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hi- > Has anyone tried the Teenage Engineering OP-1? It looks like a toy, but > it looks like a lot of fun. > hey guys, just wanted to chime in here, since this thread got a lot of responses. i actually do own this synth, so wanted to clear up a few things. first, it absolutely does have midi. however, it doesn't use midi ports. you have to control it over usb. but, it responds just like any normal synth once it's connected via usb. if you're thinking about buying one, i suggest ebay. as far as i know, there's no US distributor, and they're quite pricey to import. i paid about 800$ for mine on ebay, but it was used. the sounds are really extremely unusual. i've owned many synths over the years, and this is definitely one of the most unique sounding. it sounds extremely digital, even 'glitchy' would be a good word to use. there are several different synth 'engines' that all sound very different from one another, but none of them could be called "analog" or "virtual analog". i recommend checking out some of the youtube videos, though to be honest, none of them really do the instrument justice. from a livelooping perspective, i haven't approached the instrument to try and do this, though people say it can be done. for me i'm using it mostly as a sound module and step sequencer. but the sampling capability is pretty intense...especially for drum sequencing. the place where i run into a lot of problems is the "tape machine". i guess i have just gotten too accustomed to working in a mouse driven DAW environment...i have a very tough time wrapping my brain around the primitive editing and tracking components. though, there are a lot of people who are making really cool music solely using this device, i know this is just a personal limitation. there is a really great forum located here: http://www.ohpeewon.com people exchange a lot of patches, ideas, techniques, etc. the form factor is really awesome. it wouldn't be difficult for me to take this and a laptop and nothing else, and create some serious music. it's really really small. there is a hard case available for it, which i use for travelling. the battery life outlasts my laptop, that's for sure (i think about 16 hours). the only downside that i've run into, is that like a lot of boutique instruments, this has some issues occasionally with the OS getting messed up and requiring a factory reset from time to time. but, they've updated the OS twice since i've owned the device, so i'm hoping that they'll fix some bugs i've uncovered, very soon. i'm happy to try and answer any questions that you might have, if you're really thinking about getting into it (though i really recommend the forum, since you can see and hear a lot of video and audio examples there). ps, the oplab seems pretty cool, but it strikes me as geared more towards the nerdy arduino crowd. if you're really into building your own controllers and such, then sure. personally i like making music more than building tools, but to each their own. -tyler ================== www.solidgreysky.com