At least it'll look nice on a shelf thanks to Teenage Engineering's good work :)
EDIT: It's an MT6765 (Helios P35). It's got a known BootROM exploit. Won't be long until someone dumps it and cracks it open, though would be hilarious if a part2/part3 dump is just a factory stock ROM.
if Apple started churning out guns, landmines, snakeoil, cancer cures, NFTs, and magic-AIs their reputation would falter.
Personally, the Vision Pro wasn’t really my cup of tea but I will be standing in line on day one at my local Apple Store for the Landmine Pro.
It's all about that vertical integration.
I mean, don't get me wrong, I still think Behringer as a company is doing bad things to the music land scape and that they've done some pretty horrendous IP theft and racist stuff, but I don't think "because you're poor" is right either.
To the point though, yeah, no, TE absolutely won't get a black eye for this: Nobody cares, and hardly anyone but tech bros even know. It's no worse than their wooden choir thing.
Hey look down there! The computer-1 case is on sale for $149, down from $249. How much profit you still think they're making, considering it's a DIY kit of bendable sheet metal?
They send you a bunch of flat panels of metal you have to bend into shape yourself, and are supposedly very flimsy and can be easily bent even once the whole thing is assembled. They didn't even punch out the screw holes so you have to bore your own holes and screw through them manually. The USB-C port on the front uses a 3.0 header instead of 3.1. And it can't even fit a small formfactor GPU.
https://teenage.engineering/store/ep-133/
Neither that, nor this little AI cloud device are eye watering in price.
The same goes for the KO and indeed, the OP-Z. The OP-Z doesn't even have a screen, it has no business costing $499 for being a bunch of buttons with a USB-C plug.
> find me anything else that can sequence sound, video and DMX (on the go) like OP-Z can
How about the mandatory paired device it requires to sequence everything? That iPhone/iPad is certainly capable of doing that itself, alongside multiple things the OP-Z can't. Nevermind how far you'd get with a $300 laptop and $200 DAW.
What company is making pocket operator alternative? What company is making an OP-1 alternative...?
Right, that's what I thought.
On your laptop point, I'm going to be doing a show this weekend, OP-Z, OP-1, 170 and 400. I don't even know HOW I would do that without TE gear, $50k worth of Eurorack?
> I don't even know HOW I would do that without TE gear, $50k worth of Eurorack?
A quad-core laptop running Reason and VCV Rack would do just as well, but I won't spoil your hardware fun. Who can deny how sweet TE's analog DCO sounds?
For example:
OP-Z, you could buy X device, it has all the same features, is about the same price, same size, battery etc.
Very curious to check out your suggestions!
OP-1: Literally just about anything. It is a 4 channel digital recorder. You have an iPhone with USB-class compliant audio, you can do multichannel recording. Use a guitar, some iOS plugins and a $40 DAC. If you're going to complain about buttons, go blow your cash on a midi controller (it will still come up cheaper than ANY OF THE OP-1 MODELS!)
Pocket Operator: God, please grant me reprieve from finite suffering. There is no hope for humanity if we are looking for "alternatives" to grooveboxes with kilobyte-sized memory. What do I say? Fairlight CMI? Do I send a picture of the Mellotron as a joke? The Ti-84 graphing calculator? Heaven forbid... the Akai Rhythm Wolf. Is there a future for us yet if iPad children would rather pay college-tuition prices for Fischer-Price hardware that can do what their iPad does already?
You'll never please everyone, which is why snake oil still finds customers in the 21st century.
You can't take someone's OP-Z out of their hands and replace it with an iPhone and expect them to be able to continue, unless you're also recommending a specific iPhone DAW/sequencer with comparable functionality and usability? People would be very keen to hear which ones you like!
And replacing a Pocket Operator's functionality with a Ti-84? If the future of hope for humanity depends on everyone seeing that a Ti-84 is an obviously fully capable substitute for a Pocket Operator, should I be worried that I don't see it (it doesn't even have the right ports, for one thing)?
You seem to have a lot of conviction in your position, we'd love to see some of the substance behind it!
Here is what possibly could work:
OP-1f: a tough one to replace but possibly an iPhone + AUM app for multitrack recording and file management + any of the daws such as garageband for recording
Synths / drums apps - probably any, also Koala sampler is pretty solid.
Effects and sequencers would be hard to replicate though, might need an iPad for that (and there you can just use a Samplr app for instance)
Will need a separate audio interface and maybe a microphone though.
OP-Z: an even tougher task, sequencer-wise I’m not sure what’s out there right now, there used to be Modstep, or can try Fugue machine with audiobus
DMX and visuals would be very tricky to do, but can try making a workaround with OSC and Max maybe??
PO-133: probably Koala sampler or Samplr app
The problem with phone apps is that if developer gives up or it’s taken down from app store then you’re SOL. The upside of TE hardware stuff is that it always works (unless some hardware breaks and you need ti look up replacement / repairs)