A music sketchbook built around four tracks
The OP–1 field combines instruments, sampling and recording in a small unit. Four tape tracks give a player a place to lay down separate parts and return to them. The screen and controls bring playing and recording into one physical workflow.
In practice. Teenage Engineering gives a portable synth and sampler a tape-like way to record ideas.
What to keep in view
This is the field model. Refer to its guide for storage, audio connections and recording behaviour.
A limit you can work with
A short arrangement can begin with a recorded rhythm, then add notes and sampled sounds on other tracks. Working with a fixed track count encourages decisions about what to combine or leave out. It is a particular way to sketch a piece of music, with its own trade-offs when the arrangement grows.
Read next.
The street can be the first track
Compare tape-based sketching with a tracker’s pattern-based approach to portable recording.
A synthesiser played through a grid of touch
Plinky gives the player a concentrated instrument rather than a combined recording and sampling workflow.