OP-Z - Full tracks! (beta test ep)

6 tracks that came out of a week of beta testing. Recorded live into Ableton with some light mastering. Other than that, all sounds are coming from the OP-Z. Loaded a bunch of my own samples and used plenty of factory samples/synths.

https://hotscience.bandcamp.com/album/mini-moves-deluxe

Whoa awesome! Mind if I link to this on https://www.opzed.com?

I’m particularly interested in hearing more about the stereo fx or is that stereo synth engines? For example the last track there’s a lot of panning in and out. Can you say more about what’s going on in that one?

cool!!!

Very impressive. Really loving the bit crushed bass! What an excellent showcase of what the machine can do. Can you shed any light on the chord track synths?

@alexkehayias definitely feel free to share on the site! The panning you’re hearing is a combination of LFO set to pan on some sounds and parameter locking on others. Meaning, l locked different pan values per step in places. A technique I use a lot coming from Elektron experience

@Domatron I can tell you all of the synth engines can be used on any of the synth tracks (tracks 5-8), the tracks just treat them differently in certain ways. Also OP-1 synth sampler patches can be loaded to any of those tracks.

Feel like I ‘want’ to want opz… kinda miss the excitement i had about op1 and big fan of TE for thinking outside the box… But nothing blowing me away so far. All demos I heard/saw so far sounds like something I could throw together on my phone in 10 minutes…Probably a little more fun on a new gadget, but end product seems underpowered from what I’ve heard so far. Sounds ‘ok’…Maybe just took too long to get to market but so many options appeared last couple years… Like maybe worth pairing this with a phone down to small gui, but an iPad would eat it for breakfast now with the stuff that’s appeared past year or so… not just for sounds/fx/Sequencers etc and depth but also for non-cramped workflow…

@Callofthevoid I hear ya. I just couldn’t get into iPad music creation. Mostly I have an aversion to touch screens lol. For me, fun is the #1 most important quality in a musical tool. Op-z is so much fun.

@sammyjams said:
@Callofthevoid I hear ya. I just couldn’t get into iPad music creation. Mostly I have an aversion to touch screens lol. For me, fun is the #1 most important quality in a musical tool. Op-z is so much fun.

Expensive aversion :wink: apps like Spacecraft, Samplr, Fieldscaper/Soundscaper/synthscaper, Steppolyarp etc are crazy fun to me! Still keeping an eye on opz but not holding breath. For it to not have decent sampling features and i/o from day one is enough to make me kinda cynical about it… Should have been building on from op1. Op1’s pretty old now… To be even less of a sampler than op1 is a strange move to me in 2018… Op1 was already bare bones…
Looks pretty good as a sequencer, but no screen and tiny buttons etc… I need to try one!

grabbing this now!

@Callofthevoid said:
an iPad would eat it for breakfast now with the stuff that’s appeared past year or so… not just for sounds/fx/Sequencers etc and depth but also for non-cramped workflow…

In terms of processing power, sure. But for me, a huge part of making electronic music is having an interface with buttons etc. I just can’t do touchscreens. Maybe one day touchscreen tech will be at a point where it’s like a mouldable membrane that can form buttons, faders etc… who knows :smiley:

Wow great tracks - especially liked your sounds in “Burning” - seems like more range than I’ve heard in other demos so far. Glad I pre-ordered, though I’m still clueless about the workflow. Looking forward to the inevitable YouTube tutorials?

@sammyjams In “Burning”, did you use an OP-Z engine for the vocal-like lead sound?

Burning is great. Sounds like a lot of filtering, and a nice juicy filter.

@punji said:
@sammyjams In “Burning”, did you use an OP-Z engine for the vocal-like lead sound?

I did! It’s one of the bass synth engines + bitcrush effect + filter w/ resonance.

Sounds great! Very bassy. Should be enough to satisfy those people complaining about it being too “bleepy”.

These are great tracks! Thanks!

How would you compare the OP-Z’s sequencer to the Digitakt’s in terms of workflow and experimentation?

@termbulb said:
These are great tracks! Thanks!

How would you compare the OP-Z’s sequencer to the Digitakt’s in terms of workflow and experimentation?

Super similar. They both have a couple things the other doesn’t. What I love about the OP-Z step components that I wish Elektron would implement, is the ability to have the parameter lock trigger every X time rather than the trigger itself. That’s where the OP-Z wins. The Digitakt wins by having a page for each bar in the sequence for deeper editing. On the OP-Z, if you extend a track to 4 bars, you still only have the 1 page of 16 trigs, the sequencer just goes 4x slower. Meaning, you can’t go back and edit all of the trigs, because many of them will be between steps (trig buttons). I have brought up editing “substeps” as a feature request, so it’s possible in the future. One other aspect of the OP-Z that rules is the fx, tape, master, and punch in fx tracks. 5 tracks dedicated to modulation, tricks, variation etc that don’t trigger any instruments. I always wished the Digitakt has something like that aside from trigless locks. Using these together with mute groups (each pattern has 10 available slots for mute groups) makes it almost like “sub patterns”. I might be doing a bad job of describing this, but if you listen to the first track on this EP, you’ll hear what I mean. The first track is only 2 patterns, very similar sounding. When you hear the pattern get very different sounding, that was me switching to a mute group with the tape track unmuted. One more area the OP-Z wins big time: toggle between audio mute and trigger mute. Digitakt sorely needs an audio mute option!

Wow, sounds like it’s a rather well thought out machine. At around the same price as a Digitakt (at least in AUD) it’s good that it’s comparable.

Nice work! And yeah, as a multiple IOS device owner, if they’re going to let you keep that OP-Z and you don’t need an iPad to use it, just keep jammin’ on with what you’ve got (and don’t got)

On the AB forum there are several peeps who are lusting for an OP-Z. That doesn’t mean they’re gonna dump their iPads and whatnot for OP-Zs - well, I wouldn’t think so, but hey some musos are unpredictable.

@sammyjams said: …
Sweet and thanks! Count me psyched.

Nice info @sammyjams thanks for sharing.

Few questions if you get a minute, thanks -
How many lfo’s per track? Polyphony per track? Sample memory? Sample lock per step? Round Robin? Op1 style insert fx? Every track can be set as midi out right? Slicing? Timestrech? Can you delete/name patches on the unit <–One of my main issues on op1!

Can’t remember feeling so split on a device before! Some of the sequencer functionality really appeals but struggling to get fully onboard. Mostly down to design choices - no screen, tiny keys, no rec input/possibly expensive modules, no sd card etc… Not making music outside studio much these days so I’m not sure I should throw any more money at portable-focused hardware… Haven’t totally written it off yet tho :wink: