Thoughts: Music Update Jan 2026 - DAWless
After an exciting start in 2024, my musical growth stagnated a little over the course of 2025. While my interest-in and joy-derived-from making music has gone unhindered, I haven't produced very much of late (save for my June 0dd.company project: Whalefall)
Outside of that, however, I have still done a lot of tinkering! I've played with the headless version of the Dirtywave M8, learned (and subsequently forgotten) how to use LSDJ and Nanoloop on the GBA/Analogue Pocket, had a bunch of fun with Bespoke Synth, and spent many evenings failing to read sheet music or jamming along to a song on a bongo or with my Arturia Microfreak.
There was much music, but I never felt like producing a song, as I felt very much turned off by DAWs. Don't get me wrong, my DAW of choice (Bitwig) is an excellent piece of software -- just the whole concept of involving my computer in the process felt wrong outside of standalone midi controllers and synths like Orca and Bespoke. I hated the entire VST situation from the get-go, I didn't want to play stupid games with Wine to get a virtual piano working, and honestly there was just too much going on. I think a DAW is objectively the best and most powerful way to produce a song, but it doesn't spark joy. It doesn't feel like music to me.
Enter the Teenage Engineering OP-1.
This is a 10-year old device a colleague of mine let me borrow for week or so -- a tiny little piano-looking guy that pretends to be a 4-track tape recorder with a bunch of built-in synths and effects. It's weird and hard to use and finnicky... and it felt like music. Unfortunately it's also wildly expensive. My friend was selling theirs for $1000, and the new model (the OP-1 Field) is even pricier. I didn't end up doing too much with the borrowed OP-1 except messing around, but I fell down a rabbit hole after returning it trying to build my own (that failed) and investigating other interesting options that I could do cheaper.
The flame had been stoked, however. I just needed to go DAWless.
I bought a little loop pedal, which didn't really scratch my itch, as well as a Roland Aria S-1 which is super fun but begs for an accompanying drum kit and a few more layers. A friend traded me my Microfreak for the more robust Minifreak which can make even more sounds, and I even obtained a handful of small classical instruments like recorders, shakers, chimes, a kalimba and a quena flute. I was making a lot of noise all the time, but I still didn't really have a way to orchestrate it all into songs.
Then for christmas my brother went way over our gift limit and got me the Teenage Engineering EP1320, a medieval themed sample sequencer which is crazy fun and goofy -- it's like a superpowered version of the Pocket Operater KO, and most importantly it has IO -- rigging up my S-1 and other tools for sampling, midi, or passthrough was a breeze. It felt like I had all the tools necessary to make music without a DAW and we were in business.
In a stroke of unbelievable luck and timing, this little guy fell into my lap for almost nothing a week later:
The OP-XY is the sequence-oriented newer sibling to the OP-1. It's gorgeous, it's portable, and it basically does everything I've struggled to cobble together with cheaper alternatives all year. With this as a central hub I can effortlessly wire together all of my other tools, and it fills the remaining gaps with its own drum kits, synth engines, and song arranger. It is inferior in almost every way to any DAW on a computer, but it feels good to use and I can bring it into the living room or take it out and twiddle with it at a cafe. It doesn't have infinite sounds or effects or features, but I'm not good enough to need all those things -- they only cause me choice paralysis.
While I've been lusting over the newer version of the OP-1 with its tape-track-style recording, the sequencing interface of the XY is realistically more accessible for me (my ability to keep a beat isn't perfect) and the OP-1's overwrite mechanism and lack of UNDO functionality was daunting when I played with it. The XY is much more forgiving while still feeling vast and capable.
Having this device is a bit of a double-edged sword for me -- I don't know that I could realistically replace this thing if I lose / break it. I'm tying myself to a proprietary overpriced tool with a very unique workflow... but I'm having a blast doing it. Say what you want about Teenage Engineering's products; every time I pick one of their instruments up I'm immediately curious and having fun, and for me that's a critical part of music.
This year we're making some songs -- and on that note, here's the first one of the year: Intersection