OP-1 Tips

A collection of OP-1 tips and tricks

These were digested and slightly edited from OP Forums' OP-1 Tips and Tricks thread.

For credits for the individual tips, please see the original thread.

I had no intention of ever editing this, but the traffic on the tips thread is sufficiently low that I can keep up. Feel free to make pull requests if you make some awesome modifications (ideas: translating some English-as-a-third-language-isms; creating a hierarchical structure with a contents page; converting the whole thing into a Github wiki; merge with PO, OP-Z, Oplab and Modular tips lists to create one list to rule them all). Alternatively just fork this repository and plough your own furrow.

Changes since initial publication

Formatting, indentation, whitespace rationalized; Egregious Markdown mistakes corrected; Identified some dead links; Added latest tip.

Raw links with no explanatory text

Ambient Tutorial

Beat stutter tutorial !

Beats Dissected - great resource for learning about drum programming

Beefy Unison Mode

Cuckoo Drum kit tutorial

Explanation of LFO designer

How to make TB-303 like sounds on the OP-1

How to use the finger sequencer

LFO designer

Making a track from scratch

OP-1 Samples collection

OP-1 Sidechain FX with the Updated Tremolo LFO

Tape trick

TE’s printable drum pattern templates for PO-12

Time stretching

Dead Raw links

Scratching and lo-fi tips

Original synths explained

Just a quick reminder for everyone who joined this lovely community recently: There’s an old blog out there which pretty much explains all synth engines very detailed. He must have spent a fair amount of time taking notes while tweaking:

http://op-101.blogspot.com

It’s nicely explained for beginners, but I believe even some of our OP-1 experts here might find some detail they were not so sure about. With some engines, the author of the blog was not quite sure, but read for yourself…

Quickies

• Always lift and drop the tape track. That way if you flub up on overdubbing a track, you can just drop the old lifted track back on again and try again. Found this a nice way to keep the track numbers down instead of using up the tracks too quick. basically you can ‘overwrite’ with the drop. kind of a nice ‘undo’ on the same tape track.
• In finger mode, you can get something close to velocity by playing twice the same note (e.g. the snare) at the same place of the grid.
• The Phone will track pitch. Use shift to get it just right and use the telematic(blend) to get some beautiful doubling effects
• I just figured that the Master reverb is Stereo, while the track reverb is mono.
• Shift+CutTrackKey cuts all 4 tracks from the tape, then you can paste it back into the tape, and do so many times, so you can keep an unbounced version of it.
• Pitch bend in Sketch: just go into the sketch page and while you hold a note on the keyboard move the orange knob to pitch bend. Not sure this has been mentioned before- I think its pretty cool!!
• To sample from the radio, I discovered that you can record directly onto tape then cut the bit you want, lift and drop onto the sampler! Much more flexible, and no length limit to what you record! It makes it easier to edit the sample afterwards…
• Pressing shift on the track levels screen makes a left/right fader appear next to each track, you can then use the knobs to fade each track into the left or right channels
• While in Tape mode, shift+loop+arrow (L or R) set the looping section for the next loop to be played. handy to switch section of a song. only work when the tape is ‘playing’
• you can lift/drop finger sequences
• One thing in tombola sequencer: holding shift don’ t drop the notes in the sequencer, so you can play a melody while the sequencer is playing on hold…
• In endless, one can delete steps while the sequence is playing with (shift) + ( < ). If you desire 24 steps but instead you accidentally put twenty five, you can delete the extra with the aforementioned combo.
• Have you tried arpeggio on drums yet? It’s great for quickly generating stuff like constantly shifting hi-hat patterns.
• You can change the quality of the tape stop (4) when using the blue knob in conjunction with it.
• You can get some wild tape stutters with 6 and the white knob. (Make sure you hit the play button quick!)
• you can fast forward the stutter effect tape trick.
• Use the stutter button, press it repeatedly and it creeps backwards through the tape, so you can get some reverse granular stuff happening. If you time it right it can be a great intro for a song
• undo and redo the drawings in Sketch Mode: Shift+Blue encoder to the left for undo your drawing, Shift+blue encoder to the right: redo drawing.
• to transpose the finger sequencer (or other) use shift + Metronome to detune the master input
• Instead of importing tuned instruments (e.g. pianos, guitars, etc) using the Synth Sampler, use the Drum Sampler so that you can sample each note in a two-octave range.
• pattern sequencer can be played “live” without using HOLD: just play a drum pattern keep the key pressed and switch to the sequencer without moving your finger from the key. Now you can tweak the pattern parameters
• you can lift/drop T1-T4 between patches. Makes it super easy to copy LFO or FX to another patch.

Ambient Drone Machine

1. Slow tempo way down (blue knob while on metronome screen).
2. Lower tape speed way down (white knob while on metronome screen, IIRC).
3. Pick a Synth and give it a nice and long Attack and Release on the EG (button 2 below the screen)
4. Shift + Blue knob for Poly
5. Shift + Green knob to turn up Portamento/Glide
6. Turn on the sequencer (far right button just above keys)
7. Shift+sequencer button, blue knob to select Sketch
8. Use Sketch to draw out your your pitches (blue and green) knobs)
9. Use the Shift + Orange knob to set Sketch to Hold, and it will continuously play.
10. Use Shift + Green knob to adjust the division.

You can use a CWO or one of the delays on the Synth FX slot (button 3 in Synth mode) and a Spring on the Master FX (button 3 in Mixer mode) to further manipulate the sound.

If you record this to Tape you will have to leave the Tape speed set low, but you can record to a DAW or something from the line/headphone out, too.

Percussive ambience

For some really eerie percussive ambience, take a kick drum loop and a bass loop and run them through a light reverb and then through phone. Set tone really low, telematic to 99, and fiddle around with phonic.

M1/M2 functionality

Press the key while moving a knob to change a value on the master mixer or FX, “memorize” will display, wait till it’s red. when it is, that new position of the knob has been saved to the corresponding M-key

M1 and M2 are stored as differences or changes to the default values, not as absolute parameters. E.g. if you’ve got Grid X-Y set to (20, 30) by default, and you change them to (10, 40) in M1, what’s actually stored in M1 is (-10,+10).

Alright, so what’s the big deal? Well, when used together on the same screen, M1 and M2 add their differences. Continuing the above example, let’s say that your X-Y for M2 is (30,20), so the stored changes would be (+10,-10). If you hit either M button, it goes to the corresponding remembered status. But if you press both at once, Grid actually returns to the default values, because (in this example) the M1/2 differences cancel out! Say that M2 X-Y were now (50,50), so its differences would be (+30,+20). Hit both buttons at once, the combined change would be (-10+30,+10+20), so the final X-Y would be (40,60).

I guess this is less of a tip/trick, and more of an exploration into the workings of the OP-1, but I’m sure someone will find this useful. With some clever manipulation, it can effectively be a third memory slot.

Glitchy

make a synth sound, set Phone as the FX slot (pretty high settings on Baud, Phonic, and Telematic, Tone to taste), and set your EG with a moderate Attack, some Delay, then zero Sustain and Release low. Use the Value LFO and start at 5, modulating the Blue FX knob (either FX or FXf for a free-running LFO). Adjust the value to taste and enjoy the glitching For best results, play the sounds manually to Tape

Scratching

Ever aspired to be a pro scratcher but you don’t own any records? Don’t fret, your OP-1 has some tricks up its sleeve to make those aspirations true!

What you need to do are the following Step 1: set mic sensitivity to max (+20) Step 2: set nitro on master Step 3: set white all the way forward Step 4: throttle green all the way right Step 5: put finger on mic and gently rub the mic Step 6: play with blue and red encoders to get the right sound

It takes only a tiny amount of change in the rubbing speed to get different pitch sounds. Be gentle but also a spazz, picture it as your girlfriend, faster = higher pitch sound generation, slower = lower pitch sound generation…

Now eat your hea