Obxd synthesizer

[layzer]

Here are a few audio demos using combinatis of those FXs (no other FXs added):

1.) ValhallaVintageVerb (Dry/Wet 20%):
OBXd - Strings + FXs_Test 01

2.) ValhallaVintageVerb, TAL Chorus-LX (at mode I, Dry/Wet 50%, full Stereo width) :
OBXd - Strings + FXs_Test 02

3.) ValhallaVintageVerb, TAL Chorus-LX (at mode I + II, Dry/Wet 50%, full Stereo width) :
OBXd - Strings + FXs_Test 03

4.) ValhallaVintageVerb, TAL Chorus-LX (at mode I + II, Dry/Wet 50%, full Stereo width), Arts Acoustic Big Rock Phase-Shifter (at 50% Dry/Wet) :
OBXd - Strings + FXs_Test 04


The free TAL Chorus-LX is available here:
http://kunz.corrupt.ch/products/tal-chorus-lx


Ingo

great demos, Ingo.... i love Tal chorusLX with Charlatan and now OBXD
I'm going to give that phaser a try, thanks Ingo

[fluffy_little_something]

But somehow such effects make any sound wishy-washy. The distinctive Oberheim sound gets lost and one might as well use any old SE synth

[Ingonator]

Here is a very small bank for OBXd (latest version with the new GUI) that includes 3 patches (2 Synth Brass + 1 PWM Strings):

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/532 ... nk%201.fxb

Just used the PWM Strings patch (3rd patch) to check the use of some of my favorite effects which are ValhallaVintageVerb, TAL Chorus-LX (freeware) and Arts Acoustic Big Rock Phase-Shifter.

Here are a few audio demos using combinatis of those FXs (no other FXs added):

1.) ValhallaVintageVerb (Dry/Wet 20%):
OBXd - Strings + FXs_Test 01

2.) ValhallaVintageVerb, TAL Chorus-LX (at mode I, Dry/Wet 50%, full Stereo width) :
OBXd - Strings + FXs_Test 02

3.) ValhallaVintageVerb, TAL Chorus-LX (at mode I + II, Dry/Wet 50%, full Stereo width) :
OBXd - Strings + FXs_Test 03

4.) ValhallaVintageVerb, TAL Chorus-LX (at mode I + II, Dry/Wet 50%, full Stereo width), Arts Acoustic Big Rock Phase-Shifter (at 50% Dry/Wet) :
OBXd - Strings + FXs_Test 04


The free TAL Chorus-LX is available here:
http://kunz.corrupt.ch/products/tal-chorus-lx

UPDATE:

5.) ValhallaVintageVerb, ERS Dimension D Chorus :
OBXd - Strings + FXs_Test 05

The Dimension D Chorus seems to be less "destructive" which means it usually seems to keep the original sound character better while it makes the sound "big" and/or "wide".


Ingo

[layzer]

But somehow such effects make any sound wishy-washy. The distinctive Oberheim sound gets lost and one might as well use any old SE synth

true, but i think it depends on the sound component in the song. if its a lead, raw is good, but for pads added verb and chorus sounds better than dry to me. but then, OBXD does not need very much efx to sound thick, thanks to the voice panning

[fluffy_little_something]

I just tried the OBXD through WOK's CromFX, sounds pretty good, although totally different from the dry sound

[mridlen]

I'm really beginning to grasp why people love this synth architecture. That voice variation / panning is really brilliant.

1) add release

2) tweak the voice variation / pan knobs

3) play one note over and over... it sounds like an orchestra

[DuX]

But somehow such effects make any sound wishy-washy. The distinctive Oberheim sound gets lost and one might as well use any old SE synth

There are ways, my friend, there are ways... other than using SE concoctions, a real Jedi knight never succumbs, or retreat, or fail!

[EnGee]

I have tested it with buffer size 177 in Ableton Live 8.4.1 lite 64bit, and there were some instability in the cpu usage where the cpu measure changes its value all the time from about 16% to 50% usage (like a gentle spike), but no clipping noise or overload cpu noise.
Changing the buffer size to 442 didn't make any difference!!

Those are rather odd buffer sizes, aren't they? Most audio cards/interfaces prefer even multiples of 8, such as 64, 128, 256, 512 and so on.

/Joachim

Yes I agree.
There is only a simple slider for ms (ranged from 1ms to 20ms] in the Asio configuration window of my audio interface (Saffire USB 6), so I chose 5ms and it gives me 221 buffer size and 442 for 10ms ... etc.

[DuX]

Those are odd buffer sizes and audio interfaces who use them can have problems with automation and every plugin that likes to use the usual ASIO buffer sizes like 64,128, 256 samples. IMO there shouldn't be any ASIO drivers which use odd buffer sizes. I had one a few years ago and I remember having problems of that kind with it. It was a Creative sound plaster card. X-Fi-Hi-Ultra-banana-whatever. hell I even managed to sell it. Dog bless it and the buyer.

[Ingonator]

But somehow such effects make any sound wishy-washy. The distinctive Oberheim sound gets lost and one might as well use any old SE synth

Also depends on which Chorus you use (see my update in my last post). Even the best Chorus could also not make "crappy" basic sound sound great but it could add a certain character to the sound which is impossible with just adding panning for the voices (which in small amounts was added to my patch which i used too).

In the examples which use the TAL Chorus i used a Dry/Wet amount of 50% which has a big effect on the resulting sound too. I the TAL U-NO-LX plugin this knob is not available so the amount is always 100% (like in the real synth)

My patch which i used (which you could check yourself as i provided the bank file) is no "typical" OB-X patch as it uses the Multi filter (with "Multi" knob at around 9 o'clock position and the "BP" switch on), also to reduce the low end which in some cases like lush pad sounds (opposing to e.g. Synth Brass or Bass sounds) is more bad than good.

Both Chorus FX emulations i used in my Demos are based on Roland gear (Juno-60 and the SDD-320 Dimension D Chorus). AFAIK Oberheim never released an analog synth with a built-in Chrorus or an analog Chorus rack unit so an Oberheim with an additional Chorus is something "unusual" in any case.


Ingo

[fluffy_little_something]

But somehow such effects make any sound wishy-washy. The distinctive Oberheim sound gets lost and one might as well use any old SE synth

Also depends on which Chorus you use (see my update in my last post). Even the best Chorus could also not make "crappy" basic sound sound great but it could add a certain character to the sound which is impossible with just adding panning for the voices (which in small amounts was added to my patch which i used too).

In the examples which use the TAL Chorus i used a Dry/Wet amount of 50% which has a big effect on the resulting sound too. I the TAL U-NO-LX plugin this knob is not available so the amount is always 100% (like in the real synth)

My patch which i used (which you could check yourself as i provided the bank file) is no "typical" OB-X patch as it uses the Multi filter (with "Multi" knob at around 9 o'clock position and the "BP" switch on), also to reduce the low end which in some cases like lush pad sounds (opposing to e.g. Synth Brass or Bass sounds) is more bad than good.

Both Chorus FX emulations i used in my Demos are based on Roland gear (Juno-60 and the SDD-320 Chorus). AFAIK Oberheim never released an analog synth with a built-in Chrorus or an analog Chorus rack unit so an Oberheim with an additional Chorus is something "unusual" in any case.


Ingo

Yes, of course some choruses are better than others. I like the TAL one as well, but also W'OK's Lexor, which has a bass filter, probably for the very reason you mentioned. Bass frequencies can get in the way.
The OBXD in particular has strong lower frequencies, sometimes I wish it had a dedicated hp filter or EQ. With bass sounds they are great, but with chords they often are a bit much for my taste...

Given the pan knobs, it might be a nice feature if one could modulate voices across the panorama I imagine it would sound rather dynamic...

[EnGee]

Those are odd buffer sizes and audio interfaces who use them can have problems with automation and every plugin that likes to use the usual ASIO buffer sizes like 64,128, 256 samples. IMO there shouldn't be any ASIO drivers which use odd buffer sizes. I had one a few years ago and I remember having problems of that kind with it. It was a Creative sound plaster card. X-Fi-Hi-Ultra-banana-whatever. hell I even managed to sell it. Dog bless it and the buyer.

I don't have a problem with it. I really like the build quality (it is rather heavy!). I bought it 2 years ago with a discounted price.
I thought to sell it and use the internal sound card in my laptop, but I compared the performance with the internal sound card of the laptop, and the Saffire was surprisingly much better in cpu usage! I thought they would be similar, but they are not! I don't know if it is the driver or the hardware.

For OBXD I don't have any problem. It would be nice if there is a way to know the values. Something like in Polysix (tooltip) would be great

I'm thinking of doing a bank for OBXD. It really sounds great (without any effects!). It is from my favourites besides Monark, Strobe, khs One and Polysix for a quick analog sound

[Examigan]

I think it's great as a free synth, sounds great. The GUI look's good too.

However, I have OP-X Pro II already, so there's no huge need for this right now. I do think if you added 2 effects (or more) and improved the GUI a bit, it could be a serious contender for paid-for synths.

[aciddose]

Those are odd buffer sizes and audio interfaces who use them can have problems with automation and every plugin that likes to use the usual ASIO buffer sizes like 64,128, 256 samples. IMO there shouldn't be any ASIO drivers which use odd buffer sizes. I had one a few years ago and I remember having problems of that kind with it. It was a Creative sound plaster card. X-Fi-Hi-Ultra-banana-whatever. hell I even managed to sell it. Dog bless it and the buyer.

There is no technical reason any buffer size (including = 1) should cause any problems.

That doesn't mean a lot of programmers out there aren't writing really shoddy code though.

[bk]

This may have already been mentioned somewhere, but did anyone notice that you get a triangle wave when neither waveform button are pressed on an oscillator?

Is that the way the hardware worked?

This thing is sounding very good. I'm able to get very nice sounding patches in a very short amount of time.