As someone who produces electronic music I kind of dig the limitations of the op-1. At a 2k price point though with those limitations in mind I can't justify the price. Even at ~1300 or whatever the old model is going for I can't justify the price. For cheaper you can get both a digitakt and a digitone, which I own the latter, and they sound 1000 times better than the op-1 although each respectively do quite a lot less. I was actually pretty excited to see this until I saw the price. I have spent a lot of money on electronic music gear, way more than 2000, and I'm a bit baffled about who this is for exactly.
And for the $2000 MSRP of the OP-1 Field you could buy a brand new 13" MacBook Pro, an Ableton Live Standard 11 license, a Scarlett Solo audio interface, an M-Audio Keystation 49 USB MIDI controller, and still have some money left over.
That's like telling someone that for the price of a new BMW S1000RR motorcycle, they can instead buy a really good Honda Civic, because a Honda Civic can carry more passengers, you can sleep in it, it is more reliable, safer, cheaper to service, holds resale value better, more versatile when it comes to different weather conditions, etc. You are missing the point that those in the market for BMW S1000RR are often aware of all those factual advantages that a Honda Civic has, they just prioritize different factors in their choices than you might. Someone who is looking to buy a motorcycle isn't gonna suddenly be swayed by looking into all the factual advantages a Honda Civic can provide over a motorcycle.
Despite both items serving fundamentally the same base purpose (getting from point A to point B for cars/motorcycles; making music for OP-1/your list), and one of them is cheaper overall and on paper has a lot of factual advantages, they might simply prioritize different things and both be extremely good at different things they prioritize. I, personally, love the workflow of the original OP-1 way more than almost the exact list you produced (because it used to be pretty much my setup, except I used a different midi controller).
Correct. In this case the laptop+audio interface is a lot closer to the BMW S1000RR if we're using this analogy for music production.
The OP-1 if we're using motorcycle analogies is like a Zero. Really cool, new tech, quirky, doesn't use gas (a traditional DAW) but also comes with a bunch of limitations (can't load any of your normal synths into it, have to work around sampling) kind of like the limited range of electric motorcycles.
Totally fine if what you want is an electric bike for city commuting or short trips, until you want to go on a weekend trip or a track day. Now you're waiting on charging, and limited in power.
I think we've stretched this analogy far enough. I wouldn't call a laptop with an audio interface and Ableton a Honda Civic. OP-1 fills a niche, but it certainly isn't high end performance in terms of audio quality or malleability. They're really cool, creative, unique ways of making music if you like the interface, but ultimately a quirky niche in terms of actual production.
(Which is totally valid if that what you want from your musical instruments)
People buy gear because they like a workflow and the UX/UI tactile choices a particular designer/ brand decided to highlight.
I love Elektron devices and I enjoy patching away on Eurorack. I'm pretty sure there's VSTS out there that will do 99.9% of the sound design I do with that gear, but then i'd be using an iPad or a laptop to do that... and that just completely kills the mood :/
People should (with in their means) obtain they musical instruments that allow them to create music :)
