Certainly true for me. There are some things that baffle me in a minor way but overall, the UI is outstanding.
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same for me regarding the ui plus the portability, im picking up another asap.
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I love mine, thereās always somewhere new to tap into. Iāve had it for less than six months but coupled with a good reverb/delay itās amazing. I also love taking the train with it, such a luxury to be able to make music while on the move.
It also helps that itās my only instrument so when I have a sound in mind I basically have to extricate it out of one of the synth engine.
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āextricate it outā seems to mean that itās really hard to get it bend to the sound one could want?
the op-1 appears to be great for kind of random or obscure tweaking of a limited number of synthesis presets? (if we donāt use the sampling abilities)ā¦ Iām afraid I would be lacking the basic āOSC-AMP-FILTER-LFOā editing like in VAs or analog synths, but Iām also kind of searching another types of soundsā¦
Could be tempted by some randomness anyway!!
cheers
You can sample straight to the keyboard or drum module. In the keyboard you will treat it very much like a synth with envelope, filter and lfo. Not to mention you can granulate any sample and create minuscule loops to get weird oscillators. Op 1 is extremely creative.
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On the contrary itās pretty easy to bend and shape the sounds of the presets to something entirely different with the four knobs + effect and LFO (and master effect on the tape if need be, to be resampled afterwards).
Itās really fun to push the synth engines to get out what you really want of it.
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My other concerns come from some questionable design decisions. This synth is powered by built-in battery. A lot of complaints can be found on the different forums about how unstable charging is On the other hand thereās the fact that such batteries are aging in 1-2 years and they can die around 3 years. Whatās then? Can it be used with USB cable only? But Iāve read a lot of complaint about the noisy outputs of this device, especially when USB cable is plugged in.
Agreed. UI makes a huge difference and op-1 nailed it. Recently got a Dom1 and between that and op-1 Iāve been convinced to avoid synths with UI like A4/AK in future unless its primarily for the sequencer aspect. Dialing sounds in on AK is zero fun. Iād put it equal to mouse-clicking half the time. For sure AK is super deep in synthesis/modulation options but tweaking it sucks and I feel like thereās a disconnect a lot of the timeā¦
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Think I read somewhere that when it happens TE will have something in place to offer new batteries. But there are users that have had theirs since release and battery still holding long charge. In the end itās no different from buying an ipad etc. Battery isnāt gonna last foreverā¦
But yeah, there are some other hardware issues that seem to occur with a lot of units. The i/o dying is one that comes to mind. Iāll be bummed if mine hits that after warrantyā¦
And Iāve heard reports on the noise issue but never noticed it myselfā¦
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One more thing: its keyboard is without velocity and aftertouch, thereās no modulation wheel, a questionable workaround for pitch bend is present only. No problem, just attach a midi keyboard to it. But thereās no MIDI input on it.
I have one simple question: why? 
I use my push 2 to play the Op1 and all I can say is wow.
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Sure, I know that you can drive it from computer via USB. However you canāt play it with a separate midi keyboard. Ok, use a USB<-> MIDI converter, but maaaan
Otherwise you neither can save/manage patches/sounds/records without computer.
Regular midi in/out would be great but there are easy work arounds. Just get a kenton midi host box 
or I sometimes use my ipad + peripherals to route midi from daw or hardware din midi to/from OP.
Itās easy to miss the point/appeal/usefulness of OP-1 if you never tried one or if itās just a set of tools that doesnāt really fit with your music/workflow. But if youāre genuinely interested in finding out why people dig it you should just order one from an online store that accepts returns and trial it 
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Thatās the point
Not sure what you mean mate?
Your suggestion of trying it out
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When you play a synth with an effect live (no tape recording) does it sound in stereo or mono?
You have the choice of mono/stereo in that situation - Master fx are stereo. Synth/drum fx are mono.
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Itās a good one. Try one in person if possible. If itās not for you, move on.
There are lots of products that people love here that Iāll probably never get either. I donāt need a laundry list of every little thing that is āwrongā with it to decide that. Does it have a place in my music right now or not? Thatās the only question that matters to me.
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The OSC is determined by your choice of synth engine.
Every synth engine in the OP-1 has an ADSR envelope you can tweak. That is your AMP.
FILTERā¦ well, most of the synth engines are not VA/subtractive synths. Did you know that the most famous FM synth in history (Yamaha DX7) had no resonant filter at all? The exceptions are DSynth/DBox. They do have FILTER. You could use Punch as a FILTER but it takes up the FX slot and you only get one FX per synth preset.
Yes, you get one LFO per synth preset. As in the case of the ADSR envelope, it doesnāt matter which synth engine you choose - you get an LFO.
Looks like itās time for you to take a look at the online Guide - it explains the a lot about the synths, the LFO (types of LFO, how to assign destinations, etc.).
https://www.teenageengineering.com/guides/op-1
The section on the synth LFO is found here:
https://www.teenageengineering.com/guides/op-1/synthesizer-mode#5.6
Some details on DBox/DSynth found here - looks like the filter cutoff frequency is adjustable but not filter Q.
https://www.teenageengineering.com/guides/op-1/reference#17.1
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