Orange Amplification OPC (2013) review

GREY BOARD

The motherboard is a Gigabyte H61N-USB3 mini-ITX board which fits snugly inside the amp case. It’s getting on a bit, and doesn’t have as many features as you’d see on a larger board, but it has more or less everything you’d want. Our only reservation is that it lacks SATA3 support, which means that the 500GB Samsung 840 SSD in this version of the PC isn’t being used to its fullest extent. We timed the system at 5 seconds from sleep, but it took 25 seconds to boot from cold, which is definitely on the slow side for a computer system with an SSD.

Despite its lack of SATA3 support, the motherboard’s really well suited to the task at hand. It only has one expansion slot, and that’s a PCI-E x16 slot that’s consumed by the graphics card. There are just two memory slots, each packed with their maximum 8GB of RAM, and two SATA2 ports, one for the DVD-RW drive and one for the SSD. On its backplane, alongside ports for Gigabit Ethernet, onboard audio and video, is an eSATA2 port and six USB ports, two of which are USB3. On the back of the PC is two pairs of 1/4in TRS connectors: one pair for line-level input and one pair of line-level output. These let you run stereo connections between the PC and other audio equipment, such as mixing consoles or external studio monitors. The system also comes with a slim Chiclet-style keyboard and a small mouse. Both are fairly comfortable to use, but we suggest investing in some more ergonomically designed peripherals if you intend to spend many hours making delicate selections while editing.

PRODUCTION VALUE

Like the previous version of the OPC, the system comes installed with a wide range of audio production software. It runs Windows 8, which proved to be an entirely stable environment for music production during our tests. If you’re a hands-on guitar-wielding type, you’ll love AmpliTube3, which is a complete software effects rack with masses of virtual stomp boxes, plug-ins and pre-set sound profiles.

Meanwhile, ToonTrack’s EZdrummer Lite lets you create drum lines to accompany your jam. Unless you have a MIDI drum kit hooked up to the PC, EZdrummer feels limited and clumsy at first but we really appreciated the wide range of pre-defined drum loops, called gooves, which range from samba rhythms to high-speed double kick-drum arrangements for metal.

EZdrummer integrates with the supplied audio recording suite, PreSonus’ Studio One Artist OEM 1.6.5, so you can use it to create full rhythm tracks for your songs. Studio One Artists is a fairly basic multitrack recording Digital Audio Workstation (DAW) environment, but it has full support for analogue and MIDI recording as well as a few proprietary plugins. This special version of Studio One Artist edition works with Amplitude3, making it far more useful than the standard version, which doesn’t support third-party plugins in any format. This version can’t export to MP3, but it can export tracks to WAV, AIFF and FLAC formats, so you can always do that and convert them using another program. If you want more complete plugin support, you’ll have to spend £83 to upgrade to Studio One Producer 2.

We’re not massive fans of Studio One’s interface because of its cramped buttons and limited effects support, but it’s a functional recording and production environment. It just lacks the polish of Ableton Live or Reason Essentials.

If you don’t get along with Studio One, Orange has also supplied a copy of Acoustica Mixcraft 6.1. Unlike Studio One, Mixcraft does support VST plug-ins, which gives you additional options for effects and synths in addition to Amplitude and Mixcraft’s own rather limp collection of effects. Mixcraft is also a friendlier environment in which to record than Studio One, with clearly marked buttons that make it easy to just dive in and record without so much as glancing at the manual.

The Orange OPC is a brilliant buy for musicians, but this top-of-the-range version is very expensive and has a handful of flaws, most noticeably the lack of SATA3 ports on the motherboard that doesn’t let the 500GB SSD reach its full potential. There’s no other audio production system quite like it and we love the portability of the entire PC and the convenience of the high-end integrated monitor speakers. If you don’t need either of those features, a standard desktop PC with a decent processor and plenty of RAM, combined with a Propellerhead Balance (which comes with Propellerhead’s brilliant Reason Essential DAW) and a decent pair of studio monitors might work better for you. However, the OPC is still unique, outstandingly well designed and one of our favourite audio production systems.