Hi All,

I have an opportunity to purchase either an Oberheim Matrix 12 or an OB8. Both are in excellent condition. I'm curious to know which one you would go for if you had the choice of the two?

Thanks very much.

If you perform and twiddle knobs live, get the OB-8. The Matrix is still a monster to program.

If you love to tweak and layer sounds, get the Matrix. It's deep.

I choose (I wish! I don't have that kind of money ):
Matrix 12
- More modulation options
- Less upkeep/repair costs/time/work

But less "hands-on" than the OB8.

My choice would be Matrix 12. It has been my dreamsynth #1 for a long time because of the excellent multimode filter and all the modulation possibilites.

Matrix 12 by far.

I have to agree with Urs.

However, if you need tweakability live and you get the Matrix, try to find yourself something like a Lexicon MRC, or any other controller that can be programmed to send out sysex strings, and set up controller pages. A Matrix 12 has very limited CC support. I've used a MRC with my Matrix 6 like that for years.

ew

if you want something bold, brassy, and easy to grab and program - go with the OB8

if you want something spacey, smoother and regal sounding - and deep to program - go with the M12

the OB8 is more a performers synth - the M12 a programmers synth...the are both excellent synthesisers.

Thanks everyone for your input. Much appreciated. In a strange twist of everything though it appears both fell through unfortunately. Its not all bad though I've got my hands on the alesis andromeda a6 (as I said a strange twist but there you go). As I understand it the andromeda has an oberheim-ish filter anyway (off the SEM) so it should hopefully be possible to get oberheim like sounds out of it.

Thanks again. I guess the matrix is favoured a little bit more but a bit more suited to studio use (this is my use case scenario anyway). Cheers.

And in yet another twist ob8 is back in the running and has been acquired! Matrix 12 is out unfortunately but I'm hoping the newly acquired ob8 and the andromeda a6 will take the sting out of that. Between this, the matrix 6 and the prophet 08 I think my hardware acquisition days are over. I have the diva for, well, pretty well every other noteworthy synth and diva is amazing. Thanks everyone.

That would have been my advice. The M12 is a great synth, but the point about repair costs is not exactly correct. The M12 has several very expensive and difficult to obtain parts that, if they go out, render the synth unusable. CEM chips (in both synths) are hard to find, but not impossible.

It's also not really good as a real time synth even with a "knob box", it really is more a synth that you program and use. They are fairly straightforward to program though and the interface is faster than you think that it would be.

The ob8 it was in the end since matrix fell through but I'd be happy to store it if I could get an OBX model from you guys in the next Diva update . Thanks.

We'll see... we got two OB-X and a Matrix12, but we have neither got an OB-Xa nor an OB-8 (both have SEM-style filters based on CEM chips rather than CA3080). I don't think we have any CEM-based SVF filter... hmmm...

But who knows... we'll certainly get back into analogue simulation next year...

Out of interest, what price did you pay for the OB8?
I have one and may be interested in selling...