Teenage Engineering OP-Z

OP-1 has been really hard to find for about a year now. Retailers are constantly sold out and used ones pop up fairly rarely. Also they’re sturdy and the battery doesn’t seem to degrade much.

Well, its digital with the same audio spec as Digitakt, OT, so it sounds exactly the same as the electron boxed with samples (I have the dark trinity for comparison). The FM engine in the Digitone (which I also have) is far better FM synth any of the individual synths in the OP-Z, but its still digital and the sound of the OP-Z synths are comparable (not as editable) but there are half a dozen of them (not just FM) with more to come. You relay need to hear an OP-Z in the studio through a good amp/speakers…its very capable…

Obviusly sound quality is subjective, the OT isn’t a great sampler by todays standards (I can sample 24/96K with my PC/DAW) but I like the sound and workflow, same with the OP-Z; for me it is the best value/fun/functionality/sound to cost ratio of any music toy I have ever had (and trust me, I have had/have most of them including all the electron gear other than the Digitakt ;-))

If it was any bigger it would not fit in your inside pocket, I like that I can do that. The OP-1 was way to be big to be ‘pocket sized’ and ended up not coming with me on lots of occasions.

In the studio/home you have full midi cc over everything so its realy easy to use a master keyboard just like any other module

1 Like

Loving this thing. Once you start digging into spark triggers/components and the tape track, it becomes apparent how incredible this sequencer is. Mute groups are great. You can save your pattern chains! And the pattern switching is like direct jump in Elektron terms. Just dumped some old jungle breaks into it last night and started messing around with components and tape. So much fun.

4 Likes

Anyone worked out how to Unchain /Edit Chained Patterns? seems you can save a chain and if you don’t save and turn off power the chain is gone; but I cant seem to find away to delete the chain without power off which doesn’t seem very elegant, (there also seems to be the possibility if you can store chains of having up to 16 versions/variations of a song in a project!

Storing Chains (from OIP-Z Reddit forum)

1: Hold pattern and dial in the sequence
2: While still holding pattern, hold down a white keyboard key. The sequencer LEDs will light up sequentially, when it reaches the end, your pattern chain is stored in that white key

If any OP-Z Beta testers are reading this, please bring the idea of scene mode (borrowing from Elektron’s book) to the developers.

also…
+Better LFOs and more LFO destinations
+more FX modes - customizable max/msp integration?
+envelope section for triggering EGs - these could control different parameters
and of course sampling, eventually.

Also drives me insane that the delay timing has to snap to the grid, that you can use the knob to control it.

Overall I think it sounds great for what it is. I’ve been running it side by side with my Rytm and it’s just as easy to dial in a fat sound. Work flow is faster (naturally there are less parameters). I think Rytm will always be drum machine king, but this thing is really powerful in its own ways. The playability is super fun.

hmmm

I can record chains, save chains (to 16 slots) and come out of chain mode (just select any pattern manually and it drops out of chain mode)

I just can’t delete chains (you just have to overwrite them I think!)

Anyone in Canada received their unit yet? I am still waiting and have given up on bugging the moog toronto people about it.

I am optimistic they will allow chains to be deleted in the future, until then I just oversave, no biggy.

it realy looks like in the app it should be editable as you have the title ‘song’ with 32 boxes with the pattern numbers in…but the app realy is just a screen when it comes to pattern chaining and editing!

can you sample with this?

Not yet - you can only currently import samples in to it.

About 1/4 of the inside of the OP-Z is empty for an ‘add on module’ (hard to believe as its so small!) and there is a rumour that one of these modules will be a sample module with line in etc.

What surprises me is that there doesn’t appear to be a way to sample with, or manage samples using the companion app.

See https://teenageengineering.com/guides/op-z/disk-modes - 20.3 - use the OP-1 drum utility to create packs on your computer, which can then be transferred to the OP-Z using the companion app.

2 Likes

From what I understand, the only purpose of the app is to serve as a visual display. It practically does nothing else.

I thought you could transfer synth sounds from app to opz? Positive Cuckoo demonstrated that. So it could store more presets than the unit itself can handle

If you could post the exact timestamp in Cuckoo’s video where you saw that, I would be happy to take a look.

I can only go by what is posted on TE’s website, the app store description, and what has been reported by OP-Z beta testers.

Watch from 1:22:00 onwards. It could be that the stuff already is on opz and youre loading it in. If that’s the case then that’s another disappointment for me.

Edit - watched it all again and Def sending packs over Bluetooth as I thought

1 Like

You can transfer synth packs and drum packs from the app to the OP-Z. That’s one of its features. I know because I’ve done it :slight_smile:

Additionally it provides 3D graphics, and a multitouch mixer.

4 Likes

Thanks, tengig

1 Like