The OP-1 Makes you a better Producer

General
#1

Hey pals,


So my OP-1 has had a nearly complete cover of a Sufjan Stevens song on it for about a month, and I’ve finally invested some time in transitioning my DAW skills from out-moded Pro Tools to the wonderful (but annoyingly different) Ableton…

Anyways, I used to find that I would get overwhelmed being creative on a DAW (ADD/HD vs OCD tendencies), but after putting so many hours in with the OP-1 over the past year, I reckon my skills have really soared to new heights (I say this with all modesty, ie. not to say that I’m amazing, I’m just hitting new PBs)… So, now I see within the virtually limitless expanse of the DAW arena/void, I now find myself able to lock onto the goal, and ignore the options in favour of whatever might work. The OP-1 has had a similar effect that doing hours and hours of live looping has had on my guitar playing.

So just a quick note to say that the OP-1 makes you a better producer… Not to say that it isn’t capable of mighty fun productions all on it’s own (or even when used for a big chunk of the process, but the damn thing is just as compelling as it is frustratingly limited… I for one (like many here), love it… And now when I open the DAW, I find myself applying the skills from the OP1 times… Soon I’ll be looking at using OP-1 and Live together (I know a lot of y’all do). Nek level.

So in saying that, here are a couple of my latest productions under a new alias. My latest focus is to finish the ideas I start, and I’ve recently become enamoured with lofi hip hop, which being a minimalistic and short duration type of genre, it’s working well so far…

Here are my two latest - A western I mingled with an italian alto sax record and some beats https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hunN1JuPd2o

& a 15 or so second sample I recorded from a bunch of peeps singing carol’s yesterday plus some vocal samples from a conversation w/ my Grandma https://soundcloud.com/elvish-pretzely/merryge-chrimpson-ii
#2

I couldn’t agree more. The act of committing sounds (destructively) to the tape obliges one to be certain of levels, effects, etc. as you lay them down, vs. going back in and tweaking endlessly. This has gradually honed my ear in a way that allows me to come away from the session with very well-considered tracks, which typically require little to no mastering, after the fact. I’m traditionally a lo-fi, sample-based kind of producer, anyway. But I know for a fact that my finished tracks positively pop in the car these days, whereas older OP-1 created tracks seem muddier and too soft (volume-wise).


It certainly is an instrument that one can master, and constantly improve with.
#3
I couldn't agree more. The act of committing sounds (destructively) to the tape obliges one to be certain of levels, effects, etc. as you lay them down, vs. going back in and tweaking endlessly. This has gradually honed my ear in a way that allows me to come away from the session with very well-considered tracks, which typically require little to no mastering, after the fact. I'm traditionally a lo-fi, sample-based kind of producer, anyway. But I know for a fact that my finished tracks positively pop in the car these days, whereas older OP-1 created tracks seem muddier and too soft (volume-wise).

It certainly is an instrument that one can master, and constantly improve with.

Boom. We have a consensus \m/