I think the reality is that many manufacturers release video and written documentation with a product release.
I think it’s fair to say that it feels rushed.
The product is still in transit to retailers
TE released a 30 sec teaser video
Incomplete manual, etc
It, to me, feels that they stuck with the deadline but instead should have carved out, as you suggest, a couple more weeks to polish things up to present to potential customers.
For $2,299 that is.
I don’t care if you release any documentation for a new $99 pocket operator, but for $2,300 it’s not inspiring confidence in me to purchase what is priced as their most expensive flagship product when it doesn’t feel like they’ve treated it as such in its portrayal. It’s not a ‘hey it’s here now, we expect you to figure it out’ kinda pricepoint lol
Thank you for your answers though, really helpful!!! How many wavetables are available? I heard 80 somewhere is that correct?
Is there any talk of swapping/adding custom wavetables? I’d suspect no
Really calls into question the whole purpose and traction of these synthfluencer release day videos…
I’m surprised brands fall into this trap rather than higher knowledgeable people to do informed demos. I’d rather that, than any weak claims of impartiality at best and naked attention-seeking at worst.
haha omg that trailer is hilarious - the music is really cool, but the video seems more like a saturday night live schprockets reboot than anything … i’m assuming it’s meant to be funny
Great. That actually seems like the ideal approach to me. Since the XY allows for storing tons of projects, one could easily iterate a project idea by saving new versions, while still having the ability to go back to prior versions. Or use a project as a starting point/template for a live jam, totally mess things up, then revert back to the starting point for the next jam.
imagine what a slam dunk it would have been if they’d released this exact machine except they made the synth/effects engines an open platform that other people could develop engines for.
Regardless, the lack of chopping has me second guessing grabbing one of these. I guess copying to another key and adjusting start/end points doesn’t seem so bad. Not sure I’m down to make that compromise on a device this expensive tho
I think the novelty of the OP-XY and OP-Z is in the form of a series of smaller refinements on step sequencing that add up to a bigger picture. Almost an elektron workflow evolution. I’ll list out what I think is really unique about the OP-Z (and in turn the OP-XY).
Polyphony micro-timing within a single chord on a single step. So if you record in live, you can get all kinds of offsets around the polyphony, and how this interacts with the arp, and longer-scales for patterns, means you’re getting a ton of variation of 64 steps.
Performance effects like punch in effects, tape-machine, and the chord brain, that are themselves sequenceable, and again at different scales if you want. Which makes a huge amount of variation possible.
Multiple drum sound kits on a single track gives a huge amount of variety within one track for drums, it’s almost like track-lanes within tracks. Makes the small number of tracks seem a lot larger than it is.
the multi-sampling instrument means eventual expansion of very expressive sounds, not something you’d typically find on a groovebox like this.
The visualizations are pretty novel/interesting and not something you’ll find on other types of music devices.
Step components, a more supercharged version of the probability operations you find on other sequencers, some of them are operations on operations, which adds more possibility.
All of the above being able to be layered on top of one another without limitation, don’t have to pick and choose any of the above strategies.
I have two on order (don’t ask), feel like this will be a flagship platform for years like the OP-1. Disappointed it doesn’t have the OP-1 synths since, you know, it’s a synth, but looking forward to noodling for a decade. The tape workflow was not for me but I love the form factor and the stuff they’ve lifted from the EP-133. Don’t understand the negativity, they can charge what they need to keep their business sustainable, they don’t owe everybody everything.
I saw comments (not here) of people complaining about the EP-133 price. People moaning about the price of any hardware is just the reality with gear now. Seems to be more of a trend in the past 4 years.
I mean, this device definitely warrants a price discussion. But theres lots of things that seem to be reasonably priced but people still complain despite that there’s not really anything that can compete. The Moog Spectravox comes to mind. The only things that did something similar in hardware form either did less and cost less or did more and cost more. It’s price pretty fairly when you look at similar products and yet people complain.
I’ve had a turnaround thanks to Oora. His video on the OP-XY piqued my interest. I think he really made the instrument shine and did a great walk through. I know people have complained that he didn’t point out any negatives but, I didn’t really see the video as a critical review so that didn’t bother me. Besides, I was already coming at this with a highly critical lens.
After checking his video I then spent last night reading the manual and I’ve come away quite impressed. Yes, it is essentially an OP-Z at ~4x the RRP but it’s more than that. I never got along with the OP-Z even though I really wanted to. The OP-XY solves all the issues I had with the OP-Z from UI/UX and general build quality. I also think it sounds much, much better.
I actually got quite excited reading the manual and the potential the box holds. I never really gelled with the OP-1 even though I really appreciate the space it has carved. I’m more of a sequencer type guy and the OP-XY nails the sequencer.
This box will replace my M8, OXI and T-1. The combined value of those equates to the OP-XY and so I pulled the trigger.
Particularly exciting is the multi sampling, the simple yet deep scene and song mode, the groove templates and (surprisingly) the ability to do microtonal tuning per note. I also like how every instrument track can be a dedicated Midi sequencer (which is why it will replace my OXI and T-1).
I agree and also disagree Elektron has some functions the OPs can’t do Setting 3/5 values on a trig condition for instance. But on the other hand, on Elektron trig conditions is linked to parameter locks and on the OPs the are separated which means a lot more variety on the OPs. So while step components isn’t perfect, it is really freaking deep.
I have a hold pattern memorized for making 64 step sequences on 16 steps for instance.
Hold 8,4,31 (or 8,4,2,2) on every four steps creates a 4 bar loop within a 1 bar time frame. Then when you start stacking things like pulse and jump and track align, shit gets really wild.
So for people that claim that 1 lfo is not enough, the OP-Z and OP-XY are not sound design machines they are song composition machines and they are really fucking wild at doing that imo.
whoah - how does it replace the OXI? i guess you mean oxi one? OXI does a LOT! is the XY that powerful? or just that you don’t need all the OXI functions?
A friend asked me to preorder when it went live because he was on the road and then backed out, and the retailer wanted me to pay a restocking fee or some crap so I just said send them both and I’ll figure it out. Will sell for retail hopefullly, I foresee stock issues before Christmas, though one beta tester here said he’s had it since April so maybe they made a ton of them in advance like the KO II.
@MichaalHell I’m curious, there are time signature options for 3/4 , 5/4, 6/8 etc. Does this affect the number of steps that are played in the sequencer per bar? Eg: does 3/4 limit the number of steps to 12 (instead of 16)?
