Teenage Engineering OP-1 – You Already Want This
Just looking at Teenage Engineering’s new “Portable Wonder,” the OP-1 is enough to make you want it… and then you find out what it can do…
The OP-1 (Operator 1) is a synth/controller/recorder/sequencer and everything else wonderful smashed into one. Seriously though… I think they even have some unicorns, rainbows and cheeseburgers in there.
In standalone mode, it functions as a synthesizer with 8 models, 8 samplers, effects like delay, flutter, eq, and more; plus a step sequencer and arpegiator to boot. It also has a built in microphone and audio recorder so that you can sample things on the fly, including grabbing content from the FM radio reciever, which is also built in (kind of weird, but why not?). Lastly, in a stroke of brilliance, they’ve built in motion sensing control for audio manipulation.
After creating a track you can either play it back on the built in speaker, or export it to MP3 right on the device. Yes, all of that is in stand-alone mode.
As a controller, it offers a keyboard, four control knobs, transport control, and 16 quick-keys for mapping to your DAW.
As far as I/O, the OP-1 possesses mini-jack ins and outs for audio, and USB 2.0 for interfacing with your computer.
The OLED display is absolutely beautiful too. You can get some glimpses at it in this video, as well as some basic audio candy.
Though Teenage Engineering hasn’t yet set a price, they’ve listed 10-12 months as the estimated time until completion.
You can check out more about the OP-1 at the Teenage Engineering site.
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2 Responses to “Teenage Engineering OP-1 – You Already Want This”
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wow.
Even as just a controller, seems a lot more flexible than the nanos or other compact controllers.
Any word on how big it's going to be?
I'm thinking it can't be quite as small as the Korgs but pretty close?
I would guess that it's about the width of a laptop, so similar to the nanokeys. I could be way off though. I'm just speculating as to what size would make the most sense.