THE 4-TRACK TAPE MACHINE

Another oddity to the OP-1 magic is its 4-track tape machine. Most modern grooveboxes/production boxes offer MIDI tracks first, and then audio tracks. The OP-1 skips the MIDI and goes straight to an audio-based workflow. This provides some interesting choices that have to be made when crafting beats, much like 4-track recorders from the pure analogue days.

For instance, when recording, there is no quantising. This adds a human element to the playing, but you also need to make sure you don’t mess it up! There’s no undo button and you can overdub on top of a track and permanently change it. There are ways around the undo. You can make copies of sections of audio and drop them down the timeline of the virtual tape machine. But alas, it’s a quirky design.

If you’re willing to plan and write around the 4-track limitations, it can be an excellent way to write ideas. And afterwards you can import the four audio tracks into your DAW for further processing/mixing/finishing.