Teenage Engineering is a Swedish design company previously best known for their Styrofoam turntable kit and their modular Studio System work lights. Now they’ve taken their innovative design aesthetics and thrown their hat into the musical instrument ring by creating the OP-1. The OP-1 is a seriously stylish portable synthesizer, sequencer, and sampler, perfect for writing and creating twisted electronic ditties on the run. Its most immediate eye-catching feature is the high-contrast, 60 frames per second Amoled display. In terms of software, it boasts 8 different synth engines, 14 effects, multiple sequencer types, and an intuitive sampler. One groundbreaking feature is the virtual 4-track ‘tape’ recorder, which can instantly record anything you do for up to 12 minutes at the highest quality setting. Things get really tripped out when you start to play with the speed and pitch in real-time during playback. The OP-1 has a USB connection, which allows it to function as a software controller and a mass storage device where you can drag and drop audio files to and from your computer.
Word is that David Möllerstedt, who previously designed much of the software for the Elektron Machinedrum, is behind the OS for the OP-1. That is a massive point if true because the Machinedrum is widely considered to be the most intuitive electronic music instrument on the market today. The OP-1 was just on display last weekend at NAMM, the music product industry trade show in Anaheim, California, and Teenage Engineering is hoping it will be available for sale by late 2010.
Video demos after the jump.
Stuart Lindsay says: 
Antoni 
