Hey fellas, I'll tell you about my experience with the OP-1...
I got my first one the day they became available on their website, so you could say I had a very early version. The first thing I noticed was a whining noise coming from the headphone jack. I'd bought the thing to come up with scratch ideas leisurely...you know, like laying it across the crack of my skank's ass and puttin out some bangaaazzz ohhhh!! But seriously, I thought it would be a cool musical sketchpad. I asked them if the noise could be eliminated and they never did give me a definite answer. So then I asked them if I could have a full refund if the noise couldn't be eliminated with an OS update. 6 months went by and they finally told me that the noise issue could not be fixed with an OS update-making it a hardware issue. There are a lot of people who have complained about the noise-whether it was coming from the headphone jack, USB port or the line in jack. The biggest problem with the whining noise was that it became the worst at an optimal listening level-which for me was around 3/4 volume. If I cranked up the volume, shit was way too loud and hurting my ears. I couldn't get comfortable with it so I asked them to honor their promise-and they did.
Fast forward a few years later, and it seems the noise issue is very minimal for the most part. I think they did a slight design modification to get rid of the noise inherent in so many earlier models. I could be wrong about that of course, but the OP-1 I have now is noise free and sounds awesome. I'm using the same headphones I was using the first time around and there is zero feedback noise, whining or humming-nothing. The signal is clean and I've noticed the line out isn't as hot as the previous OP-1, so I'm really happy with it.
Can you make full songs with it? Well yeah sure, but it will take a lot of bouncing to pull it off. But that's not what you get this thing for. This is an awesome addition to anyone's setup for putting out dittys to use for a song. It offers brand new ways of coming up with beats and melodies and the synth engines are very high quality. OP-1 is no joke if you take the time to learn it-like anything really. And it's fun to use. The screen is dope and some of the animations are funny-you will smile if you mess around with this-guaranteed.
It's even got the old school classic Choplifter game in it
.
The manual is very well done so reading it will let you know exactly what it can or cannot do. It isn't for everyone of course and even though I have a noiseless one now, that doesn't mean there aren't some noisy ones out there. The noise may be gone completely at this point-I can't say for sure but visiting OP-1 forums will give you all the info you would want to know.
Bottom line is when it works, it works very well.