Teenage Engineering OP-XY Sample Mode Guide: One-Shot, Drum, and Multisampler Engines

I make pretty sample-heavy music normally, so Sample mode was one of the first things I went looking for when I got my OP-XY. Turns out there isn't just one sampler here, there are 3, and each one is genuinely built for a different job instead of feeling like the same tool with a different name slapped on it.

This one covers how recording actually works, then walks through the One-Shot Sampler, Drum Sampler, and Multisampler engines individually, since the workflow shifts depending on which one you're using.

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Getting Into Sample Mode

Press the Sample button to open the recorder. To exit, press the currently highlighted track button. Simple in and out, the complexity is all in what happens once you're actually recording.

Recording a Sample

However you get audio in, the recording controls stay the same:

• Dark Gray knob: Audio Source, pick between line in, USB in, headset, or the internal mic
• Hold Shift and rotate the Dark Gray knob: Channel, only shows up for line in and USB sources
• Light gray knob: Gain, watch the VU meter for a live read on your level
• White knob: Threshold, sets how loud the input needs to get before recording actually kicks in

Hold M1 to record for as long as you're holding the button, or hold Shift and tap M1 to latch recording on so you don't have to keep your finger down, tap M1 again whenever you want to stop. Every sampler engine on the OP-XY caps out at 20 seconds per sample, which is plenty for one-shots and most chopped up phrases but worth knowing upfront.

Tap M2 anytime to play back whatever's sitting in the buffer, and tap M4 if you want to toss it before it saves anywhere. Once you do stop and keep a take, it automatically lands in your 'user' sample folder, named using your project, the note it was recorded on, and an incremental number.

One-Shot Sampler

This is the simplest of the 3, and honestly the one I reach for most when I just want to grab something quick. One sample, one sound, sampled to whatever note you recorded it on. No slicing, but you do get looping and playback direction.

The editing screen uses the same 4 knob layout you'll recognize from a lot of the OP-XY:

• Dark Gray: Sample Start, click down for a finer adjustment
• Mid gray: Loop Start, match it to the sample end if you don't want a loop at all
• Light gray: Loop End
• White: Sample End

Hold Shift for a second layer underneath that, Playback Direction, Tune, Loop Crossfade (great for smoothing out pads), and Sample Gain. Holding Shift and clicking the light gray knob cycles through Loop Off, Loop Until Release, and Loop Forever, the last of which keeps looping straight through the release stage of your envelope.

Drum Sampler

This is the one built for actually assembling a kit. You get up to 24 one-shot samples across the keyboard, which covers a full drum kit with room to spare for extra hits or textures.

Press a key to select it, hold M1 to record straight into that key. M2 and M3 jump you between the previous and next keys that already have something recorded, and M4 clears a sample off a key (the file itself stays saved, this just removes the assignment). There's no looping here, but you do get playback direction and choke groups, which matter more than you'd think once you're layering open and closed hi-hats.

Slicing is where the Drum Sampler gets genuinely fun. Instead of recording every hit separately, you can chop one longer sample across multiple keys at once:

• Hold the key with the sample you want to slice, then press M1 to enter slice mode
• In tap slice mode, tap M1 to start playback and tap along in time to drop slice points as the sample plays, tap M2 to stop
• Pick a slice algorithm with the Dark Gray knob, transient detection and even spacing both work depending on what you're slicing
• Once slices are placed, select one and use the Mid gray and Light gray knobs to nudge its start and end points
• Hold Shift and press a key to delete that key's slice

One heads up, slicing overwrites whatever samples were already loaded into the Drum Sampler, so make sure that's actually what you want before you commit.

Multisampler

The Multisampler is the deep end, and it's built for mapping a real instrument across the keyboard using a handful of recorded notes instead of one per key. It holds up to 24 zones, which works out to roughly 3 samples per octave.

Select a key, hold M1 to record into it, and the Multisampler automatically fills in every note below it by pitching that same sample down, all the way until it hits the next zone up. Keep recording higher notes as you move up the keyboard and each one creates a new zone, filling the gap between it and whatever came before.

The more sample points you record across the range, the better it sounds overall, since fewer individual notes end up stretched too far from their original pitch. If you're sampling a piano or a real instrument, aim for a few notes per octave instead of trying to get away with just one or two across the whole keyboard.

M2 and M3 step between keys that already have samples, M4 clears an assignment without touching the saved file. The editing screen mirrors the One-Shot Sampler exactly, same Sample Start, Loop Start, Loop End, Sample End layout, and the same Shift-held Playback Direction, Tune, Loop Crossfade, and Sample Gain controls underneath.

The Sample Browser

However you got your samples in, you'll eventually want to dig back through them. Hold Shift and press Sample from any track with a sampler loaded (or hold a keyboard key and press Sample) to open the browser. Whatever's highlighted is what's actually loaded into the track, and playing a key while browsing previews it at that pitch, which makes auditioning a folder of samples pretty painless.

Tap M4 to delete a sample outright, this pulls it from both the browser and your library folder, confirm with M4 again or back out with M3. If you just want to clear a key's assignment without deleting the actual file, hold Shift while making your selection instead.

Wrapping Up

Sample mode ends up being a lot more flexible than "record audio, play audio" once you actually spend time in all 3 engines. The One-Shot Sampler covers quick grabs, the Drum Sampler is built for kits and slicing, and the Multisampler is there when you want something that plays like a real instrument across the whole keyboard.

If you haven't already gone through it, my Sequencer guide pairs well with this one since sampling and sequencing end up feeding into each other constantly on this device. And if you want to hear samples I've pulled into my own tracks, my music page is the place to check.