Teenage Engineering's OP-Z is a pocket-sized plastic platter and a synthesizer and sequencer that's more powerful than many desk-bound boxes. Also: It has no screen.
WHY I LOVE THE OP-Z – MAKE MUSIC EVERYWHERE 🎹🔑#12
The OP-Z is truly a marvel of design, a masterclass in building a modern musical instrument. It has no screen, but is easier and faster to use than many devices that do. Play and program by pressing combinations of small buttons, and yet it is intuitive, fast and easy – once you have mastered the basics. It has its own personality and many quirks, but the OP-Z is perhaps the most intuitive and fluid sequencer available.
Teenage Engineering is a design company with a musical bent. The OP-Z is their second instrument. The OP-1 was launched in 2011 and combined a keyboard, sampler, synthesizer, radio and virtual four-track tape in a cute aluminum case. Its weird effects and low-fi sounds made it a cult hit, used by musicians from Bon Iver to Beck, Depeche Mode to Jean Michel Jarre.
The OP-1 was discontinued in late 2018 because the OLED screens it used ran out. But the OP-Z got around this problem by using your iPhone or iPad (and later your Android phone) as a display.
