These were digested and slightly edited from OP Forums' OP-1 Tips and Tricks thread.
For credits for the individual tips, please see the original thread.
I had no intention of ever editing this, but the traffic on the tips thread is sufficiently low that I can keep up. Feel free to make pull requests if you make some awesome modifications (ideas: translating some English-as-a-third-language-isms; creating a hierarchical structure with a contents page; converting the whole thing into a Github wiki; merge with PO, OP-Z, Oplab and Modular tips lists to create one list to rule them all). Alternatively just fork this repository and plough your own furrow.
Formatting, indentation, whitespace rationalized; Egregious Markdown mistakes corrected; Identified some dead links; Added latest tip.
Beats Dissected - great resource for learning about drum programming
How to make TB-303 like sounds on the OP-1
How to use the finger sequencer
OP-1 Sidechain FX with the Updated Tremolo LFO
TE’s printable drum pattern templates for PO-12
Just a quick reminder for everyone who joined this lovely community recently: There’s an old blog out there which pretty much explains all synth engines very detailed. He must have spent a fair amount of time taking notes while tweaking:
It’s nicely explained for beginners, but I believe even some of our OP-1 experts here might find some detail they were not so sure about. With some engines, the author of the blog was not quite sure, but read for yourself…
- Always lift and drop the tape track. That way if you flub up on overdubbing a track, you can just drop the old lifted track back on again and try again. Found this a nice way to keep the track numbers down instead of using up the tracks too quick. basically you can ‘overwrite’ with the drop. kind of a nice ‘undo’ on the same tape track.
- In finger mode, you can get something close to velocity by playing twice the same note (e.g. the snare) at the same place of the grid.
- The Phone will track pitch. Use shift to get it just right and use the telematic(blend) to get some beautiful doubling effects
- I just figured that the Master reverb is Stereo, while the track reverb is mono.
- Shift+CutTrackKey cuts all 4 tracks from the tape, then you can paste it back into the tape, and do so many times, so you can keep an unbounced version of it.
- Pitch bend in Sketch: just go into the sketch page and while you hold a note on the keyboard move the orange knob to pitch bend. Not sure this has been mentioned before- I think its pretty cool!!
- To sample from the radio, I discovered that you can record directly onto tape then cut the bit you want, lift and drop onto the sampler! Much more flexible, and no length limit to what you record! It makes it easier to edit the sample afterwards…
- Pressing shift on the track levels screen makes a left/right fader appear next to each track, you can then use the knobs to fade each track into the left or right channels
- While in Tape mode, shift+loop+arrow (L or R) set the looping section for the next loop to be played. handy to switch section of a song. only work when the tape is ‘playing’
- you can lift/drop finger sequences
- One thing in tombola sequencer: holding shift don’ t drop the notes in the sequencer, so you can play a melody while the sequencer is playing on hold…
- In endless, one can delete steps while the sequence is playing with (shift) + ( < ). If you desire 24 steps but instead you accidentally put twenty five, you can delete the extra with the aforementioned combo.
- Have you tried arpeggio on drums yet? It’s great for quickly generating stuff like constantly shifting hi-hat patterns.
- You can change the quality of the tape stop (4) when using the blue knob in conjunction with it.
- You can get some wild tape stutters with 6 and the white knob. (Make sure you hit the play button quick!)
- you can fast forward the stutter effect tape trick.
- Use the stutter button, press it repeatedly and it creeps backwards through the tape, so you can get some reverse granular stuff happening. If you time it right it can be a great intro for a song
- undo and redo the drawings in Sketch Mode: Shift+Blue encoder to the left for undo your drawing, Shift+blue encoder to the right: redo drawing.
- to transpose the finger sequencer (or other) use shift + Metronome to detune the master input
- Instead of importing tuned instruments (e.g. pianos, guitars, etc) using the Synth Sampler, use the Drum Sampler so that you can sample each note in a two-octave range.
- pattern sequencer can be played “live” without using HOLD: just play a drum pattern keep the key pressed and switch to the sequencer without moving your finger from the key. Now you can tweak the pattern parameters
- you can lift/drop T1-T4 between patches. Makes it super easy to copy LFO or FX to another patch.
- Slow tempo way down (blue knob while on metronome screen).
- Lower tape speed way down (white knob while on metronome screen, IIRC).
- Pick a Synth and give it a nice and long Attack and Release on the EG (button 2 below the screen)
- Shift + Blue knob for Poly
- Shift + Green knob to turn up Portamento/Glide
- Turn on the sequencer (far right button just above keys)
- Shift+sequencer button, blue knob to select Sketch
- Use Sketch to draw out your your pitches (blue and green) knobs)
- Use the Shift + Orange knob to set Sketch to Hold, and it will continuously play.
- Use Shift + Green knob to adjust the division.
You can use a CWO or one of the delays on the Synth FX slot (button 3 in Synth mode) and a Spring on the Master FX (button 3 in Mixer mode) to further manipulate the sound.
If you record this to Tape you will have to leave the Tape speed set low, but you can record to a DAW or something from the line/headphone out, too.
For some really eerie percussive ambience, take a kick drum loop and a bass loop and run them through a light reverb and then through phone. Set tone really low, telematic to 99, and fiddle around with phonic.
Press the key while moving a knob to change a value on the master mixer or FX, “memorize” will display, wait till it’s red. when it is, that new position of the knob has been saved to the corresponding M-key
M1 and M2 are stored as differences or changes to the default values, not as absolute parameters. E.g. if you’ve got Grid X-Y set to (20, 30) by default, and you change them to (10, 40) in M1, what’s actually stored in M1 is (-10,+10).
Alright, so what’s the big deal? Well, when used together on the same screen, M1 and M2 add their differences. Continuing the above example, let’s say that your X-Y for M2 is (30,20), so the stored changes would be (+10,-10). If you hit either M button, it goes to the corresponding remembered status. But if you press both at once, Grid actually returns to the default values, because (in this example) the M1/2 differences cancel out! Say that M2 X-Y were now (50,50), so its differences would be (+30,+20). Hit both buttons at once, the combined change would be (-10+30,+10+20), so the final X-Y would be (40,60).
I guess this is less of a tip/trick, and more of an exploration into the workings of the OP-1, but I’m sure someone will find this useful. With some clever manipulation, it can effectively be a third memory slot.
make a synth sound, set Phone as the FX slot (pretty high settings on Baud, Phonic, and Telematic, Tone to taste), and set your EG with a moderate Attack, some Delay, then zero Sustain and Release low. Use the Value LFO and start at 5, modulating the Blue FX knob (either FX or FXf for a free-running LFO). Adjust the value to taste and enjoy the glitching For best results, play the sounds manually to Tape
Ever aspired to be a pro scratcher but you don’t own any records? Don’t fret, your OP-1 has some tricks up its sleeve to make those aspirations true!
What you need to do are the following Step 1: set mic sensitivity to max (+20) Step 2: set nitro on master Step 3: set white all the way forward Step 4: throttle green all the way right Step 5: put finger on mic and gently rub the mic Step 6: play with blue and red encoders to get the right sound
It takes only a tiny amount of change in the rubbing speed to get different pitch sounds. Be gentle but also a spazz, picture it as your girlfriend, faster = higher pitch sound generation, slower = lower pitch sound generation…
Now eat your heart out DJ QBert
DJ Scratch method #481: Phone effect.
Four patches attached. One of these is featured in:
starting at ~0:20.
The LFO causes the Phone to rake the frequencies in the synth while the portamento causes those frequencies to shift (i.e. you need to play it by moving between notes. Mono is setup so you can hold one key down, press and release another quickly, then release the first.) Just about anything works for the synth because the Phone effect is doing a number on it.
A lot of different kinds of scratches can be done this way, but you need to express them in the ratio between notes and how long you hold your fingers on the keys. You can play these with fingers after some practice, but Sketch works well to sequence some tricky scratches and was used in the track featured above.
I’m working on getting a certain kind of sound with a stereo phase applied to the bass band sweep on some drums. It’s not quite as pronounced as I would like it, but here is what I have so far:
You will probably need headphones to notice much. I haven’t tried the speakers yet since it’s still early here.
Other than trimming and the fadeout, no external processing was done. Drive: 15, Release: 20. L/R: 99/99. EQ: Clean.
This is done with Punch set to blue: a few clicks right of 10 o’clock. You would need to tweak this to match the drum kit. Punch: 0. Rounds: 24. Power: 70.
Put a free-running LFO on the blue parameter, not too fast. I went with 2 clicks right. Amount: 4. Record to two tracks: panned one mostly left, one mostly right. The LFO will probably go out of sync, which is what you want (re-record one of them until you have enough stereo effect.) You can also try tweaking the LFO speed between recordings.
Since the latest OS-Version (14203) it’s possible to detune the OP-1 pressing Shift + Metronome and use the blue und green encoders.
This is a nice way to add more warmth or chorus to doubled synth-tracks on the tape. Also this trick can be used to fake a “realistic analog oscillator behaviour”. It still sounds digital because it’s the nature of the OP-1, but it adds more diversity to the sound.
You can spin back/forward 4 beats by holding < or > while quickly pressing Play. If you do this while playing, it will travel a little slower/quicker and it should keep everything on the beat by adding the momentum of the regular play speed. This doesn’t work well with reverse play: forward play is engaged before the spin kicks in. It doesn’t work well at all with record: If the tape was recording, the spin simply doesn’t engage. If the tape wasn’t playing, record is engaged after the spin finishes. If the tape is playing you can get record to engage during part of the spin (seems like after 2 beats.) Seems too awkward to actually get much use out of.
I like the emulated tape-slow-down of both the stop button and the tape trick tape-stop key (key 4 when tape is playing), but sometimes I want an instant stop. Using the tape trick buttons, if you hit the tape-stop and reverse simultaneously, it instantly stops with no “slow-down” effect.
Similarly, if you want to use the speed of the tape trick slow-down as a final stopper on your track (as the stop button slow-down is much quicker): hit stop and tape-stop simultaneously
- shift + > while playing : you preselect next loop
- hit play button : the next loop begins the playing right where the previous one stopped ! This is awesome !!!
Just found out some tape mode magic: Shift + Blue encoder lets you pick up and move a tape snippet. In tape mode, you can use the Blue encoder to scroll through the tape, if you set the loop markers close, you can get more details. Now if you press shift and turn the encoder while the cursor highlights a short section on a track it sticks to the encoder and snaps to the left to match without a gap if there is another snippet on the track. if you move the blue encoder to the other direction while holding shift, it just moves the snippet around.
When you hit RECORD, the screen automatically changes to TAPE. Sometimes this is annoying, because you may want to immediately start tweaking a synth or effect when recording.
Here’s the solution: Pressing RECORD does not start the recording yet. While holding the RECORD button down you can now change back to the mode and page of your choice, and then start recording by hitting PLAY.
^ you can also use “arm record” by pressing shift+rec: 8.11 Advanced Recording Techniques. A quite special recording technique is to put the tape in Rec Arm mode and control the speed manually. To do this press SHIFT + Rec. You are now recording but the reels are still.
So you can push shift+rec, switch to mode you want, make preparations, and then to start recording just hit play button. Very useful for more or less synced rerecording something from album back to tape (rec arm -> switch to album -> hit main play + 2[album play] simultaneously).
I was trying to think how to move to accurate divisions of a bar on the tape (like 1/4 or 1/2) and found a somewhat workable solution…
If go to an empty part of your tape and hold down the tape trick repeat button (6) then press record and play then stop it will create a 1/16th long bit of tape you can lift and drop and use to kind of measure out what ever division of a bar you might need.
A cool way to use the hack i mentioned earlier (creating a 1/16th long bit of tape by holding tape-repeat and then pressing record, play, stop) You can double up a track on two tapes, (like a drum beat) then use the small bit of tape to offset one of them. so one track plays 1/16th after. then pan the tracks L/R so you can some cool stereo effect. also then you can mute/unmute the tracks as it plays to get a chop effect that doesn’t mess with the other tape tracks. Fun!
I just figured out another pretty nifty way to get 1/8 time division instead of just 1/4. Simply double your tempo! Of course, this only works if your regular tempo is 110 or lower, but I just tried it and it works. This way, you can snap between grid markers accurately with shift+> or shift+<.
Let’s assume that we’re dealing with a 4 bar loop here. The trick is just about changing the start loop point live, by ear, and place it at the beginning of the 4th bar to repeat it. Then do a bit of track mute, add some M1/M2 (low pass/delay) like some sort of build up… Once you’re satisfied with the amount of reps, do a shift+loop button to reloop the entire loop so it starts at the beginning of the whole loop again. Takes a bit of practice and it does not fit all beats but when it does, it bloody does.
I think you might probably chop 1-bar thing at the end of the loop on different track. Considering that you have 4 tracks to mess with this, you easily can have 1 4-bar chop, 2 2-bar chops, and 4 1-bar chops on different tracks.
Not sure if this has been mentioned before but you can have a lot of extreme tape trick-like fun by lifting a whole part (with up to 4 tracks) into the buffer, dropping it into a synthsampler, then setting portamento to max and playing around while holding shift plus arrow down or up on different notes. Hilarious for unorthodox transitions to another part.
Just made a fun discovery, i’ve never really gotten into the rewind/fast forward cuckoo style tape tricks because i resent having to come back in exactly on the downbeat or the loop regardless of where the chord progression “should be” in your head. turns out even though you can’t use the arrows to glitch the tape in tape stop, you can get a similar effect with the blue encoder. so you can wind all around the tape without having to worry about counting or coming back on the 1.
Hey all, apologies if this tip has already been put into the mix.
While working on the Body Operator battle I came across a helpful looping trick.
I have a 4 bar pattern, which I’m looping in its entirety, and creating variations by muting, tape tricks etc. But for the next song section, I want to loop single bars within that 4 bar sequence.
I struggled for a bit using the encoders to change the loop position on the fly, but was never fast enough. So, what I did was keep track 1 un-chopped / scissored for the 4 bars, but chop track 2 into four 1 bar segments. Then:
- To loop the full 4 bars, select track 1 then shift+loop button.
- To loop the single, currently-playing bar, select track 2 then shift+loop button. This allows for seamless transitioning between looping 1 bar or 4 bars, on the fly whilst playing. Of course you could use different bar lengths for tracks 3 and 4 as well.
You can come close to the sound of an Arp with the Finger Sequencer. Since this is basically the only sequencer that allows you to program notes in every octave, simply increase or lower the octave each time you input the notes. Here is an example row of 8 for setting the octave. For the sake of simplicity, input the key “C” 8 times.
change the octave of each step using this pattern
[-2] [-1] [ 0 ] [+1] [+2] [+3] [+2] [+1]
I prefer this range because sometimes +4 sounds way too high depending on your synth patch. (you can still switch the master octave on the keyboard, so it’s not that bad)
You can even try erasing some of the steps, or repeating the same octave twice for interesting variations. If you like to experiment, I recommend copying the complete sequence onto a 2nd spot on the finger seq keyboard and experiment with that second one, so you don’t have to redo it if it gets messed up. Just lift it, and drop it, just like you would on the tape.
I was searching for a chorus effect and read in my micro-sampler manual about the chorus effect where a LFO modulates the delay very subtly. So I tried that with the value LFO plus the delay. But the delay on the the OP-1 still was too delay-ey, so I chose CWO for that (working with grid changed the sound too much for me…)
CWO freq: 0 delay 28 feedback: 15 sideband: doesn’t really matter
Value LFO Speed: 3 clicks to the right Amount: 5 Dest: FX f P.Dest: green (delay on CWO)
on a synth sound in digital with high sustain you totally hear the LFO effecting more chorus, even tho CWO does a lot. With one shots in sampler and short synth it changes, maybe you have to adjust the parameters a bit…
First enter some notes into Pattern Sequencer. Make sure that your pattern has some spaces between the notes.
Now leave the pattern sequencer screen, go to Synth or Tape, Hold down a note to activate the sequence, then switch back onto the Pattern Sequencer screen, if you press down on a 2nd key (while still holding the first), your 2nd note will play during the empty parts of the sequence.
In Poly mode, it will let you play chords like normally, but in all other modes, it plays the 2nd note over any gaps. It sounds pretty cool. It is most apparent if you have a slower BPM, under 100. As long as you keep the original 1st note pressed, you can change the 2nd note and the trick will still work. However, you can always activate HOLD and let go of the first note. It sounds very interesting when you try it with a Sampler patch like Hi Piano, and set it to Mono or Unison.
In the drum sampler, set the sample in loop mode use the white knob to shorten it. You can get a note repeat effect doing this. Even better, you can do this while a sequence is playing. For example, I copy a hi hat into another slot and enter the copied one into a sequence along with regular notes. Then edit the “repeat” effect to taste. Hear an example in the track below on the hi hats and tom fills.
For pattern sequencer, if you are recording a few bars of your beat to the tape and you want that 4th bar to change, you aren’t limited to reversing the order of the pattern (though that can be cool & Maybe a lot easier to implement…) What I like to do is grab the white knob & go hard left so the pattern length goes down to 1. So just the kick repeats for a mea sure , very common in hip hop. Only drawback is it’s pretty much impossible to ‘re-adjust the length so the pattern comes back on beat. Just have to cut copy paste it.
I was running the drum sampler with a sequence in endless mode, and realized I can sample into the patch somewhat live, with the sequencer changing over from the old samples to whatever I was feeding it AS it recorded… Was able to generate some interesting rhythmic material this way, and it felt like a sort of granular sampling technique, loosely adhering to the sequencers rhythmic settings…
speaking of which, I just fed the sampler, sequencer running, back into itself via the ear. it sort-of beat-repeats. tried with both drum and the sampler, drum is more fun. glitchy and kind of random after a while, but the textures are great. I’m guessing, since turning knobs isn't an option at that point, maybe MIDI LFO or accelerator could do it even crazier.
Yeah, I played with a few feedback scenarios, and ultimately it got pretty convoluted, thus my less than scientific reporting of the effects! Try just recording for a second or two, or less… Depending on the material, you MIGHT end up with some rastor-noton-esque rhythmic clicks/cuts…
- Choose your synth engine. For good example demo i chosen cluster synth with all parameters tweaked to the left, no FX, no LFO.
- Make sure you are in POLY mode.
- Choose Sketch sequencer.
- Press “C” note on keyboard to be in tune.
- With blue encoder make straight horizontal line from left to right.
- Return cursor to beginning with the white encoder.
- Make just one click to the left with green encoder. The goal is to subtle change the pitch.
- Make another horizontal line from left to right.
- Return to beginning again with white knob.
- Make two clicks to the right with green encoder. I think you already got the idea.
- Make third line. You should see something like one fat horizontal line.
- With Shift + green set “/4” value. It will make note longer before it start to repeat.
- Switch to synth or tape mode and just play on keyboard. Yippee!
With this method you lose sequencer and can’t play very long notes as they start to repeat at the end of sequence, but you have free FX slot and can tweak synth live. With Nitro filter and Element LFO (source = envelope, dest = nitro cutoff frequency) you can do some fun bass sounds.
To make pads especially fat, record synth. Then overdub the synth, but detune (shift+tempo button) up and/or down 4-6 cents. Doesn’t just work for pad, can give some good results for all sounds.
You can also do detuned saw oscillators same way (record 6 seconds of raw saw oscillator from Cluster to tape, detune, overdub, and drop to sampler), and then use it like your own synth engine:)
I hooked my new op-1 with my iPad. Mainly just to map out possibilities like sequencing (auxy syncs perfectly!), but also for the Animoog! I struggled a bit. First off: USB to cck iPad, and jack out from iPad to line in OP-1. Using the op-1 as midi controller.
But, whenever i played the Moog the op-1 would also play whatever preset was loaded. (Using the op-1 as CTRL in COM, disables TAPE.)
My solution: I chose the sample synth engine, and a random preset. Then i turned gain(?) all the way down. (Shift+orange) in the synth-screen, NOT tape, obviously… Saved it to a quick slot, and then i can record the Moog, Thor, Korg module etc. to tape! This was a bit roughly explained. English is not my first language, and I have just started using the OP-1!
I thought I’d resurrect this old thread with some information on the iPad Pro. With iOS13 and an iPad pro, you can use a USB-C to USB-mini cable (like this $4.75 little one https://www.monoprice.com/product?p_id=14832). No dongle required.
When you plug the OP-1 in and turn on disk mode it will appear in the Files app, and you can copy files around. You can even “play” the tape tracks while they are still on the OP-1. Super handy for moving samples from the OP-1 to iOS based music apps.
You can hold a key down then hit drop to place the sample on a specific key. @Cuckoo has a tutorial on this.
Look around 21:22 and 22:24
Unlike other LFOs, tremolo goes far into the sonic range. In fact, it goes almost all the way through the sonic range. This can be useful when you already used up your effect slot, but still want to change the sound.
You need to use blue encoder and move it clock-wise until the modulation frequency dial is past the last marker. (Hold shift to fine-tune it. Doesn’t work on drums for some reason.) Depending on the strength of modulation it targets (i.e. the amount of pitch or amplitude change) this LFO can add a subtle texture to the sound, or make it growly or metallic, or just run an extra oscillator in the background (if only there was a way to lock that thing to the note you’re playing!).
Also, that LFO has an envelope, so you can make evolving sounds, or create noisy “kicks” for any synth.
Consider you are using drums with endless sequencer, and it is running the sequence. If you switch to synth page [1] and start to tweak knobs, those tweakings will affect all drum sounds that currently playing in a sequence. For example, you turn blue knob (pitch) down, and while you turning it both bass drum and hi-hat was played, both will be pitched down. And if you press note keys, entire sequence will be pitched to corresponding key.
But if you press SHIFT+key, instead of pitching it will choose certain drum sound, and moreover, it will “focus” on that sound, and now only this sound will be affected by knobs. I find it veeery handy to tweak drum sequence live, or mute some sounds on the go by turning volume of with SHIFT+RED, or similar stuff. This also works with pattern and finger sequencers, but difference is that with pattern sequencer pressing SHIFT+NOTE will both choose the sound and triggers it simultaneously, so it can be less handy to tweak sounds, but you can add some sounds over the sequence.
Every time when i wanted to merge two tape tracks i had to do that fiddly resample-with-ear thing. But it turns out that i just need to lift all 4 track simultaneously (by shift+lift) and than drop it to drum sampler. It merges tracks perfectly with mixer volumes! Then just record to from sampler to desired track. Synth sampler works too. It just a fresh air to my workflow. 12 seconds is limiting, but for me “ear” overdub resampling for track merging is so much worse.
I know stereo stuff on op-1 is the pain, but i like that stereo left-to-right LFO-type effect, and i found the way how to do it. Little nonintuitive, but very easy. So, when you made some sound on the tape, you can just lift it to the drum sampler, than implement Tremolo LFO. Set rate to speed you want to sound pan from channel to channel. Green parameter to 0, and white parameter to quite large value. I find that 40 or so works good. Then record this sound with LFO to the tape. Then change white parameter of the LFO to same negative value, e.g. -40. Record sound to another tape track. Now hard pan these two tracks to left and right. Volume of sound will vary in opposite phase on the left and right channels, making that panning effect. Works well!
A melodic example on Soundcloud
- in synth mode, use one of the sequencers to create a melody. I used the endless seq in the example above.
- press shift+4 to change the LFO mode to random (the other LFOs can work, too).
- all the random LFO parameters should be tweaked to your desired effect. the destination should be envelope/ADSR.
- record the same sequence to tape on two different channels.
- pan the channels hard to increase the stereo depth. the stereo effect
should bounce all over the place in accordance to your panning and LFO settings.
Ok, some time ago i made a couple of videos where i try to explain how to use external audio signal as an LFO (Element LFO with mic icon). I didn’t share it, but now i think it is not obvious and it can be useful for someone, so i decided to share.
In the first video I try to explain what’s going on using Pure Data.
In the second video I just use external synth on ipad (Waldorf Nave), which acts as LFO.
Setting up each track with different length regions will allow changing the quantized loop length by just selecting tracks and then using shift + loop.
For instance, My first track (drums 1) is usually cut into 2 bar segments, with every 2 or 4 bars having a variation on that beat. Track 2 (drums 2, or bass) is usually cut into larger segments, typically 4 segments of 4 bars each. Track 3 (melody 1, synth) I’ll have cut into either 4 or 8 bar segments, depending on the song. Track 4 (melody 2, or FX sounds) will be one long 16 bar segment. Often for breakdowns, I’ll prefer a 16 bar loop, so a quick selection of this track and then shift + loop gives me an instant 16 bar loop length.
With my tracks set up in this way, I can easily change the loop length while muting and soloing tracks to get all sorts of variations. And of course combined with using shift + > or < to navigate between looped regions.
I used this in an ambient-y thing I did several months ago. But for a chilled and mellow vibe, simply slow the tape down after recoding. For an extra challenge, record the part faster before slowing it down if you don’t like the notes when it’s slowed. Great to record pads into something else you plan to add parts to afterward so you can better match notes/chords/etc.
I’m sure this has been mentioned but I’ve been having fun changing the radio station while sampling the radio. just turn the green knob while you are sampling. actually found some really wild sounds fading into and out of strong stations.
Pressing down the green knob will autotune to the nearest station, allowing for some pretty hilarious remixes and DJ crosstalk.
How do ya’ll build drum kits with various sounds from the different preset kits? Like if I wanted a kick drum from this kit and the snare from that kit to use in the same sequence…?
Overdub different layers of drums. Eg, I might decide to do a breakbeat and have a rough idea of how that might sound in my head. So I’ll just enter the kicks into a sequence of their own and lay it down to tape. And then add some 1/16 beat hats in their own sequence with some funny LFO effect or something. Then lay down a snare with some reverb or something, etc.
and
Not sure if I really got you, but if you wanted to build a new kit from samples in different kits, I’d probably just record the individual hits to tape, each with the effects you want. Then just Shift-slice to join the clips together and lift+drop to a drum sampler.
Want a distorted bass drum? Stick an effect on it, drop it on the tape and build up a kit. There is a really good @cuckoo YouTube tutorial showing a workflow. Sound like a chore? It’s not. It’s great fun! I’ll find the link.
- Choose cluster synth. All knobs full counterclockwise, green full clockwise.
- Envelope can be just rectangle (gate-type).
- Element LFO, mic as a source, that “note and speaker” icon as destination, modulate white parameter, and pretty high LFO amount (70 works well).
- Choose radio for example as sampling source, find station where no music but speech.
- Play chord on keyboard.
Find 4 bars (or thereabouts) that you like from a fully arranged idea/song that you’ve got on OP tape. Sample the bars out in to drum sampler. Set every key’s playback option to ‘loop’. Open/activate Sketch sequencer. the ‘Marx’ picture works good for this (reluctant to delete it now…). close sequencer page and start messing with keys. Instant goldmine for random/insane loops. Used this technique and from one drum kit and the Marx drawing on the sequencer I ended up with the bones of 5 new songs in 20 minutes…
- Dial in a sound you like in the D-Synth
- Create an envelope with a medium attack, lots of sustain, and a good amount of release
- Set the value LFO to slowly sweep the RED parameter of the synth. This is controlling the cutoff of the multimode filter. It also selects which filter you’re using. My settings are as follows: Speed - Sync 1 Amount - 53 Dest - Synth P. Dest - red
- Find the sweet spot by fiddling with the initial position of the red knob on the synth screen (the filter cutoff) and adjusting the AMOUNT on the LFO screen. Good general OP-1 advice here TWIDDLE ALL THE KNOBS AND LFO EVERYTHING.
- Add a little atmosphere with the CWO. I use this instead of regular delay because you can detune the echos with the SIDEBAND. My settings are as follows: Freq - 20% Delay - 84 Fdback - 65 Sideband - 4 red lines filled, just use your ears. You want the echos slightly out of tune.
Results? Filter test on Soundcloud
Hello, here is my trick for programing drums on the Endless Sequencer”:
TAKE NOTES as shown on this picture
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It will help you program your drum sequences, remember your drum sequences should you need to redo them quickly, and once you know them by heart you might not need your cheat sheet anymore. It bloody works. Also you can give your sequences names, it’s in your handwriting, etc. Like a MC writing rhymes on a notepad, sort of. I though about doing grid templates on excel and print them but hand drawn on a note pad is perfect and make them even more unique
So column shows which keys are used and row corresponds to the step number as shown in the endless seq. Blacked out cell = press relevant key, empty cell = press forward arrow (silence).
I had that epiphany while having beers and playing around with the OP-1 in a tacky English pub in a greek holiday resort 2 days ago (I missed a cold crisp pint). I ended up having many more beers to celebrate my findings and still managed to rewrite the sequences in endless seq.
Don’t remember if this was a feature of the non-beta OS but you can now stick your own patches in the actual OP-1 folders. For example, you can get a 6 second aiff and name it “whatever”. Put the OP-1 in DISK mode. Within synth, you can make a “sampler” folder. You can then take “whatever” and put it inside “sampler”. When you boot up and check your SAMPLER folder, WHATEVER will be there.
Time-stretching with the G force sensor is pretty radical! Settings are much like 5StarNomads at the beginning of this glorious thread, although depth is turned to -100 and sample playback is Play to End. It almost acts as a granular synth when tilted at the right angle, but is quite finicky!
I’ve got the g force sensor changing the playback of samples (forward and backwards) by flipping it upside down. Sample settings; Set the start and end to whatever you like, then turn the red knob till you’re at the arrow with a line LFO settings; Choose element, G force, depth -100, synth/drum as destination, and the parameter is in between the green and blue dots. Now when you press a key you can vary the direction samples play by flipping OP upside down. There is a sweet spot around the middle that you can get very slow playback and glitchy FX.
With endless you can program a loop of snares.
- Place each snare on the 2nd and 4th beat of the bar.
- Program silence for the rest of the hits in the sequence.
- That bar of snares hitting on the 2 and 4 become your anchor.
- Record this sequence to tape for a bar or so.
- When the 2 and 4 are taken care of, hats, kick, accents and whatnots can be played in by hand.
- Layer and layer until it sounds right, then move on to the next piece.
This layering helps create really loose loops.
The snares don’t always have to be an anchor though, you can use whatever.
Endless always snaps to the tempo of the tape where applicable. It is my favorite sequencer and I don’t really fudge with the others much.
You can build great soundscapes by gently blowing in and around the mic, or rubbing your finger on it. You need a big big reverb and why not some delay though. I’ve also had fun result in doing that plus turning the radio on for half of a second or even less… Again you’d better have a big reverb plugged into the OP1 but it makes for great layers of ambient/strange atmosphere.
I’ve always been a fan of producers J-Dilla and Madlib. They along with other artists are notable users of the Boss SP-303. Much of the character of their sound comes from the “vinyl sim” compressor effect found on the SP-303. It gives the sonic characteristics of a tight, squashed, lo-fi sound, with drums typically causing the beat to “duck” in and out due to the algorithms of the compressor. I’ve been twiddling around with the OP-1 for a bit to see if there is anyway to emulate the qualities of SP-303’s vinyl sim. I believe I’ve found a close solution. I basically set the drive to max, enable “punch” as a master effect (99 power, 0 punch, 5 rounds), and tweak levels as needed. Of course, these parameters can be changed to taste, but I find these settings to be ideal for most situations.
I’m a huge fan of the lo-fi hip hop scene, so I’m sharing this with other users who may be seeking a similar sound for their own music production.
Below is a track which I produced quickly just to demonstrate the sound which was achieved after experimenting. It’s nothing complex, but I believe it demonstrates a sound very close to what can be achieved with an SP-303! Let me know what you guys think.
Original Link, with follow-ups
The tempos between 80 and 110 all have the advantage of being able to be doubled or halved because of the op-1’s allowed tempos (40-220), so if you are finding you want to edit the second half of a bar 110 bpm while staying 100% on grid you can go to the metronome page and speed it up twice as fast to get a bar line right where you want the edit point. or if you need a sequencer to play quarter note triplets because you don’t trust yourself to do it right you could set the tempo to 65 and a sequencer to 1/8th note triplets. you could also via more complex math probably do some footwork/juke type stuff by multiplying your tempo by 4/3rds every few bars, haven’t had a chance to get into that yet.
seems obvious in retrospect but i have been doing this all the time since i figured it out.
A little tip for anyone like me who isn’t the best keyboard player, but who still loves to compose music. When you try to find chord progressions that sound good, trying to play them isn’t the easiest thing if where they are on the keyboard isn’t second nature to you, but there is a solution:
Create a set of chords in your favourite DAW and with your favourite synth or other instrument. I made all the regular I-VII chords of the C major and C minor scales, as well as adding some of my most common non-standard chords, like a few seventh chords, add 9’s and suspended chords. I made each chord last half a second so I could get 24 chords, one for each key on the OP-1. That also means working at 120 bpm, which is what I usually compose at anyway.
I saved each chord as a separate audio file, then used Xfer’s brilliant OP-1 Drum toolkit to map them out onto my OP-1. I put the major chords on the white keys, the minor chords on the black keys, using the range from C to B for the normal chords and mapping the others to the left and right of that octave.
I imported it into my OP-1, fine-tuned the samples so that there were no annoying pops or clicks, saved a snapshot and then renamed and reimported that to my desired location in my drum folder.
And, voilà: I can now easily play chord progressions as easily as I play the OP-1 drums, finding new and interesting combinations, record them to tape, add melodies on top, and have even more fun with this amazing little synth.
I wasn’t able to add the file here, for some reason, nor would my website host allow me to upload an AIFF file, but a zip file of my chords can be freely downloaded from Gallery Hakon
For anyone interested, the chords in the file are, in order from left to right:
F(add9), fm7, G7, gm7, amsus2, Ab(add9), Bb, C, cm, dm, d dim, em, F, fm, G, gm, am, Ab, b dim, Csus2, cm7, dm7, dm7(b5), em7
so i just discovered how to create distorted driven sounds with the master limiter. the input level at maximum will give a clean maximized hard limiting with around 50 drive but roll the input level (blue green) down & you get distorted drive. maybe someone can explain but I've never used input control like this on any other limiter or compressor VST. maybe some auto make-up gain/drive reduction. hard to tell. anyone know of any similar VST??
Don’t know if this has already been mentioned… Sometimes you just want to add one or two sounds to an existing drum kit. Since classic lift & drop does not work here, I discovered a workaround for this:
Lift the drum kit and drop it on tape. CAUTION: the beginning contains a lot of noise, it’s the meta data of the drum kit! Don’t modify that part! Go to the end of the tape portion, and record the sounds you want to add to the drum kit (you may also cut some existing sounds you don’t need to get some extra sample time). Be careful not to exceed the maximum drum kit sample length of 12 seconds. When done, join the new recorded slices to the rest of the drum kit (SHIFT + CUT). Then lift and drop back into DRUM mode. Now you just need to map the new sounds to the keys (adjust sample start and end points, etc.).
If you’ve got a short, percussive kind of sound (ADSR with zero S) you can create a faux-delay by applying the Tremolo LFO set at 100%, square wave, and an appropriate LFO speed. Then drag out the release and you get faux-delay! Useful for freeing up your FX slot (if you don’t want to use your LFO for anything, obvs).
Even without the bend/crank/etc accessories, you can still select them. They’re really just encoder mapping modifiers, and if you learn how they change regular encoder behaviour you can make some cool stuff. Or, for the basic, set bend amount (white) to 01 for a +2 semitone bend that’s more useful than the super quick octave jump of the shift + arrow keys.
Not sure if this counts as a tip but I find making a bunch of random sounds using the OP-1 Patch Randomizer and then analysing them after I’ve uploaded them to the OP-1 is a good way to get ideas on how to make new sounds myself from scratch. For example, I wouldn’t have thought of using an LFO to modulate the release on the ADSR envelope before.
Here’s what I do:
- Go to the OP-1 Patch Randomizer site, just keep pressing the Next button until I get to the last screen and press the Download button.
- This downloads a zip file to my computer. Unzip that file and it contains a hundred files named
patch00.aiftopatch99.aif. - Connect my OP-1 via USB to my computer and put the OP-1 in Disk Mode (SHIFT + COM, press big 3). This brings up a drive called NONAME on my computer.
- I copy the hundred patch files to the synth > user folder on the OP-1’s drive.
- Put the OP-1 back into OP-1 mode (SHIFT + COM, press big 1), then go to a synth engine (press small 1).
- You might have to wait about a minute as the OP-1 creates the new synth patches, but then the new patches should show up in the USER bank when you go to select sounds for any of the synth engines.
- Play with the new patches.
A couple of things to note:
- Not sure if it’s because of the new firmware recently, but when you select one of your new USER patches and then go to select another one, it looks like all your synth patches have disappeared from the list. To fix that I go into a different synth engine (say you were in synth 1, just go to synth 2) then back into the synth engine you were using a second ago. All the patches should then show up again.
- When you are trying out a new patch remember to check if effects, LFO, etc. are on or off. Sometimes what might be a not very interesting sound can be made better by turning on the LFO, etc.
- Again not sure if this because of the firmware update but the randomizer only seems to stick to the original synth engines, unless I’ve been super unlucky so far!
Change the envelope of any synth to instant attack - short to very short decay - no sustain - short to no release Turn tempo to 220 and beat match, turn tape speed +12 so tempo = 440 In endless, just tap in 1 C note on 1/32T for highest tempo Then you can play the repeated bursts, tweaking the sound in the synthesizer, as well as tweaking tempo, note, and the envelope for additional changes to the timbre You could obviously do this with any sequencer, I find endless works best with either a single note or patterns, note - up octave - rest, etc. Very glitchy sounds and each synth takes on a new character, with drastic changes in the sound with each tweak
If you’d like to have a drum kit play the same hit chromatically, you can turn on the endless sequencer and input one note, the note or sound that you wish to play chromatically. Now when you play up and down the keyboard, so long as the sequencer is on, you will hear that one sample, played chromatically. I didn’t realize what I had done and thought I ruined all my drum kits! Then I thought some more and sorted it out. Very useful for me, hope it’s the same for you!
Make sure you sustain the sound for some notes so when you gown down in pitch your sound won’t loop prematurely
Use the Sketch sequencer and put in a sustained C plus a line one encoder-click up and one down. Though you loose polyphony you’ll get some detuned oscillator sound.
I enjoy adding a few tasteful bends on the three notes, then you can even resample back into synth for poly.
I’ve been hooking up my Zoom H5 field recorder via line out, to the input of the OP-1 for a really good quality mic for sampling. And you don’t have to have the audio material recorded, the mic can just be live a go straight into the tape or OP-1 sampler.
use endless shift + blue encoder go into manual (crank) mode register notes/chords with shift + notes turn blue encoder to shift between registered notes
use portamento set to max for maximum satisfaction
I accidentally found out that the op-1 does some sort of normalization for you. only tried it in drum mode yet.
when you have a sample in drum mode just press lift and drop. the sample vol will be increased all over you chops however the red vol indicator is still +0 so you can still turn it down.
- arpeggiate a sound (1/16 with some gaps with the white encoder)
- record to tape
- cut and paste a short section into the sampler
- adjust envelops to max (straight square)
- play these arpeggio-sample with the arpeggiator on (experiment with another pattern, setting)
- Only part of the sample will play but with interesting and fresh new arpeggio sounds.
- Choose a good sample for your synth (I used a piano)
- Increase the ADSR release so it has a bit of tail to it
- put an effect on the effect slot (I used reverb)
- on the LFO slot, use a “value” type
- set the speed to 3o'clock, the amount to 30, the destination to waveform playback (the faded blue dot)
- when you play legato you won’t really hear the LFO, but when you release the key (allowing the release to play out), the LFO will reverse the playback and give a delay-like effect
- you can then adjust the time to suit your tempo/vibe
I discovered something interesting the other day. When using the synth sampler, I’m generally pretty careful about levels, making sure I’m not clipping and getting any nastiness. I threw that out the window and cranked a sample up to full volume (+24) and it sounded amazing! Crunchy digital distortion with a very pleasant character. To hear what I’m talking about, I think a simple sample is best. I haven’t tried this with more complex things but it sounds wonderful with a sine wave sample patch made like this -
Make a patch using the FM synth that’s just a sine wave, so blue knob all the way down. Record it onto the tape. Return to patch and detune it a little and record again on next tape track. Do it again, detune it further, apply some vibrato or tremolo, you get the idea. Just layer up a few sine waves and use detuning and whatnot to create as much or as little movement in it as you want. Then feed the resulting sound into the sampler. Now, crank that volume (Shift + Red) and listen to the beauty that ensues! I used a delay after it but different effects will respond differently to the high level you’re feeding them. Play around and make it nice.
This patch sounds really full and thick for bass, but the leads are also really cutting and defined. It might be one of my favorite mono patches I’ve made on the OP1. I need to experiment doing the same with drum samples…
Lastly, if you want a little more crazy, I set the LFO to tremolo and cranked the speed and raised the volume mod. A little bit of crazy amplitude modulation to top it off and you’re all set.
Maybe this is obvious - it kind of is in retrospect - but you can use the newly added Tremolo LFO shapes to create a fake delay for certain types of sounds. Just choose any patch with sharp attack, no sustain and a long decay. Then dial Tremolo amplitude to around 80 or -80 (for some weird reasons amplitude of certain LFO shapes is inverted). Add a bit of a down slope to LFO’s envelope. That’s it. The sound will play out normally, but LFO will shut it down at regular intervals. Each interval will be quieter than the last one due to decay. It will sounds like an echo fading out. The remaining 20% of the amplitude and LFO envelope add a bit of a smudge to it so the whole thing doesn’t sound overly synthetic.
You can use wheel LFO to detune, amplify and even distort any patch. Just dial its type past Synth and FX, all the way to that little speaker icon. Green color is pitch, the rest are variations on amplitude control. Red does some sort of distortion. I really wish the position of the wheel was saved along with the patch.
If your patch doesn’t have an infinite sustain you can use Tremolo for a similar trick in a fashion that is save-able. Dial LFO rate to the lowest setting and play with pitch/amplitude settings.
Crank Tremolo rate all the way clockwise. Then use Shift+Red to select the shape of a square wave with short duty cycle. Bam! Your setting now affect the whole patch, regardless of how long you sustain it. You can make it louder, quieter or change the pitch. And you can save this setting. The downside is that it adds a bit of “buzzing”, but that can also be a plus if you’re looking for certain kinds of sounds.
- Ive recorded a sample on op-1 from radio-signals, bits and bites
- Pitch it down with Tape to -24
- Put some reverb effect on it
- Recorded it into the Album
- Re-recorded it back as a Synth patch
- And here you go, you have a new weird patch or can re-re-resample everything
I just discovered some interesting techniques in off-grid mode: recorded some audio snippets to a tape track (like a song, from the radio), then rerecorded that to master-track with FX. Then back to tape. Cut the recording while playing it by tapping the tempo on the Slice button works really well to create a grid. Then press Shift+Loop to set the current (playing) snippet to loop and check if it’s running smooth … and now you can copy/paste/paste/paste/paste to make your own grid.
Put several different melodic sounds on DBox keys. Sequence all of them at once to a single step in endless. Adjust to taste. Now you’ve got yourself a super-weird multi-oscillator multi-paradigm monosynth.
And you can “dial in” layers just by holding Shift on Sequencer page and pressing all the necessary keys.
Too bad this is a hack that has to work with weird drum envelopes and no sustain. It “consumes” the sequencer. And it’s annoying that DBox is detuned from the main set of engines. If you want to mix it with normal synths on a track you have to adjust master tuning appropriately. It think it’s +60 cents. Someone wrote about this in the past. TE said they don’t want to break existing DBox patches by fixing this issue, but it could be a setting on master tuning page.
Anyway, issues aside, some of the sounds you can get this way are pretty wild. Since each “drum” has its own (weird) envelope, you can shape attack separately from the main sound.
I mostly make instrumental lo fi hop and have been experimenting with the tape stop, reverse and stutter keys in conjunction with rewind/fast forward. You can get some wicked transition/scratch effects by hitting either rw/ff and stutter at the same time, then letting go of stutter just before the beat and immediately hitting play to restart the current loop/jump to the next loop. You can time this with a bit of reverse or stop before of afterwards to spice things up a bit. Tapping between rw/ff at the end of a bar with reverse/stutter held down can also yield some interesting results, as can rolling your fingers across stop/reverse/stutter and back again while holding or toggling between rw/ff. There’s a lot of precision required to make it sound tight but you can get some really wicked sounds out of the tools that we’re starting to sound super repetitive to me. My favourite trick is to start a track with a sample, play it nearly to the end of the loop, hit rewind, then hit play on the beat to restart the loop and toggle the drum track on the second beat so it comes in with a nice snare smack. I’m working on a beat tape right now featuring all of these tricks so I’ll post it when it’s finished
I always wanted to try manual tape recording, so I whipped this up really quick. It works great! Just fold the ends for clearance between knobs, and you’ve got yourself a tight little finger jog wheel like setup that snaps on to the knobs very well. Photo
Drop a loop shift lifted (copied) from the tape into the drum sampler on the first key. Hold the key with the drum loop to use it as a live triggered background. Now while holding the key with the loop running turn the arpeggiator on. The arp now only affects the keys pressed after activating the arpeggiator. You can also adjust arp settings. The key with the loop pressed before remains unaffected by the arpeggiator.
Trick for drones: 1 Select the sound-texture 2 Press Record 3 While recording, turn the blue knob left or right (You’ll not hear any difference in sound). 4 When you press play, you will hear that the sound was recorded with Tape “accelerations” and “decelerations” (pitch down and up). 5 Have not found any use for this trick yet)
While recording turn the blue knob to the left and to the right on one/two clicks OP-1 will record some Tape artefacts and they sound cool with drums Recording the white knob works too.
The CWO can be pretty useful for fake scratching sounds. Using an organic sound (something not too synth-ey), set the frequency and feedback at zero, and fiddle with the delay knob while playing some simple melodies. With a bit of patience (several takes), chopping/rearranging, and sheer luck, some pretty cool results can be achieved. This link is a good example.
This was something I was messing around with today - holding the OP in one hand, kind of like a violin, and using the Element LFO as an expressive kind of vibrato. This patch was made in Cluster
dead link https://www.instagram.com/p/BPRXm_GBTor/?taken-by=mlbstrd