Teenage Engineering OP-Z

Have you tried individual track lengths yet? Change the master lenght, p lock transposition and suddenly you‘re in full song land. I hope the master track will get step components, too. Bit of a downer they can only be used on audio tracks atm.

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Not tried it in a big way yet but I did do a little pattern that must’ve been 6/4 (I think…) so some tracks were rolling at 12 steps while the percussion side was still on 16. Once I get steak pie at the parents for New Years Day dinner out the way I’m going to spend some time with it tonight so will give it a bash!

And yeah, know what you mean on the master track. Could have some very cool tricks using step components on that one. Im guessing this is the sort of stuff that may come down the line tough as things stand it is still heaps of fun.

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Mmmmm Steak Pie/OP-Z combo got me drooling…

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How do you plan to use the OT and the OP-Z together?

:joy:

Heavenly combo!

@banjarian: I’m not sure yet. I might not even use them together. Clutter and wires stress me out a bit though so tidying up will at the very least help keep my head in the right space!

In the absence of the OP1 tape then the OT could fill a gap or I could use the transition technique to bridge some patterns and things. Or even just as sample fodder to expanded the track count.

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Haha that is exactly the thought that came into my head. For now I am happy with solo zed :smile:

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What, pray tell, is this MIDI dongle you mentioned?

I love the step components in this, it seems like you could write a whole song with a few trigs on each track and step components. Hoping I can sync it up to my Digitakt either via USB or bluetooth midi (via MacBook) and let the Op-Z go a bit crazy/off beat while the digitakt runs the drums/ambience.

The unit itself is amazing but it does all seem a little… unfinished, in terms of everything that goes with it. Like the manual is very vague about some things, I had to watch the cuckoo videos to understand step components. I also dug into the visuals side of things and the documentation is very minimalist.

Also noticed the reverb and some other things at random seem to make tracks cut out completely, or possibly triggers some kind of heavy compression. Probably I am just doing something stupid. The reverb just seems weird to me.

Questions - why is P2 for a lot or all of the effects cutoff, when the third and fourth encoders are the filter? Does each effect have two filters?

Is it possible to make a decent variety of synth sounds with it? I’m a bit worried there aren’t quite enough possibilities.

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As far as I know the first module to be released for the opz will be a conventional 5 pin midi expander so the opz can function as a sequencer for other gear. I haven’t don’t a lot of my homework on this so I’m not sure of the specifics, but this is what I am assuming anyway

I have noticed the weird compression occurring as well and chalk it up to me not really knowing how to mix down on the unit properly yet. You can get some really nice pumping with the drive and I’m pretty impressed with how gelled together patterns can feel, but a lot of things feel very imprecise in terms of working with the encoders. Especially in comparison to how fine and granular elektron devices tend to be.

In terms of the synths I think in all honesty one can bang out a lot of compositions with the device before one could justifiably say they’ve exhausted the sonic palette available.

What’s frustrating me at te moment is because the manual is not available as one complete .pdf it’s rather hard to keyword search functions you’re trying to accomplish as the document is broken into different webpages. As well having a screen to read the manual and a screen for the app display does add a lot of clutter. The app will be essential for me for a very long time before I can know what the hells going on with all these glyphs and blinking lights.

Thanks, but it can sequence other gear now right? Cuckoo did a video of it sequencing the iPad.

The adapter would mean you would not need a MIDI host a la Kenton USB MIDI host?

I agree that the manual is not very accessible. I find the lack of capitalization especially disturbing.

Heres some noodles I did over the first few days of the OPZ. The core patterns aren’t that bad but when I start faffing about with the punch in FX it all goes a little tits up (especially with the second pattern!). And don’t start on the timing of the 3rd pattern… haha

Anyway, despite all the shit, the point I’d like to make is the actual sound quality which is pretty solid throughout despite my best attemptes my best attempts to ruin things! Recorded straight into Ableton. Only part of the 4th one is a little ropey. Not sure what I’ve done/nudged but it’s almost like I’ve turned everything up too loud and the unit is compensating (if that makes sense).

So not my finest moments, just tooling around and thought Id share as further examples of what this thing can do even in largely clueless hands.

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Made a little something with a video synth and the Z, straight to VHS. This thing is so much fun!

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The sound qualities really good, and some lovely sounding stuff you did there J0n35y, that’s me sold, going to get one for my birthday this month :slight_smile: Sounds great :+1:

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Thanks Davy though you’re being far too kind! Listening back is a little cringey but then I wasn’t aiming for “finished”, more “quick and nasty”. Some nice ideas in there though.

Thoroughly recommend getting one though. There is a huge list of stuff I haven’t or have barely touched like:

Step components
Creating my own drum/synth packs
A whole raft of parameter playing on the various drum/synth tracks
LFO in depth
Tape
FX sequencing
Not even used it with a screen yet!
Video/light sequencing (doubt I’ll go there mind you)
Probably another half dozen or so things I haven’t thought of

Considering I got mine for about £450 with the recent 15% off Ebay code I’ve got to say it’s been a really fantastic purchase.

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A little something I threw together for Jamuary and bounced straight from the OP-Z. Too bad, there’s the 10sec limit, but I’m traveling and don’t have an audio interface with me.

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Ah so thats what “bounce” does! Seems a bit odd of limited to 10 seconds though!

Still to travel with mine. Working from home this week. Waiting on an adapter to arrive that should hopefully mean my Xkey will work plugged straight into the OPZ.

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USB C to USB A adapter arrived and pleased to report my XKey works fine directly plugged in to the OP-Z. That makes for an even more fantastic travel combo. 3 octaves of pretty much full size keys working off the OP-Z = winner!

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What video Synth? LZX modules or a 3 trins?