Teenage Engineering OP-1 Portable Synthesizer Discussions | Drop

Teenage Engineering OP-1 Portable Synthesizer

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Jan 19, 2015

Sorry to be a party pooper but what's so good about this? Seems overpriced. Does Miley Cyrus use one or how did they get so much publicity?

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Ptomerty

Jan 19, 2015

zoomorphSwedish House Mafia - One (Your Name)

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Jan 19, 2015

PtomertySo that's why it's popular? Lol. Using presets on a digital synthesizer is a step below VSTs. I'll be surprised if mass droppers really jump on this. It's analogous to taking Monster Beatz over Sennheisers.

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PASSDROM

118

Jan 19, 2015

zoomorphNot quite a fair analogy. The OP-1 offers plenty of features over simple VSTs, in a small, smartly-designed package. You don't get physical controls in a laptop with VSTs, and you end up packing around much more gear if you do.
The video here is a good example of some random stuff it does: http://www.theverge.com/2012/8/28/3270259/teenage-engineering-op-1-accessories-launch-profile

Jan 20, 2015

PASSDROMIt's a perfect analogy. Real producers of electronic music wouldn't use stuff like this (minus those crappy pop producers who probably got paid to do it as advertisement); it is, literally, designed and marketed for teenagers/amateurs who want to look cool playing with their sleek-looking, expensive baby toy and creating junk based on a bunch of presets. It runs counter to the spirit of electronic music, which is that the sounds are limitless but you have to know how to connect a few wires to make anything decent -- it's a hacker's hobby, not a baby's. Starting with some analog synths is probably best; that way you'll get a deeper appreciation for all the great stuff created before the 2000s, and later you can build on them. If you want to go the pure-digital route, there are many non-simple VSTs by now, or you can even create your own so that you have full control over what you're doing. Of course laptops don't have the same physical controls... until you plug some in. Yes, the Teenage Engineering OP-1 does a lot of random stuff, but it would be better if it did 1 thing well instead of 10 things poorly.

kisielk

Jan 20, 2015

zoomorphSeriously? A lot of "real producers" use the OP-1.

PASSDROM

118

Jan 20, 2015

zoomorphHey, I like analogue synths and spending time exploring to get certain sounds. But not everyone does. Some people would like a straightforward tool to get down to making music, where you have a multi-track recorder, keyboard, synth engine, effects banks, physical controls, etc. all integrated with one another with no fuss or muss. You or I are willing to put the effort into setting up a DAW, VSTs, control surfaces, patching everything together and finding a system that works. But don't dismiss someone by calling them a baby because they don't want to go through that hassle.
The OP-1 prioritises design, sure, but more importantly it prioritises a good user experience. Everything just seems to work at the touch of a button. Simplicity in user interfaces is a fantastic feature, and valuable to people (see: Nest thermostat).
It's not just style at the expense of an inferior product, which your analogy implies.
Just a piece of friendly advice: your arguments will carry more weight if you tone down the ad hominem and other poor rhetoric (https://yourlogicalfallacyis.com/no-true-scotsman).

Jan 20, 2015

kisielkLol. None that I would listen to.

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Jan 20, 2015

PASSDROM> Hey, I like analogue synths and spending time exploring to get certain sounds. But not everyone does. Some people would like a straightforward tool to get down to making music....
We are in agreement then. Most people love easy tools instead of taking hobbies seriously and spending the time to become proficient and develop expertise before gracing the world with their "productions". Instragram is full of such people with their cell-phone "photography". Soundcloud and bandcamp are full of "music producers" who barely know an ounce about electronic music. There are probably even "painters" who only use Toys-R-Us painting kits, "software developers" who only know Javascript, "mechanics' who don't know how an engine works, and so on. Our society actually encourages people to produce crap so that they'll feel important about themselves. Whatever we do, we never want to insult someone or hurt their feelings by telling them that they suck and forcing them to try harder and to develop more skill. What we now have is a shortage of experts, and of people who are interested in becoming experts, and an overabundance of idiots who just want to "get down to making music" before they even bother to learn what music is, what its history is, become proficient with the tools, and think of how they can bring something of value to the world.
I'm sure that some people on massdrop are interested in becoming experts. I'm sure there are also some who will happily buy the Teenage Engineering OP-1 for their 12 year old daughter's birthday, and some who legitimately know nothing about electronic music themselves and think that they're going to create something to rival their favorite pop band's masterwork using this tool. There are many types of people in this world, not all will agree with us, and we simply can't care about filtering what we say so as not to offend anyone. If we do, we risk continuing to water down our society until we really are all just a bunch of babies.

PASSDROM

118

Jan 21, 2015

zoomorphThe only thing we can agree on at this point is that you have some opinions about what makes people "serious" about their endeavours, and that liking certain tools invalidates their seriousness. Which is fine, everyone's entitled to their opinions, and everyone should feel free to express their opinions. You don't see the appeal of the OP-1 and that's fine too. That doesn't mean that people who do see the appeal are any less serious about music than you are. You may think so, but that doesn't make it so.
And I wasn't giving you that advice to stem any potential offence - it's so that your meaning doesn't have to fight through bad rhetoric. Don't your opinions deserve the best delivery they can get?

Meowbarkhiss

Jan 21, 2015

zoomorphYour attitude reeks of youth and inexperience. I'm not sure why you've decided to be the anti-spokesperson for the OP-1 - I think the best course of action for you to satiate your false ideology is to just not buy one of these. And leave people alone and let them do what they want. Take your discussion to another forum.

kisielk

Jan 21, 2015

Meowbarkhissto be fair, if you look at his posting history, he's an anti-spokesperson for a lot of things on this site.

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cakemind

Jan 21, 2015

kisielkSad, but true.

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Lalabadie

Jan 21, 2015

zoomorphThe OP-1 has proven its worth as both a studio instrument and a live synthesizer, and while it is very clear in its design and interface, it's a fairly hard tool to master.
I don't understand your repeated arguments about "cheap" tools, while the discussion is around a thousand-dollar synth.

MKnight-Shamalam

Jan 23, 2015

zoomorphI pretty much agree with all your main points Zoo, but some of us also look at it as one of many tools available to us for any given situation (dat Swiss Army knife)... main thing i mean is, there IS a time and place and a use for this as it stands.... the price itself is not great to me, but i have a few hundred uses for it i'm sure, so a few hundred bucks is ok to me...
I'll be using this more as a quick "I need to nail this melody down" or a "wow wikkid sound i just heard out on the street, i wonder....." kind of tool.... for this, i like that it is small...
Anyway, just thought i'd give you another perspective on it, i'm probably somewhere in the middle of all the examples of "audio folk" you say above..... i've written (if i can call it that) a bit over a thousand tracks over about 18 years or so now.... lost them all recently to my archive drive failure....
not one of them has ever been heard by anyone other than friends and family.... some of us don't like to make music for anyone but ourselves ;)
Take it easy ;)
-edit- and YES, I am most certainly IN on this ;)

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