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%Start Why I Love the Teenage Engineering OP-Z GA S REGULAR Menu Lifewire Tech for Humans Newsletter! Search Close GO News &gt; Smart & Connected Life <h1> Why I Love the Teenage Engineering OP-Z</h1> <h2> This synthesizer is just so much fun</h2> By Charlie Sorrel Charlie Sorrel Senior Tech Reporter Charlie Sorrel has been writing about technology, and its effects on society and the planet, for 13 years. lifewire's editorial guidelines Updated on March 17, 2021 12:24PM EDT Fact checked by Rich Scherr Fact checked by Rich Scherr University of Maryland Baltimore County Rich Scherr is a seasoned technology and financial journalist who spent nearly two decades as the editor of Potomac and Bay Area Tech Wire.
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%Start Why I Love the Teenage Engineering OP-Z GA S REGULAR Menu Lifewire Tech for Humans Newsletter! Search Close GO News > Smart & Connected Life

Why I Love the Teenage Engineering OP-Z

This synthesizer is just so much fun

By Charlie Sorrel Charlie Sorrel Senior Tech Reporter Charlie Sorrel has been writing about technology, and its effects on society and the planet, for 13 years. lifewire's editorial guidelines Updated on March 17, 2021 12:24PM EDT Fact checked by Rich Scherr Fact checked by Rich Scherr University of Maryland Baltimore County Rich Scherr is a seasoned technology and financial journalist who spent nearly two decades as the editor of Potomac and Bay Area Tech Wire.
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Isabella Johnson 1 minutes ago
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Oliver Taylor 1 minutes ago
The OP-Z really is a marvel of design, a masterclass in building a modern musical instrument. It has...
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lifewire's fact checking process Tweet Share Email Tweet Share Email Smart & Connected Life Mobile Phones Internet & Security Computers & Tablets Smart Life Home Theater & Entertainment Software & Apps Social Media Streaming Gaming <h3> Key Takeaways</h3> The OP-Z is a sequencer, sampler, and synthesizer, all in one pocket-sized package.&#39;Step components&#39; give unique control and add variety to sequences.The OP-Z is insanely deep yet easy to pick up. Teenage Engineering Teenage Engineering’s OP-Z is a pocket-sized plastic slab and a synthesizer and sequencer more powerful than many desk-bound boxes. Also: It has no screen.
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Key Takeaways

The OP-Z is a sequencer, sampler, and synthesizer, all in one pocket-sized package.'Step components' give unique control and add variety to sequences.The OP-Z is insanely deep yet easy to pick up. Teenage Engineering Teenage Engineering’s OP-Z is a pocket-sized plastic slab and a synthesizer and sequencer more powerful than many desk-bound boxes. Also: It has no screen.
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Andrew Wilson 2 minutes ago
The OP-Z really is a marvel of design, a masterclass in building a modern musical instrument. It has...
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Ethan Thomas 5 minutes ago
Play and program by pressing combinations of its tiny buttons, and yet it is intuitive, fast, and ea...
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The OP-Z really is a marvel of design, a masterclass in building a modern musical instrument. It has no screen, but it’s easier and faster to use than many devices that do.
Harper Kim Member
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The OP-Z really is a marvel of design, a masterclass in building a modern musical instrument. It has no screen, but it’s easier and faster to use than many devices that do.
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Play and program by pressing combinations of its tiny buttons, and yet it is intuitive, fast, and easy—once you’ve learned the basics. It has its own personality and plenty of quirks, but the OP-Z might be the most intuitive and fluid sequencer around.
Ethan Thomas Member
access_time 16 minutes ago
Play and program by pressing combinations of its tiny buttons, and yet it is intuitive, fast, and easy—once you’ve learned the basics. It has its own personality and plenty of quirks, but the OP-Z might be the most intuitive and fluid sequencer around.
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Christopher Lee 15 minutes ago
I’d say that the OP-Z is the most intuitive sequencer I’ve ever used because... It’s closer to...
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I’d say that the OP-Z is the most intuitive sequencer I’ve ever used because... It’s closer to playing an instrument than to programming a computer.
Julia Zhang Member
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I’d say that the OP-Z is the most intuitive sequencer I’ve ever used because... It’s closer to playing an instrument than to programming a computer.
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<h2> Swedish Design </h2> Teenage Engineering is a design company with a musical bent. The OP-Z is its second instrument. The OP-1 launched in 2011 and combined a keyboard, sampler, synthesizer, radio, and virtual four-track tape into a cute aluminum body.
Sophie Martin Member
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Swedish Design

Teenage Engineering is a design company with a musical bent. The OP-Z is its second instrument. The OP-1 launched in 2011 and combined a keyboard, sampler, synthesizer, radio, and virtual four-track tape into a cute aluminum body.
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Its weird effects and low-fi sounds turned it into a cult hit, used by musicians from Bon Iver to Beck, Depeche Mode to Jean Michel Jarre. The OP-1 was unavailable at the end of 2018 because the OLED screens used to make it ran out.
Noah Davis Member
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Its weird effects and low-fi sounds turned it into a cult hit, used by musicians from Bon Iver to Beck, Depeche Mode to Jean Michel Jarre. The OP-1 was unavailable at the end of 2018 because the OLED screens used to make it ran out.
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But the OP-Z skirted this problem by using your iPhone or iPad (and later, your Android phone) as its display. <h2> A Killer Sequencer </h2> The OP-Z is a sequencer. That is, it plays back a sequence of notes (called steps) in the same order, over and over.
Ryan Garcia Member
access_time 16 minutes ago
But the OP-Z skirted this problem by using your iPhone or iPad (and later, your Android phone) as its display.

A Killer Sequencer

The OP-Z is a sequencer. That is, it plays back a sequence of notes (called steps) in the same order, over and over.
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Ava White 12 minutes ago
These notes can be musical notes from the built-in synthesizer, or they can be sampled. There are ei...
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Sophie Martin 14 minutes ago
On the OP-Z, the top row of 16 buttons is to program these steps. Press one, and it lights up, which...
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These notes can be musical notes from the built-in synthesizer, or they can be sampled. There are eight separate audio tracks, four for drums (or samples) and four for synthesizers (including an arpeggiator).
Victoria Lopez Member
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These notes can be musical notes from the built-in synthesizer, or they can be sampled. There are eight separate audio tracks, four for drums (or samples) and four for synthesizers (including an arpeggiator).
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Amelia Singh 2 minutes ago
On the OP-Z, the top row of 16 buttons is to program these steps. Press one, and it lights up, which...
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On the OP-Z, the top row of 16 buttons is to program these steps. Press one, and it lights up, which means it will sound. The two rows below, with black and “white” keys, is a stylized piano keyboard, and these do what you’d expect.
Sofia Garcia Member
access_time 20 minutes ago
On the OP-Z, the top row of 16 buttons is to program these steps. Press one, and it lights up, which means it will sound. The two rows below, with black and “white” keys, is a stylized piano keyboard, and these do what you’d expect.
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Sebastian Silva 15 minutes ago
Teenage Engineering But the magic of the OP-Z comes from the way this all works. The keys on the lef...
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Liam Wilson 15 minutes ago
You can sample into the (very lo-fi) built-in microphone. Or you can add effects to whole tracks or ...
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Teenage Engineering But the magic of the OP-Z comes from the way this all works. The keys on the left act like shift keys on a computer, changing the main buttons’ behavior. This lets you do all kinds of stuff.
Aria Nguyen Member
access_time 55 minutes ago
Teenage Engineering But the magic of the OP-Z comes from the way this all works. The keys on the left act like shift keys on a computer, changing the main buttons’ behavior. This lets you do all kinds of stuff.
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Natalie Lopez 14 minutes ago
You can sample into the (very lo-fi) built-in microphone. Or you can add effects to whole tracks or ...
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Elijah Patel 43 minutes ago
The last kick drum hit in a sequence could have an echo applied, for example. You can use the OP-Z w...
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You can sample into the (very lo-fi) built-in microphone. Or you can add effects to whole tracks or just to a single note.
Nathan Chen Member
access_time 48 minutes ago
You can sample into the (very lo-fi) built-in microphone. Or you can add effects to whole tracks or just to a single note.
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Luna Park 9 minutes ago
The last kick drum hit in a sequence could have an echo applied, for example. You can use the OP-Z w...
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Audrey Mueller 33 minutes ago
You can do everything with the buttons. It’s intimidating at first, but the design is so well thou...
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The last kick drum hit in a sequence could have an echo applied, for example. You can use the OP-Z with the companion app, which shows you what each of the buttons will do, and makes it easier to edit your samples (yes, you can record and chop up samples). But a screen is totally unnecessary.
Mason Rodriguez Member
access_time 26 minutes ago
The last kick drum hit in a sequence could have an echo applied, for example. You can use the OP-Z with the companion app, which shows you what each of the buttons will do, and makes it easier to edit your samples (yes, you can record and chop up samples). But a screen is totally unnecessary.
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Isaac Schmidt 2 minutes ago
You can do everything with the buttons. It’s intimidating at first, but the design is so well thou...
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Christopher Lee 5 minutes ago
In fact, I’d say that the OP-Z is the most intuitive sequencer I’ve ever used because you can ju...
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You can do everything with the buttons. It’s intimidating at first, but the design is so well thought out that you can work without thinking once you have the basics.
Jack Thompson Member
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You can do everything with the buttons. It’s intimidating at first, but the design is so well thought out that you can work without thinking once you have the basics.
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Hannah Kim 8 minutes ago
In fact, I’d say that the OP-Z is the most intuitive sequencer I’ve ever used because you can ju...
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In fact, I’d say that the OP-Z is the most intuitive sequencer I’ve ever used because you can just think, then do. You are never distracted by a menu or screen. It’s closer to playing an instrument than to programming a computer.
Brandon Kumar Member
access_time 45 minutes ago
In fact, I’d say that the OP-Z is the most intuitive sequencer I’ve ever used because you can just think, then do. You are never distracted by a menu or screen. It’s closer to playing an instrument than to programming a computer.
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Liam Wilson 38 minutes ago
And then we come to the OP-Z’s secret weapon.

Step Components

This will get a little te...
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Luna Park 1 minutes ago
Having the same sequence run repeatedly is fine for techno music, but it gets a little boring. Step ...
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And then we come to the OP-Z’s secret weapon. <h2> Step Components </h2> This will get a little technical, but that’s essential to explain the OP-Z’s unique abilities.
Thomas Anderson Member
access_time 16 minutes ago
And then we come to the OP-Z’s secret weapon.

Step Components

This will get a little technical, but that’s essential to explain the OP-Z’s unique abilities.
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Noah Davis 11 minutes ago
Having the same sequence run repeatedly is fine for techno music, but it gets a little boring. Step ...
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Having the same sequence run repeatedly is fine for techno music, but it gets a little boring. Step components are a way to mix things up. You can add one to any step of any track, and it will change how that step behaves.
Kevin Wang Member
access_time 17 minutes ago
Having the same sequence run repeatedly is fine for techno music, but it gets a little boring. Step components are a way to mix things up. You can add one to any step of any track, and it will change how that step behaves.
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Harper Kim 1 minutes ago
To apply a step component, you hold down the step, press some buttons, and turn some knobs.  Te...
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To apply a step component, you hold down the step, press some buttons, and turn some knobs.&nbsp; Teenage Engineering For instance, you could apply a step component to play a note louder every four bars. Or to only play it the first time around.
Daniel Kumar Member
access_time 54 minutes ago
To apply a step component, you hold down the step, press some buttons, and turn some knobs.  Teenage Engineering For instance, you could apply a step component to play a note louder every four bars. Or to only play it the first time around.
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Evelyn Zhang 46 minutes ago
You can change the pitch, or duration, play the note more than once, or dial in a certain amount of ...
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Ella Rodriguez 24 minutes ago
Or—and this one is fantastic—you can shrink a bar down to play just a few notes, over and over. ...
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You can change the pitch, or duration, play the note more than once, or dial in a certain amount of reverb or distortion for just one step. You can also do crazier stuff, like having the first three notes of a bar repeat four times before moving on and playing the rest.
Madison Singh Member
access_time 38 minutes ago
You can change the pitch, or duration, play the note more than once, or dial in a certain amount of reverb or distortion for just one step. You can also do crazier stuff, like having the first three notes of a bar repeat four times before moving on and playing the rest.
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Lucas Martinez 23 minutes ago
Or—and this one is fantastic—you can shrink a bar down to play just a few notes, over and over. ...
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Or—and this one is fantastic—you can shrink a bar down to play just a few notes, over and over. Those notes can be parts of a longer, sampled passage and can be set to randomize. This will create some crazy glitches.
Lily Watson Moderator
access_time 100 minutes ago
Or—and this one is fantastic—you can shrink a bar down to play just a few notes, over and over. Those notes can be parts of a longer, sampled passage and can be set to randomize. This will create some crazy glitches.
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Oliver Taylor 61 minutes ago
This all sounds very complex, and it is. But it is also easy to program as you go. In fact, the OP-Z...
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This all sounds very complex, and it is. But it is also easy to program as you go. In fact, the OP-Z is so easy to program that you could use it for live, improvised performances.
Julia Zhang Member
access_time 21 minutes ago
This all sounds very complex, and it is. But it is also easy to program as you go. In fact, the OP-Z is so easy to program that you could use it for live, improvised performances.
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Henry Schmidt 19 minutes ago
You can then pick up the device and wave it around, and the built-in accelerometer can affect the so...
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Natalie Lopez 9 minutes ago
It really is deep. We haven’t yet mentioned the virtual tape loop that can be “scratched,” or ...
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You can then pick up the device and wave it around, and the built-in accelerometer can affect the sound. <h2> More Much More </h2> There’s a whole lot more inside this box.
Harper Kim Member
access_time 22 minutes ago
You can then pick up the device and wave it around, and the built-in accelerometer can affect the sound.

More Much More

There’s a whole lot more inside this box.
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Charlotte Lee 1 minutes ago
It really is deep. We haven’t yet mentioned the virtual tape loop that can be “scratched,” or ...
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It really is deep. We haven’t yet mentioned the virtual tape loop that can be “scratched,” or the ability to hook this up to MIDI instruments and use it as a master brain.
Nathan Chen Member
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It really is deep. We haven’t yet mentioned the virtual tape loop that can be “scratched,” or the ability to hook this up to MIDI instruments and use it as a master brain.
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Thomas Anderson 10 minutes ago
Or that you can plug in a MIDI piano keyboard and live record your performance, then mangle it with ...
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Teenage Engineering It can even automatically generate chord progressions and weird modal shifts by ...
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Or that you can plug in a MIDI piano keyboard and live record your performance, then mangle it with the step components. Or that it is a full-featured USB-C audio interface for any computer, including the iPad.
Luna Park Member
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Or that you can plug in a MIDI piano keyboard and live record your performance, then mangle it with the step components. Or that it is a full-featured USB-C audio interface for any computer, including the iPad.
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Aria Nguyen 35 minutes ago
Teenage Engineering It can even automatically generate chord progressions and weird modal shifts by ...
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Sample management is a pain, and there’s no way to sample music without holding down a record butt...
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Teenage Engineering It can even automatically generate chord progressions and weird modal shifts by analyzing what you have programmed. Like any good musical instrument, the basics of the OP-Z are easy to pick up, but once you get into it, there is seemingly no end to its depth. It does have a few downsides.
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access_time 25 minutes ago
Teenage Engineering It can even automatically generate chord progressions and weird modal shifts by analyzing what you have programmed. Like any good musical instrument, the basics of the OP-Z are easy to pick up, but once you get into it, there is seemingly no end to its depth. It does have a few downsides.
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Alexander Wang 13 minutes ago
Sample management is a pain, and there’s no way to sample music without holding down a record butt...
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I’ve owned mine since the early days, and I’ve never had a problem. I L-O-V-E the OP-Z. Other de...
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Sample management is a pain, and there’s no way to sample music without holding down a record button, making it hard to play another instrument at the same time. Also, early units suffered from manufacturing faults, but those seem to be ironed out now.
David Cohen Member
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Sample management is a pain, and there’s no way to sample music without holding down a record button, making it hard to play another instrument at the same time. Also, early units suffered from manufacturing faults, but those seem to be ironed out now.
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Sebastian Silva 51 minutes ago
I’ve owned mine since the early days, and I’ve never had a problem. I L-O-V-E the OP-Z. Other de...
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I’ve owned mine since the early days, and I’ve never had a problem. I L-O-V-E the OP-Z. Other devices do some things better, but nothing is as well-designed or as fast to use.
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I’ve owned mine since the early days, and I’ve never had a problem. I L-O-V-E the OP-Z. Other devices do some things better, but nothing is as well-designed or as fast to use.
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