Teenage Engineering OP-1 All-in-One Portable Synthesizer, Sampler and Controller

This is without doubt the most creative, fun and flexible instrument I've ever owned and an absolute delight to explore and play. It is so robust but portable, so effortless to explore and so, so wonderfully simple to generate interesting sounds, melodies and songs with. My biggest problem is not having enough time to just sit down and enjoy it regularly! The capabilities of this machine (particularly relative to its size) are pretty mind blowing and make it worth the money. Nothing is as portable and comprehensively featured as this. Although it has limitations, they can be used to focus your efforts on particular areas and really hone your craft, forcing you to work in particular fashion but developing ideas effortlessly and rapidly - something many DAWs lack. If you have done your research and think an OP1 might be of interest to you I would very strongly recommend saving up or taking the hit and plopping down the cash. It is a seriously fantastic bit of kit, enhanced by the recent (Nov 2016) update that adds a new synth, arpeggiator, presets and bug fixes. It may be several years old but it remains unique, powerful and highly sought-after. The OP1 will always hold a special place in my heart and my collection of instruments and gadgets. It is utterly unique but highly practical and useable. It is expensive but it is very powerful and hugely entertaining. For reference I also own a Novation Circuit, Volca Kick, Keystep, Korg Monotron Delay and plan on getting a Waldorf Blofeld and Elektron Octatrack very soon. I kept a very close eye on the Amazon price and bought it when it dropped pretty low. I would strongly recommend only buying from Amazon or proven reputable 3rd parties as I've heard of people being burned by dodgy sellers - likely scammers.

I had the OP-1 on my wishlist for half a decade or more. I done the full list of reviews & demo's & eventually I decided life was too short not to buy it. It has: 10 synths, 2 samplers, 6 sequencers, 7 effects box's, 2 drum machines, envelope control, 7 LFO's box's, 6 mins of easy recording in 4 track form, a 4 channel mixer with 3 band eq, instant sampling from mic/import/radio, OR... just lift/cut anything you write/record & dump/paste it into the sampler with one tap. It even has a virtual single, as in two sides ( A & B ) of a virtual recording, for storing a finished track or two, or maybe to bounce/re-record & dump into the samplers. The list goes on. There are some limitations, the main one to me is there is no editing after you've recorded (unless you resample). It's super creative, instant jam fun, very rich/punchy/quality/great sounds like all TE devices. It's well built & sturdy. The battery holds a charge well. The screen gets a lot of prop's, and deserved in my opinion. Having the visual reference helps to gel with the creative flow, lovely colors, animated responses to tweaking parameters & realtime changes.. The small keyboard also has been well designed & feels good, not velocity-sensitive, no soft/hard touch, but for what it is, your fingers easily find the key you need, I have fairly fat fingers & fumbling seems kept to a minimum. I'm only scratching the surface three months in, every aspect & function is in-depth if you want it to be... an amazing bit of kit So... should! Recommended.

I really love the teenage engineering device it’s really fun to make new sounds on my main issue is trying to repair the device is impossible i’ve tried to contact teenage engineering and there’s been no support from them the screen on my device was damaged and if it was possible, I would easily have paid a cost to have the screen repaired but it’s not that easy teenage engineering. Don’t even want to touch the device. My only hope now is to contact Amazon again really fun but I have to give a bad review as I can no longer use the device and the support from the company is terrible. My suggestion if you buy this device is to never let it leave your desk even though it’s portable, if it breaks, you have to spend your money again to get a new one

Fantastic little keyboard with DAW capabilities & 4-Track recording capability. Read all the professional reviews & watch all the YouTube vids. But take it from a non-musician, I love this device that is built to Apple Type standards & is so intuitive to learn, fiddle mash-up songs. If like me you love playing around with music creation, you will love this device. It's not cheap, but neither is an iPad & you can make your own sounds & song creation on this device & then share or tweak in Mac/PC DAW later if you wish. Better still as an engineer working away on my own a lot, it had opened up a world of conversation with interested people who want to find out what it is, this is great when we live in a world of people living in close proximity & isolation from each other, with everyone wrapped up it their own little virtual electronic world. The device not only makes music, it has revived the art of conversation about the device ;-) Happy Days.........

There is something so cute about this thing. I love it. what can i say other than its the most fun thing to mess about with creating sounds - i love making backing tracks for my guitar playing, and there are so many uses for it - its expensive - its niche, its not hard to work out though, Its not as pick up and play like the novation circuit is - (which is also amazing) but with the circuit its the best sketch pad for writing music, both are different and the op- is much more in depth , horses for courses but i suggest both over any other product out there - ie the korgs.

This is a fun piece of kit and at £749 I’d say it was worth it. However at the new highter price, with lack of software updates and any hardware upgrades id be looking more towards a digitakt by electron or something from a company that get back to you should you have any questions or need support. Yes it looks cute and it makes a wide range of sounds, it’s fun to use and it’s portable but paying over £1k for this, I wouldn’t take it out the house. 4 tracks is slightly limiting and you find yourself messing around constantly trying to add more sounds somehow. I’d say it’s more for getting ideas down and making fast loops. The worst thing about it is the internal speaker, it sounds like it’s made from tin foil and the highs make your ears itch, it’s nasty.

Fantastic product! Bought whilst slightly drunk on impulse but turned out to be an incredible synthesiser. Expensive product for its size but it is extremely well made and unbelievably portable.

This is the best music-producing piece of kit I have and the results are nothing short of amazing. I really fought the idea of parting with so much cash for what seemed to be a toy, but I don't regret it at all! Just buy it.

El aparato esta Increíble, creatividad ilimitada y miles de sonidos y posibilidades para crear lo que se te ocurra. Super.

Over time composing, arranging and producing using a DAW has become something of a chore. The OP1 has breathed new life into my songwriting process. It costs nearly $1,000 because it is worth nearly $1,000. Is there ever price limit on creativity? Here are my favorite things about it: - Full end to end music production. Is it a synth, a step-sequencer, a 4-track or a production workstation? It's all of the above! There's very little competition in terms of anything else so complete yet portable at the same time (except for possibly an iPad). - Portability. I can compose and arrange from just about anywhere. So far: on the bus, on the subway, on a plane, in a doctor's waiting room and in a train station concourse. - The synth engines. They produce a great "low-fi" sound, if that is an aesthetic that you like. - Sampling / Line-In capabilities. If the synth engines aren't what you are looking for, you can sample or record from the line-in (or the onboard microphone, but I recommend the line-in option) - Versatility with external hardware/instruments. You can place the OP-1 just about anywhere in the music production cycle depending on your work flow. You can use this as a midi controller, or you can use it for its synth engines sent as an audio signal to an external DAW, or you can use it as your main work station, with external instruments recorded to the 4-track as line-ins for mixdown and mastering on the OP1. - The cow... Many reviews of the OP1 break its features down into individual "modules", and then compare those modules to other products. For example, its synth engines aren't on the level of other good soft synths on the market, its mixing capabilities aren't as good as a full DAW, etc. However, each of these criticisms misses the point of the OP1. It is deliberately designed to have relatively few bells and whistles to get your creative juices flowing and make music, all while being able to fit in your pants pocket! I'm barely scratching the surface of what the OP1 is capable of, and I could go on for several more paragraphs, but I'll end by saying that I have never purchased an instrument that has brought quite as much joy as this one. **** EDIT (September 2018) 6 months after writing this review, I am still having so much fun with my OP1, and its capabilities continue to amaze me. Here are some "hidden" features that allow you to keep as much production / mixing on the OP1 as possible without "giving up" and finishing the tracks on a DAW: - You can use the built-in gyroscope to "wobble" the pitch of the note (similar to a Roli seaboard)- because "wobbling" the note causes the whole OP1 unit to physically move! - You can achieve sidechain compression using an external drum beat as the sidechain signal through the line input - If you pan one tape track all the way L, and another tape track all the way R, by recording identical parts into each and altering the relative volumes between L and R, you can place an instrument anywhere you like within the stereo field. I'm pretty sure i'll discover even more "hidden" features as i continue to use my OP1. *** EDIT (November 2018) I can see a lot of price gouging on Amazon. DO NOT BUY THIS UNIT FOR MORE THAN 900 BUCKS. Wait and they'll come back in stock. P.s. I'm still having **so** much fun with the OP-1. As I write this, the OP-Z has been released, and many people on social media are (1) complaining about the OP-Z's battery life (3 hrs max at the moment) and (2) regretting not buying an OP-1 instead. *** EDIT (December 2018) I take back the disparaging things i said about the OP-Z. I own one now, and it's a joy to play. If anyone is considering the OP-Z instead of the OP-1, i now have the knowledge to distinguish them here (in case you are interested): - The OP-Z is a sequencer, not a 4-track tape recorder. It has fewer synth engines and tweakable synth parameters than the OP-1. - The OP-Z does contain 8 tracks, and many people think this is "better" than the OP-1. However, the truth is that 4 of those tracks are separate percussive elements (kick, snare, cymbal and sfx), 1 of those tracks is a monophonic bass, 1 is a chord track with 4-note polyphony per step, 1 is a lead track with 3-note polyphony per step, and the last one is an "arpeggiator" track, which is highly annoying and a bit useless. With the OP-1, you can layer an infinite amount of polyphony onto any track you desire, the OP-Z is definitely much more limited in what you can do (even though it has more "tracks" on the surface) - The OP-Z is definitely a lot more portable than the OP-1. Don't get me wrong-- the OP-1 is highly portable, but the OP-Z just blows it out of the water with how tiny it is - The OP-Z does not contain a sampler, or a line-in, limiting its role as a "full production work station". - The OP-Z does not allow you to export the finished songs as a .wav file. In conclusion -- if you're looking for an all-in-one portable workstation, the OP-1 is your best bet. Furthermore, I believe that the OP-1 will hold up far better over time as a unique instrument. The OP-Z is great, but it's a portable groove box that you're unlikely to actually finish a track on. *** EDIT (September 2019) The OP-Z now has line-in and microphone sampling capabilities in the latest firmware. *** EDIT (February 2020) Teenage Engineering appears to be committed to updating the firmware for the OP-1, which is great for a decade-old product. The latest firmware allows the user to further slice up the tape track into half-measures, quarter-measures and even finer slices, making it easier to execute the sequencer in smaller increments to keep your tracks tight. In addition, in an earlier post i advised potential buyers not to spend more than $900 on an OP-1. However, this is now outdated advice, as the price of new first-hand OP-1 units has increased to $1,300 (presumably due to production costs going up as a result of now-obsolete parts being replaced.) So, would I have spent $1,300 dollars 2 years ago for an OP-1, without the knowledge and experience of the unit that I now have? Perhaps not. But with the benefit of hindsight, I would spend another $1,300 on an OP-1 in a heartbeat if for any reason my unit breaks. With that in mind, please please protect your OP-1 if you have one already. I'd get a decksaver and an official OP-1 case, and use both at all times when not using the unit. In addition, if you are comfortable with electronics, buy replacement parts on iFixit- you never know when you might need them!

Lo que más me ha gustado es que tiene muchas funciones en poco tamaño.Es muy compacto y tiene un chasis metálico muy robusto.Lo que menos es que es un poco caro.

Zugegeben war ich anfangs ein wenig entsetzt: -keine "richtige" Klaviatur -keine Anleitung dabei -die wichtigsten Tasten/Knöpfe waren mit einer aufgelegten Folie beschrieben -die Anzeigen im Display erinnern etwas an die 1. Gameboyvariante -es lagen doch tatsächlich 2 Gummibänder dabei,mit denen man das Styroporcase zumachen kann ...und das alles für schlappe unter 1000 Euro! Jetzt das große ABER: Das Ding ist absolut wertig verarbeitet,klein und für den kreativen Kopf von unschätzbarem Wert! Es macht unheimlich Spaß,immer wieder neue Funktionen zu entdecken und hat man sich erstmal ein wenig in Sampler&Co eingearbeitet sprudelt es eigentlich nur so von Ideen und "was-passiert-wenn-ich-hier drücke"-Ereignissen und man kann sich kaum mehr von der Kiste lösen.Man ist dauernd am Experimentieren und aus dem ganzen vermeintlichen Chaos kommen später die wahnsinnigsten Sachen zustande!Als Tip sei hier auf die vielen Videoportale hingewiesen. Fazit:Wer ein Jukeboxmusiker ist und nur nach Noten spielt,wird hiermit wohl nicht glücklich.Wer jedoch selber vorzugsweise elektronische Musik macht und evtl. seinen Gerätepark etwas erweitern und aufhübschen möchte,ist hier goldrichtig!

A distanza di 10 anni dalla sua uscita è ancora un prodotto incredibilmente completo... vale assolutamente ogni euro speso e il divertimento è assicurato