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Hello Youtube, Ujiie here!
Today we'll be DEMOing Teenage Engineerings OP-1 synthesizer
This is actually my first time using this synth, and let me tell you..
This thing is DEEP!
Based on its simplistic appearance, you might not know what to expect from it but..
This synth is incredible!
I was very surprised with it
So to start things off
The OP-1 is actually equipped with 8 different synthesizer engines
Very impressive
First you hit this button
Which will bring you into the synthesizer UI
And as you can see, these buttons will bring up different parameters etc.
You can see the OLED display at work here, which is absolutely brilliant
Very beautiful display
Some of the synthesizer engines include:
DrWave (8-bit Synthesis)
FM (FM Synthesis Engine)
Pulse (Square wave type engine)
String (Physical Modeling)
Digital (Raw digital engine)
Phase (Phase distortion engine)
Cluster (Multi Wave Cluster)
All kinds of synth engines
Of course you have your basic synth sampler as well
Impressive
So lets take a look at this thing
So this is the sound we DEMOed earlier
It uses the 'Digital' synth engine
Definitely one of the signature sounds of the OP-1
Your basic modulation will be performed using these four colored knobs here
You can hear how dramatic some of these modulations sound
These numbered buttons correspond to 'Sound pages'
Button 1 will give you your basic synthesizer engine UI
Button 2 will give you your standard ADSR envelope
Very easy to grasp
Button 3 will bring up your effects
We have a delay selected, but we can change that to a chorus for example
This effect, called 'Punch', is one of the more interesting ones
You can see what they did with the graphics for this one
It's basically a filter though
Resonance, cutoff frequency
It's so ingenious though, how they approached the graphical UI
Brilliant idea
Let's try a spring reverb next
And again, we'll use these 4 knobs here to modulate the spring reverb
Here I'm modulating the depth
Next, the length
The tightness of the spring
You'll also notice that the graphic is actually reacting to the sound in real time
Hit the 3 button again to turn your FX off
And lastly the 4 button will bring up our pitch bend modulation
Using the shift button along with the 4 button, will allow you to choose different modulation types
Right now it just so happens this patch has 'Bend' selected
Using the ***, we can scroll through and select other modulation options
Let's try 'Crank' for example
This modulator will give you some LFO type movements
I'll reiterate once again, the IDEAS behind the graphical UI are so refreshing
Let's try out the 'Cluster' synth engine
Of course we can shape the envelope of the sound using the 2 button
Using these 4 knobs
You can detune your oscillators
Quick note, when your in synthesizer mode, you can shift through octaves using these buttons
Just applied some delay to our sound
This next sound uses the 'Drwave' synth engine
This is another very interesting sound
You can see how the modulation is affecting the waveform
It's a digital synth, but some of the modulation capabilities are reminiscent of an analog synth!
There's potential for some very interesting sound design here
This is the FM synth engine
Sounds like your typical FM patch right
But just take a listen to how this modulates
This *** will alter your frequencies/ratios
And you can even cycle through different algorithms/routings using this white ***
Amazing
Moving on, we have the 'Phase distortion' synth engine
As we alter the phase cycle, we can come up with all kinds of different sounds
This is the 'Pulse' synth engine
Here I'm modulating the square waves heights, widths etc.
And this is the 'String/Physical Modeling' synth engine
You can see the graphics reacting as if you were actually plucking the strings
Here I'm modulating the amount of strings being modeled
The more i add, the more sustained each sound becomes
And of course, the synth sampler
You can choose from a number of different samples
For example, a piano sample
Or a rhodes EP
Woah what is this..
I think it's the 'Nitro' effect
It almost resembles an old school arcade game
So interesting
Let's take a look at some other effects
I believe this is a chorus effect
The graphic for the chorus effect is a cow!!
Sounding almost like a flanger
Lots of fun
And let's turn that off for a second
Incredible
You might notice there's a mic button here
Which is capable of recording/sampling directly into the synth
It's Ujiie!
You can alter your start/stop points as well
So that's how simple it is to record your own samples
You can really see how complete of a synthesizer this thing really this
Pressing this green button here
Will open up the drum sampler
More quirky graphics
During that little demo, i actually had the the sequencer turned on, using this button here
Hit it again to turn it off and..
You can trigger your samples as one shots
There are various sample banks to choose from
Again, some really interesting graphics
I'm actually still in the process of exploring all of these sounds
This sound is really interesting..
This is it right here
And if you find a loop/sequence you like, you can record it using this button, in tape recorder mode
Graphics are as you would expect, tape
Alright, so let's try recording this
And so we'll take what we just recorded, and rewind it
I love how even the tape rewind has an analog feel to it!
Alright so this is what we just recorded
So we just recorded that to track 1
Let's try recoding something to track 2 next
Let's go with a synth for track 2
Alright this sounds good
Arm track 2, and we'll start recording
And that's basically it
I like it I like it
Next we'll record to track 3
Let's go with something FMish like this
And we'll arm track 3 and start recording
Perfect
It's just so much fun!
So as you can see
you can basically do it all with this one synthesizer
You have a very in depth synthesiser, a drum sequencer, a sampler/mic, and a mixer/effects
Of course you have a variety of arpeggios at your disposal as well
You can use your own sounds if you want to, as well as use it as a MIDI controller
This thing is.. amazing
Your mainly going to be using your synthesis, drum sampler, and tape recording modes
As you can see here, theres a built in speaker as well
This synth also comes equipped with an internal motion sensor
Meaning you can perform modulations by shaking the controller
It's controlled via USB, and runs on a rechargeable Li-Ion battery
Battery life is approximately 16 hours
Just looking at it purely as a gadget, the build quality is absolutely superb
After DEMOing this, I've decided I REALLY want one of these for myself
I'm always a sucker for little collector type items like these
And on top of that..
Check these out
These are some of the accessories you can buy for this thing
This right here is a strap
Rubber bands for your cables
This is a screen protector for that precious display
Custom knobs
This is called a brick shaft
This allows you to attach LEGO toys to your synth
Some straps
This thing, called the bender, is pretty interesting
Take this sound for example
We're going to use it to pitch bend
So this *** is routed to the pitch now
A little too much on the range..
This is where it gets fun
We'll plug this in here
And as you can see, we can move the *** using the bender now
And because we're dealing with pitch modulation, we want the *** to return to its neutral position right
That's what this rubber band is for
And the elasticity will do just that
Let's turn up the range a bit..
This is what I'm talking about, this analog based approach
So ingenious
So don't forget about the fun you can have with these accessories as well
Definitely keep an eye out for this synth!