OP-Synth. The Dream Synth by Teenage Engineering
All the things I ever wished on a synth.
If you are following this website for some time, you should be aware of my love for the OP-1 field by Teenage Engineering. As I was writing the 6-Month Review of the OP-1, I was thinking of all the things I wish an instrument like the OP-1 field could have so it would be an even better device for my personal needs. So, I decided to create a concept design of my dream synth inspired by the OP-1 field just for fun and for the sake of discussion.
So, as I explained in my previous article, I mostly use the OP-1 field as a synthesizer. I don’t use the Drum mode so much and definitely way less than the Synth mode and I could also live without the Tape. It is cool to use as a sketchpad but I don’t actually make full songs on it. So these are two features that I would easily give up for more Synth power on a portable device.
So what would an ideal device look like? The OP-Synth! Let’s go through my imaginary specs & features!
Bigger is better!
First of all, although I absolutely love the form factor of the OP-1 field, I would love to see a slightly, still portable version of it. So a 48-key onboard keyboard would be amazing and would not make the OP-1 much bigger. That would also allow for more buttons and functionalities!
Multi-Timbral
Another huge thing for me would be the ability to use it as a multi-timbral synthesizer. If you look closely, I replaced the Drum mode button with a second Synth mode button. That means you could have two synth patches at the same time! The Mixer pages would still be available for volume & EQ of the two layers, master effects, and the option of splitting the keyboard into two parts or even layer the two presets on top of each other!
More sound design
As you can see, I added 4 additional pages to create a patch and 6 additional knobs! For the knobs, I was thinking it would be cool to have 8 knobs for parameters and 2 knobs as macros (just like the macro buttons the OP-1 already has). That means you can go as deep as you want during the sound design process, with no limitations. The Synth Engines can have a lot of parameters to be customized and everything will have a dedicated knob per function. So the usage of the Shift button will become minimal.
And with so much more options in the patch creation, the existing Synth Engines would be updated and more would be added. I’m still hoping that my suggestion for a Granular Engine on the OP-1 field will come true in the future! Other synthesis types that could be added would be Additive, Wavetables, and maybe another typical of Physical Modeling.
Also, OP-1 is fully digital so having a lot of polyphony is no issue. So 16-Voice polyphony it is!
What would be in those pages? Let’s see:
Pages 1 & 2: Here you would have all the Synth parameters. And each page can have up to 8 parameters you can tweak. That opens an unlimited world of possibilities and options even for the most advanced sound designers.
Page 3: Filter! A dedicated page for a filter (and since we’re dreaming, it can be an analog one!) that is so missing from most Synth engines on the OP-1 field. And with a larger screen and more buttons, we could have two of them on one page.
Page 4: Envelopes. Two envelopes, one for volume and one for the filter.
Page 5 & 6: Effects! Two pages for effects that can be fully controlled in detail. A few more effects would also be welcome, like a Vibrato/ Chorus, a Saturator, a Reverse, a Pitch-Shifting Delay, etc.
Page 7 & 8: LFOs. With the bigger screen, you can even have two LFOs on each page which would mean you’d have 4 LFOs in total to modulate anything your heart desires.
I must say that I’m not a graphic designer nor have I hired someone for this. So feel free to roast my design skills!
Sequencers
Now this is something that I found very exciting. I decided to add an additional sequencer that will run in parallel with the first one. That will enable you to create very complex sequences and when you combine that with the ability to have two synth sounds on the same keyboard then the sky is the limit! Of course, it would be nice to have even more sequencers to play with. A Generative sequencer, an Euclidean sequencer, and more!
As I mentioned in my latest review for the OP-1 field, a global Scale mode would also be helpful for playing and sequencing.
Tape = Looper
Since our design will just be a synthesizer, Tape is not that needed. But to keep some of its functionality, it could become a very powerful looper with 4 tracks. Much similar to the Tape that the OP-1 has, you will be able to see & edit your recorded tracks and work just like you would on the Tape. Having a screen is a big bonus for a looper. It gives you the ability to visualize your recordings, chop them, and re-arrange them so you have the maximum flexibility.
Details
In order to get the most out of the two synth engines that could run simultaneously, two Stereo Outs should exist so you can record them separately and edit them in post. Also, you can now have 16 preset slots for each engine, 4 Macro Buttons & 2 Macro Knobs that should be saved per preset, and even a step-sequencer using the 16 preset buttons as steps. With all these sequencing capabilities and extensive Macro control, a device like this would be amazing on stage as you could control a lot of stuff just with a few buttons and knobs.
Conclusion
That is just a concept design that came out of my wild imagination and nothing more. I have no inside information that Teenage Engineering has any plans to release another OP-based instrument and, to be honest, I don’t think that something like this would ever come to life. It was just fun designing it and thinking about its potential. And if you consider that the OP-1 field costs 1.999€ and the other field devices are way more than 1.000€, an instrument like this from Teenage Engineering would definitely cost 3.000€ or even more.
I only wanted to post this to spark a conversation and see what you think about this. Feel free to comment and tell us if this would be something you’d like to see or what other features you’d want to add to an OP-1. And dream big!
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