Let’s just be frank – the Teenage Engineering OP-1 wasn’t supposed to just be a ‘MIDI piano’, it was designed to be a powerful synth capable of playing, sampling, editing, looping, and even granulated synthesizing. Giving it 24 keys and the visual template of a keyboard might have made it appealing to most traditional musicians, but a true electronic music aficionado knows there’s versatility in breaking beyond that piano-style design.
Meet the OP-XY, Teenage Engineering’s latest offering that takes everything we loved about the OP-Z and cranks it up to eleven. The OP-XY is a no-compromise, dual-CPU boosted and fully rebuilt sequencer, sampler, and performance instrument, based on the much-loved workflow of the OP-Z. It ditches the piano keys for a sophisticated 16-track, 64-step sequencer layout, and uses every inch of real estate for an array of buttons and features that let you compose, sample, produce, and perform music in a much more liberating way.
Designer: Teenage Engineering
The design philosophy remains unmistakably Teenage Engineering, although the OP-XY sheds the brand’s signature fun-meets-functional color palette for something more brooding. The sleek black aluminum housing is both gorgeous and understated, featuring the same playful buttons and knobs but in a completely achromatic (greyscale) colorway that screams ‘serious musician’ rather than ‘creative songmaker’. The layout gets a complete overhaul while maintaining enough workflow familiarity that anyone running the OP-Z will be able to transition seamlessly through intuitive muscle memory.
The OP-XY replaces traditional keys with concrete production tools. You’ve got 8 individually sequenceable instrument tracks, 8 unique synth engines, 3 samplers, and 9 patterns. The 64-step sequencer operates across 4 pages of 16 steps each, giving you unprecedented control over your compositions. With 24-voice polyphony and multiple unique synth engines, plus a dedicated drum sampler, the OP-XY delivers room-filling sound through its built-in speaker while maintaining the portability that made its predecessors so beloved.
What sets the OP-XY apart is its comprehensive connectivity. The device features analogue inputs and outputs for a wide range of devices, a multi-out port for professional setups, and maintains the 16-hour USB-C rechargeable battery life that keeps the music going all day. The built-in microphone opens up endless sampling possibilities, while the enhanced processing power ensures your most complex sequences run without a hitch.
The buttons retain Teenage Engineering’s quirky iconography, complete with that signature learning curve that makes discovery so rewarding. You navigate through different functions for inputs, EQs, stems, sequences, and effects, each with its own distinctive visual language. The OP-XY’s interface invites exploration, with symbols and controls that become second nature once you dive into its workflow.
What makes the OP-XY particularly exciting is how it represents Teenage Engineering’s evolution from the OP-Z concept. The device extends and re-imagines the OP-Z workflows, taking the foundation of what made that device special and building something more mature and capable. The result is a powerful, ultra-portable sequencer, synth and sampler that can stack sounds against musical grids in an intricate 64-step sequencer.
The OP-XY represents Teenage Engineering’s continued push to expand the boundaries of what portable music production can be. Whether you’re crafting beats in a coffee shop, laying down ideas in a hotel room, or commanding a live performance, the OP-XY delivers the tools and flexibility to make it happen. The device takes everything we loved about the OP-Z and amplifies it into something even better.
