Sunday Synth Jam:  AfroDJMac demonstrates what he does when he’s not unleashing his weekly free live rack –  jamming with Ableton Live and his Teenage Engineering OP-1.

Here’s what he has to say about this jam and working with the Teenage Engineering OP-1:

I made this track by using my new OP-1 in Ableton. The OP-1’s built in FM radio gave me a Salt n Pepa sample of “What a Man” (totally random); and that sample was chopped into a bunch of tiny, barely recognizable pieces for many of the sounds.

One I particular like is a high pitched synth like melody that is featured at around 5:10. I created this sound by looping a super tiny portion of the Salt n Pepa sample, so that it just created a glitchy high pitched tone. I then used one of the knobs to changed the length of that loop which changes the pitch of the note.

I also used a bunch of the OP-1s synth sounds too. I grabbed another sample of a Hues Corporation record, created some sounds with the OP-1, made the bass and drums using Ableton’s Instruments, and I used my latest Ableton Live Rack (noises, risers, swooshes) to add some atmosphere.

After collecting a bunch of interesting sounds and developing a groove, I put the song together on the fly in this video. The footage features Long Island’s beautiful Southard’s Pond as well as a brief cameo from my homey SuperKid.

There’s been a lot of talk about the OP-1, and as a guy that has had one for about two weeks, let me tell you I love it. Call me a hipster if you must, but this thing has been inspiring me, encouraging me to work in different ways, and has an awesome grittiness to it. I haven’t mastered using it, but I am excited to unlock its potential; it goes surprisingly deep. I’ll try to document my journeys with it.

Happy Fourth of July!

The OP-1 has gotten a lot of flack because of the combination of its diminutive size and not so diminutive pricing – but early users seem to be loving it.