UPDATE: TE just released firmware version 1.1.4 which addresses many of my "cons" (except price...): recording to an SD card (though only stereo for now); the knob value issue when you change what they do; analog sync; presets; more sample rates - check out the full list of updates on their site
@@michelvanderwall8710 the point you're missing is that innovation like this costs lots and lots of money. It's also essential for progress to happen. No, it may not be for you or your budget but be thankful there are punters out there prepared to stump up the dollars so that the majority can enjoy the knock offs by the likes of Behringer a few. years down the track. If you expect to live in a world of cheap stuff that somehow magically requires no RnD or just steals it from some place where all the RnD is performed for free then you are the "an joke" in this case, not TE ;-)
He has convinced me by this video that it os completely useless for my setup, especially because I have large fingers. I have a Zoom F8n lying around that works great, and I’ll probably upgrade that to the F8n Pro.
Just 20-30%% bigger would be perfect just so the knobs are more accessible. The OP-1 and OP-Z are so cool as performance devices and that’s clearly a goal for this with the FX buttons, but with the knobs so tiny it looks tough to accurately use for a performance
Great review as usual! I hope this device will influence other manufacturers to make their own small portable mixer and use the vast amount of comments generated by the TX6 as a checklist for what to include and what to avoid.
it seems to me that is precisely the role that teenage engineering has in this industry and that is to influence everyone else, with every new device they've made (except for the POM series which was a disaster) although if they've had partnered with another company who knew the analog world better like dreadbox or bastl instruments the POM series would have been also absolutely great
Twice as big would have still been tiny, but actually practical. It feels so weird seeing normal human hands trying to work with this tiny piece, no matter how well it‘s made.
this along with no recorder makes the product a total fail in my book. Price aside, it was made too small no recorder and high price tag. WTF will buy it and why?
Also, the thing with the OP-1 at least is that, while it is very nicely designed, it is NOT well made. It's functional and it's fine, but they fail at a high rate.
For that price I'd rather get the SSL Six mixer. It may not have all the features, but hey, it's an SSL, and has the master bus compression, and a more useful form factor. Or even a full-fledged DJ mixer with USB I/O & FX.
With your crazy amount of knowledge and the amount of gear you’ve reviewed would love to see a video of the stuff you keep going back to over time. Like a hall of fame, or recommendations for starting from scratch.
You'd think for a company so focused on design, the Tx, would be the same width/height as the OP-1, so they could sit side by side seamlessly, but the Tx is way smaller, so it looks kind of awkward. I actually think the Tx is TOO small, in a way that seems impractical, even for a mini mixer.
Here's my cheap alternative: 6/12 ch moukey mini mixer ($60), PO 33 sampler/sequencer/fx unit ($99), GarageBand IOS daw (free).total =$160. No thank you TE
For real. I would totally use this because I can quite literally fit this and an OP-Z in my pocket and bust them out while I'm at the park. Makes for a nice compliment to a hyper-portable setup that can fit in a small sling-bag alongside a few other synths. If only it weren't so expensive. :(
@@Funkbutterfly I never said I'm bringing just an OP-Z. Only that I can fit both that and this mixer in my pocket, if I really wanted to. Realistically, I'd also bring around a few Volcas or a Softpop or some other weird tiny synths.
Dear Loopop, great review/tutorial as always...I just love what TE has done here, although I can not afford it 😅, and I am also absolutely sure that your review is going to help them make it better in the coming firmware updates
@@billodonnell4322 thank god that under the free market you have a choice, nothing is mandatory, and you don't have to like or do anything that the stupid gullible people (like me!) like or do so yeah whoopie!
My favorite thing I've seen about this is the people who have taken pictures showing that you literally cannot plug certain 1/8" cables into it because the ports are too close together. DESIGN!
@@Leviathan-mj8gi no, i was in on your joke! I used to sell hifi and the old snake oil spills out. I don't buy apple because of this design choice bs - give me a headphone jack or lose my money.
@@Leviathan-mj8gi fender do that with some of their guitar leads, but you have to remember to keep the original package! Guarantees DO offer value IMHO
@@texacomann I'd be in for a 100 bux. It has less abilities than a 50 dollar android cheapo phone, and it looks like it would scuff instantly or shortly thereafter, unless they sell a cellphone type of case for it for under 400.
@@texacomann I guess rich people are the intended market. If I was super wealthy, I'd grab one just to keep in my purse or whatever and it would help even with djing or impromptu crap when at friends houses.
what's weird to me is the choice to make the on/off switch stick out of the side of the device. if you're using it next to other devices, it won't line up properly. weird design choice if you're so set on making everything as compact as possible
First thing that caught my attention too. Many of the comments here are more about strategy; bad strategy, good execution of this bad strategy. But this thing really is a design error, which is kind of weird, as the entire raison d'etre of this unit is designy-ness
Just a recessed slider would have done the trick. No accidental power offs or breakages. It's a silly design language thing left over from the OP-Z I think.
If you are looking for something like this simply on a similar size scale and without the effects, check out the Maker Hart LOOP Mixer. It's what I used to mixer my pocket operators back when I had them in a portable setup. All for $60-80, plus an adaptor for a brick to power it.
Thank you for mentioning the price early on in the video. I think that should be a default for any gear/product review, so we can avoid watching videos about gear we can't afford anyway and not trigger our GAS.
reminds me of those calculator watches from the 80s/90s where the buttons were so small you couldnt press them individually with your fingers and had to use the tip of a pencil 🙃
@@xfghffhfg if you say so. what I see is every store has tons of stock while other products are sold out everywhere. maybe some love it, many though? It doesn't seem to be flying off the shelves. But hey if people do love it that is great for them!
can you imagine how they made the decision to not include an on-board recorder, but give you completely useless synth engines instead? (and you can’t change my mind about that one) I think it’s a weird product. Not in a good way.
Agreed. Could stand to be a bit feature poorer. Why add a synth and drum machine? I would think anyone plunking down over 1k for a micro mixer has a synth and a drum machine in their setup. Hence the reason for 6/12 channels. ???
A synth in a mixer is just weird, but I was intrigued until I found out no midi keyboard connectivity is possible. Its more of a tone generator than something you can actually play. Who wants to play the worlds lamest, functionless, digital synth?
@@stephanrewind Not really, its not bad impression and it's not a fix. this is firstly a mixer, and maybe secondly an audio interface. don't be fool by our commenters noise :) it's very small and most don't care, they will buy it just by the way it looks. Advertising a new picture or a new video and give a reason to enlarge exposure over and over again is much more powerful than people rant on the comment section about one extra feature. This is how social media and dedicated website works. Its actually a very swedish thing to do, elektron use to hide +drive (more storage) inside their analog machines and than after some month release an update that enlarge the quantity of the presets by a factor of 100x or more, its making it news worthy for reviewer to make a new video, website to publish the update and lot's of posts on social media, the more times a machine will get to the headline (no matter why) the more exposure it will get, the more unit will be sold.
Thanks for a great video as always! Regarding having to do tempo sync manually - there's a tap tempo function on the FX1 button. Not easily discovered since I don't think it's documented in the manual. It's a bit sad to see how much hate this thing gets - it's not like there haven't always been overpriced audio equipment. I personally love it, great for all my use cases.
Thanks! Yes, that's in the manual, and I show in the video that if you press FX2 you can "reset" the clock when it's running. Indeed it's sad to see hate in general, but if you remove the tone from some the more extreme comments I think there's a message that should be listened to
At half the price, the 1010Music Bluebox seems like the much better value. But, hey, if absolutely have to have battery power, be able carry your mixer in your pocket, and have the cash, then go for it. Haha.
After seeing this, the bluebox was such a turn on for a small mixer but its not an audio interface. I think thats the difference there, 12 in on OSX. The last mixer I had with 12 in was a big ass Mackie Onyx Firewire. Bluebox does have that internal recorder which is nice but if you're all computer DAW, you want all those channels streaming into your computer separately. The cost does suck. I want a Tesla, cost sucks. I want a fresh pair of Nike's, cost sucks. I want a Mac studio, cost sucks. Kinda how it is when its premium.
the bluebox is great, sound great with a monster EQ, independent 12 channels, 3 fx send and recording capabilities. I think even if the TX6 was half the price I would still prefer the bluebox... unless small is mandatory (although the blusbox is very small too)
For sure! Pair it with a Blackbox and it's a mighty duo. 1010 has come up with an awesome portable form factor. I hope they keep developing boxes on the same platform.
As somebody who just had a bluebox delivered today, I think I made the right choice. And if I didn't, I can dry my tears with all of the tissues I could buy with the £700 I saved.
I like the form factor and idea that it pairs perfectly with an iPhone setup. I wish it had nearly no effects or synth function and purely focused on mix bus features and cost half the price
Having a battery guarantees a limited shelf life, and the size seems appealing at first, especially for pocket operator folks, but the price keeps it targeted at the wrong demographic. I can’t understand who they were making this for, and why add to the overall cost by including a limited synthesizer?
@@craigmoran893 Teenage Engineering are their own target demographic? Thats an interesting answer, I am not sure that is a particularly sustainable business model.
The OP-Z at least has a fully replaceable battery, just open it up and put a new one in. Same with the Deluge. So I wouldn't say a battery "guarantees" a limited shelf life for most devices. Not sure if the TX-6 battery is replaceable.
You need this to mix your six OP-1 field instruments. These days you can buy a 48 input Yamaha PM 4000 console for $100. Those were close to six figures new. But you need minimum of 4 strong friends to help you lift it.
While I'm trying to deal with the learning curve of combining small form factor synths without DAW in a musical way, the last thing I want to have an even steeper learning curve, is the mixer I'm using. It's a NO from me dawg.
Instead of an OP-1f and TX-6 and TE's fancy speaker... You could get a MPC Live 2 and have a portable solution which is more powerful, more compact, and a small fraction of the cost. ($3850 + cables vs $1300)
If they had just made a full sized version of this (like something model cycles sized) and used that space to flesh out its features/fix some of its quirks a little more, for the same price, I'm sure it would be absolutely dominating the market. There are plenty of people who would be able to do some incredible things with it, Loopop being one of them. If they absolutely had to release a tiny one then they could have done this as a cheaper little brother to a bigger one.
Another great review. Still nothing that demonstrates a viable use-case for something this tiny that doesn’t make the user look like either a fool or epically vain.
Incredible device for artists and engineers. The AD/DA alone makes it worth the price. It sounds better than my Apollo. I use it as an aggregate device with my Apollo twin.
I would never entertain something that size. Not good if you have fat fingers or your eyesight is not up to scratch. And the price. As for the knobs being small a workaround would be to 3d print a single larger knob to fit over one at a time for easy adjustment. Excellent review thank you for your time and dedication.
For alternatives in the sense of mini-mixers - Mookey Stereo/Mono Mixer 4 stereo in, one stereo out 5 level controls, micro USB powered. The caveat is that these kinds of mixers do not come with a separate monitoring port for headphones, and this makes it good only for the purposes of busking and jamming with friends outside. Having said that, - I've used a Mookey for years in conjunction with my Mackie and Behringer studio mixers. I basically used it as a separate FX sends for 4 of my stereo-capable synths, and as such it performed marvelously, and didn't even suffer from feedback loop issues or excessive noise if powered by the device's or computer's USB ports. Very tight, heavy set, sturdy pots too. For something that cost less than $40 CAD I was duly impressed.
I love your presentations 🔥🙏🏻🔥 without a doubt TE could have made this device double the size for better control without loosing anything - seems like they just wanted to build the smallest „pro mixer“ ever 🙄 .. portable - but not for „live tweaking“
I find this to be a really odd device. It has a lot of features that seem sort of half baked or just too tedious for me to actually want to use. Outside of the mixer itself and some built in effects, the rest comes across as extra stuff that makes it more expensive and doesn’t really need to be there. A small portable mixer has a market and I guess you could tandem it with a phone or iPad to record remotely if you wanted but if you want to make it this portable, not being able to record directly onto it necessitates another piece of equipment to be used so you sort of lose the benefit of it being so tiny compared with a slightly larger mixer that can record to a SD card. I would have rather seen this a bit closer to the size of a Volca to space things out a bit, not have cable size be an issue, provide room for a few more buttons so not everything is a menu dive, and have space for a SD card to record direct. And scrap the drum and synth features, since they seem not super functional, tedious, and not really necessary on a mixer anyway. This device seems like on of those things that sounds like a good idea in concept but that I’d never actually use in practice. Or that a company makes to show that they can do it without really thinking if they should.
I would love to see a teardown of this thing to see how they have cramped everything inside. I think if it had built-in recording capabilities with an SD card, the price would be easier to justify, especially if it could write 12 track WAV/FLAC recordings. It seems like they chose good hardware for a full-digital mixer (all of the ADCs and DACs are 32-bit and at least 192kHz+ -- although not sure how they have them configured. possibly running internally at 32-bit/48kHz, which may by why that's the only sample rate they support over USB audio). No hardware MIDI input does suck, though. Seems clear it was intended for use with an iPhone (an iPad would dwarf it) -- do people actually make music on iPhones.. intentionally? lol
Yeah your phone or tablet is where you would multi track record to, like into GarageBand. For midi, you would just need to connect your phone to your midi device, and then you can control it from TX-6 via Bluetooth. I like this minimal approach. While this mixer is very expensive, I think if it had a multi-track recorder built in the price would be even higher. And most people who will buy one will likely have a capable smartphone, tablet or computer, so it would almost be redundant. As for people making music on their iPhones, I think if you are into portable synths and music making, your phone or tablet likely will be a part of that setup in someway, because there are so many powerful apps as well as Bluetooth midi connectivity etc. I think I would prefer something a lot cheaper than TX-6. Perhaps just the inputs for multi track recording and the portability, as you can do the mixing and effects etc from GarageBand or some other app.
There was definitely a gap in the market, it's just a shame that Teenage Engineering filled it. There's always the 1010Music BlueBox, but the lack of physical controls put me off
Ok it's expensive no doubt BUT what's with this thing size?? It looks absolutely unusable. Even with small fingers you WILL touch other faders while trying to adjust one :) LOL Look at how this encoders wobble for 1.2k$ (+fees it will be around 1500) Overall I really like the idea of it and it's really don't have competitors now BUT PRICE / SIZE / WOBBLINES / NOT RECORDING For this price it SHOULD be able to record audio to internal memory. Teenage Engineering you shold change something :)
most of the mad comments are mad about it missing features it literally has. as someone with no hardware FX units, is in desperate need of a mixer in a live setup and wanting the ability to quickly record ideas, this is phenomenal. Is it expensive? yes? will I buy it? IDK, maybe one day. its essentially a 12ch mono mixer which is more than any hardware synth setup could possibly need. (6 stereo channels, yes you will have to gain stage and treat each stereo channel as a VCA controlling 2 mono channels essentially, hardly a reason to be mad). I feel teenage engineering is at the point where people complain because its the cool new thing to hate. You cant find this feature set in any other mixer and ESPECIALLy not in this size. If the size is a problem for you, it's clearly not for you. go buy something else lmao.
This sets a clear roadmap for other hardware developers. Drop the gimicky shit, add onboard recording to wav files, and drop the price by half or more, and you have a market changing money printer.
@@spiegelkind2387 big thing missing there is it cannot be an audio interface..this thing would be nice to use with ableton live..The size is too small to reap any of the benefits of all the hands on knobs though. Half the price and twice the size without the synth and I am buying.
@@jmahoneywaav True. I've been looking at Zoom's ZL-8 lately. Live track mixer with built in recorder and 12 in/4 out interface that runs on 4 AA batts. Plus it's got actual faders, which are a must.
I think TE should send everyone who has commented on this review a free TX-6. Great review. They should drop the Synth engines and drum machine and add an on board recorder in future updates. Not enough memory for the feature? Add microSd compatibility via the USB! Boom!
Excellent overview of the TX-6! For me the two main issues are the way too small size and high price tag. Lack of a recorder is a third problem. I already have mixers and audio interfaces and tons of synths so this is not really a need for me. I do love my OP-1 that is their best product offering so far.
This is a seriously dope idea, I've been looking for a battery powered mixer for a while. But at this point I've been using an interface with an iPad pro which is still $300 at least cheaper and has way more flexibility and functionality. The size as others have said is just way too small to be functional for performance, and I wish it had two audio inputs instead of one. So if someone made a $600 (although preferably more like $300) battery mixer with a better audio I/O setup, I'd be so down.
There are many mini mixers in the market which can be powered via USB. You just have to connect a power bank and you have your portable mini mixer for a fraction of the price... But you are right: an iPad connected with a good mini keyboard or whatever equipment you want is the best solution: so much more possibilities for far less. And you can export your songs as midi files to a DAW once you have finished.
I bought a Behringer XENYX 1002B and a Tascam DP-006 for around $100 each. Both batterie powered. I love the Behringer 1002B. Best mixer I ever owned in terms of battery powered. The Tascam 006 is ok. I wanna see a combination of the two that multitracks.
@@nashatkins8883Right on, then your on top of the battery powered mixer game. I know what ya mean about how they get noisy. Did ya ever try taking it apart and blowing out the dust and all the little crevices of it with can air spray? I also apply a small amount of geese on the pot stems. Seems to help in my case. That and replacing audio cables.
If anyone is considering buying it, I recommend to have a look into the 1010music bluebox mixer first. About half the price, lots of features as well, larger font size on the screen, bigger buttons and potties 😉. I'm very happy with mine.
The knob-position-value oversight mentioned around 13:00 is hilarious. How did this not come up when testing? It's almost like they assume no one who buys this will be serious about using it... Can't fault them for that at least
A mixer isn't an audio interface. It's strange to me in looking at the comments that so many people don't seem to know the difference. Though I'm a big Loopop fan and find him to be perhaps the most valuable resource in the world for people who want to make electronic music, I don't think the "myvolts" mixer mentioned as an alternative is very helpful as myvolts is not even an audio interface, it's a mixer. Audio interfaces that can give me 12 separate DAW channels like this (not only two like a mixer) usually cost over $1000; some of them are over $2000 or $3000 and of course they don't have the added feature of being a micro-miniature device with a tiny desktop footprint and portability and all the other nice features this one has. I don't like some of the TE devices, but to me this is one of several things they have that obviously offer something unique, are very useful, and are not at all overpriced for what they are.
I really like the features and I see the gaping hole in the market for this but it is too small by about 3x for actual use IMO. Would love to see some manufacturers step up and make a useable one.
An excellent review, as always. You identify the pros and cons very well. The lack of any possibility to save the state is a bizarre omission . The synth and sequencer are useless features in my view. Not sure what they were thinking… This looks like an interesting design exercise and would be good fun for a trade fair to show off what the company’s engineers can achieve, but it doesn’t have what it takes to be a marketable product. I expect it to be dropped pretty soon. Not many people will be buying it until the price drops below 500… At least we got an entertaining review out of it, so we’re grateful 😉.
I can't see them dropping this for a while, they haven't dropped any of their instruments before. The Polaroid camera/the robotic arm thingy/the CAD printer thingy, maybe, but not their music gear. Especially because it's part of a series of gear, and as we all know, folk love their collections, regardless of if they will be useful or not. If anything, this in two years time will be even more expensive than what it is right now, and it will remain on some folk's radars as more people do their cute videos. Justifications will be made, practicalities will be forgotten. Until a year down the track and you realise it's become best friends with your PO-400, happily collecting dust together. I could save for one, but I've no use for it. I've been opening the window to let the dust out on a lot of stuff ive desired, bought and used sod all times.
… and no worries! TE are soon releasing the the TX-P1 pincers and the TX-M2 magnifying glass to be able to control this thing, bundled for only additional $600.
No other company would allow their engineers to build something so expensive and impractical just because it’s cool. Working for TE must be one hell of a ride.
I can't get over the absurd price of this thing. Even at a quarter of the price, I'd balk at the cost. Here's hoping this inspires another company to produce something for a more reasonable price.
At a quarter of the price, and not quite as tiny, and not with the stupid "always in panel mode" knobs situation, they wouldn't be able to keep up with demand. Even at half the price and a little bigger, this thing would be everywhere. Much depends on audio quality in comparison to your existing gear.
Zoom r20 and an sp 404 mk II are literally half the price bundled together and feature way more than this could ever offer alone when it comes to building a song.
I think this thing has a pretty cool design. If I wanted to be unrealistic then motorized faders would have made it perfect (ha!). My only complaints were that it didn't have a high Z input, I couldn't get transport controls to drive my DAW (not sure if it is possible) and that the FX (send) can't be combined (i.e. reverb and delay together). I'm excited about future updates that might add new features.
Thanks for another great video Loopop! This is a beautifully engineered product that imo is too (unnecessarily) small and simply too expensive, despite its high desirability factor (Kudos to TE on the industrial design). Other potential alternatives worth mentioning in a mobile or "field" space (obviously without all features!) are the Roland GO:MIXER PRO-X (stereo out only) or the Behringer Flow 8 which I believe can be a multi track audio interface also. Both of these have stereo input options and mic/48v phantom also.
Not to mention the Bastl Dude, the TC Helicon Blender, the Volca Mix, the Zoom R8, etc etc etc. The landscape of much-cheaper alternatives is pretty large, and unless someone specifically needs this particular combination of ultra-tiny and feature-packed, there are plenty of other options that either a) have tons of features and are just as portable if you just leave a few of your Clif Bars behind, or b) are just as tiny and didn't shoe-horn in features you will never use. Loopop, love your thoroughness in reviews, but this time I think the Alternatives section did viewers a disservice by making it seem like the portable mixer space has far fewer options than it actually does.
@@JonathanVanMatrePersonal I guess to compare apples to apples, only mixers that can multitrack audio over USB or with a dedicated audio interface should be considered? There are millions of small analogue mixers on the market.
Loopop is quite mild to call the synths a “non pro” rather than a “con” given that it is actually the synth modes that mess up the knob positions of the mixer. Even if TE can come up with a fix for the knobs, I would consider the design of this thing much more elegant if there was no synth at all, and less options in menus is also always a pro, so adding options for a feature that is almost a gimmick, I would just prefer to call that a “con” instead of a “non pro”.
The knob position issue is absolutely a "con" but it has nothing to do with the synths, it's applicable if you're using the knobs interchangeably to control the EQ, filter, FX and aux sends, compressor, etc even if there wasn't a synth at all. Anyway, I'm just clarifying my point, it's of course valid to say too many features is a con as opposed to a "non pro" which is why I love this comment section :)
@@loopopthank you for correcting the factual information. I did watch the complete video and saw you using the encoder with the synths to select the waveform. But somehow my head still mixed the synths with the knob issue. Anyways regardless of the knob issue I think this device would be better off and more elegant it just was a mixer, and didn’t waste menu options to features that distract from its primary function
Great review, if it had a multitrack-recorder and two XLR mic-inputs with phantom-power (released with a breakout-cable and of course the inputs should be high quality at this price-point) it had been much more interesting.
I agree, but I feel like they were already the apple of the synth world with the original OP 1’s price, especially after the price increased over time. With this mixer and the new OP, they have somehow become so much worse. At least with apple you’ll get a whole computer for the price of this thing!
I really hope TE has given him an OP-1 field as well so that we can see exactly how much better (or even, how different) the new one is from the old one.
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UPDATE: TE just released firmware version 1.1.4 which addresses many of my "cons" (except price...): recording to an SD card (though only stereo for now); the knob value issue when you change what they do; analog sync; presets; more sample rates - check out the full list of updates on their site
Someone else said this, but they really should be known as Midlife Crisis Engineering at this point.
Only teenagers can read the screen 😁
ROFL
Lol couldn’t put my finger on it but that’s exactly what I see when I see their stuff, and the people who actually buy it 😂
Yes! Hahaha 🤣
brilliant!!!
Considering how the underground scene is absolutely bustling right now, I'm glad they've FINALLY made a mixer for ants.
I agree ,you have to be one of 'the borrowers' or be a 4 year old savant , to use that micro boutique stuff,it's got silly.
@@regplasma7906 its portable this is a great idea
@@michelvanderwall8710 the point you're missing is that innovation like this costs lots and lots of money. It's also essential for progress to happen. No, it may not be for you or your budget but be thankful there are punters out there prepared to stump up the dollars so that the majority can enjoy the knock offs by the likes of Behringer a few. years down the track. If you expect to live in a world of cheap stuff that somehow magically requires no RnD or just steals it from some place where all the RnD is performed for free then you are the "an joke" in this case, not TE ;-)
@@bondi5000 yea aite
Teenage Engineering would like to remind people to have a minimum of 5 succulent plants around your set up before purchasing
😂
I only have two succulents. Is this the right mixer for me? 😂
Genius , ha ha
Bahaha that and perhaps a piece of lego
Pour over coffee to keep the rhythms going
If Loopop won’t convince me of buying one, no one else will…
Truer words have seldom been said. What a weird product...
And it’s still a no.
Cool product to exist though.
He has convinced me by this video that it os completely useless for my setup, especially because I have large fingers. I have a Zoom F8n lying around that works great, and I’ll probably upgrade that to the F8n Pro.
same here and my 1010 Music Bluebox does what I need for half cost.
After watching the review I'm genuinely impressed by the feature set. Totally impractical though. Needs to be twice the size and half the price.
Just 20-30%% bigger would be perfect just so the knobs are more accessible. The OP-1 and OP-Z are so cool as performance devices and that’s clearly a goal for this with the FX buttons, but with the knobs so tiny it looks tough to accurately use for a performance
Yep double the size half the cost and... I'm just going to get the 1010 bluebox.
Even half the price is toooooo much at all!
Yeah have you tried to program their modular operators? Well this seems even worse!!
Buy now
What a mad lad bringing out the Aliexpress cables to make this thing usable
but my ocd was triggered when i spotted the crooked connections.
🤣 Holy dope
Great review as usual! I hope this device will influence other manufacturers to make their own small portable mixer and use the vast amount of comments generated by the TX6 as a checklist for what to include and what to avoid.
it seems to me that is precisely the role that teenage engineering has in this industry and that is to influence everyone else, with every new device they've made (except for the POM series which was a disaster) although if they've had partnered with another company who knew the analog world better like dreadbox or bastl instruments the POM series would have been also absolutely great
Twice as big would have still been tiny, but actually practical. It feels so weird seeing normal human hands trying to work with this tiny piece, no matter how well it‘s made.
Young eyes help too it looks like
My exact thoughts. Even 3 or 4 times the size would not be a problem, since it would still fit in a pocket. This feels sooo over engineered
What is this? A mixer for ants? Make it at least three times as big.
this along with no recorder makes the product a total fail in my book. Price aside, it was made too small no recorder and high price tag. WTF will buy it and why?
Also, the thing with the OP-1 at least is that, while it is very nicely designed, it is NOT well made. It's functional and it's fine, but they fail at a high rate.
For that price I'd rather get the SSL Six mixer. It may not have all the features, but hey, it's an SSL, and has the master bus compression, and a more useful form factor. Or even a full-fledged DJ mixer with USB I/O & FX.
Allen and Heath Mixwizard is friggin great, too. I’m surprised more synth heads don’t use them. Kinda huge, I guess. But such a great mixer.
@@kelseysoloway5468 SiX has less channels than the TX-6
@@Leviathan-mj8gi The SSL six is also made in china 🙂
@@Leviathan-mj8gi sure you did 🙂
SiX won't interface with a computer either
With your crazy amount of knowledge and the amount of gear you’ve reviewed would love to see a video of the stuff you keep going back to over time. Like a hall of fame, or recommendations for starting from scratch.
You'd think for a company so focused on design, the Tx, would be the same width/height as the OP-1, so they could sit side by side seamlessly, but the Tx is way smaller, so it looks kind of awkward. I actually think the Tx is TOO small, in a way that seems impractical, even for a mini mixer.
I keep thinking the same thing. Why all the different sizes?! Especially for this and the new OP-1 field since they are both part of the field series.
That's a very solid (and uncommonly for this comment / envy section unbiased) point.
Here's my cheap alternative: 6/12 ch moukey mini mixer ($60), PO 33 sampler/sequencer/fx unit ($99), GarageBand IOS daw (free).total =$160. No thank you TE
I have Moukey mixers in my DAWless kit and they’re fantastic “normal” small footprint devices.
I honestly only came here for a feeling of solidarity with other commenters for whom this laughably-priced product 100% misses the mark.
For real. I would totally use this because I can quite literally fit this and an OP-Z in my pocket and bust them out while I'm at the park. Makes for a nice compliment to a hyper-portable setup that can fit in a small sling-bag alongside a few other synths.
If only it weren't so expensive. :(
It's called validation
@@jamescruz8678 If you are only bringing an OP-Z though then what do you need a mixer for.
@@Funkbutterfly I never said I'm bringing just an OP-Z. Only that I can fit both that and this mixer in my pocket, if I really wanted to. Realistically, I'd also bring around a few Volcas or a Softpop or some other weird tiny synths.
Aaah, fine envy.
Dear Loopop, great review/tutorial as always...I just love what TE has done here, although I can not afford it 😅, and I am also absolutely sure that your review is going to help them make it better in the coming firmware updates
TE is laughing all the way to the bank.
@@billodonnell4322they have already updated the firmware on their way to the bank, you can now directly record on any flash card!
@@xorshidjomjomeh80 whoopie.
@@billodonnell4322
thank god that under the free market
you have a choice,
nothing is mandatory,
and you don't have to like or do
anything that the stupid gullible people (like me!)
like or do
so yeah whoopie!
My favorite thing I've seen about this is the people who have taken pictures showing that you literally cannot plug certain 1/8" cables into it because the ports are too close together. DESIGN!
To be fair, 1010 Bluebox is the same. The price of miniaturization I guess.
When using design as a curse word it is probably spelled DeZeGn!!!
@@Leviathan-mj8gi but the TE leads do give a wider soundstage, better timing and an open midrange.
@@Leviathan-mj8gi no, i was in on your joke! I used to sell hifi and the old snake oil spills out. I don't buy apple because of this design choice bs - give me a headphone jack or lose my money.
@@Leviathan-mj8gi fender do that with some of their guitar leads, but you have to remember to keep the original package! Guarantees DO offer value IMHO
the world needs more portable mixers - but the world of portable mixers for sure doesn't need teenage engeneering.
agree and put a portable battery powered mixer with recorder for a winning music tool. TX-6 was a good start but failed to achieve these things.
The price is a shame
@@texacomann I'd be in for a 100 bux.
It has less abilities than a 50 dollar android cheapo phone, and it looks like it would scuff instantly or shortly thereafter, unless they sell a cellphone type of case for it for under 400.
DIY is the answer
@@texacomann I guess rich people are the intended market. If I was super wealthy, I'd grab one just to keep in my purse or whatever and it would help even with djing or impromptu crap when at friends houses.
what's weird to me is the choice to make the on/off switch stick out of the side of the device. if you're using it next to other devices, it won't line up properly. weird design choice if you're so set on making everything as compact as possible
My opz knows this feeling, with the power pot on the side and the aux cable on the other, nothing can sit directly next to the op-z
Such a weird design choice. Same with the OP-Z and new OP-1. It’s just begging to get snapped off.
First thing that caught my attention too.
Many of the comments here are more about strategy; bad strategy, good execution of this bad strategy. But this thing really is a design error, which is kind of weird, as the entire raison d'etre of this unit is designy-ness
Just a recessed slider would have done the trick. No accidental power offs or breakages. It's a silly design language thing left over from the OP-Z I think.
I first thought it was a microSD card, I’m twice disappointed now.
If you are looking for something like this simply on a similar size scale and without the effects, check out the Maker Hart LOOP Mixer. It's what I used to mixer my pocket operators back when I had them in a portable setup. All for $60-80, plus an adaptor for a brick to power it.
Exactly this.
Thank you for mentioning the price early on in the video. I think that should be a default for any gear/product review, so we can avoid watching videos about gear we can't afford anyway and not trigger our GAS.
It’s small size is unfortunately offset by the need to also bring a scanning electron microscope and robotic hands in order to move the knobs cleanly.
This comment section is golden.
lol
How is it possible for a "design company" to make so many poor design choices?
reminds me of those calculator watches from the 80s/90s where the buttons were so small you couldnt press them individually with your fingers and had to use the tip of a pencil 🙃
By putting form over function.
And yet many buy and love it
@@xfghffhfg if you say so. what I see is every store has tons of stock while other products are sold out everywhere. maybe some love it, many though? It doesn't seem to be flying off the shelves. But hey if people do love it that is great for them!
@@dirtyduchamp just sold out at Thomann
can you imagine how they made the decision to not include an on-board recorder, but give you completely useless synth engines instead? (and you can’t change my mind about that one)
I think it’s a weird product. Not in a good way.
Agreed. Could stand to be a bit feature poorer. Why add a synth and drum machine? I would think anyone plunking down over 1k for a micro mixer has a synth and a drum machine in their setup. Hence the reason for 6/12 channels. ???
A synth in a mixer is just weird, but I was intrigued until I found out no midi keyboard connectivity is possible. Its more of a tone generator than something you can actually play. Who wants to play the worlds lamest, functionless, digital synth?
apparently they were smart enough to know a firmware update that includs a recorder will boost sales a month after release 🙂
@@stephanrewind Not really, its not bad impression and it's not a fix. this is firstly a mixer, and maybe secondly an audio interface. don't be fool by our commenters noise :) it's very small and most don't care, they will buy it just by the way it looks. Advertising a new picture or a new video and give a reason to enlarge exposure over and over again is much more powerful than people rant on the comment section about one extra feature. This is how social media and dedicated website works.
Its actually a very swedish thing to do, elektron use to hide +drive (more storage) inside their analog machines and than after some month release an update that enlarge the quantity of the presets by a factor of 100x or more, its making it news worthy for reviewer to make a new video, website to publish the update and lot's of posts on social media, the more times a machine will get to the headline (no matter why) the more exposure it will get, the more unit will be sold.
Great review. I like the "non-pros" and "non-cons" idea a lot.
The TX-6 seems filled with non-pros tbh. A bluetooth midi controller with too small pots and some faders? Why?
I’m sure multitrack recording will be built into the TX-6 Field, available soon for $2999!
TE is laughing all the way to the bank.
Thanks for a great video as always!
Regarding having to do tempo sync manually - there's a tap tempo function on the FX1 button. Not easily discovered since I don't think it's documented in the manual.
It's a bit sad to see how much hate this thing gets - it's not like there haven't always been overpriced audio equipment. I personally love it, great for all my use cases.
Thanks! Yes, that's in the manual, and I show in the video that if you press FX2 you can "reset" the clock when it's running. Indeed it's sad to see hate in general, but if you remove the tone from some the more extreme comments I think there's a message that should be listened to
At half the price, the 1010Music Bluebox seems like the much better value. But, hey, if absolutely have to have battery power, be able carry your mixer in your pocket, and have the cash, then go for it. Haha.
After seeing this, the bluebox was such a turn on for a small mixer but its not an audio interface. I think thats the difference there, 12 in on OSX. The last mixer I had with 12 in was a big ass Mackie Onyx Firewire. Bluebox does have that internal recorder which is nice but if you're all computer DAW, you want all those channels streaming into your computer separately. The cost does suck. I want a Tesla, cost sucks. I want a fresh pair of Nike's, cost sucks. I want a Mac studio, cost sucks. Kinda how it is when its premium.
the bluebox is great, sound great with a monster EQ, independent 12 channels, 3 fx send and recording capabilities.
I think even if the TX6 was half the price I would still prefer the bluebox... unless small is mandatory (although the blusbox is very small too)
For sure! Pair it with a Blackbox and it's a mighty duo. 1010 has come up with an awesome portable form factor. I hope they keep developing boxes on the same platform.
I wish Bluebox was also an audio interface
@@hasan7786 Except premium also means premium build and customer service. TE is not that.
As somebody who just had a bluebox delivered today, I think I made the right choice. And if I didn't, I can dry my tears with all of the tissues I could buy with the £700 I saved.
man, don't doubt your decision just enjoy your new device, they are both great 😊
@@xorshidjomjomeh80 I was just joking. I'm not doubting anything. I'm just really excited to explore the bluebox and use it to get some tracks down!
@@thomnewton9024 oh ok , got it ... have fun brother ✌😊
Can’t imagine what the TX-32 is going to cost.
Price aside, I feel myself getting carpal tunnel just watching you twisted those tiny knobs. Thing needs to be twice the size and half the cost.
I like the form factor and idea that it pairs perfectly with an iPhone setup. I wish it had nearly no effects or synth function and purely focused on mix bus features and cost half the price
Good points…but 600 dollars would still be wayyy too much. 200 would be the absolute max I’d pay for a simplistic mixer.
J-6 vs.TX-6? yep, you convinced me...gonna buy the Roland.
Having a battery guarantees a limited shelf life, and the size seems appealing at first, especially for pocket operator folks, but the price keeps it targeted at the wrong demographic. I can’t understand who they were making this for, and why add to the overall cost by including a limited synthesizer?
Do you? Who are they?
@@sacredgeometry "Do you"? "Who are they"? Teenage Engineering?
@@craigmoran893 Teenage Engineering are their own target demographic?
Thats an interesting answer, I am not sure that is a particularly sustainable business model.
The OP-Z at least has a fully replaceable battery, just open it up and put a new one in. Same with the Deluge. So I wouldn't say a battery "guarantees" a limited shelf life for most devices. Not sure if the TX-6 battery is replaceable.
@@richardharris9708 They got it into the device. It is replaceable even if its a pain to do it.
Thanks for the review, Loopop! Would love to have one. This product release is also the best thing ever happened to my beloved 1010music Bluebox.
You need this to mix your six OP-1 field instruments.
These days you can buy a 48 input Yamaha PM 4000 console for $100. Those were close to six figures new. But you need minimum of 4 strong friends to help you lift it.
While I'm trying to deal with the learning curve of combining small form factor synths without DAW in a musical way, the last thing I want to have an even steeper learning curve, is the mixer I'm using.
It's a NO from me dawg.
No for me as well dawg
Yeah. I ended up getting a couple of Beringer MicroMixers
hahahaha "it's a NO from me dawg." hahahaha randy jackson quote thats awesome
me too! its also a no from me dawg
@@triggerwarning5762 and probably a car, a meal, and paid rent with the left over cash you would have spent on this tiny overpriced mixer
1200????? I can buy an entire setup for that price :( But as always thanks for your in depth video!!
I think that is ab-so-lu-te-ly INSANE
Instead of an OP-1f and TX-6 and TE's fancy speaker... You could get a MPC Live 2 and have a portable solution which is more powerful, more compact, and a small fraction of the cost. ($3850 + cables vs $1300)
If you are doing a gig with me and you bring any new Teenage Engineering gear, then I assume you are paying for all the drinks.
Or I assume you got a second mortgage to pay for it and you have no money for anything else.
If you are doing a gig with me I dictate financial decisions for that night by my assumption how much money you have.
If they had just made a full sized version of this (like something model cycles sized) and used that space to flesh out its features/fix some of its quirks a little more, for the same price, I'm sure it would be absolutely dominating the market. There are plenty of people who would be able to do some incredible things with it, Loopop being one of them. If they absolutely had to release a tiny one then they could have done this as a cheaper little brother to a bigger one.
Another great review. Still nothing that demonstrates a viable use-case for something this tiny that doesn’t make the user look like either a fool or epically vain.
Thanks for This review Loopop.
Refreshing to see a video of it that is actually objective!
Incredible device for artists and engineers. The AD/DA alone makes it worth the price. It sounds better than my Apollo. I use it as an aggregate device with my Apollo twin.
I would never entertain something that size.
Not good if you have fat fingers or your eyesight is not up to scratch.
And the price.
As for the knobs being small a workaround would be to 3d print a single larger knob to fit over one at a time for easy adjustment.
Excellent review thank you for your time and dedication.
For alternatives in the sense of mini-mixers - Mookey Stereo/Mono Mixer 4 stereo in, one stereo out 5 level controls, micro USB powered. The caveat is that these kinds of mixers do not come with a separate monitoring port for headphones, and this makes it good only for the purposes of busking and jamming with friends outside. Having said that, - I've used a Mookey for years in conjunction with my Mackie and Behringer studio mixers. I basically used it as a separate FX sends for 4 of my stereo-capable synths, and as such it performed marvelously, and didn't even suffer from feedback loop issues or excessive noise if powered by the device's or computer's USB ports. Very tight, heavy set, sturdy pots too. For something that cost less than $40 CAD I was duly impressed.
I love your presentations 🔥🙏🏻🔥 without a doubt TE could have made this device double the size for better control without loosing anything - seems like they just wanted to build the smallest „pro mixer“ ever 🙄 .. portable - but not for „live tweaking“
The passive (no power supply/battery needed) MC-5 mixer, available for less than $50 online, has 4 stereo inputs, has low noise and is built well.
Yeah… I love my Little Bear mixer!
I find this to be a really odd device. It has a lot of features that seem sort of half baked or just too tedious for me to actually want to use. Outside of the mixer itself and some built in effects, the rest comes across as extra stuff that makes it more expensive and doesn’t really need to be there.
A small portable mixer has a market and I guess you could tandem it with a phone or iPad to record remotely if you wanted but if you want to make it this portable, not being able to record directly onto it necessitates another piece of equipment to be used so you sort of lose the benefit of it being so tiny compared with a slightly larger mixer that can record to a SD card.
I would have rather seen this a bit closer to the size of a Volca to space things out a bit, not have cable size be an issue, provide room for a few more buttons so not everything is a menu dive, and have space for a SD card to record direct. And scrap the drum and synth features, since they seem not super functional, tedious, and not really necessary on a mixer anyway. This device seems like on of those things that sounds like a good idea in concept but that I’d never actually use in practice. Or that a company makes to show that they can do it without really thinking if they should.
I would love to see a teardown of this thing to see how they have cramped everything inside. I think if it had built-in recording capabilities with an SD card, the price would be easier to justify, especially if it could write 12 track WAV/FLAC recordings. It seems like they chose good hardware for a full-digital mixer (all of the ADCs and DACs are 32-bit and at least 192kHz+ -- although not sure how they have them configured. possibly running internally at 32-bit/48kHz, which may by why that's the only sample rate they support over USB audio). No hardware MIDI input does suck, though. Seems clear it was intended for use with an iPhone (an iPad would dwarf it) -- do people actually make music on iPhones.. intentionally? lol
Yeah your phone or tablet is where you would multi track record to, like into GarageBand. For midi, you would just need to connect your phone to your midi device, and then you can control it from TX-6 via Bluetooth.
I like this minimal approach. While this mixer is very expensive, I think if it had a multi-track recorder built in the price would be even higher. And most people who will buy one will likely have a capable smartphone, tablet or computer, so it would almost be redundant.
As for people making music on their iPhones, I think if you are into portable synths and music making, your phone or tablet likely will be a part of that setup in someway, because there are so many powerful apps as well as Bluetooth midi connectivity etc.
I think I would prefer something a lot cheaper than TX-6. Perhaps just the inputs for multi track recording and the portability, as you can do the mixing and effects etc from GarageBand or some other app.
I love the idea, a small mixer that can mix 6 stereo synths. Why is it so hard to find small mixers with more than 2 connections?
There was definitely a gap in the market, it's just a shame that Teenage Engineering filled it. There's always the 1010Music BlueBox, but the lack of physical controls put me off
Loopop. I would like to comment on your music. It's very nice and part of what draws us to your expertise. Thank you for these little gems
Ok it's expensive no doubt BUT what's with this thing size?? It looks absolutely unusable. Even with small fingers you WILL touch other faders while trying to adjust one :) LOL Look at how this encoders wobble for 1.2k$ (+fees it will be around 1500) Overall I really like the idea of it and it's really don't have competitors now BUT PRICE / SIZE / WOBBLINES / NOT RECORDING For this price it SHOULD be able to record audio to internal memory. Teenage Engineering you shold change something :)
It's ok, I'm sure they'll release some kind of Lego-like knob extender for $50 a piece at some point
They can’t hear you… they are totally deaf when it comes to anyones opinion other than their own.
most of the mad comments are mad about it missing features it literally has. as someone with no hardware FX units, is in desperate need of a mixer in a live setup and wanting the ability to quickly record ideas, this is phenomenal. Is it expensive? yes? will I buy it? IDK, maybe one day. its essentially a 12ch mono mixer which is more than any hardware synth setup could possibly need. (6 stereo channels, yes you will have to gain stage and treat each stereo channel as a VCA controlling 2 mono channels essentially, hardly a reason to be mad). I feel teenage engineering is at the point where people complain because its the cool new thing to hate. You cant find this feature set in any other mixer and ESPECIALLy not in this size. If the size is a problem for you, it's clearly not for you. go buy something else lmao.
This sets a clear roadmap for other hardware developers. Drop the gimicky shit, add onboard recording to wav files, and drop the price by half or more, and you have a market changing money printer.
Well said 👍
The 1010 blue box comes to mind.
@@spiegelkind2387 big thing missing there is it cannot be an audio interface..this thing would be nice to use with ableton live..The size is too small to reap any of the benefits of all the hands on knobs though. Half the price and twice the size without the synth and I am buying.
@@jmahoneywaav True. I've been looking at Zoom's ZL-8 lately. Live track mixer with built in recorder and 12 in/4 out interface that runs on 4 AA batts. Plus it's got actual faders, which are a must.
I think TE should send everyone who has commented on this review a free TX-6. Great review. They should drop the Synth engines and drum machine and add an on board recorder in future updates. Not enough memory for the feature? Add microSd compatibility via the USB! Boom!
For the outro song I was expecting to see a hand holding tweezers.
Excellent overview of the TX-6! For me the two main issues are the way too small size and high price tag. Lack of a recorder is a third problem. I already have mixers and audio interfaces and tons of synths so this is not really a need for me. I do love my OP-1 that is their best product offering so far.
My Barbie doll found two big cons: 1) It’s too big. 2) Teenage Engineering won’t accept Monopoly money.
Makes the slides and pots on the Roland boutique JP-08 look massive and extremely useable!
This reminds me of those videos where people cook tiny burgers using tiny utensils. Cute but useless
How it it useless? This thing save so much desk space.
I think it’s funny how many people assume size is relevant in music.
Well, this review shall put my faith in Loopop objectivity to the test. Let’s see...
Let me know how it goes
This is a seriously dope idea, I've been looking for a battery powered mixer for a while. But at this point I've been using an interface with an iPad pro which is still $300 at least cheaper and has way more flexibility and functionality.
The size as others have said is just way too small to be functional for performance, and I wish it had two audio inputs instead of one.
So if someone made a $600 (although preferably more like $300) battery mixer with a better audio I/O setup, I'd be so down.
There are many mini mixers in the market which can be powered via USB. You just have to connect a power bank and you have your portable mini mixer for a fraction of the price...
But you are right: an iPad connected with a good mini keyboard or whatever equipment you want is the best solution: so much more possibilities for far less. And you can export your songs as midi files to a DAW once you have finished.
I bought a Behringer XENYX 1002B and a Tascam DP-006 for around $100 each. Both batterie powered. I love the Behringer 1002B. Best mixer I ever owned in terms of battery powered. The Tascam 006 is ok. I wanna see a combination of the two that multitracks.
@@thedeepblueskys yeah I have the xenyx it's been pretty good, but it has gotten very noisy after some years now using it
@@nashatkins8883Right on, then your on top of the battery powered mixer game. I know what ya mean about how they get noisy. Did ya ever try taking it apart and blowing out the dust and all the little crevices of it with can air spray? I also apply a small amount of geese on the pot stems. Seems to help in my case. That and replacing audio cables.
I'm even more happy with my purchase after this video. Loopop, you da king of gear reviews!
IMHO, this is the end of Teenage Engineering. Unreasonably expensive gear with quasi-luxury and quasi-elite status that you can buy..
If anyone is considering buying it, I recommend to have a look into the 1010music bluebox mixer first. About half the price, lots of features as well, larger font size on the screen, bigger buttons and potties 😉. I'm very happy with mine.
I've no idea what it takes to manufacture a product this small. Seems to have quite a share of features. I respect it.
Thank you very much for this. Alway appreciate your reviews.
The knob-position-value oversight mentioned around 13:00 is hilarious. How did this not come up when testing? It's almost like they assume no one who buys this will be serious about using it... Can't fault them for that at least
Yes, this is an absolute joke.
FINALLY A REVIEW OF THIS THING!
If they had added the ability to record this would be a more attractive acquisition.
A mixer isn't an audio interface. It's strange to me in looking at the comments that so many people don't seem to know the difference. Though I'm a big Loopop fan and find him to be perhaps the most valuable resource in the world for people who want to make electronic music, I don't think the "myvolts" mixer mentioned as an alternative is very helpful as myvolts is not even an audio interface, it's a mixer. Audio interfaces that can give me 12 separate DAW channels like this (not only two like a mixer) usually cost over $1000; some of them are over $2000 or $3000 and of course they don't have the added feature of being a micro-miniature device with a tiny desktop footprint and portability and all the other nice features this one has. I don't like some of the TE devices, but to me this is one of several things they have that obviously offer something unique, are very useful, and are not at all overpriced for what they are.
These pots wiggling worse than mini pots on cheap eurorack modules. Where is that premium machined quality?
yeah, that was something I certainly didn't expect to see. This is the first REALLY close up view on TH-cam.
Such a neat device. If I could afford it I would totally purchase one. Cool demo sir.
I really like the features and I see the gaping hole in the market for this but it is too small by about 3x for actual use IMO. Would love to see some manufacturers step up and make a useable one.
At half the price you can get a 1010 Bluebox with more features. No battery though.
This device does fill a hole in the market... but that hole is even smaller than the TX-6.
The synth is to the tx6 what the helicopter game is to the op1.
This beat is pure fire!!
"what is this? a mixer for ants?"
your reviews are *really* thorough 🔥🔥🔥
The TASCAM Porta Studio is not as nice but at least it records for $229! Behringer flow 8 has presets at least.
An excellent review, as always. You identify the pros and cons very well. The lack of any possibility to save the state is a bizarre omission .
The synth and sequencer are useless features in my view. Not sure what they were thinking…
This looks like an interesting design exercise and would be good fun for a trade fair to show off what the company’s engineers can achieve, but it doesn’t have what it takes to be a marketable product.
I expect it to be dropped pretty soon. Not many people will be buying it until the price drops below 500…
At least we got an entertaining review out of it, so we’re grateful 😉.
I can't see them dropping this for a while, they haven't dropped any of their instruments before. The Polaroid camera/the robotic arm thingy/the CAD printer thingy, maybe, but not their music gear. Especially because it's part of a series of gear, and as we all know, folk love their collections, regardless of if they will be useful or not. If anything, this in two years time will be even more expensive than what it is right now, and it will remain on some folk's radars as more people do their cute videos. Justifications will be made, practicalities will be forgotten. Until a year down the track and you realise it's become best friends with your PO-400, happily collecting dust together. I could save for one, but I've no use for it. I've been opening the window to let the dust out on a lot of stuff ive desired, bought and used sod all times.
… and no worries! TE are soon releasing the the TX-P1 pincers and the TX-M2 magnifying glass to be able to control this thing, bundled for only additional $600.
This tx6 is amazing. I'm blown away by the small form factor. Rides with my ipad and opz
There is always Bastl Dude if somebody needs tiny portative mixer (and you can use rechargeable batteries)
No other company would allow their engineers to build something so expensive and impractical just because it’s cool. Working for TE must be one hell of a ride.
Honestly, I was scared to watch this video, because I didn't want loopop to convince me to buy it
Great remarks, as always.
I can't get over the absurd price of this thing. Even at a quarter of the price, I'd balk at the cost. Here's hoping this inspires another company to produce something for a more reasonable price.
Hear that, Uli?
Here’s lookin at you behringer
At a quarter of the price, and not quite as tiny, and not with the stupid "always in panel mode" knobs situation, they wouldn't be able to keep up with demand. Even at half the price and a little bigger, this thing would be everywhere.
Much depends on audio quality in comparison to your existing gear.
@@HousePlantBand maybe they can make an op-1 clone as well, 2,000 for the new version is stupid
Midlife Engibehring.
Zoom r20 and an sp 404 mk II are literally half the price bundled together and feature way more than this could ever offer alone when it comes to building a song.
I have no problem with gear being small, but this seems uncomfortably small!
I think this thing has a pretty cool design. If I wanted to be unrealistic then motorized faders would have made it perfect (ha!). My only complaints were that it didn't have a high Z input, I couldn't get transport controls to drive my DAW (not sure if it is possible) and that the FX (send) can't be combined (i.e. reverb and delay together). I'm excited about future updates that might add new features.
"...and seemingly regardless of cost"
Great overview as per usual, I hope TE, send you an OP1-F .
Can’t think of one use for this other than you have 1200 to waste on hipster factor. Typical TE gadget.
One word
1,119 us dollars
Let that sink in
honestly the multi track to an iPhone on battery power in such a small device is super dope.
stunning array in a gorgeous case
Isn't it weird that TE can fit so many 1/8" jacks on a device of this size, but most phone manufacturers can't even fit one on a 6" or larger phone?
Ah. yes, but phones get wet, sometimes.
Not really hehe
Thanks for another great video Loopop! This is a beautifully engineered product that imo is too (unnecessarily) small and simply too expensive, despite its high desirability factor (Kudos to TE on the industrial design). Other potential alternatives worth mentioning in a mobile or "field" space (obviously without all features!) are the Roland GO:MIXER PRO-X (stereo out only) or the Behringer Flow 8 which I believe can be a multi track audio interface also. Both of these have stereo input options and mic/48v phantom also.
Not to mention the Bastl Dude, the TC Helicon Blender, the Volca Mix, the Zoom R8, etc etc etc. The landscape of much-cheaper alternatives is pretty large, and unless someone specifically needs this particular combination of ultra-tiny and feature-packed, there are plenty of other options that either a) have tons of features and are just as portable if you just leave a few of your Clif Bars behind, or b) are just as tiny and didn't shoe-horn in features you will never use.
Loopop, love your thoroughness in reviews, but this time I think the Alternatives section did viewers a disservice by making it seem like the portable mixer space has far fewer options than it actually does.
Sound Devices Mixpre series also
@@JonathanVanMatrePersonal I guess to compare apples to apples, only mixers that can multitrack audio over USB or with a dedicated audio interface should be considered? There are millions of small analogue mixers on the market.
@@JonathanVanMatrePersonal I agree with you about loopop not presenting real alternatives to this overpriced gadget.
Loopop is quite mild to call the synths a “non pro” rather than a “con” given that it is actually the synth modes that mess up the knob positions of the mixer. Even if TE can come up with a fix for the knobs, I would consider the design of this thing much more elegant if there was no synth at all, and less options in menus is also always a pro, so adding options for a feature that is almost a gimmick, I would just prefer to call that a “con” instead of a “non pro”.
The knob position issue is absolutely a "con" but it has nothing to do with the synths, it's applicable if you're using the knobs interchangeably to control the EQ, filter, FX and aux sends, compressor, etc even if there wasn't a synth at all. Anyway, I'm just clarifying my point, it's of course valid to say too many features is a con as opposed to a "non pro" which is why I love this comment section :)
@@loopopthank you for correcting the factual information. I did watch the complete video and saw you using the encoder with the synths to select the waveform. But somehow my head still mixed the synths with the knob issue. Anyways regardless of the knob issue I think this device would be better off and more elegant it just was a mixer, and didn’t waste menu options to features that distract from its primary function
Great review, if it had a multitrack-recorder and two XLR mic-inputs with phantom-power (released with a breakout-cable and of course the inputs should be high quality at this price-point) it had been much more interesting.
TE has become an iProduct accessory brand.
I agree, but I feel like they were already the apple of the synth world with the original OP 1’s price, especially after the price increased over time. With this mixer and the new OP, they have somehow become so much worse. At least with apple you’ll get a whole computer for the price of this thing!
I really hope TE has given him an OP-1 field as well so that we can see exactly how much better (or even, how different) the new one is from the old one.