#154

alright — it’s 2:30am and i’ve been through just about every post on every single op-1 thread on this website searching for something to help me make up my mind on this. i have consulted my partner, friends, and now i’m turning to everyone here.

i think it’s time to part ways with my op-1, but every time i think about packing it up to ship it out my heart sinks. i have had mine since 2017 and have made a lot of great music/memories with it. it’s travelled across the world and back with me for crying out loud!!!

i am super proud to own it, the same way i am to own my grid, my norns, etc. i remember when i first got it, it felt like a thing i’d keep around for a long long time (forever?). it feels like an important pillar of my synthesis journey and perhaps one of the most beautifully designed objects in my home. but it sits in a drawer for a few months in between uses these days, and my modular is becoming the instrument i reach for first these days. it never seems to incorporate into my workflow these days.

has anyone made the decision to sell theirs a tough one? i’m terrified of regretting my decision, but i do know that they are gonna continue to exist in the future, maybe just with a steeper price tag.

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#155

honestly it’s last thing i think to use when i’m noodling, but every time i see it and turn it on it promises something in the way a typewriter does when i don’t have anything to say. i think it’s a typewriter. so you can sell it like a typewriter; because you can still write without one. but when you have something to say it tends to be the first choice and not the last.

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#156

you’ll regret it 20 chars

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#157

Like a few others here I owned one earlier in the piece, around 2012 I think.

I think the weird thing about the OP-1 is it’s almost like buying gold. It’s this machined aluminium brick of value, that very rarely loses that value, and in fact has now doubled in value over the decade.

I sold mine and have no regrets. however, it is a truly magical instrument. I had an excellent time while owning it, but there were various things about it that made me feel like I could let it go. It gave me joy for a good few years, but after that time I felt like it was more of a trophy piece than something I regularly used.

I dunno what the cash ratio would have been for me to keep it, obviously I needed the cash for something else at the time. I don’t have any problems having sold the OP-1 and while it does have some nice unique features, there’s nothing about it that would indefinitely stop me selling it.

I think having owned and used an OP-1 is enough for me, having samples about the place of it, and used on various tracks and pieces. Having it committed to memory banks is enough for me, in the neurones of my mind lingers the memory of my time with the OP-1, and to me that is honestly enough.

But if ever desperate, well, there are certainly enough OP-1’s in the world to borrow as a loaner if needed in the studio, do a call out if need be.

I guess because it’s so so tiny one feels one must own it, but knowing the sound, I can’t see why an OP-1 couldn’t be tracked down or hired for sonic duties in much the same way as one might rock a loaner for a TB-303 or SH-101 etc

Is the sound palette of the OP-1 as iconic as other gear out there? It’s certainly a pretty broad spectrum, and can fill a range of shoes.

It’s up to the individual I guess. I think everyone should have an OP-1 for a time :slight_smile: I remember when I discovered it it seemed like such a bargain (these days not so much). And it just seemed like it was a thing from the future. One of the best electronic instruments invented ever, period.

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#158

I had one for a while and when I see one on the interwebs, be it on youtube or offered in a shop I somehow regret that I gave it away. Though it is more like being torn to the design as it is a beautiful thing in nearly every aspect of it. Also definitevly a lovely instrument.

On the other hand the reasons I did not keep it are still valid for me. I loved playing with it while being in hospital (sounds a bit odd, I guess but that was the actual reason to buy one after just admiring it) or on the couch. But I did not like that I needed to use headphones with it. And when I connected it to my usual recording setup I found that it lost all its appeal. A real keyboard is nicer to play on, a dedicated sequencer is nicer to program and the sound is not that special that I cannot get there with my modular and/or a few small desktop boxes. Also recording and arranging a song is interesting and in a way fun on the OP-1 but also a bit tedious and limited. Maybe a nice sketchbook, but then I would have liked MIDI files to export for further use.

Still I need to say all this to myself when I see one, especially since they come up pretty often as reduced B-stock items with full warranty now. What helps is that I could not hold back two times and lost quite a bit of money in a stolen identity ebay scam and then bought one locally that had a broken headphone jack. The guy took it back without any problem but I makes me think twice before ordering a B-stock item. That and my quality impression of two OP-Z that I had later before giving up the warranty exchange game.
It was weeks before the new price policy and I guess the guy who sold it to me was happy to sell it to someone else for 300 EUR more after having the jack replaced.
He was a professional composer and was a bit in the same position of liking but not really using it for more than little random noodlings he just sampled into his DAW but preferred his organelle for that.

To me the typewriter analogy @notester brought up fits pretty well. It might be lovely to have one and feels inspring. But even when I needed a typewriter text for some artwork I always used a computer with trixie or courrier fonts and made a photocopy of it (or went the whole way and used letter stamps/blockprint sets for kids…holy hell, those were the times). Maybe a mixture of a typwriter and a 4-track cassette recorder.

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#159

i did have one and i hate it. sold three days after and never looked back.
i kinda miss the portable side of it but… this year i just built a fates and a neotrellis grid. they fit in my jacket if i want to. doing crazy beats on the couch everytime, definetely the best alternative of an op1 in so many different ways

#160

what does your inner Marie Kondo say?

maybe you’ve outgrown it.

p.s. looks at own OP1… I think I know exactly how you’re feeling.

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#161

OP-1 is the only synth I regret. There’s big nostalgia for it but price point is high but also when I heard the sound quality of my modular…I think I should just “grow” with my eurorack synth

#162

Based on everything you’ve written I’d say you should keep it.

I bought my OP-1 for $740 new and sold it a couple years later after the (first) price increase because I was worried it would break and become a paperweight. I was in the same position you are in - that it wasn’t necessarily an integral part of my setup but I really enjoyed having it around as a sketchpad.

I definitely regret selling mine, I miss having it around to jot down musical ideas and scratch takes. I also regret it because I know I’m never gonna buy one again at what they cost now, and buying used is a crapshoot.

I say keep it, unless you’re in a dire financial situation. If I’m having as many second thoughts about selling something that you are, it’s usually a pretty good indication that if I sell it I’ll regret my choice later.

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#163

I bought one when they first came out and sold it maybe 1 or 2 years later. I didn’t end up making anything with it the first time around. Didn’t miss it either. Recently got one before the price increased and have been enjoying it since. I try to hold off on selling anything that’s unattainable again in the future and it seems like the OP-1 is here to stay in terms of availability.

If you don’t need the cash, I’d hold off on the decision, but I’m all in favor of selling things that are collecting dust and you can’t imagine using again. It’s really useful though as a midi controller, sampler, sketchpad, etc.

#164

last night I was playing my DIY Raspberry Pi Game Boy, and when I came out this morning I saw this nice little tableaux:

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image4032×3024 3.19 MB

I talk about it a lot on here, but getting an Expert Sleepers FH-2 revitalized the OP-1 for me - a) you can sequence CV/gate and b) you can use a bigger MIDI keyboard to play its lovely sounds. I also have it perpetually hooked up to a reverb - it’s a mystery to me why they didn’t put a lush hall-type reverb on there.

why not loan it to a friend for a little while and see if you actually miss it? that’s what I did when I was debating selling, and I genuinely missed it.

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#166

If you haven’t used it for an extended period of time, why not just sell it. You can always get another one. I’ve been playing music since 1964. I have owned and sold tons of stuff that is now vintage unobtainium and I don’t regret any of it. In 1965, a 1958 LesPaul was just an old, used guitar…

It was fun to use all of the things while I had them. I still have rooms stacked full of gear that I don’t really use any more. I am working on selling it off, and getting down to a few pieces that are currently interesting to me, or the few things that actually have sentimental value. Don’t let it torture you.

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#167

This is great advice. I’ve let go of a lot of gear that was doing just that.

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#168

Do you use a usb hub to accomplish this? I’m having trouble picturing how to connect both a midi keyboard and the OP-1.

#169

I use the DIN MIDI expander because I’m playing it from a Mellotron 4000D without USB MIDI. (and I have plans to rewire an Intellijel XY I/O to act as a much smaller TRS MIDI expander in order to claw back the 4hp)

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#170

I think it’s not powerful enough for that. Also hasn’t the bit-depth – that’s probably why the “spring” reverb effect is so noisy. Same for what represents a filter in it. There is scope for a successor to the OP1, but I don’t think one will be made. If they were going for a “obscure-japanese-synth-vintage”-like status, it’s getting there at decent speed.

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#171

I too held on to an op-1 for much longer than I needed to. I traded it earlier this year and couldn’t be happier. It is obviously such a cool object. But I just wasn’t making music with it. In general, I’ve gotten really comfortable letting go of things I’m not using. So far I’ve found that I haven’t missed anything and that occasionally trading has opened up some fun and interesting options that I wouldn’t have pursued otherwise.

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#172

Selling my OP-1 (twice haha) the first time taught me to not be so emotionally invested in gear. It comes and it goes, and that’s just fine. Sell it, and if you find that you can’t live without it, buy a used one.

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#173

my OP-1 is currently on loan to a friend actually, and i’m feeling a lot of different thoughts on it: for one, i really don’t miss it, since everything i use it for could easily be replicated by other gear and software i have, but on the other hand… there really is something to be said for how easy it is to pick up and use. like even just on a break from work it’s very nice to be able to pick up something and immediately fiddle around with it for no reason; in that respect i always kind of treated it more like a toy than an actual ‘workstation’ or w/e (and to that point, i really feel like everything i make with only an op-1 ends up sounding like video game music, and not in a good way. the most fun i have with it is trying to break out of that toy/video game sound tbh)

i really do think a lot of what i like about the OP-1 is just style over substance (and to be honest, i kind of hate the look of it? not sure if i’m in the minority on that) but that doesn’t mean it isn’t a fun tool to keep around! but if i’m being pragmatic it absolutely feels like an extra thing that won’t be in my life forever, but for the time being it is extremely fun, but really only just ‘for fun’ imo

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#174

A couple of months ago I sold my OP-1 along with an OP-Z, and the truth is that I am delighted that I made this decision.

The OP-1 seems to me an incredible device that has already made a niche in the history of synthesizers for its portability and design. However, for me what did not make sense is that with a device that costs just over € 1200 I was making music for a couple of hours or 3 a month, while I dedicate 2 or 3 hours a day to my modular synthesizer. The difference was too disproportionate, so I decided to sell them and I have no regrets at all. In my work I need to be focused on one instrument, not 10 different instruments. So in the end I applied this to the rest of the apartments I had around the house and now I only use my modular equipment and a UHER tape recorder.

Regardless of the above, and as much as the OP-1 is a lovable instrument, I subjectively consider that the sound quality is not up to the price. My opinion …

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