Teenage Engineering OP-XY is a new supercharged OP-Z style sequencer synth workstation with new features taken to the Field series
For a few days now, Teenage Engineering has been teasing a new device on social media. There were also trademark entries and hints that it might be a successor to the OP-Z.
The instrument’s name will be OP-XY and will be presented this afternoon. However, it has already been leaked at Guitar Center this morning but now it’s official.
Teenage Engineering OP-XY
The OP-XY is a new groovebox in the Field series and seamlessly follows the design of the OP-1 Field. It has the same aluminum design and clicky buttons but in black with various grey buttons. Also, the OLED screen has a black interface.
Unlike the OP-1 Field, which is about tape-style recording, the new Teenage Engineering OP-XY is all about sequencing. As a reminder, the OP-Z mastered this feature perfectly and is still one of the best and most creative sequencers. The OP-XY continues OP-Z this.
TE says the unit is powered by a dual CPU system with 8GB storage and 512 MB RAM capable of ultrafast processing power and efficiency.
At its core is a new engine that boosts a performance sequencer with 16 tracks (8 instruments + 8 auxiliary) and nine patterns per track + 99 scenes surrounded by a Synthesizer and a multi-sampler, allowing you to pull samples from several zones simultaneously.
It has 24 voices of polyphony, multiple unique synth engines (8 in total), and three unique samplers (drum multi-sampler…). As in the OP-1, the synth engines are minimal and offer only a few parameters. Live sampling is possible via the built-in microphone, the stereo audio input, or via USB-C.
The sound engine also includes a multimode filter and a multi-effects section to refine your sounds, including reverb, delay, chorus, distortion, Lo-Fi, and phaser. Simple envelopes and LFOs are also onboard.
Compose Compositions Like Building Blocks
Teenage Engineering has created something special for the musical workflow in the OP-XY. With the OP-XY, you stack musical ideas and phrases like building blocks to construct full compositions. A concept taken from the OP-Z.
The heart is a 64-step sequencer that has a modular approach. It uses 14 unique step components for advanced step sequencing, including: pulse, multiply, hold, velocity, ramp up, ramp down, random, portamento, and more.
Powerful is that you can assign one or all of them to a single step, allowing you to create super complex, evolving sequences. Besides this, punch-in effects are available for on-the-fly tweaks. You can even use the device’s gyroscope function to bring tracks in and out simply by moving it.
Plus, a unique “brain chord progression” function taps into your musical intuition, enabling you to craft chord sequences by simply letting your hands do the talking.
Connectivity
On the connection side, the new OP-XY offers a new multi-output port that lets you switch between four different outputs: Eurorack, synth, pedal, and headphone connectivity. There is also a stereo input for sampling, 3.5mm MIDI in, MIDI/sync, and a USB-C port.
The new Teenage Engineering OP-XY also features a built-in rechargeable lithium-ion battery that can last up to 16 hours of continuous use.
First Impression
I had the OP-Z for a while. I liked the concept, and it was a lot of fun. However, the device didn’t inspire me because it had too many button combos and no display.
The new unit looks a trillion times better than the 3D-printed OP-Z with the legendary banana flex. Teenage Engineering has probably put the OP-Z concept on steroids in the OP-XY. It’s probably a super inspiring instrument, but why has the price also made a steroid jump?
Teenage Engineering OP-XY is available now for 2299.
More information here: Teenage Engineering
Available at my partner
I hope it has the same “excellent” build quality as their other cheap plastic toys, so the children playing with it, break the knobs and buttons after 2 hours. Call me crazy, but doesn’t the Sonicware ELZ-1 sound like a way better competitor, if you want this kind of form factor? Even if you just buy it to never open the box it came in, and instead play with the Digitone II on a beach in Spain, which you bought from the rest of the money, you gladly didn’t spend on this hipster gem? (Boy, am I looking forward to Synthtube, climaxing about this “game changer”, which “I’ve always dreamed about”). ELZ-1 souns like a nice package, though.
I have the ELZ_1 Play and I can confirm that it is an excellent piece of gear.
Very, very good in fact and surprisingly more versatile than I thought it would be.
I can’t compare it the any of the TE offerings because I’ve never tried them. Nor do I really care to.
Thanks for confirmation from a real user. Only have seen YouTube videos, but with their quick updates and very reasonable prices, Sonicware really seem to care. I promised myself not to buy more, but the ELZ looks like fun.
Yeah sure
2299 euro !!!!!!!!!!
Hipster be ready for a brand new hype.
In the meantime I will be in my studio making music.
The price is just… lol.
I hope it will be easier to chnage the internal battery in OP-XY that it is in OP-1.
Disassembling an OP-1 is a nightmare for a user, like me.
Or you could just sell the OP-1 before prices plummet, buy a elektron box, an elz 1 or a 707 and have a proper groovebox. Get a powerbank and happy days.
$2299!!!!
Hahahahahaha.
The Emperor DEFINITELY has no clothes…
that side view doesn’t make sense. the raised buttons are angled to each other but I can see any buttons raised like that. fake?
not a fake it’s from Guitar Center 😉
So..zero f*s given between this and 64 MB memory K.O. II EP-113.. 😅 You gotta give it to TE, they party the way they wanna. They could really clean up in the awkward SP404mk2 / Digitakt price point. But instead aiming straight for the royal familys kids play room in Saudi Arabia.
I can get a new Octatrack and a dinner at a Michelin star restaurant and a stay in Four Seasons for that price. ridiculous.
That price is a middle finger to everyone that wanted an OP-Z with reliable hardware. I’m done with this company.
I love that it makes the Octatrack look inexpensive by comparison.
“Look, hon, it’s not like I’m talking TE money, here. Daddy just needs a lil ol Octatrack.”
I’ll just keep my Yamaha seqtrak… thanks.
I agree with others on the price, but can’t say much about reliability of their products because I’ve never owned one. Happy with my Synthstrom Deluge and the opensource firmware. I paid just over 1200 usd with the new screen. How much more does this offer than the Deluge?
The Deluge is an instrument, all of TEs stuff are toys. They even say, they are a design company, so if you want to make music, buy proper gear, like you did. If you hate money well spent, buy TE or Polyend (I guess their compressor is fine, despite being one of a million).
My first thought without seeing it was like “sure gonna be 2000 bucks or something”. Guess I wasn’t far off 😀
“At first glance, the OP XY is ticking only one box…. file for welfare”
The people: „we want a successor for our OP-Z!
Teenage Engineering: – „we hear you, please pay 1700 bucks more for that!“
You could buy 5 Push Move and have 20 tracks and still have $50 for a big chocolate cheesecake.
Has any person commenting used the instrument? No, it appears.
Hate for its own sake is not funny. It just adds yet-more toxicity to an already-rotting internet.
These people have made a series of distinctive, creative, usually very-well-supported music products at many different price levels. So TE is much like many companies that way. They are a small company doing their own work, in their own way. If you try a thing and understand it and don’t like it, by all means say so and say why. Tom doesn’t like the key combinations and lack of a screen on the OP-Z. That is an honest, personal criticism of an instrument. The chassis bending on the OP-Z happened in some cases and not in others. That is a production issue, but it is also fair to mention it. These criticisms seem irrelevant to the OP-XY, but I see why he mentions them. This price difference is related directly to the very different hardware and the extra development of the system. Is that not obvious?
The comments section ignores the example Tom sets in the article. This blind hatred based on the price tag or baselessly inferred intentions of the TE staff is bizarre. If the price is too high for you or you dislike the design standards of the company, don’t buy it. I can’t afford all sorts of things. That is no criticism of an instrument or a company.
Most people are not being critical because the OP-XY is bad or an incapable instrument. People, myself included, are angry that TE have clearly made a greedy move by pricing the OP-1F and OP-XY so absurdly high. I understand that this is a specialized market, but that is not the case with either of these devices. TE is simply copying Apple’s playbook, which is pricing a device so absurdly high that buyers will double down on their decision to purchase out of mental discomfort, subsequently praising the device in social situations. It’s a cynical marketing strategy to take advantage of people’s discomfort with an expensive purchase to create good word of mouth for a company. As much as I like the original OP-Z, I am deeply disappointed by TE’s willingness to double down on this strategy.
Interesting that all so called reviews above are conducted by people that got it free from TE 😂
Screen looks incredible, would be great if one could mirror it, sounds nice, lots of tracks, arranger, wow, can’t wait getting it, have op1 field, there so brilliant, well worth it, bet the updates will bring it on, would love TE midi controller