if you like noisy stuff, then yes it is good
Most of my tracks are made with OP1ā¦
The one bellow is OP1 only except for the little sitar lineā¦
Heavy use of DNA, which is the noise generator, obviously needed if you want to synthesize percussionsā¦
The thing is usually exploring a new side of the synth yields to amazing discoveries.
Operator-1.com battles are good in this regard, forcing you to go where you even had no idea you could 
Last one had me rediscovering the wide palette of sounds one can obtain from Digital synth 
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Interesting how a lot if people say the really like it, but also that they donāt use it that much. That was the same for me when I still owned mine.
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For me the op-1 presets are a good place to look to see its weaknesses as a synth/sound design tool. For those ācleanā kind of sounds itās mostly pretty āokā. Great for chip tune/old casio kind of sounds tho. But itās sequencers, fx and sampling turn the OP in to way more. Itās a secret weapon for lo-fi vintage sounds and ambient. Anyone in to Delia Derbyshire or Broadcast etc will love it. Amazing for those kind of sounds. Always surprises me when I end up choosing it over my AK, happens a lot. And the workflow is amazing for coming up with random song ideas/sections. One of the most useful things I ever boughtā¦
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its just a quirky little box, turning stuff on and off would leave noises buzzing or little bleeps when you used a certain synth engine or effect. Didnāt really bother me but when the headphone and mic i/0 broke down on one unit I had to sell it when i replaced it.
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I love glitch music so I guess itās an aspect of the OP-1 that I actually may like!?
Little bleeps and buzzes here and there wonāt really annoy me I think,
What would really turn me off, is if there is a constant buzz or hiss in the output signalā¦ But I read here and there that a simple āground loop attenuatorā for cheap is OK to remove the noise floor from the Jack outputā¦
There was noise present all the time but it was a nice noise so that didnāt hinder me, aliasing noises hurt me a tad my ears are sensitive to that but it didnāt detract so badly i couldnāt use the machine.
Rarely miss gear tbh I do miss that unit, im praying for an op2 at some point.
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I personally dream of a synthesis-only but enhanced version of the op-1, multitimbral with midi sequencer and FXs per partā¦ And real MIDI DIN port, real hi grade inputs and outputsā¦ That would justify the high price, but I guess they would sell it 2000ā¬ at least, ah ah!
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I would buy that, i saw cuckoo on youtube interview David from TE and he mentions the āopā¦ er 2ā I really hope for a similar scenario regarding the midi sequencing you mentioned. I may have to buy another to tide me over as I cant see a mkii being released any time soon with the opz coming out.
Indeed, same for me. As for the OT I purchased 5 months ago, there were rumours about the new elektron box 2016 (ah ah ghost thread), and lots of forum threads asking or speaking of an OT2ā¦ Iām happy I didnāt delay my purchase because Iāve never been so productive since I own the OT, despite its limitations and bugs, and because guess what, there is NO OT2 in the scope at all, ah ah!!
I guess itās the same for OP-1, either I wait months or years for an hypothetic V2, or I can go V1 and be productive and happy with it right NOW!
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Thereās no denying that the OP-1 is an awesome little instrument.
Itās super portable and the instruments and effects are so āoff the wallā that it can give you the most unexpected results and results different than youād get from any other instrument or software.
Itās a beautiful piece of design from Teenage Engineering and it will definitely go down in the Synth hall of fame for eternity.
I recently sold mine after having it for 2-3 years. I bought it from someone on eBay. The thing was in great condition.
Why did I sell it?
Well it was a bit of a love/hate relationship. Maybe not hate but certainly frustration.
I would LOVE to jam on it, love making patches and love feeding sounds n samples into it and mangling them.
What I found frustrating about it though was that to get it to play with other equipment you had to jump through hoops - that involved me having to shell out on an OP-Lab as a USB Host.
I also never really got into creating finished work with it.
Sure I submitted to a few battles on the OP forum but never really got it worked into my music workflow.
I put it up for sale about 8-10 months ago but I bottled it and decided to keep it and see if I could work with it more.
After a few months of still feeling the same about it I decided it was time to let it go. I was better with the money in my bank rather than an OP-1 sitting doing nothing of value and not giving me finished work.
One of the contributing factor to the sale too was the new firmware. Iād seen there was new firmware coming out and I had hoped it might advance the features/functionality of the device but when the beta came out it was clear they were not addressing this area.
I am so jealous of people who manage to work well with the OP-1 and find itās limitations fun rather than a challenge and fit it into their workflow.
I so wanted it to be a lifetime companion 
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If I want super clean sounds, I fire up my Korg M3. The sounds are so clean, you could eat a meal off of them. No, seriously, theyāre downright clinical.
DNA is probably a different experience for each OP-1 user, as the synth is built off of the processor ID, and the ID is different for individual OP-1s. Perhaps one exists in this world that has a DNA synth that will give you a clinically clean pad sound or something. Mine is aggressive and in-your-face - Iām ok with that.
I admittedly didnāt use my OP-1 much either, until I realized how useful the Tape actually is. The OP-1 was designed to be a portable music workstation, but in kind of an old-school way, in that you have to use the Tape and its tracks to put music together.
There is a āmusique concreteā thread on operator-1.com that is full of great ideas that utilize Tape. That thread inspired me to devote more time to the OP-1. So much fun to record a few minutes of audio to Tape, then auto-slice the recording to Drum Sampler, then use the Tombola sequencer to trigger slices from Drum Sampler, with the option of recording the Tombola-generated audio back to Tape for further experimentation.
BTW, one of the ways to get around the 6-min. audio limit is to create sample chains, then have Tape loop over a region as long as you want it to. Thatās how the acoustic guitarist I saw with an OP-1, was able to play a half-hour set using it to provide percussion, as well as process his guitar - he had it pick up his guitar sound through its internal mic, then run the micād signal through delay and maybe other FX.
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Really cool tips! Another one to get more time, maybe obvious but reduce the tape speed. It gets lofi but still very useful. Credit to Rephazer for that one.
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Need to use the envelope on this one. slow attack and a long release with none of the in-between cuts out a lot of the wild ā¦ like little sweet washes of stink.
well i took my op-1 out just to try that. yes, it does help some, and i find the sound itself interesting to play with, but iām not sure i would ever use it beyond that, which is ok, but still the machine I see as just a fun toy.
I thought DNA was useless up until I got the beta OS and all the synths got new presets. There are so many interesting tricks to be learned from them using LFO and FX. The new Slump synth is a real treat, although theres no visual aid yet, sounds like they combined an oscillator/noise source with a filter and pulse width mod of some kind.
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I should have given the beta a try before I sold it. Ah well, I needed the money so itās probably a good thing I didnāt do that, haha.
Iām kinda starting to miss it, but ultimately I couldnāt justify keeping it, especially since it doesnāt play nice with my other gear unless I have some interface in betweenā¦
Whatās the fun of having a great tape feature but with four mono tracks? What makes a digital synth so great if it sounds mono?
I see that you can make an arrangement in stereo having fx on it - but a single fx for the whole mix? And if you want to resample the mix back to tape, you get it in mono again.
This limitation is something that keeps me away from this synth.
Agreed lack of stereo resample is a shame. It makes up for it with what all the things it can do though and the unique/fast workflow/ui. There are a bunch of areas where other units destroy it but that can be said of most pieces of hardware. Especially those that cover multiple areas (multitrack/synth/sampler/sequencer/drum machine)ā¦
User Interface. You can get hung up on features all day but the truth is that a good interface trumps almost everything when it comes to creativity.
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