Teenage Engineering OP-XY

Wie alle Instrumente der Extraklasse ist auch das Teenage Engineering OP XY extra teuer. Aber es bietet eben auch ein Gesamtpaket, dass ich so sonst nicht kenne. Sampler (Drumsampler, Melodicsampler und Multisampler), Sequenzer (der sich vor Elektron Geräten nicht verstecken muss), Synthesizer (mit fantastischen Onboard-Sounds) und darüber hinaus noch ein Effektgerät mit Tape, Punch-In-Effekten, Delay, Reverb und Kompressor. Alles zusammen im super kompakten Formfaktor mit Akku, Lautsprecher und Mikrofon in Apple-Fertigungsqualität. Im Prinzip das kleinste Musikstudio der Welt. Mit einem hervorragenden Arranger, 8 Auxilary Tracks und vier 3,5mm-Multi-Buchsen kann ich alles Weitere anschließen und kontrollieren. Bekomme ich in einzelnen Disziplinen bessere Instrumente? Ja selbstverständlich. Sind andere Instrumente günstiger? Ja, auch das. Aber das Gesamtpaket des OP XY ist schon schwer zu schlagen.

Im Vergleich zu meinem MPC Key 37, meiner NI Machine oder meinem Ableton Move, fehlt mir am ehesten die Software-Seite. Dawless ist das Gerät super, aber am Ende spiele ich entweder jede Spur einzeln in die DAW meiner Wahl oder recorde gleich den ganzen Track. Ableton-Link oder etwas wie Elektrons Overbride fehlt bislang.

I'm gonna start with the price. I still consider the price to be steep in this economy, and I was expecting 0 bugs at this price. Unfortunately it's not the case. The 1.0.9 firmware is quite buggy, but no show stoppers.

Now, to the bread and butter. If you wanted an OP-Z 2.0 that "cough cough" doesn't bend, this is it. Standout features for me are the multisampler and the ability to swap kit instruments. This takes the workflow to another level because it can sound as anything you want. Not to mention playing chords with samples.

The synth engines sound super nice, and in the track settings there's a "wide" feature that randomly pans every note in the stereo field, so if you play a chord it sounds lush. Big plus.

The "Players" are nice. The "Maestro" allows you to input a chord, and based on the scale it generates nice nice chords that sound awesome.

Overall it's a great groovebox, and I would buy it again, but honestly, based on my country's economy, I would pay 1300 EUR instead of 2300. I find it very steep.

I've been searching for a setup "brain" this year and unfortunately this was not it, because I also wanted something for in-depth sound design at the same time.

Already owning an OP-Z and liking that one, the OP-XY was pretty much what I wanted: Prettier, different/expanded sound engines and a screen for easier navigation. And of course much more expensive, which was the deciding factor for me to send it back in the end.
The sequencer is still as great as it is on the OP-Z, but a bit easier to work with because of the screen and song mode. The design of both the hardware and the software really appealed to me as well. And the sounds were really cool as well, with an organ synth (unexpected, but neat) and generally sounding very good to me. The only thing I was missing were more sound design options, essentially more parameters for the synth engines and maybe an LFO or two more.

A few more unsorted notes:

- the keys feel snappier/clickier than on the OP-1f
- I did see some crashes, but nothing that lost me data
- lots more projects (plus the ability to name them) than the OP-Z
- naming patterns would be cool (which the digitone supports)
- I would love a "global parameter track" that could go on for much longer than individual patterns, but maybe that's what playing live is for
- sometimes parameter locks were confusing and seemed not to work as i expected (could be a me-problem)
- maybe "secret" parameters accessible via midi could expand the sound design options?
- it's just so pretty! :)

So back it goes. I bought a Digitone II instead, which is very different, but also has a sequencer with lots of options and I've _really_ enjoyed the sound design options available on it. Maybe one day when TE releases an OP-E(verything) I will go for it again.