I'm taking advantage of everyone ditching the op-1 for the field and buy the OG. I sold my OG for 1200, buy it now for 7. I don't see enough of a difference between them that couldn't be done with software I already own. I think the Field is just a bunch of air hisses you can add to a stereo version of the samples and after you start in one mode you can't change. You can do that in post. You fix that, add in some other extras, maybe I could see it. I just don't.
Thanks for the comparison, very useful! Would've preferred the background music to be entirely muted during comparisons though rather than super quiet. But that's just me. I think a lot of the sonic differences will come with recording to tape from external sources, especially stereo ones. I didn't plan to use my OP-1 in that fashion, but I really like doing so. Field will be so much better for this. I totally get what you're saying about it sounding like your music, vs sounding like your music played on OP-1.
Thanks! Glad you found it useful. And yes, recording to tape and sampling to it are actually the main ways I use it as well, which was why this change was so important to me, but that didn't feel like the most useful way to compare them for most users, so I decided to focus entirely on the presets. It's funny that you mention the background music, because I debated that for a while and landed on this as the balance (for some reason the silence following an intro with underlying music felt too stark), but I also was concerned that the music would color the output so I basically pulled it down until I felt like it added something back without interfering. I actually intended it to almost be sub-audible, but not sure I succeeded at that. I'll reconsider for next time. :)
great comparison! the rough takeaway (excluding many other parameters): if you like thumping bass the Op-1 may be better, if you like clarity in the highs, the field wins hands down.
Thanks! Yeah, and I was only showing the field in its full-spectrum form, I have no doubt that it can generate the exact same sounds as the original with a little tweaking. Enough folks are mentioning that part that it might be worth a follow-up video.
Idk I've made quite a few tracks with my OP-1 and they sound pretty slick. I do take them into a DAW for final work, but the OP-1 just has a special vibe. Love the field just not the price.
But I have to admit that I still like the op-1 better. I think it has more character than the field. Just the visuals are way more characteristic than the ones on the field. But it totally depends on what your preferences are.
The og op-1 has 24 bit 96khz converters and it's far from lofi imo. if you abuse the drive/release settings things can get pretty crunchy though. The main limitation is the fact that the tracks are the mono. The new version has 32 bit audio and a more capable processor/ram/storage. I think it's a great long term investment and I'm sure it will grow over time
Nice video. Thanks for doing this. Clear difference. No question. The field has higher fidelity. So much so, it seems to lose a touch of the soul of the OP1. Nice to have the multiple tapes. I don’t know. Really think a potential buyer should really consider the use case and desired end product before paying the extra cost.
an extra 700 for hifi audio is pretty rough lol. Hard to ignore it after you hear it though. I'm not in the market but I would have a hard time choosing lol
@@tristandeniet Agree. I have the OG OP-1. I will not be upgrading. For me, the OP-1 is just for fun, home music production, to put behind family videos, and jam with family. So the OG is absolutely sufficient for this.
Hi, is the field of course is better but what a think is really different is the Eq on the preset. The original Op-1 it seems as if he had a low pass on everything. But if we change the eq, won't we get close to the field? Thank you
Yeah, I’ve been wishing I had shown that because there wasn’t. But I am a bit confused as well as I have since watched some other videos that left me feeling as though other units possibly sound brighter than mine does, though I haven’t researched why that would be.
@@_truck Comparison is pretty powerful. It could be possible that seeing other videos on their own doesn't make the difference apparent. However, the true test would just be to compare your OP-1 with someone else's.
thanx for the video, i'm assuming that both channel eqs on the tx-6 were flat but its probably something that you should have mentioned or demonstrated otherwise the viewer cant really be sure
So, working on a follow-up that I should have out soon. There was something wrong with the original OP-1 that a factory reset corrected. They sound much more similar after that, so I can’t decide if I should take this video down as it is unintentionally misleading.
I’m not sure what you’re suggesting, but as I’ve said in other comments, the EQ was the same and I’m unsure why it sounds different than other units, but I did no processing in post, if that’s what you’re suggesting. Also, there’s way more to it than just EQ. The fidelity (sampling rate, stereo field depth) is much higher on the field, but depending on the device you’re listening on, that may or may not be easily apparent.
This is an interesting one. I'm not sure I've had issue with pops and clicks on the original when looping, but I need to see if I can recreate what you're talking about. Can you say more about your setup/process when you experience this? Do you mean looping the tape via the in and out points? Or looping the samples in the sampler? If the latter, when you define loop points, are you careful to set them at zero-crossings in the waveform? That may be the issue that would cause clicks and pops. I loop the tape on both units in the video, and there are no clicks and pops, but I'm careful to tempo match, and loop on bar segments (snapping to the tape grid).
Totally unrelated, but your voiceover and however you're processing it (if at all) is really pleasant - seems like it has a little but of distortion on it or something. Weird thing to mention, but having an easy voice to listen to is a big + on YT.
If it's stereo, you probably have a different chip set. How the original square, triangle, ect waves are produced. An oscilloscope would shed some light. Also, the output amplifier would be of different construction.
I’m actually working on a follow-up video to correct whatever happened here. Somehow the signal chain was not correct. I did a factory reset on both and it got them in much closer alignment, though the character of the differences (fidelity) is similar. I can’t decide if I should take this video down or leave it up for posterity since it does still serve in demonstrating the sound of the field accurately.
@@_truck It was obvious to me something was wrong with the chain as my OP-1 has never sounded that muddy and dark. Not blaming you, everybody make mistakes, I love the video and I would love to see a proper comparison!
I think it could be dead-on with some different settings and tweaking, and it sounds like it might be worth a quick video to demonstrate that. Making the field sound like the original I think would be pretty easy. It's the other direction that's not possible, which was why I focused on that first.
Yeah, I think it would get it closer, but might still require some intentional high-end rolloff. I’ll experiment a bit and see what I can come up with and throw up an opposite video to get the field sounding like the original when I have a little time to edit (working on pt2 of a studio breakdown series at the moment, so will likely finish that one first unless I need a break from it. haha)
I know you already talked about it but when you’re doing a sound comparison background music definitely needs to be cut. Hard to do a detailed comparison to see if there’s any noise or character differences when there’s music playing in the background.
without a doubt the op-f sounds better, with more clarity, width whatever. But something that doesn't come up to often is just how good the sound staging is, the OG-1 always felt flat for my ears, whereas the op-z has really elegant staging. Very good to see that TE have boosted up the screen brightness by another 25%. How much further can that be pushed I wonder? And why not implement this on the OG-1 (even if there is a whatever percentage battery power trade off)? thanks for the good video.
Sure thing! And yeah, if I understand you correctly, I guess I didn't call that out specifically because I feel like it's related to other factors. While certainly there's an intentional consideration of the sound stage in how the new reverb and dimension synth were designed, it wouldn't really be possible without the move to stereo throughout the signal path, and the increased fidelity, since a lot of what gives a mix that kind of detail happens in the upper ranges of the audio spectrum. I did want to convey it, though, which was why I included the piece of music at the end that uses the dimension synth and the mother reverb pretty heavily. On the screen, I would imagine it's enough of a redesign that it's not possible to integrate on the original, but I haven't seen a teardown yet, so I'm not positive on that. Might just be that they have existing stock of the original and don't want to suddenly discontinue it for a different model. Not sure.
The OG uses oled whereas the field uses led (as far as im aware), so they might already be at the safe brightness limit for the OG without causing burn-in.
I'd say some sounds are better on the original and some are better on the field. I think the FM engine sounds better on the field. If you have both I mean shoot... Can't complain by any means.
It does not justify the price for the being double the original OP-1 for the few extra features to be frank in my opinion. I recon it is due to supply chain issues with a certain country who make these for them at this strange moment in time.
Yeah, I'm not really looking to engage the price debate. In my opinion, the market either will or won't justify their choice in that regard, regardless of what the internal reasons were for it. And I certainly wouldn't suggest that anyone who disagrees with the price should pay for it. For me, the original OP-1 has gone with me everywhere and would have been the perfect little portable studio if it had the features of the field, so I was willing to upgrade. But part of why I wanted to do this video was so people could make an informed choice for themselves as to whether or not they felt the field provided something they needed. For me it did, but for many it probably isn't worth it.
Yeah, I’m not clear on it, either. Going to do a follow-up and be more thorough about everything to see if I can figure it out or at least resolve whatever was going on. This video was very off-the-cuff.
if the background music is yours then you sound like generic melodic techno (and other generic stuff) ... give this original OP1 a chance, maybe you would sound a little more interesting
I'm not sure I understand what you're suggesting. I've had the original OP-1 for many years. "Generic" is subjective, first of all, but A: this was all composed on the OP-1 as noted in the video, and B: it's background music. The aim is to have it be fairly unobtrusive so it doesn't distract from the dialogue. This was meant to be a very quick video. I don't reuse the music I make for these videos (compose it uniquely for each) so for a quick video, I also don't spend ages perfecting the tracks unless they're the entire focus. So... ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Sorry you find it so boring?
both sound like something I would purchase on sale from toysrus. (and I own the original hahaha). My 5 year old iPad can certainly produce better sound quality but TE makes fun toys and interfaces.....maybe the bigger players like Roland, Korg, etc.. could learn a thing or two on making their UI fun
Great comparison. Funnily I watched this thinking I might go for op-1 field if purchasing but i think I preferred the lofi sound to the op original
you can get the same effect on the op 1 field by using the vintage 4 track mode or the cassette porta 4 track
Just throwing it out there, you could have had both playing at once and used the tx6 to solo/mute
Darn! I can’t believe I didn’t think to do that! Way better that way. Will make use of this for the follow-up. Thanks for the suggestion!
That would have been the best way to hear the sound difference...
Definitely a clear difference between the two devices. Nice comparison. Thanks!
For sure! Glad it was useful!
I'm taking advantage of everyone ditching the op-1 for the field and buy the OG. I sold my OG for 1200, buy it now for 7. I don't see enough of a difference between them that couldn't be done with software I already own. I think the Field is just a bunch of air hisses you can add to a stereo version of the samples and after you start in one mode you can't change. You can do that in post. You fix that, add in some other extras, maybe I could see it. I just don't.
Thank you. Xactly what i needed to know
Thanks for the comparison, very useful! Would've preferred the background music to be entirely muted during comparisons though rather than super quiet. But that's just me. I think a lot of the sonic differences will come with recording to tape from external sources, especially stereo ones. I didn't plan to use my OP-1 in that fashion, but I really like doing so. Field will be so much better for this. I totally get what you're saying about it sounding like your music, vs sounding like your music played on OP-1.
Just listened to the Outro music. Sounds great! Doesn't sound like it was done on the OP-1 :)
Thanks! Glad you found it useful. And yes, recording to tape and sampling to it are actually the main ways I use it as well, which was why this change was so important to me, but that didn't feel like the most useful way to compare them for most users, so I decided to focus entirely on the presets.
It's funny that you mention the background music, because I debated that for a while and landed on this as the balance (for some reason the silence following an intro with underlying music felt too stark), but I also was concerned that the music would color the output so I basically pulled it down until I felt like it added something back without interfering. I actually intended it to almost be sub-audible, but not sure I succeeded at that. I'll reconsider for next time. :)
great comparison! the rough takeaway (excluding many other parameters): if you like thumping bass the Op-1 may be better, if you like clarity in the highs, the field wins hands down.
Thanks! Yeah, and I was only showing the field in its full-spectrum form, I have no doubt that it can generate the exact same sounds as the original with a little tweaking. Enough folks are mentioning that part that it might be worth a follow-up video.
Idk I've made quite a few tracks with my OP-1 and they sound pretty slick. I do take them into a DAW for final work, but the OP-1 just has a special vibe. Love the field just not the price.
But I have to admit that I still like the op-1 better. I think it has more character than the field. Just the visuals are way more characteristic than the ones on the field. But it totally depends on what your preferences are.
The og op-1 has 24 bit 96khz converters and it's far from lofi imo. if you abuse the drive/release settings things can get pretty crunchy though.
The main limitation is the fact that the tracks are the mono.
The new version has 32 bit audio and a more capable processor/ram/storage. I think it's a great long term investment and I'm sure it will grow over time
Nice video. Thanks for doing this. Clear difference. No question. The field has higher fidelity. So much so, it seems to lose a touch of the soul of the OP1. Nice to have the multiple tapes. I don’t know. Really think a potential buyer should really consider the use case and desired end product before paying the extra cost.
an extra 700 for hifi audio is pretty rough lol. Hard to ignore it after you hear it though. I'm not in the market but I would have a hard time choosing lol
@@tristandeniet Agree. I have the OG OP-1. I will not be upgrading. For me, the OP-1 is just for fun, home music production, to put behind family videos, and jam with family. So the OG is absolutely sufficient for this.
Hi, is the field of course is better but what a think is really different is the Eq on the preset. The original Op-1 it seems as if he had a low pass on everything. But if we change the eq, won't we get close to the field?
Thank you
Why is there background music for a comparison test?
This video would of been so much better.
This was already addressed (much more politely, I might add) in earlier comments. Seemed reasonable at the time. In hindsight, not the best choice.
on the back of the Op-1 Field, it says OP- 1.5 ... that means this is just a simple improvement. waiting for the OP-2 !
I know that’s you Adam Scott
Haha. Sadly, I don’t have any billboards or tv series to my name.
my op1 doesn’t sound muffled on a few of the same presets, makes me really wonder if there was some eq differences on your op1 eq pages or tx6 pages.
Yeah, I’ve been wishing I had shown that because there wasn’t. But I am a bit confused as well as I have since watched some other videos that left me feeling as though other units possibly sound brighter than mine does, though I haven’t researched why that would be.
(referring to the original OP-1, TX-6 channels were identical)
@@_truck Comparison is pretty powerful. It could be possible that seeing other videos on their own doesn't make the difference apparent. However, the true test would just be to compare your OP-1 with someone else's.
Yup. Unfortunately, I don’t (that I know of) have any friends who own one that aren’t at least a few states away. Haha.
@@_truck rippers
thanx for the video, i'm assuming that both channel eqs on the tx-6 were flat but its probably something that you should have mentioned or demonstrated otherwise the viewer cant really be sure
Yeah, good point. I forgot to mention it, but yes, both channel settings were identical.
So, working on a follow-up that I should have out soon. There was something wrong with the original OP-1 that a factory reset corrected. They sound much more similar after that, so I can’t decide if I should take this video down as it is unintentionally misleading.
@@_truck i'm really interested to see how the followup compares
Am I crazy or does the op1 sound way better?
you're not crazy or we both are...
It sound like eq different.
The original less trable but more body,
The field have more high.
I believe it can be equally by eq play in post
I’m not sure what you’re suggesting, but as I’ve said in other comments, the EQ was the same and I’m unsure why it sounds different than other units, but I did no processing in post, if that’s what you’re suggesting. Also, there’s way more to it than just EQ. The fidelity (sampling rate, stereo field depth) is much higher on the field, but depending on the device you’re listening on, that may or may not be easily apparent.
I would appreciate a comparison of the pops/clicks you hear when looping samples in the tape. If possible, using both the synth and drum samplers.
This is an interesting one. I'm not sure I've had issue with pops and clicks on the original when looping, but I need to see if I can recreate what you're talking about. Can you say more about your setup/process when you experience this? Do you mean looping the tape via the in and out points? Or looping the samples in the sampler? If the latter, when you define loop points, are you careful to set them at zero-crossings in the waveform? That may be the issue that would cause clicks and pops. I loop the tape on both units in the video, and there are no clicks and pops, but I'm careful to tempo match, and loop on bar segments (snapping to the tape grid).
They fixed the worst of the pops and clicks a couple years ago. It is when you transition between recorded tape segments.
WHY DO YOU HAVE ONLY 80 SUBSCRIBERS?!
Haha. Well, technically, this is only my third “real” video, so… I only had 40 a week ago.
Totally unrelated, but your voiceover and however you're processing it (if at all) is really pleasant - seems like it has a little but of distortion on it or something. Weird thing to mention, but having an easy voice to listen to is a big + on YT.
If it's stereo, you probably have a different chip set. How the original square, triangle, ect waves are produced. An oscilloscope would shed some light. Also, the output amplifier would be of different construction.
I wonder if some of the difference could go away by equalising the op1 a bit to pop the higher frequencies
I’m actually working on a follow-up video to correct whatever happened here. Somehow the signal chain was not correct. I did a factory reset on both and it got them in much closer alignment, though the character of the differences (fidelity) is similar. I can’t decide if I should take this video down or leave it up for posterity since it does still serve in demonstrating the sound of the field accurately.
@@_truck th-cam.com/video/QuWhDW8zzM8/w-d-xo.html no big diff here
@@_truck It was obvious to me something was wrong with the chain as my OP-1 has never sounded that muddy and dark. Not blaming you, everybody make mistakes, I love the video and I would love to see a proper comparison!
I wonder how close you could get the field to mimic the op1 if you added a low pass filter to cut some of the top end?
I think it could be dead-on with some different settings and tweaking, and it sounds like it might be worth a quick video to demonstrate that. Making the field sound like the original I think would be pretty easy. It's the other direction that's not possible, which was why I focused on that first.
@@_truck I wonder if you'd have stuck it in one of the more 'vintage' tape modes it'd sound more like the original?
Yeah, I think it would get it closer, but might still require some intentional high-end rolloff. I’ll experiment a bit and see what I can come up with and throw up an opposite video to get the field sounding like the original when I have a little time to edit (working on pt2 of a studio breakdown series at the moment, so will likely finish that one first unless I need a break from it. haha)
@@_truck I'll look forward to it!
The OP-1 Field has made OP-1 original's price drop. So no matter which one you prefer, its a win-win!
Not in my country (Canada), on the contrary, the op-1 is on the rise again..., probably due to inflation and the cost of tech.
I know you already talked about it but when you’re doing a sound comparison background music definitely needs to be cut. Hard to do a detailed comparison to see if there’s any noise or character differences when there’s music playing in the background.
Yup. Working on a followup. No BG music allowed. Definitely understand the concern!
Can you turn off the background music? It's hard to compare sounds. Great video.
without a doubt the op-f sounds better, with more clarity, width whatever. But something that doesn't come up to often is just how good the sound staging is, the OG-1 always felt flat for my ears, whereas the op-z has really elegant staging.
Very good to see that TE have boosted up the screen brightness by another 25%. How much further can that be pushed I wonder? And why not implement this on the OG-1 (even if there is a whatever percentage battery power trade off)?
thanks for the good video.
Sure thing! And yeah, if I understand you correctly, I guess I didn't call that out specifically because I feel like it's related to other factors. While certainly there's an intentional consideration of the sound stage in how the new reverb and dimension synth were designed, it wouldn't really be possible without the move to stereo throughout the signal path, and the increased fidelity, since a lot of what gives a mix that kind of detail happens in the upper ranges of the audio spectrum. I did want to convey it, though, which was why I included the piece of music at the end that uses the dimension synth and the mother reverb pretty heavily. On the screen, I would imagine it's enough of a redesign that it's not possible to integrate on the original, but I haven't seen a teardown yet, so I'm not positive on that. Might just be that they have existing stock of the original and don't want to suddenly discontinue it for a different model. Not sure.
@@_truck excellent points, and big thanks for your reply. You are certainly a savvy soul. and thanks for the insight x
For sure! Glad it’s useful.
The OG uses oled whereas the field uses led (as far as im aware), so they might already be at the safe brightness limit for the OG without causing burn-in.
@@davidmcpoland5286 excellent point, thanks David.
I'd say some sounds are better on the original and some are better on the field. I think the FM engine sounds better on the field. If you have both I mean shoot... Can't complain by any means.
lmao _truck is an aweome name
It does not justify the price for the being double the original OP-1 for the few extra features to be frank in my opinion. I recon it is due to supply chain issues with a certain country who make these for them at this strange moment in time.
Yeah, I'm not really looking to engage the price debate. In my opinion, the market either will or won't justify their choice in that regard, regardless of what the internal reasons were for it. And I certainly wouldn't suggest that anyone who disagrees with the price should pay for it. For me, the original OP-1 has gone with me everywhere and would have been the perfect little portable studio if it had the features of the field, so I was willing to upgrade. But part of why I wanted to do this video was so people could make an informed choice for themselves as to whether or not they felt the field provided something they needed. For me it did, but for many it probably isn't worth it.
2000€ for that….no
I Love You ❤❤❤❤
Not convinced either of these are worth the money.
I think it's worth it if bought used, at 1300 nah, 2000 hard pass
@@Sweyn_Nero The amount of better stuff I could buy for 2000USD is insane.
Thanks for dropping by to tell us that. Please post the same comment at some other OP-1 videos.
@@profd65 Will do.
My OP-1 sounds brighter, with more high end, more like the OP-1 Field. I'm not sure why your OP-1 sounds so dull. Nice comparison though.
Yeah, I’m not clear on it, either. Going to do a follow-up and be more thorough about everything to see if I can figure it out or at least resolve whatever was going on. This video was very off-the-cuff.
@@_truck Thanks! I'll stay tuned 👍
if the background music is yours then you sound like generic melodic techno (and other generic stuff) ... give this original OP1 a chance, maybe you would sound a little more interesting
I'm not sure I understand what you're suggesting. I've had the original OP-1 for many years. "Generic" is subjective, first of all, but A: this was all composed on the OP-1 as noted in the video, and B: it's background music. The aim is to have it be fairly unobtrusive so it doesn't distract from the dialogue. This was meant to be a very quick video. I don't reuse the music I make for these videos (compose it uniquely for each) so for a quick video, I also don't spend ages perfecting the tracks unless they're the entire focus. So... ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Sorry you find it so boring?
actually ew I can’t believe how bad the op1 sounds😕
Turns out there was something weird going on. Factory reset cleared it up. Working on a follow-up video to set the record straight.
@@_truck I look forward to it
bad lol
both sound like something I would purchase on sale from toysrus. (and I own the original hahaha). My 5 year old iPad can certainly produce better sound quality but TE makes fun toys and interfaces.....maybe the bigger players like Roland, Korg, etc.. could learn a thing or two on making their UI fun