to minimise the amount of time digging through little menus. The philosophy is that you have a few versatile modules, and have each encoder meaningfully change the sound. I still think it could do with maybe 2x more modules. There are so many cool players, effects and synths in desktop DAWs. Copy them!

References

Alternatives to the OP-1

In no particular order. By alternative, I mean some relatively portable device that one can make entire songs on. Sometimes referred to as a 'groovebox'.

Modding the OP-1

I was so desperate to write my own OP-1 modules I researched modding the OP-1. It was a dead end without investing some serious time into reverse-engineering for weird CPU so I gave up. Here are the links that were most helpful. Also note that decompiling and publishing the firmware source is illegal.