I’ve had my op1 for ages now but still haven’t found a good workflow for arranging music with the tape. I always get stuck making loops and the only way I really make music at the moment with it is by going back an forth between loops on the tape, bouncing it to album. This is good and all but it’s a bit limiting.
I struggle staying inside OP and finishing tracks. People do it and do it well. But for me throwing the 4 op tracks in to Daw is well worth the hassle. Things always develop a lot after that. And fast too… Obvs this is no good to you if you don’t use a Daw tho… Even things that feel kind of finished inside op, they always turn in to something better after I get them in to a computer (or octatrack) to finish them up. Working entirely inside Op1 to do what I do would be a mathematical/planning nightmare
The best way to start is not to begin with a loop on the tape, maybe a loop with the sequencers…
I always program a drumbeat in finger sequencer and then livetweak it to the tape for 1,5 or three minutes with a lot of combinations, breaks etc.
Then - play an instrument onto tape with the drums im the background, you can always replace the drumbeat or just use as what it is.
Okay sometimes Iwork in loops later. But its very important to get off the loop by extending at least one tapetrack.
Later, after developping some good tracks and takes the arrangement begins and, depending on what you’ve already done, there will be a lot of copying and pasting and counting - mathematics like @Callofthevoid says ; )
Well, the main problem with making music on OP-1, is that it wont replace DAW in any way. When I was looking into feedbacks about OP-1 at times when I wanted to buy one, I found comment about it, when person referred to OP-1 as a “Musical sketchpad”. While OP-1 can allow you to make music, if you aim towards quality of sound and\or arrangement, you wont be able to do it without a daw. One main exception is probably Steeezo, who has like 5 OP1s, and I believe that gives him lots and lots of flexibility. When you can dedicate 1 device’s 4 tracks only for drum beat, for example, it gives a lot of freedom to work on them.
Thanks everyone, all good tips. I think I’m going to have to pucker up and learn ableton even though it’s sooooo much effort and I’m kind of lazy haha. I’m sure it’s worth it. But I’ll experiment with other things too. Maybe garage band is all you really need to arrange things from the op1? That would make things quick and tidy, with ableton I’d want to add too many things to it once it’s done. But I’ll try work with a DAW and see what happens.
Thanks everyone, all good tips. I think I’m going to have to pucker up and learn ableton even though it’s sooooo much effort and I’m kind of lazy haha. I’m sure it’s worth it. But I’ll experiment with other things too. Maybe garage band is all you really need to arrange things from the op1? That would make things quick and tidy, with ableton I’d want to add too many things to it once it’s done. But I’ll try work with a DAW and see what happens.
If you just need to use a DAW for the arrangement, and you’re afraid of being overwhelmed by its potential, Ableton might be overkill indeed. Garage Band, or Reaper, or Audacity, are some very valid tools for the task.
I don’t think you necessarily have to rush into DAWs quite yet. A lot of the ideas behind arranging will be the same on a DAW or the op-1. Where a daw outshines the op-1 is the ability to ‘fix’ the sound and make it really professional. If you feel an aversion to DAWs, I’d stick with the op1 while working on transitions and breakdowns and bridges etc. Get into DAWs when you want to get even trickier.
I learned some moves by watching this guy. He’s good at doing song structure on the op-1:
(note that the final version of his songs are mixed in ableton).
One way which I find easy if wanting to do more structured stuff utilising all or most of the tape, is to make a sequence and record it on a track for the duration of the tape, repeat with other sequences on other tracks until you have a bed of sound, then use the cut to subtract where you want your drops, use overdubs on the sections where you want to add - remember to lift/drop in case you mess up, and you can also cut paste add variation sequences etc. Then of course you can set a region add vocals, live playing or sound fx, ear candy etc, remember again always to lift/drop first for undo, also lift sections into drum sampler to then remix and drop back in place. Using these and other techniques you can avoid getting stuck in the loop, so to speak and no computers will be harmed in the process
I’ve never been bothered with only 4 tracks as I bounce. So say you start a track with kick, hats, snare, clap. That’s your 4 tracks gone right there on loop 1. But you bounce all these (I prefer to album and then back to tape) loop1 to loop 2 and thus freeing up another 3 tracks and keep repeating this process as needs to. I think of the bounced track as a reference track that’s only used essentially in the op-1. The beauty is you have the option of exporting all your tracks as individual stems.
Loop 1 kick snare hat clap
Loop 2 reference (loop 1 bounce) bass chord, percussion
Loop 3 reference track of loop 1 & 2, lead, vocal, more hats
Etc
The only tricky thing is making sure you got the levels right when bouncing (someone posted my walk through on this in the tips and tricks section). I exported a track to ableton the other day and was nice having everything on their own track
@jonesy_op nice tips. Album back to tape is something that I’m yet to do. Seeing as it is your preferred method, how do you get around the album having no sync to tape? Ie. Put a couple of loop repetitions and just time your press of play (+ record)?
@jonesy_op oops, NM. I just checked the tips and tricks thread and it seems to explain there. Thanks
No worries. It should all sync. Cueing the record is nifty for when wanting to record automation of effects straight away when recording and wanting to access the effects screen straight away
Seems a bit backwards.
The easiest way to arrange these days, I’ve found though, is through Sibelius or notation software. You can plot out sections of tunes well in advance instead of worrying about getting together all your instruments just to throw down a take in a DAW that may end up sounding out-of-context.
With OP-1, most of the stock sounds sound great together–so you can be pretty sure that a bar with some strange bass that sounds good now-- 40 measures down the road will still sound good and in context with the current instruments.
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I fully agree with @millbastard - option paralysis killed so much of my workflow until the op-1.