Backfill · 2024
#342 of 363Teenage Engineering OP-1
Press shot: a Teenage Engineering OP-1 synthesizer photographed from above on a white surface, showing the compact keyboard, small color screen, four colored rotary encoders, and matte aluminum chassis.
The Teenage Engineering OP-1 is a portable synthesizer that fits in a backpack and has an interface built around a small color screen and 4 colored knobs that change function depending on which mode you are in. At $1,300 it's absurd for what is essentially a toy-sized keyboard, but the build quality and the sound engine justify it once you start using it. Teenage Engineering treats consumer electronics like industrial design objects. OP-1's aluminum body with its primary-color accents looks more like a piece of Scandinavian furniture than a music production tool. A small color screen uses simple animations to represent synthesizer parameters, turning abstract concepts like envelope curves into visual metaphors that make sense immediately. I admire that they committed to making a device that doesn't look or feel like any other music hardware on the market. Commitment has turned it into a status object for producers the way a Leica is for photographers.