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Comment by fumar | Hacker News Reader

This does read like a pure PR piece. TE angered most of its fanbase by increasing the price of the OP-1 after it claimed parts became more expensive due to a new supplier.

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The OP-1 is the only device I truly love and want to own but never will. I'm still pissed TE sent out an email after an OP-1 sold for something like $10,000+ on eBay saying "don't worry, we're working on making this affordable, stay tuned" then they announced a price hike! For a 10 year old product that's constantly back ordered!

Or you could let go of that anger you're holding on to and buy a used one for $1000 :) https://reverb.com/p/teenage-engineering-op-1

I've tried... also that is still out of my price range. But maybe one day!

Or not, since if something fails you have to ship it to TE and pay them IIRC $125 to look at it. I bought and own an OP-1, that still works great, however, the sequence you execute on boot up to get numbered list of options, such as update firmware, or factory reset cannot be reached. So now I am stuck with the last time I upgraded the firmware, and I can't get it back to the original state, so I can mess around with it again. I don't know, but to spend $800 on a synth, and have to ship it to Sweden, and pay that large a fee to simply look at it is a bit much. I then tried to simply buy a new board, so I could pop it in and be done, but they were sold out! I am sticking with Orca [1] and Extempore [2] for now.

[1] https://github.com/hundredrabbits/Orca [2] https://github.com/digego/extempore

Have you checked out similiar devices? The Critter and Guittari Organelle is a fantastic looking device and half the price, but lacking in some features of the op1.

Theres also the sonicware elz1 but it looks to be focused on being a synth.

There is nothing similar to the op1 unless you are comparing size only.

I suspect TE wanted to outright replace the OP-1 with the OP-z, but the OP-z is not a direct replacement(?) and its initial marketing seemed to me to suggest it is/was going to be a very different device.

For the music hackers out there I'd recommend checking out the Critter and Guitari Organelle M as a more budget (<$500us) and FOSS friendly alternative. The new organelle M has a Raspberry PI compute module under the hood.

Seconding the Organelle as the OP-1 alternative. I haven't got one, but I have definitely considered pulling the trigger.

(The "ultra-budget portable" option is to get a Casio SA and a digital FX pedal. Combine that with a line-in to a DAW setup, and a lo-fi instrumental album is totally within reach.)

What kind (make and model) of digital FX pedal would you recommend? Also any suggestions on DAW software?

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