Teenage Engineering OP-Z

Yes dude, this is awesome. I love my digitone and I’m looking to add OP-Z in the not too distant future. I’m curious about your routing here. Is it OP-Z into Digitone? Do you have anything else in between the synths and your recording? Any post-processing? The way you get everything to sit so clearly is outstanding. Cheers!

Edit: just read the description on youtube, that answers some of my questions!

Thanks!

No post-processing, apart from a light master. OP-Z audio going into Digitone’s inputs, but not running through any effects (though, it made me want an overdrive for the inputs on the DN like on the synth tracks! I can do it on the Z but it’s not quite the same). OP-Z has the “punch” on maximum, and I think there’s a bit of drive on the master page as well, so the chord track is kinda sidechained by the percussion.

It was a fun jam, and I’m definitely gonna make more tracks using the two together.

1 Like

love it

1 Like

First 2 sketches I’ve made on the OP-Z using custom samples on all tracks which I hope you’ll enjoy.

14 Likes

Lovely tracks, and great use of visuals too. Were you using any synth engines or just samples?

1 Like

Thanks a lot! I mostly end up using (OP-1) samples instead of the synths. The track Munchers is 100% samples. The litttle background baseline on ‘Visions’ starting @1:42 is a OP-Z synth engine :wink:

1 Like

This is great, they sound really good together. Which USB-C->B cable did you use? I want one for my digitakt+Op-Z but I’m scared of buying any old cable off amazon since bad USB-C cables can blow things up.

Is the Z sequencing the digitone at all or just sending clock? The digitakt sequencer is great but I love the sequencer on the Z so so much.

Did somebody test the OP-Z with wireless bluetooth headphones? Is the latency/sound quality ok/usable?

Is not possible IIRC, only Midi over bluetooth.

Edit: An extra external bluetooth adaptor on the audio out could make it work of course.

dreaming of bluetooth audio update, me TE OD-11 speaker got one from the blue after 3 years!

Hi, there. Since the OP-Z is also advertised as a synthesizer, how really are the synth engines? Forget for a moment the possible(almost certain) future updates. Are they enough tweakable? Because i’d be also interested in obtaining original sounds(don’t even care for the presets) over the sequencing capabilities of this thing. Also worried about the limited space for user samples. 24mb really?
Thanks.

In many ways the synth engines are limited but in others they really work quite nicely. I’m a few weeks in to the OP-Z and still not bored of them. I still haven’t touched the screen to potentially delve a little deeper into the limited synth options though. But, there is a handy random function that I think opens up the synth engines quite nicely for random settings you wouldnt necessarily reach when thinking about it.

I havent even touched user samples yet either actually so cant comment much here haha. It’s designed for the sort of short and snappy sample chains the OP-1 used. I happened across the link @pselodux shared over the weekend and it’s a great example of the sort of things you can do. The Machinedrum pack looks very tempting indeed (check out the youtube video).

So yes, there are limits. No denying that. But when you have step components and that lovely sequencer it feels there is some serious mileage before you would get bored or find things stale. And that’s before considering that things will develop over the coming months for sure.

Edit: Here’s the soundpack video that will give you some ideas of sample pack use.

2 Likes

Interesting this is about the first time I thought “wow” when hearing the Digitone. Hasn’t been a box that has tickled my fancy to be honest but I really enjoyed that.

I can imagine a DT/DN/OPZ set up being a load of fun too. Should really get the finger out and get my OT set up again…

Thanks! I guess for the cable, just avoid the super cheap ones. I’m not sure if the one I bought is available worldwide; I’m in Australia, and I basically went into Jaycar (Australian electronics chain) and bought the one they have in stock which I think may be a Jaycar-specific brand?

As for the MIDI part, yeah it’s just sending clock/transport, but the other way around—Digitone is the clock source. I haven’t tried sequencing one with the other yet, but maybe I’ll try it in a future video.

On the surface, they’re very limited. If you want a deep synthesis engine, it’s probably not for you. But once you start using the LFO, effects, tape track etc, it really opens up into something interesting. I think the key is to use the elements in slightly unorthodox ways. It’s definitely possible to get very weird, unique sounds out of it if you know how to push it, and that’s the kind of workflow I love.

Yeah, honestly this is a bit of a letdown for me. Currently it’s not possible to fill all of the drum tracks with 12-second long kits, which is a shame. It’s making me think about creating more compact, “efficient” kits just so all slots can be filled with custom sounds.

@J0n35y thanks for the nice words, and for sharing my video :smiley: The combination is a lot of fun, and would be very dynamic with a DT added as well. I’ve yet to try it with my OT, but that could be interesting as well!

1 Like

@J0n35y and @pselodux thanks for the answers. Anyway, yeah i meant “all considered”, so plus effects and stuff. At the end as long as you can get unique sounds, it does no difference to me if some options are missing. I know this gear is meant for sketch ideas and the portability is a huge factor, but if you come up with something good, why not use it? I was worried because, take the PO… yeah fun but nothing really usable and since it’s sample based you can’t go much further from that.
In every piece of gear/vst if you mess around, in theory you have endless possibilities.

Also i was wondering if 32 mb is a software limit and can be increased in the future. I don’t think it’s even convenient for them to mount a memory this size. If they exist anymore… i thought the min was 512mb nowadays.

1 Like

Ha, maybe it has a hidden +drive that will be revealed in a future (likely paid) upgrade :stuck_out_tongue:

Yeah, this is my philosophy. Nothing I own is for sketching, unless I’m outlining a guitar part in Renoise that I’ll learn to play later, but that’s a different story altogether.

1 Like

Amazingly beautiful tracks, it seems as though samples are being played chromatically at times but I didn’t think it could do that

1 Like

Oh yes, little soundmodule it is. You can also fingerdrum a beat if you put a personal kit in the same track slot.

Thanks a lot! Oh yes you can play the synth samples chromatically and you can also create an instrument using the drum tracks by using 24 single note samples and place them in chromatic order :wink:

Also the 2 voice poly on the 4 drum tracks and 1 to 4 voice poly on the synth tracks is brilliant… Wish Elektron would do some sort of poly sampler.

Here are 3 more sketches for the ones interested.

13 Likes

Like these @rephazer! Well done :thup:

1 Like