Teenage Engineering OP-Z

Solely from its music making capabilities, I’m not impressed. But it’s design looks more comfortably portable than the OP-1. No knobs or screen that can break. This thing can easily be carried around in an inside coat pocket, and that element alone seems brilliant. Might make a great midi controller for an iPad? Working with a nanokey studio currently. This thing looks much more convenient

2 Likes

You mean the UI or the sound engine? As it sounds really clean to my ears. I think the expressive automated control of effects will animate the sound a fair bit.

Hopefully it can store multiple sounds / kits or what not? Obviously this little beast won’t appeal to everyone. I wasn’t sold on the POs only kept the PO-12 for fun jams but this is machina looks to be on another level completely.

1 Like

The UI. The sound engine is alright, good enough for a decent jam anywhere. But the sound engine I’ve heard from this thing is the least cool thing about this Z

1 Like

A bit vanilla you reckon?

It just appears slightly more than selecting presets, and that’s kinda a turnoff for me as sound design is my biggest enjoyment of music making > making music :smiley:
Granted, most people like making music more than sound design so I think they’re going to hit their demographic.

EDIT: I just loved this thing once Cuckoo sequenced the tape at minute 50

I DO like some of the sounds Cuckoo made from it, though.

3 Likes

Yeah Tape is a bending and shaping insanity tool.

i have no IOS Device and the Step Sequencer has only 16 Steps. Substeps are cool, but i cant play live, so thats not for me! Im still interested in this one - if its under 300 $ of course! OP-1 was always way too expensive for me. Maybe this thing can change that?!

1 Like

I want to learn more about the device but I can never take more than 30 seconds of cuckoo

Yeh I have a similar feeling like the op-z just isn’t aimed at me. Great portability but the sound design isn’t very deep and when keys/buttons are that small and rotaries are flat I reluctantly begin to wonder if I’d enjoy using an ipad equally/more. I normally hate it when people throw in the ‘just use an ipad/laptop’ thing. But for this kind of portable functionality I think I’d prob get more enjoyment out of the Korg Gadget UI from what I’ve seen of that. Tho I’m not really tempted enough to grab that either.

Tho for people wanting to use the visuals side of it too, seems like a no-brainer. Hope it does well either way. Bring on OP-2!

Yo! Yeah it’s exciting times! The current prototype build has got stiff hard plastic clickable buttons. They will be easier to click in the final version.

2 Likes

Ha ha, sorry. Here’s 2 more seconds in text format.

20 Likes

I think, once the features are set, the hardware and software is working, the specifications are 100% locked, that’s when we’ll see the sound content and engines build up towards the release. All I had was like a handful of sound engines to work with. Some seemingly migrated from the OP-1, some new. I’m Looking forward to more content too!

4 Likes

sorry bro too meandering lol

I just picked up an op1 yesterday, its a work of art. I’m recently obsessed with portable all in 1, think I’m in love :slight_smile:
id really love for elektron to make a portable all in 1 groovebox.
the op1 built in Fm radio is a stroke of genius. totally opens it up to limitless original source samples. amazin.
opz looks a little small, n the Calc’s too for my liking, but I love TE’s innovation.

4 Likes

@pidgeo nice. OP-1 was my gateway back into hardware based music production after a few decades away from it. Such a unique and amazing piece of hardware.

I will pass it on to my children, so so good!!!

4 Likes

yep it’s now my go to creative Centre. never selling it :slight_smile:
so good

Thanks a lot cuckoo for making this. TE are really showing how it’s done here. I’ll get an OP-Z for sure.

3 Likes

What are the strong points of OP-Z in your opinion? I used to have OP-1 and it was fun for a while, but I haven’t fully understood OP-Z yet, even after browsing through that video. Is there any reason why it wouldn’t work just as well as a standalone iOS app for a lot less money?

a great video and the sequencer has some cool tricks up its sleeve. Are there any more connectors on this device? You only showed a small audio out, but does it also have midi In/out? bluetooth? usb? a power connector ? does it run on batteries or is there an internal power bank?

ok i got it myself, here are the specs:


https://teenage.engineering/products/op-z_preview

pretty nead, I wonder what is it about this big red rotary knob…

they say the power last for 20 hours (two return flights over the atlantic), will launch in september (if everything goes well)

I dont expect this to be cheap, 500 Euros is my guess,

2 Likes