teenageengineering

[teenageengineering]

monolog x + OP-1 = OP-4

interview: for some time now, stranger noises than usual have been coming from the teenage engineering studio. we had a talk with the guy behind the massive 4 x OP-1 setup. read below for some deep level data. 

– can you tell us about yourself and this project?

my real name is johan, but my other (not so real name) that I use for music is monolog x. i'm an artist, musician and composer, with a degree in composition from birmingham conservatoire. i work in a broad field, from contemporary classical to explorations in electronic music.

this project involves four OP-1s that are being controlled by custom software i wrote in pure data.* (*pure data is a visual programming language written in the 1990s by miller puckette.) it is a very powerful and capable performance instrument.

– how did you first come into contact with the OP-1?

my brother in-law had one early on and was always raving about it to me. it looked so cool and "design-y” that i actually thought it was more of a fashion statement than an instrument. well, i was wrong! the OP-1 has some serious sound design skills. i have always been obsessed with timbral changes and modulation of all the parameters in my music. for this, it is a highly versatile, intuitive, responsive and expressive musical instrument. i love how it is so open ended – like, it inspires you to fulfill your creative goals, rather than telling you what to do. for example, i see loads of people doing really cool hip-hop stuff with the sampler section. i have never even used that one yet! very deep indeed.

– tell us a bit more about this project.

in a nutshell, OP-4 is four tiny OP-1 synthesizers stacked on a rack to look like a proper modular system, when it's not really. i then control them using virtual modular software i wrote, a bit like a real modular. this has proved to be a very flexible way to compose and produce interesting sounds and textures.

i got the idea immediately after receiving my OP-1. i love the four parameter knobs and the color coding, but soon became obsessed with being able to modulate all the knobs simultaneously in a way that wasn't possible physically or with just the one lfo. so i discovered the midi lfo on the OP-1, which lets you control four parameters with external cc values, and that's when i thought about pure data. i began experimenting with simple patches to modulate the midi lfo, and it was like a match made in heaven.

i think it is very inspiring to take creative control over the entire process, right from building your own instrument. i'm always trying to honor the kind of 303 heritage, where you use a machine in an entirely different way than manufacturers originally intended. i'm sure you didn't think people would want to stack four of these synths in a rack and modulate all parameters like crazy with midi cc!

pure data is ace in that regard, it truly feels like a blank canvas. none of my patches are that complex; they consist of tiny musical functions and modules. the complexity arrives quickly when connecting these objects in numerous ways. honestly, there is a lot to be done with just a clock, clock dividers, probability logic, switches and some controlled random. these pieces also use a lot of free running lfo:s and cycling ad:s being synced by various clocks to create complex rhythmical textures. i'm getting some really cool sounds out of the OP-1 this way too.

electronic music can be very centered around gear, so it is important to me to always reflect on how i use equipment and to try to come up with unusual ideas. it becomes like a personality in music as well. it is nearly impossible to copy a sound if you have programmed the tools yourself. i really recommend people to check out pure data. it is free, open source and extremely powerful, and yet so old. It is, like, vintage, you know. nineties.

– any influences?

sonatas and interludes for prepared piano by john cage was in the back of my mind a lot of the time. they are a series of pieces being composed on an invented instrument. lovely timbres and colors. oversteps by autechre, largely composed with max/msp, really resonated with me emotionally as well. both cage and the latter evoke feelings of the ancient and even the birth of time. i'm influenced by a lot of different things constantly though. anything that has an open channel of communication with the greater source.

– so, what about the future of this project? what's next?

well, i have developed what is kind of like the musical version of my brain in software, so it seems a shame to use it for just a couple of tracks or an album. i intend to focus on working with my own software in 2015 and keep away from daw:s and linear timelines for a while, as i gather a substantial amount of music using this system over the next year. many of the tracks I have done are aimed at live performance, so i’ll also do some shows here and there with this setup. that's one of the reasons i want to get into raspberry pi's and microboards – i have this really awesome semi-modular dsp synth prototype that i would love to get running headless on the pi with an interface. like, the next level of building your own instrument.

– anything you would like to add?

just a big thanks to you guys for supporting this project and lending me some OP-1s and a workspace, the friendly and supportive pure data community, and my fantastic partner, who filmed the videos of me performing on the instrument.

links: http://www.monologx.com http://instagram.com/monolog_x http://facebook.com/monologx

download a copy of pure data at: www.puredata.info

latest releases: seven trumpets ( cassette ) -http://occultresearch.bandcamp.com/album/seven-trumpets

sing to find your way home - ( digipak cd ) http://wil-ru.bandcamp.com/album/sing-to-find-your-way-home

[teenageengineering]

join the te team! right now we have a job opening. we are looking for a senior electronics engineer & web/js/backend/py developer apply here: teenageengineering.com/contact #teenageengineering #jobopening

[teenageengineering]

welcome to booth 6409! #teenageengineering #namm

[teenageengineering]

day 2 #namm #teenageengineering

[teenageengineering]

pocket operators #po12 #po14 #po16 #teenageengineering #cheapmonday #namm

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we are proud to announce a unique collaboration between teenage engineering and our good friends at @cheapmonday. something new will be revealed at the namm show jan 22nd 2015. stay tuned! (sign up for our newsletter at teenageengineering.com for full info) #teenageengineering #cheapmonday #namm2015

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new product catalogues #teenageengineering #namm (at teenage engineering)

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#namm2015 #teenageengineering

[teenageengineering]

the frequency curve illustrates what great, natural sound looks like. covering deep bass at 28Hz, vocals at 1-1.5 kHz and bees at 20kHz. even the beloved cowbell strikes through at 2 kHz, measured in a real living room. #od11 #teenageengineering

[teenageengineering]

tutorial: make your own teenage engineering t-shirt

use a software for vinyl cutters, adobe illustrator or similar (logos available at teenageengineering.com/press

load the vinyl cutter with white flock 

wait for about 2 minutes while the machine cuts out the logos

separate the logos from the vinyl

remove excess vinyl carefully

use a ruler for perfect placement

iron for about 30-45 seconds

remove the transfer

iron again (last touch)

done!

[teenageengineering]

amason playing 1 guitar & 4 OP-1's #regram @amasonband #southparksession #amasonband #op1 #teenageengineering

[teenageengineering]

ur funktion with skizz

rikard “skizz” bizzi has been an active part of the stockholm hip-hop scene for a long time. on october 24th he's releasing his third album, UR FUNKTION LP, featuring some OP-1 use. skizz was kind enough to meet with us and answer a few questions.

te: when did you start making music?

skizz: i come from a musical family. we started when we were kids, playing on toys and banging on random stuff to make sounds. we had a simple cassette tape recorder for recording songs. my big sister used to be the star so we were the backing band. my big brother listened to rap since i was born and when i was 10-11 years old my sister brought home 36 chambers on cassette. that really blew my mind and i knew i wanted to make hip-hop music.

i wrote my first rap when i was 10, in english. the only swedish rap that i heard at that time was just d and the latin kings. this was before the internet, so it wasn’t like you could go and download anything you wanted, like instrumentals and such. so when i was 13-14 i discovered fruity loops and started making my own beats, just to have something to rap on, and to be in full control of the production.

te: when did you first release anything?

skizz: my first official release was with up hygh. we did a remix of bap yo head by freddie cruger that got released in 2004, and in 2006 we released the venus album on jugglin’ / raw fusion recordings. it got pretty hyped up around the world in this niche genre we were making music in. when we did that album we were really fresh out of 'gymnasiet' (high school). one of the teachers in school was aron phiri who was the mc at the raw fusion club. he sent our demo to mad mats karlsson. he was a good a&r and we worked together for the whole album. overall a good learning experience.

te: what kind of equipment were you working with at that time?

skizz: i had an mpc2000xl and an ensoniq eps keyboard, danne (of up hygh) had an akai s1100, a yamaha tx16w, and we had a borrowed arp synth. most of the synth sounds came from the eps or the mpc.

some other machines i’ve used over the years include an mpc60, an mpc3000, a yamaha cs01 (found for 50 sek / 7 usd at a flea market), a yamaha cs-10 and a roland jx3p with the controller (featured heavily on kärlek, funk & solidaritet etc).

OP-1 was actually kind of a milestone too, as it’s totally different from anything else. to me it’s kind of like a modern, more quirky version of an mpc, because it has that instant feeling were you can just experiment and you’ll soon learn how to make music. it’s something i’ll probably gonna keep for a while.

i mostly use the sampler, endless sequencer, tape recorder and the master fx. i like the punch effect. to me it sounds like a copied loop, low passed with some resonance on it and then layered with the filtered sound on top of the original, something i would have done on the mpc-3000. it’s nice to just be able to get a loop from vinyl, add some bass to it, add some nice compression with the master drive, and then export it and record.

i use it mainly as a sampler, and even though it doesn't have all the functions that i could use it’s still very competent. if it would have had all the functions it probably wouldn’t have been as inspiring. my three main wishes would be more tracks on the tape, an undo function and a sequencer more adjusted for longer loops. you always have to work with limitations and even though it can be frustrating at times, the inspiration that it brings makes up for it. your imagination is the limitation.

te: can you tell us something about your new album?

four songs on the new album are done with OP-1. for my second album 100kg funk i didn't get the response from media that i had thought i would get, so i got kind of frustrated. to deal with this, for ur funktion i did all beats, writing and recording in basically a month.

the last track för alltid (for ever) is actually the only song that has a synth on it. like i said it was because 36 chambers that i really wanted to make hip-hop. i wanted it to sound like a beat from wu tang forever, and this whole album is kind of like a wu tang tribute.

te: thanks a lot skizz!

UR FUNKTION LP release date: october 24, 2014 buy it now at rikardbizzi.se, and at record mania and rikardbizzi.bandcamp.com, after the 24th. make sure to catch the release party!

facebook.com/skizzbizzi instagram.com/rikardbizzi rikardbizzi.blogg.se

[teenageengineering]

case-creativity!

[teenageengineering]

the first OP-1 prototype #tbt #op1 #synthesizer #prototype #teenageengineering (på/i Teenage Engineering)

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OP-1 dependency graph #tbt #op1 #teenageengineering

[teenageengineering]

OD-11 now available at moma design stores in nyc

teenage engineering is proud to announce the release of the OD-11 cloud speaker for the us market, starting from 18th july 2014.

OD-11

the original stig carlsson OD-11 loudspeaker, from 1974, is back forty years after the original launch. as practically all swedes know, booming in the 70’s, the carlsson loudspeakers challenged a whole industry, resulting in hundreds of thousands of swedes replacing their old speakers with the stig carlsson signature ’ortho acoustic’ loudspeakers. never before had their frank zappa album sounded so good.

the reason was stig's invention, designing his speakers for real homes instead of damped laboratory rooms. by directing his speaker elements upward, towards the ceiling, he was able to widen the listeners ’sweet spot’, which allowed people to move around their rooms and still experience great natural sound.

re-engineered by teenage engineering

today, almost exactly 40 years later, teenage engineering has re-engineered the iconic and timeless OD-11 by adding an analog 100 watt amplifier, cutting edge wireless beam forming technology and a computer, within the loudspeaker itself.

together with the stig carlsson foundation, teenage engineering has recreated the true carlsson loudspeaker and updated it to work perfectly for todays world, where music is stored in the cloud, accessible from anywhere. this collaboration also led to an updated speaker design, producing a cleaner, more powerful bass, a whole octave lower than the original. because hip hop music with it’s low bass was not invented in 70s.

launch at the moma design stores in new york

the worldwide launch will be through the museum of modern art, moma design stores in new york. you will be able to hear for yourself, the amazing sound of stig carlsson’s speakers, from 18th july.

supported services

airplay

spotify (premium users)

more services will be added over time. OD-11 is fully upgradable to cover any new cloud based services.

requirements

airplay airplay works with iphone, ipad, and ipod touch with ios 4.3.3 or later, mac with os x mountain lion or later, and pc with itunes 10.2.2 or later.

spotify connect (premium users) spotify connect lets you control your home stereo with the spotify app on your mobile or tablet. it’s the ultimate home listening experience for spotify premium subscribers. switch from headphones to speakers with just two taps. control your home stereo with any device logged into your spotify account. get great playlists to suit any mood. your music is never interrupted by incoming calls, other apps or wifi range problems. try spotify premium free for 30 days, spotify.com/freetrial

orthoplay OD-11 comes with the free orthoplay app for ios 7. your phone will act as a remote control. you can access orthoplay at www.orthoplay.com

availability

www.teenageengineering.com moma design store, across the museum, 44 west 53rd street, new york, ny moma design store soho, 81 spring street, new york, ny also available available at momastore.org and by phone at 1-800-851-4509

retail price

OD-11 $899

OD-11 is a trademark of ssc (stig carlsson foundation). teenage engineering and orthoplay are registered trademarks of teenage engineering ab. airplay, ipad, iphone, ipod touch, mac, os x and itunes are trademarks of apple inc., registered in the u.s. and other countries. ios is a trademark or registered trademark of cisco in the u.s. and other countries and is used under license.

[teenageengineering]

final touch #teenageengineering #momadesignstore #midtown #manhattan #newyork #od11