Hey @sventh - look no further than the Battles section of the forum for other examples of full OP1 tracks.
I’ve been doing a bit of full-track-making on the OP the last few months and yeah - it’s definitely a PITA compared to a full DAW. It also leads to really different results than I get on a DAW, and the low headroom of the OP means that you have to work differently to a DAW. I’m def not the best OP user out there, but hopefully I can help out.
In terms of functionality in creating a full track, I typically do this:
- Come up with my core idea (usually a 8-16 bar loop), usually using all 4 tracks (drums, bass, two melodic parts)
- use shift+lift to copy the whole arrangement, then paste it a few times
- I always try to keep a “safe” copy further along in the tape, in case I accidentally record/drop over the top of something. I still forget to do this sometimes, which can be a little frustrating…
- I then usually will move to the second “copy” (let’s call it part B) of the core loop, and then delete the melodic tracks, leaving bass and drums. Sometimes I delete bass too
- create a variation/new melodic parts for part B
- continue on this path of change/variation, working on a few tape tracks at a time. if I get bored with the drums or feel like it needs variation I’ll delete the drums and try something else, or sometimes lift the drum track, drop it into drum sampler, chop it up and re-arrange the drums that way (to get a half-time feel or something)
- I then will practice the flow of the track, working out which mutes/solos I’ll do on what tracks, if I’ll use the M1/2 buttons for fx, and shift the loop points around to move seamlessly to different sections. Sometimes I end up playing things on the keys live as well, particularly risers, occasional one-shots, some improv melodies
- Then do a few live passes to album, until i have a take i’m happy with
I do use the resampling (ear) function to occasionally print two tracks to 1, however I always end up forgetting to turn the ear back off, which can cause accidental recording errors I’m clumsy sometimes like that.
In terms of layering, I usually leave the drum and bass parts alone, as they carry a lot of energy, and I will layer extra sounds onto my two melodic tracks, so maybe mixing a rhodes style sound with a filter swell on one track, and a sampled violin with an arp line on the other. I typically pan my melodic tracks 3/4 left and right to give the track some spread.
Hopefully that helps. It is definitely a bit of messing around to get a full track going. I will generally come up with my core idea in a few hours, then come back to it a few days later, spend a good chunk of time on it (4-6 hours) until I’m close to finished, then maybe another day to do the final piecing together and recording to album.
You can check my battle entries on my SC if you want to hear some examples, or the Battle threads are great too!
