I’ve been thinking about getting a new groovebox for a while now… Actually I didn’t know what they were called until I saw that first post on this community then it all clicked! (Thanks btw!!)
I’ve played around with an old kaossilator and it was pretty fun but I’d like something I can maybe put my own sounds in? If that’s generally a really exorbitantly priced feature then I can skip it.
Any suggestions on where I should get started?
Thanks in advance!!
Are there specific features you’re looking for, and what’s your budget?
While I personally am not a fan, a lot of people love the Elektron boxes. There are several in various price ranges and feature sets with a common workflow, and they all are fairly good at live jamming.
Pocket Operators by Teenage Engineering are about as affordable as you can get and also as portable, but they tend to be rather limited and fragile.
There are plenty of others I could suggest but I’m on mobile at the moment, so I won’t type too much yet.
I was thinking like $500 ish. I can go higher if it’s absolutely the best thing ever though.
These elektron boxes do look cool though!
In that price range, the biggest things I’d recommend would be the Roland MC-101, Novation Circuit Tracks or Rhythm or the Elektron Model:Cycles or Model:Samples. They tend to be fairly feature-complete even if they aren’t super in-depth. Some are more synth based and some more sample based. The Elektrons don’t have batteries, but the rest are.
If you can spend a little more, I would also consider the MPC One as a pretty powerful workstation setup. I’m personally not an MPC user as the workflow isn’t for me, but it’s powerful and many people swear by it.
Oh and as an alternative to the MPC, the Teenage Engineering OP-Z is pretty flexible and way more portable than the MPC.
I was looking at the OP-Z but I’m an android user so I feel like I might be a little bit limited on it’s features. However it totally looks like it’s 100% useable without a screen. Might be something I want to get my daughter who’s getting into all this stuff too.
Tons of options here though! Thank you! I’m definitely going to be up all night looking at these!
The OP-Z was designed to be used without a screen, though there is also an official Android app these days!
When I bought my first OP-Z the app only worked on iOS, so I just learned how to use it without the screen. There’s a lot of feedback to let you know where you are and what you’re doing. For example, when you turn the endless encoders the corresponding LED will blink when you reach the minimum or maximum values, and will also turn green when you’re at mid point. And even if you’re color blind, there’s additional feedback on the numbers.
These days, even with the app available, I still use it without a screen. I like that I can take it with me anywhere, and that I can start jamming without having to look at my phone.
My recommendation is, if possible, to try a few different boxes. Sometimes a piece of gear has all the features you’re looking for, but the workflow simply doesn’t click. I try to buy things used and if I’m not in a rush I wait for a good deal, so I can sell it later if it’s not something that works for me. Of course that takes months.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯I’m pretty sure there is an Android app for the OP-Z, so you may still have access to those.
But yeah no problem. If you have questions about any of those, let me know and I’ll try to answer. I’ve at least used most of those at least once so I should be able to speak on them.
Oh yeah I just looked there is an app!
I’ll let you know about any questions I have when I start looking at those. I’m at work at the moment.
I’m no expert when it comes to hardware, but maybe the OP-1 by Teenage Engineering is something that might interest you? You can put in your own samples, I believe you can even sample from radio stations with a built in feature, and it also has built in synths. There’s a YouTube channel called Red Means Recording that does a lot of cool stuff with it. From what I can tell, it’s pretty much a stand-alone tiny workstation.
I was kinda looking at those a little bit actually! Like an aside while I was looking at their OP-Z. Looks really cool. A little bit out of my price range but it’s definitely something I would consider saving my pennies for.
If you don’t need something portable, you could also get a midi controller and hook it up to any DAW and play around that way. At least with ableton (and surely others), you could put in different samples and trigger them on the controller and have access to all the synths. It’s not exactly “out of the box fun” as a groovebox would be, as you’d need to build it yourself, but once it’s put together you can jusy load it as a template and chug away.
That might be the way to go actually.
I already mentioned it in a comment, but I’m a huge fan of the OP-Z, specially now that the price is $500.
You can use it as a sampler (12 seconds, I think) and the sequencer is really powerful. Plus, you can carry it in your pocket, and record straight into your phone via USB. I’ve recorded whole albums while traveling.
I am biased, though. You can tell by my car:
Lol it took me a moment to figure out what the car had to do with it. I dig it!
Oh man that’s both awesome and hilarious!
I think I might get one of these. I like the module upgrades that are available for it a lot and it looks to me like fl studio in your pocket which I kinda dig.
Are you able to upload your own instruments on it? That would be basically my only hangup. I kinda want to get into like cyber dub music production or something similar and what I hear other people playing on it probably won’t make dub lol.
Are you able to upload your own instruments on it?
You can record samples of up to 12 seconds. Drum samples can be chopped into slices, so each key will play a part. And instrument samples can be played back chromatically, so if you record a synth you can play it on the OP-Z keyboard.
And instead of recording them directly you can prepare them on the computer, or download samples from https://op1.fun/. The stock sounds definitely have a very distinctive sound, but it’s also easy to manipulate them to sound very differently. For example, I think this song of mine sounds nothing like what I’ve seen people do on the OP-Z.
That’s a really good song it’s got a nice smooth glide to it!
Alright I think I might be sold on this thing thanks a lot!!
Yeaaah!
You’ve driven a pretty hard bargain lol
Have you checked out any of the MPC products? If you’re into sampling and chopping then you’ve definitely got to consider something.
For around $550 you could get a used MPC One. Might be going down now with the MPC One+ getting released.
Another option is just a MIDI controller that would work well with their free DAW, MPC Beats. It’s the same workflow but you have to work while connected to a computer. For less than $200 bucks there are a bunch of keyboards with controls and drum pads that would be totally fun. The MPK Mini MK3 is one I’ve been meaning to get so it’s easier to control softsynths.
