Yeah, less so than the Deluge when I’ve taken that on a plane but Op-1 out in public especially on a plane makes me feel a bit self conscious lol.
As great as the deluge is, it can be hard to explain what the box with flashing and animating lights is especially on a plane lol.
But the M8 is even darker, no shades of gray whatsoever
Thanks
you can connect them with a USB cable and do midi and audio over the same cable in either direction. (I have the MK1 of the M8.)
M8 vs OP-XY YouTube comparison by The Midlife Synthesist
What do you think?
I thought this was pretty balanced, and he quickly pinned a comment for the one small error I noticed.
I’m going to try to give my final opinion on this topic. This opinion is made after being a long time owner of an M8 and having bought an OP-XY two weeks ago…. and returning it.
First of all, I want to say that this is just a personal opinion, everyone will have their own, but at least it’s a real opinion and not a forced YouTube commercial. I hope my point of view will be helpful for future customers.
The first thing I want to say is that the OP-XY is a groovebox that is very fun to use but… I don’t think it’s worth the 2300 Euros (not even close!!!). I’ll give several reasons that might explain me better:
The software has A LOT of bugs, many of them big ones, which ruin your experience.
In my case, the physical quality of the device also failed. Pitchbend failed, and the feel of the potentiometers was different (one of them even seemed to get a little stuck sometimes). I don’t think it’s an isolated case as many Elektronauts users have said, and there’s even a video on YouTube (although I think it’s been deleted) by user Son Wu in which he had more than 3 broken keys.
Poor sound design: On the synth side I find the sound design quite limited. Coming from Elektron, I found that although the synth sounds are good, the sound design is quite limited. Looking at YouTube, all the OP-XY jam sessions that come from synth sounds, sound pretty similar.
Limited use of sampling. Maximum of 20 seconds per sample, no time stretching, samples with quite a bit of quality that don’t load, disastrous sample organization…
Only two effects per pattern. I hear people talking about how they have to put an external pedal to add something as simple as reverb, because they have wasted the two effects on other parameters. Are we crazy?
It’s true that the device has some amazing things, like smooth parameter locking, step components, or punching effects, but I think that in the long run these last two things can become repetitive in your compositions.
On the other hand, this whole experience has made me realize how incredible the M8 is, I’m living a second honeymoon with this thing.
Let me explain:
Everyone talks about step components, but those effects are just one of the smaller sequencing options that the M8 also offers. It may be more complicated to use or understand, but the only thing that can stop you from adding “fantasy” to your songs… is your imagination.
This post is about comparing these two devices because they are both quite portable. But only with the M8 you can make music ANYWHERE, even standing on the bus. Another thing I noticed is that, for example, I love making music in bed, while my wife is asleep (she falls asleep before me). With the OP-XY I was unable to use it 100% in the dark because it has too many keys (which is good most of the time, but not in this case) and not all of them are illuminated.
Not only is M8 super stable, it’s packed with tons of stuff to download and has the best community ever. Literally.
I don’t want to go into too much detail. I just want to give a different opinion from a non-YouTuber, for those who are undecided between any of these devices.
PS: I now have 2300 euros more in the bank, waiting for when Tonverk comes out…
Thank you for this! My GAS is cured!
yea you’re fairly bang on. I prefer XY in a lot of ways, and I personally write much better music with it than I did on m8. I’m fairly handy on m8 but my tunes are a bit clunky. I find I can get my sound much easier on XY.
using the synth engines for drum synthesis on XY sort of sucks. the envelopes aren’t snappy enough or something, and using the tremelo lfo as a pitch envelope doesnt work very well. maybe that’s it. the lfo isn’t great for drums. pity.
it’s probably not worth 2.3k vs the m8. I still prefer writing on it personally but yea its a tough sell in comparison 
I returned my XY
It was good but to me it didnt feel portable enough compared to the M8
But probably the main reason was i couldn’t justify the cost of it
So in the end i returned it and bought a cheap M8 Model 1, Pulsar 23 and a Alpha Base for just a couple £100 pound more than what i paid for the XY
The idea was to give an honest opinion from an ordinary person, not from YouTubers.
That doesn’t mean that only my point of view is valid, but I think that people will be able to make a better decision the more opinions they have.
Really appreciate your take. I’m waiting on more “real” reviews like this one. Thanks again!
I would kill to have the fx loop on M8 but to me the biggest difference is free flowing playing vs free flowing programming they are both great and xy will likely get to a good bug free state eventually. I definitely prefer the XY but yeah if you take money into the equation M8 is hard to beat. I do kind of hate working with the synth engines in the M8… I suppose you can easily set up a midi controller for that but I wouldn’t do that on the go on the couch or whatever.
That said I did have to send my unit back for the pitch bender fault so they are definitely getting stuff worked out in production still.
Exactly.
The main point why I prefer the OP-XY over the m8 is the option to actually play it without needing to hook a midi keyboard or controller up to it. If you want to live record a drum pattern or melody into the sequencer on the m8, you have to connect a midi keyboard to it. If you are fine with that or with programming the notes into the sequencer, the m8 is unbeatable imo.
But making music on the OP-XY is a completely different experience in comparison. Playing around and then live recording a drum pattern with 24 samples directly available on a velocity sensitive keyboard will yield completely different results than programming the notes it in and scrolling through samples. Same for melodies, bass lines or chords. If you already know where every note should land, you shouldn’t have any problems on the m8. On the OP-XY, it’s a much nicer experience (imo) to just play around, feel the music, adapt the way I play in response to what’s happening on other tracks and just live record it in and then take it further with step components and the aux tracks. Or simply delete it again quickly and try another idea. This is also possible on the m8 with a midi keyboard, but much more cumbersome and slow, as the UI was designed with the focus on programming.
Both instruments are incredible. I think the main factor of deciding between the OP-XY and m8 is how you like to make music and how you prefer to interact with the instrument.
Agree 1000%
The XY seems to me like a computer-enhanced instrument, and the M8 is more like a computer-enhanced notation device.
Also the XY has the ability for much easier polyphony, it’s not impossible on the M8, but it’s much more awkward.
I do find getting nice sounds from the XY easier. I love the M8 and the sound design possibilities are insane, but sometimes I just want to get something going and not play with options for hours. I know that there’s 1,000s of existing instrument presets out there and I can load any sample, but it just breaks the flow of making music for me. I find the XY much more fluid.
Meanwhile, I find this thread and some of the justifications it contains a little amusing, because it’s difficult to compare the two devices. Apart from the fact that music comes out of both devices if you operate them properly.
I don’t think they are so different… both are portable grooveboxes.
The main reason that most of people want a M8 or a XY, is for the possibility of make music everywhere.
I have used in the past - and still own - LSDJ, LGPT and this week I have work with the m8 the headless version. So feel fully at home because it’s not a copy/paste software but we are not so far.
Just to give a try and see what is possible.
I think m8 is a really great software, just awesome ! The synth and sampler are really good, tons of preset and if you have previous experience on the ancestor of those software you feel so at home.
I really don’t think that those m8 device can be used by everyone due to the way you input note and the way you need to think about chords (programming).
Might be fully okay for most people for drums, sample, loop but for melody I really feel after more than ten years of use of this kind of device that programming melody on a device like this is still challenging for me.
Which is not the case using a recent MPC, Elektron, or simply using a midi keyboard or a push.
Lots of progress has been done, but tracker does not let my brain improvise, which is the main reason I make music…
So without having use the OP-XY, I don’t like the brand and the price is just f…… up, I know the OP-XY would better fit my way of doing thing… But I won’t buy it 
That’s true. However, the two devices that are the subject of this thread couldn’t be more different conceptually. Nobody would think of comparing a Roland MT-32 with a Moog One. Both are synths 