Time again for the teenage tribe to release a new goody for those who can afford it. The new OP-XY looks very promising indeed.

Teenage Engineering’s new OP-XY is a portable synthesizer and sequencer that looks similar to the company’s OP–1 Field. But functionally it’s instead a more capable upgrade to the company’s six-year-old OP-Z, with a stronger focus on layering sounds with various effects and a steeper $2,299 price tag.

With an “anodized, all-black finish,” the OP-XY is yet another delightful example of Teenage Engineering’s design chops. Its black and white motif accented with a grayscale gradient running across its 16 sequencer inputs is the antithesis of the bright yellow Playdate handheld that Teenage Engineering helped Panic design. Unlike the $429 OP-Z that relied on a mobile device like a smartphone for its screen, the OP-XY now has a black and white OLED display built in, which probably contributes to the high cost.

Powered by a dual Blackfin CPU system paired with 512GB of RAM and 8GB of internal storage, the OP-XY offers eight “unique synth engines” and punch-in effects carried over from the OP-Z and Teenage Engineering’s calculator-sized Pocket Operators. There’s also a six-axis accelerometer inside allowing sounds and effects to change by simply moving the sequencer around.

Synthesist Cuckoo shared his impressions of the new Teenage Engineering OP-XY synthesizer, sequencer & sampler.

“It’s s huge step up in sound quality, workflow, storage capacity, performability etc. compared to something like the OP-Z,” he notes. “And as with all flagships by TE, it’s safe to assume there will be many years of quality updates over the years.”

It’s a little bit like an OP-Z on steroids. Here’s what they have to say about it:

“we know you’ve had wet fantasies about a no-compromise, dual-cpu boosted and fully rebuilt sequencer, sampler, and performance instrument, based on the much-loved workflow of the OP–Z.

now including built-in cv, effect sends, and a best-in-class dac. with 8 individual instrument tracks and 8 auxiliary tracks for controlling any external synthesizer, modular or otherwise, and adding effects. we dare to say it’s probably the most complete, portable sequencer ever built. it’s here. it’s real. it’s black. and it’s got so much more than you’ve wished for.”

Features:

• 8 unique synth engines
• New drum sampler
• Multisampler
• Synth sampler
• 4 filter types
• 24-voice multitimbral synthesis
• Players per track
• Instant sampling
• 6 built-in FX
• Master eq
• Master saturator
• Master compressor and limiter
• Stereo signal path
• Brain – intelligent transposer
• 24 punch-in FX for performance
• Creative tape looper
• 2 sequenceable built-in FX slots
• MIDI channels selectable per track
• 10 000+ project files with version history
• 16-track, 64-step step sequencer with 4 pages
• Powerful step components
• 9 patterns per track, 99 scenes song mode with 9 songs per project
• Presets per pattern
• 10 grooves for creative swing
• USB-C audio/MIDI host and device
• Audio-out – a multi-out jack, for cv, midi, audio and sync out
• MIDI-in
• Audio-in
• Built-in speaker
• Built-in mic
• Smooth parameter locks
• 1920 PPQN
• Pressure sensitive pitchbend
• Bluetooth LE MIDI
• Microtonal tuning
• Performance gyroscope

Although Teenage Engineering continues to sell its $59 Pocket Operators, the company’s audio gear has shifted towards more premium and pricier offerings in recent years. Its TP-7 Field Recorder, a digital audio recorder with a novel spinning “tape” reel, debuted last year for $1,499, following a tiny mixer called the TX-6 that arrived the year before for $1,199. Even the company’s original OP-1 synth, which debuted in 2011 for $849, has been replaced by the $1,999 OP-1 Field.