Reasons NOT to Buy an OP-Z

I do like the Teenage Engineering OP-Z, but I have often been underwhelmed with it. In this video I share the causes of my dissatisfaction, in order to help those thinking of buying one level their expectations. Some of these reasons may apply to you!

If you already own one, I would love to hear your comments explaining how you have found enjoyment or displeasure with the OP-Z!

Outro song was made pretty quickly on my OP-Z.

Timestamps:
0:00 Introduction
0:48 Price
1:46 Keys
3:06 Aesthetic
4:11 Synth engines
5:21 Sound management
6:41 Retrospective

Is the OP-Z worth buying for you?
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#OPZ #TeenageEngineering #Review

[gene]

Bought the op-z about 6 months ago. i had been a fan of teenage engineering stuff for a little while but i have only recently started learning more about music theory and started taking music a little more seriously. I don’t have a computer and i mainly wanted the op-z to get familiar with making music without needing to spend money on a computer and a DAW just yet. i’ve had lots of fun with it. the biggest problem i have with it is probably what you brought up about storage for synth engines and samples. but other than that, my comments are mostly positive. i still think it is worth the price.

update: i just dropped it and now it doesn’t turn on on so i guess i’ll be getting a computer soon. god damnit

[renekasbergen]

I agree with most of your arguments against the OP-Z. That said, after more than a year with it, it is *still* is my favorite piece of music gear. I use it for what you don’t mention here: it’s an incredibly powerful (MIDI) sequencer. There is no device for this price that can sequence 8 (polyphonic) tracks, including 16 custom (cc) motion automations *per track* (and it fits in you jacket pocket!). I use it to compose basic beats/tracks on the go and when I get home, I hook up my drum machines and synths through MIDI and replace the (lacking) internal sounds with those “beasts”. The OP-Z is the brain of my setup.

[katedenhem]

I’m intrigued by the OP-Z but put off by the price and its small sized. Your well observed comments really helped me with my decision to keep looking.

[oba]

I agree with most of these points. Now this all depends on what you plan to use it for. If you are buying something to be your main piece of making music then this may not be the best investment, I mean just get a daw and your all set. For this price range your getting a sequencer, some decent synth engines, and a sampler. If you look on the market not a lot of pieces do this much in a small package. Not to mention you get keys, I mean it’s not a damn grand piano but if you come from a keyboard background you can appreciate that at least this has keys and it’s not like 16 pads or something. Now if you have a little more to spend in your budget then just get an op-1(unless you want the sequencer). People complain there’s no screen but technically you do with the app. Yes it’s not the crazy cool op-1 animations, but it does it’s job and using the app makes it so much easier to use and understand. One you get use to it you really won’t need the screen. I find that using the sequencer is the best thing about the op-z so if you make music that way than this is a great investment. It’s pretty much as easy to use as fl studios sequencer imo, not saying it’s better, but you can literally turn this on in a few seconds and start sequencing some drums. I do agree that the synth engines aren’t the greatest, but great producers have made great sounds with less. I will say that this machine is very powerful so don’t let it’s small physique fool you.

[TheTeekayes]

My issue with the opz is simple. It's supposed to have this super powerful sequencer but if you want to make anything that's over 16 steps all of its most powerful features become useless. The ability to scroll through pages and add functionality to each step even in longer patterns exist in so many drum machines and synths that cost far less. In the opz as soon as you expand pattern length you lose the ability to go into those individual steps and alter them . The opz is an amazing tool in many ways but if you're like me and don't want to be limited to very short looping patterns this thing is kind of useless. That being said if you're okay operating within the confines of short phrases and repetitive Loops you will love this thing so much. That also being said, I owned one for two days and one of the jog Wheels got completely stuck.

[DayflightTrok]

Yes I agree to your review. I got my OP-Z 2 years ago and still use it on f.e. a train ride. Later I transfer the good things in my Octatrack and integrate it in my songs. Only making full songs with the OP-Z is not my thing.

[sandythomas]

Thank you for the reasonable and logical explanation about this thing. I'm still considering buying one, and this video was super helpful :)

[peterstevenson]

I bought one in Dec 19. Immediately the encoders were popping out and it was bent. Took it back to the retailer and it got immediately replaced. after a few months the replacement's encoders started popping out, it was warping, buttons were multi-trigging, on some tracks the kick was cancelling out all other sounds (it wasn't a mono setting, thanks) and some other glitchy stuff with the mixer which I can't quite remember clearly now. Retailer sent it off to TE repairs in Germany who told them to giver me a new one.
Went to retailer to to collect it and we opened it up here and then. It was a little bent. Hmmm. so we opened up another one, it was bent and the encoders were popping out. WTF??? So, the retailer said I could get a refund, I decided to try and live with it so I took the one that was just a little bit bent. This is my third OPZ in less than 8 months. After one week I started getting annoyed with it it not sitting straight on flat surfaces and decided to get a refund.
I just find it hard to believe that I was just so extremely unlucky. After hearing many reports I have come t the conclusion that a high percentage are faulty. I read a theory that the glitches and errors are caused by the slow warping and blinding of the product which is caused by being badly designed and made out of a rubbish warp-prone plastic.
The last part of the thing that mad eye decide to get the refund was that I saw an advert around this time for that TE 600 euro bluetooth speaker and I thought WTF? They just con artist who sell product on their own PR and marketing hype. Also the OPZ only has 1 year of official warranty which is pretty stingy considering that Electron gear comes with 3 years and is produced by a comparable company in the same market from the same country. I came to the conclusion that Elektron are more confident with their gear which I can say is true, instead I have since bought a Digitone and it is built like a tank and the FM synth is easy to create and really really deep for what you have.
Also the amount of memory given for projects and presets is staggering.
so yeah, the OPZ really sucks. Of course some people won't be able to help themselves from buying it, such is the power of marketing.

[SaEvSampleEverything]

Agree with a lot of arguments. Synths are quite limited, the only hope is to add samples. PO33's sampling workflow has much more fun, even with all it's limitations. I think it worth trying to make sketches and to kinda-automate process of transferring them to Ableton for full scale tracks.

[Apticx]

For me i think the opz is amazing. I had the op1 before and kinda disliked the tape workflow after a while. While its super fun to work with i discovered that i prefer programming sequences instead. So i sold it and got the opz instead (around half a year ago) and fell in love since then. Its super fun especially because its so small and portable. I have it in my backpack all the time so if i happen to feel some inspiration in a train id rather pull out the opz than my laptop with a daw on it. I think the limiting parts of it are the most interesting one. I somtimes feel lost with all the options i have in a daw and especially physical feedback of the device while creating a beat is already enough for me to like it. I have since then got myself some pocket operators and am having a blast. Whenever i look at the opz now i feel a rush of inspiration just because of the fun way it already looks like.

Of course i love using analog synths especially in the modular direction and sound design in my daw but sometimes i feel that its good to not think like a sound designer but more of a just making a beat kind of way. I also love recording automations and shaping the sound that was so i kinda get around its limitations that way.

I also feel that finishing something feels more natural than in a daw. Its just more inspiring playing in what i want instead of clicking with your mouse for me.

Thats my viewpoint of it.

[pavilionman]

i just got the Ultimate kit for 600euros toghether with the Po-33 it becomes the perfect size Sequencer/Sampler to sketch ideas and explore. Later i will add some synths like Mikrofreak/Minilogue and Crave/Edge or Soma to get some delicious earmelting sounds. Once i feel Op-Z limitations affecting my creativity badly i'll switch to a DAW or more serious gear, altho Opi Zet and po33 will stay as a perfect fast sketchbook.

[MISSCHAMPAGNE]

extremely helpful and reassuring, thanks so much!

[thomas_rellum]

Thank you for your feedback and honest viewpoint, really helpful

[bvrbvs]

Thanks. Really useful. I have Ableton, push and a bunch of soft synths and would like to experiment out of DAW, but with pandemic, having an ultraportable device like opz might not be the smartest. I might as well keep learning on what I have. Much appreciated

[allehooop]

It sounds a very reasonable thinking 👍🏼. Thanks for that. I just bought the Op-z two days ago. Still not turned on... Looking some info prior to that.

Nice to know some bad points of view. Who knows if the little beast and i, we will be friends...

[alecsbuga]

The sequencer is pretty dope and with step components and master track I come up with some cool songs.

I love the sampling aspect of it. You can make it sound like anything you want. Although the sound management drives me crazy too. I wish it had a pool of samples like the Digitakt and just assign a sample slot from the global pool. Also I'm checking updated like crazy too because I really want threshold sampling or having the ability to record my guitar without having to keep the rec button pressed.

[mwhitelow]

I was triggered initially by the title and intro but you had some solid points that were worth mentioning.

I’ve had my OP-Z for little over a year now and I weighed its merits for a good bit before deciding to purchase it. I love it but I agree that it doesn’t do a whole lot perfectly. But I do travel a lot and it fits that niche for me in a creative and experimental way that I enjoy.

[HeresJohnny]

Good critique. Thanks. Any recommendations on a similar product? Perhaps cheaper? I really like what it can do, in general, but I'm not interested in portability. I've recently started playing around with music-making with the pocket operators, and I'm looking to upgrade

[stationstation]

This isn't a Prophet 10. This is a scratchpad. It's fun device for tinkering around and creating raw sketches maybe on a plane or in a hotel (as I think you touched on eventually). People looking to "learn music production" aren't the target market for the OPZ..nor the OP-1. I've been blown away by some of the content coming out of the OPZ from people like Patchmonger. Look him up if you don't already know.

[Maochan]

I think a lot of us feel the same. I sold it, but miss it :) When i bought mine, we actually went through 4 boxes until we found one that was ok. Even the seller was surprised. 2 had encoders falling off right out of the box, one was super bent and the bottom side was totally loose. So luckily the one was ok. I think the top features are really the size and the sequencer. Nothing like it on the market. Synth engines get boring after a time, they are nice, but music made with it sounds very similar. The tiny keys kinda suck, as you mentioned. Curiously i liked the weird pitch bend knob, but the pitch bends were not recorded and that sucked. Biggest issue i had was that i had no possibly to correct notes when i used a lower track speed than 1x. Most used 4th or 8th to get 64/128 virtual steps, but you can't access them really. I understand why that is (everything evolves around the 16 steps and step components), but Cuckoo once mentioned it in a video and said that they've come up with a clever way to edit notes. However such an update never happened. So i'm still checking for updates, but the last one was in August, so i don't have much hope anymore.