Chris Posted June 29, 2015 Share Posted June 29, 2015 I just got one of these (had to wait 2 months and the case still didn't come, fucking Dawsons). It's COOL AS FUCK. I got the above one, the PO-16, which is the melodic one. There's a bass one and a drum synth one too. It's pretty severely limited, but there's a lot of room to play. The whole thing has 16 one bar sequences, notes locked to 16ths, with a mono synth line (caveat below) and mono-timbral drum track. The drum track has 16 sampled drums in it - they're a bit lacking to be honest, they left out most of the obvious choices and put in a bunch of chiptune noise and a baby scratched kick. The pitch can be changed across the whole track, but it can be automated so you can flick it down while a tom's playing to get a kick and then up while a hat's playing to stop them coming out like a snare. The big selling point of the PO16 compared to the others is leads. There are 15 different sounds that are either subtractive, FM, wavetable, or modelled, and each has two parameters you can modulate. It's all good chiptune fodder but don't expect much else - and you can't combine sounds, you just get one synth track. Written down so far it's not sounding good, but the ace up its sleeve is the note and audio effects. Whilst you can only input mono lines, you can punch in note fx over the top of them that arpeggiate, layer chords, amp gate, pitch bend, vibrato, and so on. Then, over the whole track (drums and synth) you can punch in effects like bit crush, reverb, filters, etc. Even though the sequences can only be one bar long you can chain up to 16 into a song, for instance you could easily go 1,2,1,3,1,2,1,4 to get something more varied - and you can copy and paste sequences to get pseudo longer bar lengths out of a sequence too. It can go LOUD, there's a decent Cirrus Logic DAC in it and you can seriously push the volume. The actual sound engine isn't great though, very little dynamic range so things are pretty much 'a bit lifeless' or 'fart city', depending on how you approach it. It's got an automatic limiter but things are basically on or off anyway so it's either flattening the whole signal or it's not kicking in. It's not some world-beating wonder-synth, but it's really fun to play with and it's cheap as chips. The case would be awesome, I'm really disappointed it never came, but it adds pretty significantly to the overall price. You can make some cool scratch beats with them and the batteries (supposedly) last fucking forever. As tempting as it is to buy them all it's 80% the price of an Electribe Sampler if you get the cases. I'll record some of the sequences I've done soon and upload them... 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DJ Rock Well Posted June 29, 2015 Share Posted June 29, 2015 Interesting. More importantly Chris, you now have a week to make a scratch beat on it and post it up for the battle 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
doppelkorn Posted June 29, 2015 Share Posted June 29, 2015 I just got a text from LEON. He said he'd drop 3 "yes-aye" verses on any beat you give him made on that no probs mate. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jimmy Posted June 29, 2015 Share Posted June 29, 2015 part of me still very much wants their op-1. if i was gonna do anything musically again, it'd just be an LP made entirely from that thing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris Posted June 29, 2015 Author Share Posted June 29, 2015 i bet you wouldn't! they're a lot of fun but trying to do anything resembling a 'song' in the traditional sense with them is pretty arduous. actually, prove me wrong: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Teenage-Engineering-OP-1-Boxed-and-Complete-/161732674314?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_3&hash=item25a804c30a Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DJ Rock Well Posted June 29, 2015 Share Posted June 29, 2015 part of me still very much wants their op-1. if i was gonna do anything musically again, it'd just be an LP made entirely from that thing. I'm surprised I still haven't seen an OP-1 mounted on the handle bars of a single speed bicycle... they just seem like two objects that belong together. Will you fix it for me Jim? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
djdiggla Posted June 29, 2015 Share Posted June 29, 2015 Dope. I been wondering if they are cool. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jimmy Posted June 29, 2015 Share Posted June 29, 2015 i bet you wouldn't! they're a lot of fun but trying to do anything resembling a 'song' in the traditional sense with them is pretty arduous. actually, prove me wrong: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Teenage-Engineering-OP-1-Boxed-and-Complete-/161732674314?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_3&hash=item25a804c30a mmm tempting!arduous is my middle name remember. you're talking to a guy, who at one point, really didnt want to buy a computer and was planning on buying some kind of multi tracker so i didnt have to use any software. its also important to note that if i did buy one, i'd probably end up getting frustrated and selling it to Rockwell. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DJ Rock Well Posted June 29, 2015 Share Posted June 29, 2015 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
R Funksmith Posted July 1, 2015 Share Posted July 1, 2015 I just got a text from LEON. He said he'd drop 3 "yes-aye" verses on any beat you give him made on that no probs mate. yeah that's no problem, just holla. For real though, I kind of really want the OP-1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kut_class Posted July 4, 2015 Share Posted July 4, 2015 i was so close to getting the bass one until i found out its just the "white keys" no sharps or flats, which seems a bit shit and a massive oversight ... for pocket sized fun im a big fan of Caustic (for android) and i know Sy has been getting amazing results from imaschine on the phone too .. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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