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Comment by Rockslide | Hacker News Reader

Yes it's expensive in some ways and in others it isn't. Can you get a better synth for the money? Sure. Can you get a better sampler for the money? Sure. Can you get a better sequencer for the money? Sure. Can you get a decent synth, sequencer, and sampler for the money? Well, not necessarily. I'm not saying the price is entirely justified. You certainly pay a lot for the "brand". But on the other hand it might not be as overpriced as one might think by intuition.

Plus, as a owner, I hope price will only go further up, or at least stay on that level :)

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I own an OP-1 and a mess of other synths. The Deluge comes close. I love my OP-1 for its size and portability. Being able to hack up a song on an airplane exclusively on one device rules.

The Deluge is excellent and I like that they really try to prevent people from having to menu dive. But sometimes when I can't remember what the 3 key combo is, I really wish it has a usable screen so I can look at a menu.

> Plus, as a owner, I hope price will only go further up, or at least stay on that level :)

How does a high price benefit you as you own it already? Seems a bit egoistic. Maybe you're planning to sell it? Then I would understand your sentiment, but otherwise, seems a bit strange.

If everyone uses it, it will sound too generic to listeners. That's why mainstream artists hire sound designers to get a never heard before sound for their synth.

You're overestimating the power of the hardware and underestimating the value of creative patching when it comes to synths. As long as you get control over the patching, you'll be able to create "unique" sounds as much as you want.

Spending money doesn't "hurt" as much when the goods you spent it on don't lose value, that's all ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ I might regret having bought it if you can get it for 200 bucks in 5 years. I will not regret it if you can sell it used for the same price as today.

>How does a high price benefit you

Reassurance that the company is actually trying to be sustainable.

All to often niche physical products get it into their head that they can break a mass market, hire sales people to get them into retail which all starts the cycle of lowering the price, compromising the vision then they wake up a year later, their product completely devalued, it's gathering dust on store shelves at best or being sold off a fraction of the price at worst and your customer base hasn't grown.

Happened to Roli in the same space.

Yeah, that makes sense. But then Rockslide should say "I hope they keep and don't compromise on their vision" rather than "I hope the prices stay the same or gets higher".

It's nice to buy an instrument that ages well. A lot of synths do not hold their value once they leave the store shelf. The OP-1 managed to become something of a classic in a short period of time. If you're like me, you want to buy things that hold their value, so you can trade out gear without leaving a bunch of money on the table.

The price hike on TE's side doesn't really have anything to do with this, though. It's likely due to having to source old parts or finding new parts that are more expensive, and adjusting the design to accommodate.

Exactly! You worded it better than I did :)

I think when it became part of MoMA's permanent collection it really solidified a special place for itself.

Isn't this how collecting cars or investing works? I mean it is YCombinator here lol.

> Can you get a decent synth, sequencer, and sampler for the money? Well, not necessarily.

Not even close to true. Deluge, MPC Live, AKAI Force are all waaay more capable and cost about the same new as a used OP-1.

Ah, but can you power all of those from a battery pack and keep them on your lap on the train after taking them out of your small backpack? And all at the same time!

With the Live, you can. It's both much more capable and costs half as much.

However, the OP-1 is probably easier to handle because it's smaller.

MPC Live has an internal battery

Is that true though?

The Deluge currently appears to not be buyable anywhere here, and if I bought it directly from them in NZ and add import tax to that, it probably won't be that much cheaper than a OP-1, if at all. And then the Deluge is at its core a step sequencer, so you can't even record unquantized. Might not be important to you, might be the killing missing feature for someone else. But never having owned a Deluge I can't say much more about it.

The AKAI Force is not that much cheaper than an OP-1 here. Is it "way more capable"? I don't know. But it doesn't even have a piano-like keyboard input, so again, at least one very distinctive feature it doesn't have compared to the OP-1. And then look at it. Would you want to take your AKAI Force on your commute to jam? I wouldn't.

The only one that really is significantly cheaper is the MPC Live, which I don't know, so can't really judge. But this seems to be a sampler at its core, so not sure about its synth capabilities? And it also doesn't have a keyboard...

Edit: well, I stand corrected - the Akai MPC Live II costs the same as on OP-1.

> Can you get a decent synth, sequencer, and sampler for the money? Well, not necessarily.

If you are ok with transfering samples to the device via a web interface, the Novation Circuit is an absolute killer answer to this question.

Sure, the OP-1 is a gem, no doubt about that, and I would love to have one. But for the price the Circuit is a really really nice, unsable and accessible device.

+1 for the Novation Circuit, super portable and really powerful for the price. Compared to the OP-1, I'm sure it's nowhere near as powerful, but it's a really nice little production tool you can bring you with everywhere, just like the OP-1. I'd say the sequencing is a bit easier on the Circuit as well, compared to OP-1, but the synths and sound in general is better on the OP-1.

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