Nothing defies trends quite like the Teenage Engineering OP-1. It’s small and lean, but priced alongside pro instruments. It’s a compact luxury synth. We bring back our resident expert on mobile production, Swedish gear, and multifunction compact goodness Andreas Roman to give us a review – or not. Swede anti-reviews Swede. Go. -Ed.
Review the OP-1 Field. It’s been done to death already by influencers and spin doctors from the YouTube realm. Instead, let’s take this baby to the field, after which it has been so aptly named, and see what it’s made of out there in the wild — beyond desktop cameras and face-plant videos.
Yes, it’s expensive. So is a Prophet 5, an Analog Rytm or a full collection of Korg Volcas. But the build quality, battery power, sound engine, converters, shielding, wireless connectivity, onboard speaker, microphone, and the
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… I could go on. It all matches up to the asking price. This is premium technology, a distant shout from rubber coating and plastic alloys.
The build quality, battery power, sound engine, converters, shielding, wireless connectivity, onboard speaker, microphone, and the sampler … I could go on.
Whether or not you think it’s worth it, that’s another matter. But if you do, then you know that any kit in this price range sends a message that’s not about the money – it tells you, don’t get into this if you’re not committed. This isn’t a toy or a curiosity. This is you telling yourself, I’m into this.
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Teenage Engineering describes their field system as something “designed with portability, compatibility and durability in mind”. This idea runs through the OP-1 Field’s entire design ethos, with the digital four-track tape recorder being the point of gravity. You write something. Play it. Record to tape. Mix. Master. Done. The OP-1 Field has the soul of a traveler who made a famed album on a four-track Tascam in a New Jersey bedroom. Considering the legacy of the old-gen version, there’s no point questioning this paradox. For a lot of people, it has worked for over a decade. And it’s substantially improved this time around. Judging from Teenage Engineer’s recent streak of firmware updates, it seems we’re only getting started as well.
If you dismissed the OP-1 before, the Teenagers have made it harder for you now. The lo-fi character of the old-gen version was as convenient an excuse to not engage with it as an attraction for those who liked it. [
But now, we’re looking at a hi-fi mutation with plenty of headroom for mixdowns and a sound engine that challenges much of what’s out there. Just running stuff into the Field opens sounds up and brings out details in ways that compete with decent analog mixers equipped with strong preamps. The original quirks of the internal synths remain, now exposed to the light of revamped algorithms and smashing converters and with the addition of the classic subtractive Dimension synth.
Ambient Improv Liveset With Ot, Dn, Op1, Norddrum And Guitar
You can hear it’s still the OP-1. Yet, it’s not really the OP-1. Comparisons on the internet don’t come close to the experience of just playing one. I was so mesmerized by the atmospheres of the Field, on the evening when I unpacked it, I just played it for hours. My Prophet 12 was like, “Really? You fooling around with that little b—h now?” But that’s what you’re looking for if you want a real reference. That’s what I brought into the mud and rain, to shores and studios, into forests and guitar dens, into the field.
A collection of short tracks I’ve made on the Field, and then blended into a brief mixtape. The name felt so appropriate somehow. It’s a combination of field samples, ambient noodles, live recordings, old synth loops, live jams on the OP’s synths and all kinds of stuff, just a cauldron of juicy stuff really.
While I’m a city boy, I’ve set family camp in a spot where we’re close to the river by a forest hill, the beating heart of downtown Gothenburg just a ferry ride away. So I looked to the skies and waited for rain. Fortunately, it’s late Autumn in Sweden so I didn’t have to wait long. Once the grey clouds showed, I went outside and listened for ambience to record.
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The original OP-1 had one tape with four tracks. But the Field has four kinds of tapes, ranging from studio quality to worn-down cassette, each with eight slots and four tracks each — more than enough for my birds, waves and winds. With the digital equivalent of a bag full of tape reels with me, I went down to the river, walked along the piers, took a path through the forest and crossed a small mountain, all the while making sure the OP-1 captured everything through its internal microphone. I recorded to studio tape, picked out the best parts, copied and pasted until I had my own little audioscape, used the onboard FX and EQ to trim the frequencies and then dropped it all onto a vintage tape, to get that added flavor.
I would imagine this upgrade alone could be enough for the die hard OP-1 fan to get a Field. It certainly was enough to convince me that whatever experience I’d had with the old OP-1, this resolved many blockers for me in one go. Stereo recording. 32-bit. Superb onboard microphone. Huge amounts of tape memory. Multiple tape slots, all available as sources and destinations to move your music around. I was so into this, I actually got lost in the woods for a while.
The Field has four kinds of tapes, ranging from studio quality to worn-down cassette, each with eight slots and four tracks each –more than enough for my birds, waves and winds.
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“), I sat down by my piano, asked the family to turn down whatever was running on Disney+, and switched on some Roland speakers. I played a few takes right into the OP-1’s microphone. I could’ve used the line input for a more precise result, but where’s the fun in that? I wanted some real living room ambience. Since this was a live performance, and I’m no Herbie Hancock, it took me a few tries before I had something I liked. Each failed attempt, I deleted from tape and tried again.
By the time I was done, the family had gone to bed; night had come. I sat down by the kitchen table, used the tape’s loop function to identify a few of my favorite parts and I ran them through my Chase Bliss pedals — MOOD, Habit, blooper and even a little CXM 1978 reverb, just to make sure it didn’t feel left out by the competition from the onboard Mother reverb. I recorded the results back into the Field and threw most of it away, but kept some. Chase Bliss gear is known for many things, but a polite output isn’t one of them, so this took a little more effort. Through the OP-1 Field’s converters, not only did the source translate perfectly but especially the Mood’s textures came alive in a way that made me wonder, maybe I didn’t need much more? Maybe this was my first song on my own Nebraska album.
Made entirely in the OP-1. Synths, samples and whatnot, all from the OP-1. Some resampling through a Chase Bliss Habit, and the whole thing mixed and mastered on a TX-6.
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While I repeated these exercises a few times over the days, to just expand on the selection of material, I also got cracking on the internal synths. While they’re somewhat scarce on features – at least if you’re picky with your patch design – they carry a presence that makes up for the lack of complex modulation options, FX chains and triple envelopes. I mean, I love that stuff, too. It’s one of the reasons I remain dedicated to the Prophet 12. But I also love the Prophet 5, which is comparatively simple.
And the OP-1 Field sampler. Dear lord, the sampler. I ran a C3 note from my Prophet 12 into the OP-1, sampled it, and played it. Intellectually, I knew it wasn’t the Prophet I was playing anymore. Emotionally, I was like … really, though? As far as one shot sampling goes to get a polyphonic patch going, this is the best I’ve encountered. Whatever magic the engineers cooked up here, it’s beyond this world.
In comparison, the onboard sequencers are a bit awkward. They can sometimes inspire – especially the more funky ones, the Tombola being my favorite with its raindrop-like qualities on FM bells. But the Field sequencers primarily offer just enough convenience to keep you in the OP-1 environment. The less you’re into the trigger-depths of Elektron, the more you’ll find what you’re looking for right here.
Op 1 Field New Engine? Granular Synthesis! — Sinesquares
I’m a non-sequencer kind of guy anyway, so I was happily recording improvised synth jams directly onto tape. Since the Field plays well with MIDI, something that took a fair amount of iteration to arrive on the older generation, I always had the option of outboard gear for sequencing. I did try to match the
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