How Fast Can I Learn the OP-1 Workflow?

[@K_man217]

Just when I convinced myself The OP-Z is all I need, forget about the OP-1… great vid man

[@FreeBeat]

Honestly the OP-Z is all anyone really needs, it's that good!

[@K_man217]

@@FreeBeat I literally take it everywhere. It’s my audio sketch pad

[@knip-pink]

As a proud owner of one of these all I can say is that the sequencer makes the beat making process very slow and tedious in the sense that is doesn’t really allow you to play around with patterns this much when first figuring out which way you want to go about your project… hence why they came up with the op-z! Having had to choose between the two as a first time buy, I don’t regret it at all but all I can say is that owning the two of them would truly make for a unique setup! You should definitely feature the op-z into the op-1 workflow, a video showcasing it would be awesome 😁 But otherwise great video 💪

[@FreeBeat]

It's funny you mentioned the sequencing not allowing you to mess with patterns as much as other gear might because it's the exact reason I got the OP-1 haha. I absolutely love forcefully and deliberately writing parts rather than just jamming on patterns. I will definitely do a few videos with both the OP-Z and OP-1. Thanks for watching!

[@WoodyPianoShack]

thanks for the tut! the tape recording looks cool, but using those sequencers for a drum track looks incredibly tedious. hopefully there is an easy way to record and play a quantized beat?

[@FreeBeat]

Gotta use the sequencers if you want anything quantized haha

[@Two-Eyed_Boy]

Off to a great start! This thing looks like a joy to work on

[@FreeBeat]

Thanks, it's pretty fun!

[@88Fitzy88]

This is very very helpful!!!

[@FreeBeat]

Thanks so much!

[@01kmacias]

This is a really cool video!

[@FreeBeat]

Thank you!

[@BIG1TOWER]

Boy do i want one of these.

[@FreeBeat]

I hope you're able to get one sooner than later!

[@Boeserbob]

Nice, ty man!

[@night_speed]

Quick question. What do you do when you get stuck in a particular work flow? For example, I've been sort of stuck for the past year making what i can only call dark ambient acid using an rd6, td3 and microfreak. I can substitute a tr8 for the rd6 and the microfreak with the afx station but other than that when i try other combinations or use any more than 3 pieces of gear i don't seem to be very productive. I used to make all kinds of crazy drum & bass, breakcore and glitch type stuff using a DAW years back so it's not like I'm stuck because I'm super into acid or anything, in fact i think most generic acid house is pretty boring. I'm just curious if you have any suggestions for jolting me out of my comfort zone. Or maybe as long as I'm being productive i should just shut up and embrace it and evolve naturally.

[@FreeBeat]

I can't make anything cohesive when using more than one instrument at once. That's why I love things like the cycles, the OPZ, the OP-1, ETC. They allow me to come up with different sections and parts of songs, then later I can go back and figure out what instruments I want to play those parts on in the final track. In terms of getting stuck, I like to randomize things that I would normally keep setting stone. I find that picking a random tempo or key really helps me break out of my comfort zone. Also, being a drummer, I can choose to work around a drum beat that I wouldn't normally work with. Hope that helps, thanks for watching!

[@night_speed]

@@FreeBeat yes thank you, that all makes perfect sense. I think the nature of my setup lately just lends itself to a particular style. I usually start with beats too and when I'm using modular it tends to be more 4 on the floor, in a DAW I'm usually using amen break samples and in my current setup i tend to program beats that have a little more swing and the beats definitely dictate the rest. And that may be another part of my problem is that if I try to only focus on one piece of gear I end up spending an hour on sound design and end up turning it off before I get anywhere. If i have a whole setup going I'm more likely to say ok good enough, next. I'll usually jam on that for a little bit and sort of practice a little routine, record that to tape and then do one or two more passes with another synth part or sound design. Also, you're an actual musician who knows theory and scales and keys and whatnot. All i know is what my ears tell me. I played drums in 5th grade but for noise and cost reasons switched to guitar in 6th grade then the summer going into 7th grade I discovered nine inch nails and music was never the same for me and of course got way into Aphex Twin among others. I love electronic music for that reason, that we can use the same gear but come at it from completely different perspectives. I know that goes for all instruments but with electronic devices it's much less about physical techniques like how you hold your sticks or pick, how fast your fingers move or using heel/toe on your bass drum. It's just about delving deep into a box full of circuits and microprocessors. I'm going on a tangent now but I guess my point is i should just keep doing what I'm doing and when I'm ready to move on to a different work flow or style i will. Maybe i just got so used to trying to emulate other artists that i overlooked the fact that maybe I finally found my own sound.

[@alexiwiedemann]

Waiting your comparison between op1 and the deluge. 😋

[@FreeBeat]

I definitely need some more time with the deluge, but I will absolutely make a comparison video when I feel I'm ready :)

[@MrNamaikisaru]

a-suh-tayte ; ) I always go to the pattern for my drums. I should bring the chimps out of hibernation. I think you are going to find it hard to put this down to mess with the rest of your gear.

[@FreeBeat]

Thanks so much for watching!

[@petervanderham4725]

It can do a lot. There's probably a lot it can't do. But: it does look like so much fun! Which is very important for a little box like the OP-1.

[@FreeBeat]

At its heart it is an absolute joy to use. I haven't found too many limitations yet, and even though had workarounds. So far I'm absolutely loving it :)

[@petervanderham4725]

@@FreeBeat That's great to hear! I'm looking for my first groovebox atm. OP-1 is a contestant... Just like the OP-Z is, and many others. Too much choice...

[@magnuseriksson8081]

Got the 101 and the workflow is so so and only 4 tracks, same here, only 4 tracks, how would you bring in the 4 tracks into your DAW if you want to develop it further?

[@FreeBeat]

That is the part I'm still learning, I'm very new to working with DAWs haha. On the OP-1 so far I've done a lot of overdubbing which has worked out great!

[@magnuseriksson8081]

@@FreeBeat Man, with your skills, if you, get to master a DAW, that will be mindblowing to you, you can do soooo much as you probably know,

[@flimflama9333]

I'm finding the process fair bit slower then the Z, also less forgiving, I like that with the Z you can basically have your drum patter laid out in different tracks then Change a single aspect as it's playing live, where as the 1 you can only really cycle through 1 aspect the rest is already hard recorded to the tape? Is that just the limitations of the 1s sequencers?

[@FreeBeat]

The way I look at it is the OP-1 is more for straight up songwriting, where the OP-Z is more of a beat making device if you want it to be. Recording to tape on the OP-1 should be the very last step of whatever samples, synths, and sequencers you're currently using.

[@flimflama9333]

@@FreeBeat yeah, just to clarify, say I wanted to hear a combination of different drums and different synths together b4 I recorded to tape is there anyway to have a drum sequencer and a synth sequencer playing simultaneously or you need to record 1 to the tape first?

[@FreeBeat]

@@flimflama9333 You'd need to record one to tape, then you could play the other one over it without recording the second one.

[@flimflama9333]

Obviously by having both I can cover this limitation anyway, just thought maybe I was missing something, That's a good way to put it the op1 you kind of need to know what Ur intentions are where as the Z it's very easy to trail a heap of different sounds together without the need to overly commit to anything, Are you still having troubles with Ur buttons on the Z? That's probably my one criticism is the build quality for the price seems a below what I would expect but the compactness is awesome.. Thanks for the reply .

[@FreeBeat]

@@flimflama9333 Yeah, I've actually got a video coming out about the OP-1 mindset in a few days. And yes, still having issues with the OP-Z :(

[@wiggesobk]

Your workflow is already better than mine😂👍

[@FreeBeat]

It's cuz you're too busy killing it on it every other piece of gear you own!

[@wiggesobk]

@@FreeBeat haha thanks man.

[@TheMortyvicar]

Watching this I have decided that my long time curiosity and wanting the OP1 I feel that I don’t want one anymore 🤣 I think it’s a great bit of kit but I don’t think I could get into the work flow. So thanks for saving me £1,100 👍🏻. Horses for courses and all that.....

[@FreeBeat]

I totally get that. That's such a good feeling when there's a piece of gear you've wanted for a long time and you finally realize it's not for you, so much money saved haha.

[@TheMortyvicar]

@@FreeBeat it’s still a hard one to resist for me as I’m intrigued by their uniqueness 🤣

[@coreyhughes1456]

I must be OCD, whenever I tap a tempo I always round it to a nice even even number.

[@FreeBeat]

I used to do that too, idk why but I forced myself to stop lol. Thanks for watching!

[@edtuckerartist]

Can't afford an OP1 still watches and likes the video and wonders if there is a way to emulate the workflow of the OP1 on PC.

[@FreeBeat]

Any DAW with an arranger view is going to be pretty similar. It's basically then going to be on you to pretend that you're recording to tape and don't mess with anything after it's recorded 😂

[@pontiuspilates]

If you want uniqueness on PC you can always try Reason or some tracker like Renoise

[@sabirdvd]

Hi, great video I'm planning to use Op-1 with logic pro (using the new update), could be great to re-do and expand this video with help of the Logic Pro feature (note that they have 90 Days trial if you don't have one). Again great video. cheers

[@Mr.Tubster]

😃

[@FreeBeat]

🤘

[@pontiuspilates]

I don't want to be that guy again but that sequencer UI is horrendous. You need glasses for that :D

[@FreeBeat]

It's not as bad as I thought it was going to be actually, but it isn't exactly huge haha.

[@marcelocg]

Is it a cool device? Sure it is. But I can’t cope with the fact this is double the price of an MPC One…

[@FreeBeat]

At least while it's on sale this year it's nowhere close to double the MPC One haha. Also I think I prefer the OP-1 to the MPC, it's such a smooth workflow and an absolutely joyous experience to use. Thanks for watching as always!

[@saucehollywood]

@@FreeBeat I'm going from an MPC live to this. Am i gonna hate it? Lol is it terribly different

[@artg7909]

Is one of those products that will die and never come back.

[@TheMrEllusionist]

It’s been 10 years since it came out. People still use it. It’s not dying.

[@Two-Eyed_Boy]

I dunno about that! It's kind of a new classic but we shall see!

[@cal3033]

nah it‘s been ten years and many musicians still swear on it. it‘s not for everyone but can be really intuitive and a boost in creativity. bon iver sampled with this all the time

[@FreeBeat]

I mean it's 10 years old and they still sell out all the time haha, I don't think it's going anywhere.

[@artg7909]

To expensive for what it is.