For me, the key to a solid realtime OP-1 arrangement is in the preparation of tape segments for each track. Since shift+loop (patch key #3) will make the loop length the size of the current tape segment in the currently selected track, I set up each track with different tape segment lengths.
Using mutes, solos, the mixer page, and rhythmic FX all combined to make a 4 or 5 minute performance the tune itself is something I’ve been doing for decades with other hardware. But this relationship between tape track segment length and the overall loop length is unique to the OP-1, and IMO crucial to getting the most from it.
Overall, I’ll have a 16 bar master loop of material to formulate a tune from.
The first track (drums 1) is usually cut into 2 bar segments, with every 2 or 4 bars having a variation on that beat.
Track 2 (drums 2, or bass) is usually cut into larger segments, typically 4 segments of 4 bars each.
Track 3 (melody 1, synth) I’ll have cut into either 4 or 8 bar segments, depending on the song.
Track 4 (melody 2, or FX sounds) will be one long 16 bar segment. Often for breakdowns, I’ll prefer a 16 bar loop, so a quick selection of this track and then shift + loop gives me an instant 16 bar loop length.
With my tracks set up in this way, I can easily change the loop length while muting and soloing tracks to get all sorts of variations. Using shift + > or < to navigate between looped regions.
My realtime arrangement gets hit with some nice gooey OP-1 tape compressor GR while being recorded to album, and then transferred to my Mac where I open it in Ableton.
Here, I add the last 5%…
One thing I’ve been doing to make my OP-1 compositions a bit more complex is using Ableton for additional layering, but using only the recorded OP-1 audio. I’ll copy material out of the breakdown and put into a new Ableton audio track in the arrange page. Then use the complex warping and pitch it around for chord progressions, and also filter it. This add some depth to the synth tracks. The panning of this added channel is inverted from the original material which gives it more stereo space.
Sometimes I’ll edit mistakes (unmuting or soloing a track to early, or late), or elongate phrases, or shorten phrases. All with simple cut/copy/paste commands.
As for sonic treatments in Live…
Since most of my drums were on one channel back on the OP-1, I often pan that channel slightly to the left on the OP-1, but then use iZotope Ozone’s Imager to mono everything under 300hz in the album recording. This puts the kick back in the center, but keeps the other drums on that channel slightly panned. Still in Imager, I push out the stereo width of the high mid and high bands as well, which helps with the next effect…
I’ll add a mid/side reverb (Ozone 4) to get more liveliness out of the track, usually reverberating the frequencies between 700z and 13khz only.
Some EQ cut corrections are also made here, and then some limiting.
