I wanted to ask Elektronauts opinions on this. I realise that most here who have experience with either will probably advise me to get the OP-1, but I’m curious about the expansion possibilities of the Organelle. Both suit the form factor I’m looking for (small, “keyboard”, polyphonic). Can you play a sample polyphonically on the OP-1? I believe this is possible on the Organelle. Basically I’m researching a small powerful and playable synth/sampler to add to my OT. Any insights would be appreciated greatly 
I own an OP-1 and I’m interested in the Organelle but never played one yet. So to answer your question Yes you can play a sample polyphonically on the OP-1 and I’ve seen videos of an Organelle doing that as well, so there’s that. For sampling time the OP-1 is 6 seconds, Not sure on the Organelle but i wouldn’t be surprised if it was longer that(I guess it depends on the patch?). To me the biggest advantage the OP-1 has is the interface and the 4 track tape recorder(which is so fun to use), and it seems like the advantage to the Organelle is the ability to use pure data to change patches or even write them from scratch.
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Great to know, thank you. I do like the look of the OP-1’s screen, it’s quite nice (never seen one in person, though). I’m not sure how useful the 4 track tape recorder would be if I have the OT. 6 seconds would be plenty for my uses of playing a sample polyphonically. I would use the synth sounds of either as well, mostly for ambient stuff/pads.
To be honest, though, I could take or leave either, I guess. Sampling I have covered with the OT. I’m not really interested in programming in PD, really. I could learn to do a little, but I feel it would take me away from actually making music. I used to program patches in Zebra for fun, but wasn’t getting any music accomplished. The thought of playing a sample polyphonically sounds really cool, however, and the OT can’t do this. I’m not interested in a big or even semi-big keyboard workstation. I basically want a small format polyphonic desktop synth/sample playback machine to accompany the OT. Smaller than the OT.
Cool yeah I have an OT as well, the OP-1 is a good companion for it i’d say, you can play some notes or chords in and quickly loop them using the tape recorder, It’s quite good for ambient music, I think the organelle would be too
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Axoloti!
Also have a beaglebone Bela but haven’t had time to tinker with it yet.
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I had the OP-1 and thought I would like it. Turns out it wasn’t for me and that I prefer the sounds I get from semi-modular stuff. I think the OP-1 is a little over-priced at the moment and to be honest many of my soft synths sound better. I will say that I liked how the OP-1 sounded when put through the AH.
I have an OT and love it to bits. My next purchases will be 0-Coast followed by an AH. Personally I would avoid the OP-1 and the Organelle just seems more interesting. My two cents.
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A used korg microsampler might fit for you? Polyphonic sample playback (stereo + mono) with timestrech options. Totally different unit to the op-1 or organelle tho. Much less leaning toward experimental work flows etc. But much cheaper option if you aren’t really interested in the OP tape functions/sequencers etc or Organelle equivalents.
Edit - personally I love OP-1. Gets used here almost daily. You’d end up using it in ways you probably havent forseen til you have one. And the sound is actually really good depending what you’re in to. Great for lo-fi ambient/noise etc. Like most units the presets don’t really show how cool it can sound.
Edit 2 - also i ‘think’ you can maybe sequence the Microsampler kind of multi-timbrally from OT. Need to check but pretty sure you can set a midi channel to sequence individual samples (so you could use it like a drum machine etc), and another midi channel to sequence one sample polyphonically. Both at the same time. Don’t quote me on that but from memory I think that’s possible…
Interesting ideas, thanks everyone. Well, I do love the crazy portability of the OP-1 and Organelle. And I’ve heard good sounds from both in demo videos. I’m probably partial to the sounds I’ve heard from the Organelle so far…
Axoloti sounds interesting 
I’m not sure how diy I want to get, at least for electronic instruments (acoustic is a different story). But I’ll do some research, for sure.
I think the live playability/tweakability is important for a small box for me, because I get the impression the audio fidelity of either the Organelle or OP-1 is not on par with a vst like Zebra or similar.
Korg Microsampler… Hmm, hadn’t thought of that, thanks! I’ll definitely give that some thought if it can play samples polyphonically.
Edit: I should add that being able to use something to potentially add more sampled (not synthesised) percussion voices to what I can do in the OT is definitely appealing too.
Organelle isn’t really portable though right? It needs a power supply.
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Right, that’s true, but portable to me doesn’t mean it can be battery powered. It means I can take it places without injuring my back and especially important is it can fit with my other gear as carry-on luggage when flying.
Cool, I get you. I’d put a vote in for the OP1 if tweakability and UI are high on your wishlist. It’s very fun, playable, immediate and immersive. The Organelle seems to be a bit more of a tinkerer’s instrument - no screen, one patch at a time, browsing through forums for new patches, rolling custom patches… Flexibility is high but it loses out on immediacy. Both good, but very different machines!
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what I like about the OP-1 is that it is near instant-on on power-up with its diverse feature-set available in a tiny slim package and great battery life. It is truly ‘throw in the bag’ kit, even if you’ve forgotten about it for weeks, it probably still has 10 hours of charge in it.
It is also a very useful keyboard and knobs controller to use with iOS or your laptop for a hotel/travel tool.
After owning one for over a year, I’ve only started to dig into it. Collectively the synths offer a lot of timbre range and lots of modulation life. The effects, for me, are moreso timbre affectors (less is more) than they are clean reverb or delay washes.
No doubt it is very useful standalone to create multi-track loops for a variety of sources and mangle them up for later production in a daw. It also partners very well with the OT for source material.
Despite having axoloti (which is like a tiny swiss army knife modular synth, sampler, effects, midi processor, and takes tweaking and focus, though I highly recommend it - no DIY required as you can just stick it in any case you like and just make the midi, usb and audio sockets available) and an iPad stuffed with music apps, the OP-1 still has its place for instant enjoyment and lots of depth.
The organelle seems to be like a single synthesis ‘machine’ (PD dependent) package that lacks the array of compositional features the OP-1 has that makes it great (tape & seq).
I haven’t spent much time with my beaglebone bela yet, but I recon if you really want portable pd, you could spend far less on a mini usb midi keyboard, a bela, a usb powerpack and an enclosure and have a lot more than the Organelle offers at a much lower price. That’s why I bought the Bela. Adding your own pots and buttons to the enclosure would be easy. Adding a mini oled display is bit more complex overhead though unless you already know how.
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pro tip: get the OP-1 on black friday this month. you can easily build the organelle system on your computer and tweak it with the op1.
best choice. OP1 is Killer.
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Yes.
Before buying an Organelle you should download and play with Pure Data on your computer, because you will have to become good friends with Pure Data to maximize your Organelle experience.
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I often commute by train, so I find the 4-track tape recorder a lot more useful than the OT when I’m on the train.
The tape recorder is what makes the OP-1 a mobile music-making workstation - it’s the only way to layer drum parts, a bass part, etc. towards a song/composition while one is sitting on a train. For the more experimentally minded, there are some fun tape tricks that you can do, which can later be resampled. The ways you can manipulate tape on the OP-1 is conducive to different results than what you would achieve on the OT’s flex, pickup, or static machines. The OP-1 as a whole is really designed to encourage a playful approach to making music - it’s not a fit for people who are overly conscious of what “pro” gear is and are not into having fun.
I have some friends who have teased me for getting an OP-1 but it’s tough for them to understand because they drive to work and rarely, if ever, use public transit.
Aside from OP-1, and Microsampler, take a look maybe at Novation Circuit and Korg Electribe Sampler. Korg’s Volca line deviates from the OP-1 philosophy quite a bit by being specialized, single-use units, but a lot of OP-1 and OT users have Volcas as complementary pieces of gear - even the Volca Sample!
Certainly some compelling reasons for axoloti and the OP-1. I appreciate that you all are giving me much food for thought for my overall setup. I’ve pondered what kind of synth/sampler box to extend the OT for awhile. I absolutely love the idea of putting the guts of something into a custom enclosure, especially a nice wooden/sturdy metal one. I tend to loath interfaces and boxes with lots of flashing coloured lights and/or cheap/plastic construction. Sound is first, but interface and build quality matter to me in this way.
Btw, I get that portable for many includes battery powered. It’s a consideration for me, definitely, and I’d be remiss if I didn’t consider the travel/compositional strengths of the OP-1. I have the Zoom H4npro which has a 4-track function (no tape effects) but I mostly use it as a stereo field recorder.
I’m definitely not a hi fi purist, but I do strive for that as a baseline for my amplified acoustic things. That said, I plan on getting the AH (for a few different reasons). I see that box as a natural extension of the OT. I don’t think I need to try pure data to know I don’t want to spend much time in that world. Partly I’m loath to do that much programming rather than music making and partly because I’m a long time user of Live, and if anything, I’d want to use M4L, as attractiveness of the interface matters to me if I’m going to spend hours staring at something.
Anyway, my next purchase will be the AH, and in the meantime, I think it behooves me to do more research on all of the gear options mentioned.
Yeah to the polyphonic thing, but OP should be aware theres no timestrech options. High notes get shorter and vice versa. Unless using the drum sampler and slices. But not much sampling time (I think it’s 12 secs total per drumkit) per drum kit patch to do anything like that with long notes and limited in octave spread. 12 secs is fine for making a drumkit, but its normally a little limiting for multisampling an instrument.
Valid points but since he didn’t ask about them, I didn’t mention them. After years of typing too much information, only to realize the person I’m addressing was only interested in 1% of that info (not talking about you in particular, OP) I’ve gotten lazier
[quote=“mokomo, post:13, topic:32879, full:true”]I haven’t spent much time with my beaglebone bela yet, but I recon if you really want portable pd, you could spend far less on a mini usb midi keyboard, a bela, a usb powerpack and an enclosure and have a lot more than the Organelle offers at a much lower price. That’s why I bought the Bela. Adding your own pots and buttons to the enclosure would be easy. Adding a mini oled display is bit more complex overhead though unless you already know how.
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I tried going down this route with a raspberry pi, but it is such a pain in the butt to get things working if you’re not a linux power user. The appeal of the Organelle is that it’s a specialised box pre-configured to work nicely without having to spend hours installing libraries and modifying configuration files… I have respect for those who can get linux running nicely for low latency audio, but maaan it is definitely not for me.
I love pd though. It’s a bit of a time eater for me (when I’d sometimes rather be just making music without having to patch it first), but quite nice when you just want something super specific and efficient, like converting CC to NRPN.
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