Here is a longer form video on the updates to the OP-1 Field over the original OP-1 I filmed this rather late at night, so apologies for any meandering whilst explaining things (I'm not a Synthfluencer)
UPDATES: - The key switches are Scissor not Butterfly (sorry I got them mixed up) - Installing the app “Field Kit” on my Mac (through the App Store) enables MTP mounting and when mounted it provides 6.43GB of storage. MTP also mounts instantly - I incorrectly called the Punch Effect “Nitro” - Renaming the patch to not be an empty name (during the part with the crash) does not fix the crash. Empty or not, the crash happens :( - The tapes still have a 90 second “lift” limit (which can be worked around by slicing your tape into 90 second increments and lifting them one at a time) - No helicopter game :( - No iter synth UPDATES V2 The latest 1.1.4 update makes a few changes, just thought I’d make note of this here: - The reverse loop bug on the tapes have been fixed - The preset crash has been "fixed" but it just hides the "snapshot" directory... - Brightness now goes up to 125% - Disk Mini has a new seek - The [Shift+T1] shortcut doesn't filter to user patches, it actually swaps out the synth engine whilst keeping the other [T2-T4] parameters the same. I was confused by the wording on the release notes UPDATES V3 TE have now enabled Velocity Sensitivity without an external controller. I won’t get into the technical details as to how this was achieved, but it’s there now
Thanks for the excellent overview, really enjoyed it and was helpful to learn about a few things. One minor point with the keys at the start, you said Butterfly, it's not a butterfly mechanism thank goodness, it's a scissor mechanism like the new and old MacBooks, not the flakey butterfly ones they made for a few years :)
Thank you so much for this comprehensive video. It answered all questions I might have had. Also thank you for being so honest about the built quality. The decentered encoders have been there on the OG (reissue) as well.
Main things the OG needed in order: 1. 8 tracks - epic fail, makes this a pass 4 me 2. multiple projects - check 3. longer sample time - fail its barely more, but using the tape at least means its not a deal breaker 4. naming stuff - check 5. USB C - check 6. Better sound quality - check To me it's not a buy. Certainly not at 2k. The velcro rings also cheapen it imo. But on the positive side it does address most things ppl wanted from the OG. The 4 track limitation is just bad though. I always hear ppl say the constraints make u more creative but I come from old 4 track tape portastudios & even as a 12 yr old I wanted 8 tracks. It means my current op1 is a scratch pad & I end up dumping its tape elsewhere to finish the job which is by far the most tedious & unenjoyable part of music. It's a deal breaker imo. Still ty for the detailed walkthrough. U did well & helped all curious OG owners know what they would get in detail & stuck to facts not personal bias or opinion. Brilliant job on ur end.
Thanks for the kind words Larry! They definitely resolved most of the things I wish the OG had, but the OP-1 was never something I used to finish a track from start to finish, now I think I'll get further with it (but I still bring things into a DAW for proper mixing and mastering). 8 tracks would have been nice, but I'd settle for a way to bounce four tracks to one track without having any volume attenuation (I tried everything on the OG).
For me the hifi and stereo make it a completely usable and useful music production tool, rather than a sketchpad. And with USB-C host device support, I believe I should be able to connect a class compliant USB/midi audio 2in2out interface, connect balanced outs and mic preamp inputs and midi - or even a USB condenser microphone with a headphone jack on it. If this works as I believe it will, that's super compelling for an all in one device. But yeah, I'd love 8 tracks too as you say. At least now with multiple projects you can record to the master stereo record player thing, switch to a new blank track, record on stereo track 1 and hit play on the record player to bring across your previous 1-4 stereo tracks onto the new stereo track 1 - this is a work around.
Glad it helped! I was trying to answer the questions I had and threw in some from the community. Let me know if there’s anything I didn’t cover and I’ll get back to you
A+ Amazing video, your way of exploring all the options gives us the real experience, thank you for that! And now for the elephant in the room, for me the imperfection of the now-last key! It is a very expensive "toy" and should be flawless from the factory, Teenage Engineering, it's time to step it up in quality control.
Great video, concise and clear. Best I have seen for basic functionality of unit. Still researching the op-1F before purchasing. One topic I have not yet seen visually discussed you touched upon. Would love to see the update process/download of samples(patches) from sites/computer to the op-1.5. Many talk about it but never show a step by step walk through. Thank you for your help!
Thanks for the kind words. It’s incredibly boring to be honest. You connect the OP-1F to your computer and drag the patch files onto it (into the respective folder. Eg. Synth/Drum) Disconnect and reboot.
Sorry it wasn’t super structured, but I hope I got across all the things people wanted to know. If not I’m more than happy to reply to questions and do videos if necessary
Thanks for making this video, still keeping my pre-order. Hopefully you can start enjoying it soon without being too concerned with making walkthroughs and tutorials! Hopefully you can post some tracks with it now that you've covered the bases!
@@monatooo horses for courses…these are the grown-up colours to go with the grown-up OP-1(field) and the grown up prices 😬. Mine delivers today in the UK 🇬🇧
@@boyratty5612 lol, i think the more vibrant colors fit the display better for ease of use, but to be fair i havent tried it but i dont know if i will..
My original op-1 which i bought a few months ago, had key alignment issues (plus a bunch of other issues like buttons being completely stuck). TE sent me 5 units in total cause every single one I sent back was completely fucked when they arrived. The last unit I got works. But the keys are aligned so poorly, I can’t believe a unit for over 1000 bucks is manufactured like shit
Thanks for the great video! Do you know if OP 1 can be sequenced by Ableton via usb c? Also do you know if there is a way to sequence op1 using midi for Digitakt?
So sorry, I didn’t get a notification for this comment :( Yes you can send MIDI IN via USB to play notes if you wish (it’s one way to get velocity sensitivity). Regarding the Digitakt, I don’t have one so I can’t say for certain, however if the takt sends MIDI OUT there will be a way to get it into the OP-1F, even if it means using Ableton (or other DAWs) as the MIDI Bridge
Nice video! Two questions: 1. Is it possible to change, for example the C keys, from OG OP-1 to OP-1 Field? Could look cool. 2. When you turn your OP-1 Field upside down a couple of times. Did you noticed that the Op-1 Field moves a bit inside it’s aluminum case? Need to do this a couple of times to notice, but I noticed it directly when I lifted it out from the box for the first time.
Unfortunately I don’t have my original anymore so I can’t confirm. From memory the keys look the same, so it could be possible. Can’t say I’ve notice any movement :/ I’ve given it a good shake too just now and everything seems fixed in place.
Hi there ! How many patches can you store in the op1f ? I had a tough time managing thr number of synth and sampler patches on the og. Is that limitation removed ?
@@DomDomPop I finally figured out how the firmware was packaged today. Need to clean up the code and work out re-packaging the firmware after modifying files, but I think it’s safe to say that the old mods will make their way to the Field 🙃
thanks for this detailed review! Lol the crash... why I'm not surprised. Btw, how is the battery behaving? Did you get more or less what they say in the specs?
Haha, yeah gotta be a crash somewhere right… Battery has been great, I haven’t done a proper depletion test with having the tape playback on loop for hours, but if there’s interest I’ll try to find the time (unfortunately it’s a time consuming task and I’m time poor this week) All I can say is the battery life hasn’t been an issue for me, I went all weekend without needing to charge it
@@A.D.G Don't worry, I think it's a waste of time to do just a depletion test, just have fun with it and you'll eventually see how many "music sessions" the battery lasts. Btw, I'm waiting to see an update to change tape duration. No designer would show "6min" in every tape (with border around it) for a setting that can't be changed.
Thanks for the detailed video! One question: does the BPM, effects and presets for each tape project save as separate projects or does that stay the same even when you load a new project??
No worries Rod. I think I covered that in the video, if not; No, the different tapes are just the tape. The BPM/Presets/FX all stay the same and aren’t saved as a snapshot
@@danielprovder yeah I’d be sooooo happy if they saved the snapshot of the entire device per tape, or have the option to toggle that on and off (as I have been recording to some tapes for the colouration and then lifting and coming back)
Great video! One question. How is the battery indicator behave, is it lives its own life after charging? All the og op-1 users should know what im talking about 🙃
Is it possible to show how good the sync is when using an external sequencer to sequence the synths and drums on the op1 while recording it to tape? Maybe even also CC automation. The og op1 always had issues with this. If you have the OP-Z that would be cool to show both working together otherwise computer daw would be fine. Thanks
I can definitely get this happening (I have the OP-Z), I’ll try to get that out this week for you. Anything else specifically you’d like me to test? (So I can knock it out in one go)
@@A.D.G I think the other thing would be to see if the OP-Z performance effects work on the op1 synths and drums too. Overall I’m really hoping the OP-Z and op1f can work really well together and there is no drift when using the OP-Z as a sequencer for the op1 and also the usb-c audio host feature TE mentioned.
My pleasure! That sucks! My volume knob is really solid actually. I’d reach out to TE about it because opening it up to adjust it will void the warranty :(
@@A.D.G Hah, yeah! Was just posting for other users. Thanks for the video, btw, very helpful! I just got the field so I'm trying to make sense of it all. 😁
thanx good overview, you may want to try to reproduce your crash without using a blanked out snapshot name and see if it still happens. just a guess but it might be a blanked name issue
Definitely feels heavier (no scales unfortunately to weigh it), in terms of thinness it seems about the same, but I don’t have my OG to compare anymore
I wish you could copy a track to another tape and leave the original copy in place. That would allow you to be able to do your drums on 4 tracks. Then copy them to another Tape and merge them so you can record other parts.
Would be nice, but the way the you can achieve that is to resample to either the Album and then back to your tape, or lift and drop into the sampler and record back to tape
what you said about the tape tracks having the quality of the machine you recorded that track with even if you lift them is just absolutely great, that means we can mix and match within the same track to our liking ... that is just beautiful👌
Sure can. You use the headphone jack to route the audio out (I was running it into my TX-6 mixer), then you route it back into the OP-1 using the AUX Input, change the recording/sampling device to the Aux input and away you go
@@A.D.G Thnx for the answers, I'm now convinced, will order mine when it is available again. Like the 4 track recording approach. I'm wondering if they will add the selection between stereo and mono of the tracks in the future. for example the kick and bass are in my cases always mono, so if I can instead have two mono tracks instead on one stereo, that would be superb. then an extra track will be available.
I got a question I can’t seem to find the answer to: does volume drop when you record into tape ? When I record drum sequences ( within the op1 field ) the “tape” recording of it is quieter . So doing this live would be a turn off. Is that normal ?
Thank you. Excellent. About crash, maybe it has to do with the nameless snapshot? About MTP, I believe TE upped an app for this at downloads on their web.
On the TE page for MTP it says Mac OS does not support it by default but TE provides a utility for Mac for it. Windows does. Would be interesting to see how it’s different than disk.
@@A.D.G how does the transfer process differ from disk transfer on OG? Is it the same? Instant? Is it a similar file explorer view as with disk? Would be interested to see how this works…
Thanks for the overview! So, as it seems in the latest firmware (1.1.2), we get crashes when we scroll down to snapshots with shift + T1, I can confirm this on my OP-1 Field too. It also load a preset sample without I have loaded it. Reached out to TE about this?
The MiniDisc algo seems a bit pointless. The difference between it and CD was negligible. Given the other tape algos already in there, a dictaphone algo would have been a logical progression
simply a grade video! and super device!!! only a thing because i'm blind, could you give me step by step, just answer to this comment, how to load / cellect a tape let's say i've create 3, how i can navigate?!!!!! shift+tape and then??!!! what buttons i press to cellect? 1000 thanks Theo
@@Hexxedtoneyeah headless is great for the M8, but I spend my day working on a laptop, I want my music making as far away from that thing as possible haha
@@A.D.G I was trying to say that I would like to hear some music you make with it. Not for workflow, not a how to, but for musical enjoyment, ie. Like watching a pianist play a piano or a guitarist play a guitar, etc, I’d like to see you play the OP-1 and make music with it. Everyone is TALKING about the OP-1 Field but nobody is making music with it? It’s a musical instrument so let’s hear what it can do.
@@MFPRODUCTIONSCHANNEL ahh right, sorry I misinterpreted it! Would you be okay with just hearing the final result? Takes a lot of effort to edit together a video for me
Because this was for owners of the OP-1 and cutting the tape is a basic operation. If you're looking for a tutorial I'd recommend looking at RedMeansRecording's channel
@@BIGLARRY100 thanks for offering Larry, much appreciated! It’s all good though, I’m pretty sure my mate (who is local) has a few spare too. I’ll try them on and see how they fit
@@Efimer I dunno. I the grand scheme of things it's not like this thing is a $50k watch with absolute precision. It's an instrument. The crash will get patched out soon I'm sure of it. The key "issue" isn't really an issue in my eyes, but I get it, everyone has their own opinions on what is and isn't acceptable
@@A.D.G the thing is other synths at this price (some Moog or Polybrute for example) are quite amazing regarding quirks and build quality, so it's difficult to not compare it to at least similar synths. I can live with the key imperfections too, it's just it's something that they should have solved, their standards are not as high as their prices.
I'm annoyed by the power switch. I'm concerned it won't fit in the same case I used for my OG-1, it was a tight fit already. Also, the fact they had to add a delay in the software to prevent accidents with it is so utterly silly. If it ain't broke don't fix it. The old switch was A-OK.
I have the original case they made for the OG and it fits with plenty of room. Unfortunately it slides around and has turned on. I got a bit of foam and cut out an area for the switch and now it’s not an issue
I agree that the design for the new switch isn't great but the connectors on the old slider design would fail after a lot of use. I had an original OP-1 that I had to tear apart because it would keep turning itself off after I turned it on. Replaced the power switch and it was good as new. This wasn't uncommon on the old op1s so I assume that's why they redesigned the switch.
