Teenage Engineering OP-1 Field

H
as there ever been a
piece of gear as
cool, compact –and
divisive – as Teenage
Engineering’s OP-1?
It is probably the
most feature-packed
and mobile piece of recording gear
ever produced, with several synth
engines, drums, sampling, ‘tape’
recording, effects, sequencing, and
even an FM radio. Over its 11-year
reign of coolness, it has attracted
everyone from Jean-Michel Jarre to
Depeche Mode, Trent Reznor to, um,
not a successor to the OP-1, more a
2022 partner with 100 new features.
And with all of those additions, there
was only one way its price was going
to go. Yep, Field costs an almighty
£1,999. I’ve been testing it for a few
weeks now and it’s good, very good,
and a big improvement over the
original. But two grand? Come on.
The new Field does pack a lot in.
We did a side-by-side comparison
with the original OP-1 in the last
issue, but here’s a quick recap. While
the two are very similar in
appearance, Field is slightly thinner
and boasts a crisper screen and better
battery life (24 hours versus 16).
There’s a 32-bit/96kHz stereo signal
path all the way through, whereas the
original is mostly mono and 24-bit.
Field has the same polyphony (six
voices) but 30 more presets (200 and
a further 300 locations), plus an extra
drum kit (15), sequencer (eight),
synth engine (14) and effect (eight).
Sample times have been increased to
20 seconds (from 12) and the overall
storage gets a massive boost with
160 plus minutes of audio storage
(OP-1 has just 24). The Tape
Elijah Wood with its charming
ultra-sleek workflow and ‘take it
anywhere in your hipster shoulder
bag’ ethos. When it went out of
production in 2018, such was the
demand that its secondhand prices
shot up to well over a grand, way
beyond its £800 original asking price.
TE knew they were onto a good
thing and reintroduced the original
model a year later at its current
(excessive) £1,399 asking price. But
they also realised it was starting to
creak a little with age, so at this year’s
Superbooth announced OP-1 Field,
THE PROS & CONS
+
Beautiful mobile
sound – better than
the original
Extra storage, tape
and sampling
Inspiring sounds for
leftfield composers
-
The price. Of course.
Think of the number
of hardware synths
you could buy
Still no undo and
quantise but the
sequencing has
been bolstered
The price. Again
Teenage Engineering OP-1 Field | Reviews
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