I don’t own an OP-1 yet, hunting around (live in UK if anyone wants to sell). I’m very new to music, my interest in the OP-1 is aesthetic as much an it’s capabilities. I’m a designer and I see a lot of Dieter Rams in the design.
Anyway, it’ll be an object to enjoy and keep.
Recently I’ve been playing with basic apps to play at sampling, although I’m keen to not be screen or computer based. I’ve noticed I like odd time signatures, and often my bass and drums don’t repeat well because I don’t fit into the standard bar length. Struggling to knownthe correct terms. Basically if I get 16 beats per bar, I often need 1.5 bars for every one of “my” bars.
How is this handled in the OP-1? I’d like to sequence loops but wonder how it handles loops with non standard notes let bar or different bar lengths.
In OP-1 you can sync tempo with Tape. So on Tape you’ll see “bar lines” - they show where bar starts and where it ends.
So if you record something with metronome (and do it well)) or with sequencers it’s easy to get perfect loops.
If I understand your question right)
You can definitely do odd timing using the sequencers. For example using endless seq create a 24 (instead of 16, 32 etc.) note pattern will feel like 6/4 instead of 4/4.
switching between tape loops works really well when the tape is synced to the set BPM, but I don’t think you can switch forward or backward without the bpm marks on the tape that go away when bpm sync is off. But you can take any piece of recorded audio and loop it, no matter how short or long it is.
If you want to have a 4/4 drum loop with a sample or synth on a different time signature the op-1 won’t be able to do that for you. You would need two op-1’s to have a 16 step loop playing at the same time as a 24 step loop.
the op-z might might be better for you with more tracks and the ability to have a different time signature for each track.
I would suggest you can with the op-1.
The main sequencers all have provision for triplet beats and other bar length to 16. Then just align different tape tracks with multiple lengths adding to equal amounts.
Sure the Z will be king of poly rhythms an tracks, but the op-1 is very capable imho.
(Also just hitting the swing to 67% may help you?).
I’ve been working on an odd time signature track the past week or two between Christmas parties and it’s definitely possible, but can be tricky depending on how odd your time signature is, and whether or not you want to seamlessly switch between different odd time loops. Keep an eye on the current battle happening right now on this very site! It’s dedicated completely to odd time signatures made with the op-1. There should be some great tracks posted in the next week or two that might suit your fancy.
I’m having some success by making a sequence and recording that to tape, then making the second half and recording that. I really like the tape I do miss the endless editing of MIDI but I’ll get over it
You could try Endless seq with beats of 12 and 24 length. This might be a way of achieving what you are after.
Is it a triplet, skippy feel you make?
I know what you mean about lack of midi editing luxury
