....

[Andrew Tarpinian]

At this point they have only sent out 1/3 of the units pre-ordered, it's been painful.

On Apr 5, 2011, at 2:52 PM, Tony Scharf <noisetheorem at gmail.com> wrote:

> Crap...this has been in my drafts folder.  Thought I sent it days ago..
> 
> here goes..
> 
> -------------------------------------------
> 
> Ok...now I am in a better state of mind to put up a full post about this...
> 
> Last night I went to the muffwiggler/Trash Audio Synth Event hosted by
> Xart at his studio down town.  This was kind of a 'micro NAMM' setup
> by Surachai, Xart, and Justin from Trash_Audio.  A good number of
> modular synthe manufacturers were there showing off stuff, and there
> was (obviously) beer made very readily available.  I got to have some
> good discussions with Tony from MakeNoise Music (the phonogene module
> is going to kill), caught up with Eric from STG Sound Labs, and got to
> catch up with my friend Scott who is the guy behind The Harvestman
> modules.
> 
> At one point I was talking synths with Nial (remember him?) and he
> mentioned that "Alessandro has an OP1..you have to see this".  I had
> know idea who he meant by Alessandro, but I wanted to check out the
> OP1 so I followed.  It wasnt until he mentioned not to hit certain
> buttons on it, because it was all setup for his performance tonight
> that I realized it was him (He and Richard Divine are doing a private
> performance at Xart's studio tonight).
> 
> Anyway, about the OP1.
> 
> Its fucking awesome.  The best way to describe it, is as a
> 'professional toy'.  Its built like a tank, despite its toy looks, and
> all the function so far implemented show a creative and very playful
> take on the usual tools.  I particularly like its take on sampling,
> which they implement by actually modelling a reel to reel tape deck.
> 
> The most interesting thing was its sequencer, however.  This is very
> hard to describe without being able to show it to you, but Ill try..
> 
> Imagine a hexagon.  Now start that hexagon rotating.  Every time you
> press a key, a ball drops from the center of the hexagon and falls.
> When it hits the side, it bounces and deflects and makes a sound.  As
> it continues to bounce around, it continues to make sound.  You can
> keep adding balls to add more and more complexity.  Another control
> will open rotate the sides of the hexagon so that it is no longer
> closed (forms the shape of pinwheel) allowing balls to escape from the
> shape.  Its pretty wild.
> 
> Unfortunately, the device is still in beta form, so the software
> doesnt let you do things like backup you tracks to a computer or allow
> any kind of MIDI control (thats in the works).  I really didnt care
> about the OP1 till I got to play it, and now I really think it would
> be a great instrument to stuff in a back pack or take on a plane.
> 
> Alessandro was saying that they should be shipping more soon, as they
> met with some manufacturing delays.  As these things get around, I
> think they are going to become very hard to get your hands on if you
> do not preorder.
>