robbie
2258
On the other hand, imagine how expensive it’d be if it was.
6 Likes
Some of my thoughts. I have numerous TE devices, including an OP1 Field. I travel a lot and the OP1F has been an extraordinary benefit to my music making. It is super small, lightweight, has a keyboard, has a speaker, runs on batteries, and fits in my backpack’s side pocket. I have tried other options (Elektron) and none of them work well because they either don’t have a battery or speaker (I normally travel only with AirPods Pro) or are too big (Deluge) or too specialized (Dirtywave’s tracker). The OP1F is worth every penny and more, and I feel the XY adds and complements the OP1F. I doubt I would bring both on a trip with me, but I think it seems worth it. Like you, I can afford it, but I don’t think of it as flashy - I think of it as something that lets me make music when I would otherwise be without my studio. And I have used it so much that it delivers easily as much value as almost anything else in my studio. I think I will be buying the XY, but I understand that not everyone has use cases that make the value easily exceed the cost in the same way that I do.
As a sidenote, I did recently get a Move. It is pretty good and I just brought it on my first trip to try it as an alternative to the OP1F. I don’t love the size for travel - it’s still a bit big, but it is capable. The synths aren’t as attractive to me as the ones on the OP!F, and I think the OP1F/XY would be a better travel partner.
6 Likes
pagoda
2260
This is exactly the thing on my mind. I dont need a crazy powerhouse external brain (Cirklon, Octatrack) for my modular pile but rather something simple. EVEN BETTER, something that can go with me to the couch, office or whatever so its not some box in the corner that I pull out every once and a while only to realize my old brain forgets how to use it! Having a sweet self contained piece that also works in the “home studio” is my hunt.
2 Likes
karst
2261
hopefully someone who uses it?
buying musical instruments doesn’t imbue you with an identity, no matter how hard marketing tries to convince you otherwise.
41 Likes
Shiftr
2262
More like a
More like a Digitone 1 and a Digitakt 1 … and minus the polyphony of de Digitone.
v1 and M8v2 are not so different. Main difference is the bigger screen and better battery life and build in mic. Musically wise they can do exactly the same.
3 Likes
I’d highly recommend borrowing one if you can. I thought I’d love it, and it is truly a great tracker, but if you like knobs and tweaking knobs you’ll absolutely need a knobby midi controller. I found I lost the interest to map knobs quickly and then went back to my digitakt/other boxes because it’s all just there.
3 Likes
2200 dollars is the price of a new electric guitar from Gibson or Fender nowadays. Of course it’s not a small amount of money, but it’s also not so bad given the functionality of the new Teenage Engineering synth thing.
14 Likes
Justmat
2265
got my shipping notification for the xy! pretty hyped about it, especially considering how long the shipping took for some of the field releases.
9 Likes
ohm
2266
Good point about the polyphony. But yeah various synth engines including FM and Stereo sampling makes it kinda like a handheld Digitone+Digitakt, v1s or v2s depending on how you look at it.
1 Like
I tried playing on one and just couldn’t get into it. It’s possible I need to dedicate a much longer period of time but I didn’t feel very creative playing on it. I just need more room and more controls. Also, I really like keyboards to play notes.
1 Like
The XY looks good for me. Saving up. I’m not sure how to ask this question or if anyone would know yet, but I’m wondering how the XY would interact with other TE gear so I can use it as the main sequencer / controller and one sound source and record its and other gear’s output to some kind of syncable multitrack audio (so can record separate audio track passes when recording output from gear the TX (edit: sorry, I meant XY here) is controlling where it can’t be done all in one take). The XY and TX-6? Maybe my norns shield could do that? Wondering how much Bluetooth would play a part in such an arrangement as well.
1 Like
fuzboxz
2270
I look forward to the reviews on the OP XY by people who didn’t get theirs for free. I don’t think that people can make an honest review on something this expensive that they didn’t pay for. It might just be me, but a lot of my gear choices are reevaluated once I start to think about how many hours I have to work for it.
26 Likes
Interesting comparison, would it be fair to say that buying a Gibson or American Fender means purchasing a better quality product, better sound, etc. But when you pay the same amount for a device like the OP-XY you’re not really getting better quality per se, yes the device is of better quality but the sound coming from within isn’t going to be better (objectively) than a 50e VST (random price).
I think this is a big reason why the pricing gets a lot of push back, we’re more used to assigning the value of the main function (sound in a musical instrument), rather than the secondary function (design/interaction).
1 Like
On top of the “hardware vs vst” classic discourse i’d like to add the “this wood sounds better just as the gold jack plug does” topic 
6 Likes
monopole
2273
Every sound is good, it’s just a matter on how you want to use it. No sound left behind!
I think comparing electronic with acoustic instrument value is useful, in terms on what their goal is: to produce and manipulate sound.
I believe professional electronic instruments are seen more closely related to electronic consumer products (mass produced, cheap labor, huge marketing campaigns, millions of sales…), while professional acoustic instruments are seen as artisan crafted pieces of art. While the processes are different, in essence I believe electronic instruments should be considered similar to the latest.
Adding to @ramphands comparison: a well regarded violin, a sax or similar instruments goes for the cost of a full eurorack case. When discussing instrument costs with classical musicians no one bats an eye, it’s granted professional tools have a cost. Hell, a professional violin bow alone (not even high end) goes for the price of an OP-XY.
Technically the comparison is far from 1:1, there are other aspects to consider on electronic instruments, but I think we’d find ourself in a more tolerant position when we have this on mind. Making 100s or 1000s of a product is NOT mass production by today’s standards. Specially when we consider well paid highly skilled labor, custom hardware components, high end materials and manufacturing processes, a view that is understood by musicians regarding acoustic instrument manufacturing. We are too used to the costs of the opposite in consumer electronic manufacturing.
(I said I didn’t want to talk about business models…)
Not totally sure about this: I find a lot of self validation to justify having purchased something, and it can lead to exaggerating how good/useful that instrument is to others. “It’s amazing!” and hasn’t been played for months, but you want it to fulfill the expectations you had for it.
When you didn’t pay for it there’re 2 possibilities: you omit the bad things because you want to please and get more gear to review from the manufacturer; or you are in a comfortable enough position that you can make an honest review and not trick yourself and others into liking it because of the money you’ve spent on it.
It all depends on the personal interests of the reviewers which is not a ‘paid / didn’t pay’ for it matter exclusively.
19 Likes
karol
2274
I am not arguing how much OP-XY should cost (though for me that is too much but if I were to find it used for a 1/4 of a price I would probably go for it), but for me the biggest and most important distinction for acoustic instruments is that I am pretty sure my grandkids will be able to play my guitar or sax while 99% of my electronic instruments will probably be unusable, except maybe the simplest analogue ones (which have components that can be replaced).
And regarding sound evaluation that @iamsaitam raised I am not sure instruments should be judged on pure merits of it. I had instruments (both electronic and acoustic) which sounded good but were awful and uninspiring to play and had the ones that sounded meh but were inspiring to interact with.
4 Likes
fuzboxz
2275
I don’t understand the whole tricking yourself into liking something. If I don’t enjoy a piece of gear I return it or sell it, I don’t have enough space to keep unused gear around.
I don’t think that geartubers are ever in a comfortable enough position to make unbiased reviews. Look at the number of views that new gear reviews generate compared to other content. Videos that feature the hot new thing easily generate from 2x to an order of magnitude more views than their other content, so on a certain level you cannot give unbiased reviews because you rely on the buzz generated by free gear received from manufacturers.
2 Likes
Justmat
2276
XY coming in hot! maybe we’ll have a dedicated thread by end of day 
21 Likes
karst
2277
this is because, in most cases, they are.
the proliferation of electronic instrument availability, the massive growth of eurorack, the entire development of the sub-$1k synth market, and the existence of the original op-1 are all owed to instrument makers figuring out that many of the components being made cheaply and many of the fabrication capacity that was being stood up in east asia specifically to support huge consumer electronics demand could also be used to enable cheaper electronic instrument manufacturing.
a teenage engineering product in its design, prototyping, manufacture, distribution, and marketing is far more similar to a phone than it is to a violin (honestly, the contrast here couldn’t be more different). te does develop interesting and custom interfaces at their (assumed) medium-volumes, which can incur additional cost, but they are still a design house that works with large scale contract manufacturers.
i think te clearly engages in luxury value pricing techniques, not simply covering the cost of components & labor. all the work they’ve done to create a brand that has weight to non-musicians is what allows them to do that and i think it’s normal to give people who just want a tool a bit of pause.
but it is probably still a good and interesting tool.
15 Likes
If we are talking reviews/experiences then I would not trust any reviewer that hasn’t had said piece for at least 1-2 years minimum.
Personally I dont have a single item in my studio that I purchased due to a review. Im more interested in hearing the general tone of whatever instrument and thats that. Also as im most likely not going to be using the instrument in a similar way to others. Its also not at all easy for me to sell or exchange an item within my country so I gotta really be sure.
That said with the OPZ i had specific aspects I particularly enjoyed interacting with. And it seems some of the structure of those things has changed now with the inclusion of the screen. Particularly the way projects and patterns are handled and how one moves around them…so I want to know about things like that in particular…
Like also personally im super interested in the new groove features yet nobody has touched upon it yet. Everybody making thet straight usual straight beat(ok actually ricky tinez was the only one who had some kinda shuffle going on with the beat his “review/reaction” i thought was surprisingly on point). Somethings you have to just get so you can find the things only you will exploit.
4 Likes
