bx_oberhausen from Plugin Alliance has landed

[abernathy]

I do think Oberhausen has a wee-bit "tighter" low end than Diva though. But Diva's lows are ballsier...maybe not as focused, but there's a little more meat on Diva's bones. Still really like Oberhausen though. Very nice. But yeah, like I said, those effects are NOT GOOD.

I find this so puzzling. Isn’t bx known for their effects? These effects really are bad sounding to me. Aren’t these effects just simplified versions of effects they sell? Would someone actually pay money for that maag Air crap? Yikes. I wish they would sell an effects-free version of this synth for a cheaper price!

[electro]

Ignore the FX. Virtual synths don't need them anyway.

[Sound Author]

I do think Oberhausen has a wee-bit "tighter" low end than Diva though. But Diva's lows are ballsier...maybe not as focused, but there's a little more meat on Diva's bones. Still really like Oberhausen though. Very nice. But yeah, like I said, those effects are NOT GOOD.

what are you trying to say , that diva's uhbi ( oberheim) filter has more low end , at a low cutoff point and boosting the resonance
If diva has more low end it will probably come from the oscillators ( depending on the chosen mode ) or the amp , saturation stage , which I'll say again is not modelled on an oberheim .
You're comparing apples with oranges

Where exactly in my comment do I conflate oscillators with filters?

[Sound Author]

And for the record, I'm very well aware that they are both modeled differently. That goes without saying.

[SoundPorn]

Take a breathe because i think we're having 2 different conversations here. For starters did I say this was a bad synth? Have i even said anything that's not true? Is anything in exists perfect? No.
Okay so my critiques around the synth involves the confusing marketing of it and what exactly have they modelled. "Everybody knows its a Sem." Well except for me and the guy who made it because he refuses to say its modelled on any one synth let alone the Sem. But the GUI and filter clearly scream Sem, obviously.
Im a fan of exact 1:1 emulations and maybe putting the modern features extra like Gforce Oddity2.
If it's not an exact emulation but an inspired one then make it like Diva or Saurus2.
The Sem just isn't a complex enough to model and price at $250 unless its an exact emu which sounds indistinguishable from hardware which this is not.

And to be honest im better at mixing in mid side then i am at making presets for synths which is why im one of the few who buy Sound Spot plugins because they always got mid side options, and it is actually what first attracted me to BX was theyre m/s processers.

No his answers were vague and didn't get into detail of anything. Like says how they're known for M/S so he had to find a way to put M/S in and did it with the filter...okay what does that mean exactly.
I think the "authenticity" part is all about they're TMT tech which does sound good, and he says how it changes the channel response from left to right like how old synths would, again didn't say like the SEM would, but was vague, and was the SEM not mono anyway...nevermind lol.

He said in the video he didn't model a particular synth.

In the handbook they use the term "unparalleled authenticity". I'd say that's a paradox, but maybe I misunderstand what is meant here and there. Can't be sure these days...

Does Carr say anything about maximum filter frequencies in the vid? Afaik the Arturia one is already a tad too bright with it's 18kHz max, and the handbook of the Brainworx one says 24+kHz?

First you critize the developers that they are not EXACT emulating a known synth , while everybody knows it's an oberheim SEM
Then you critize them for adding an ads envelope , which againg proves you were not aware of that it's a SEM , because ----> sem has ads envelopes
ANd then you crawl back by saying you are only repeating what the developer said in the promo video .
And you don't know what M/S is ?
Why is so important to voice your opinion about shit you don't even know


Now , how old are you ?

[musicdoc]

Tried this new vst out. Nice graphics. Detailed sound. But brings my computer to its knees with just a few big chords. Start getting a few pops here and there. CPU usage is like 3-4 Native instruments Guitar rigs or IK amplitube 4's put together. So no ober for me even if the price is free. I can get 90% of the sound from a lot of different synths without trying to hard. bx got a bit too detailed for me..

[Urs]

In the handbook they use the term "unparalleled authenticity". I'd say that's a paradox, but maybe I misunderstand what is meant here and there. Can't be sure these days...

I understood that they used the measurement of several units (kinda similar of what U-he did with Repro-1 don't?). So, it's not an emulation of a specific unit.

My point is: Had they measured any unit and had they gone for "unparalleled authenticity" to those units, they would not have arrived here:

[...] bx_oberhausen filter seems to be brighther than Arturia.

The Arturia one is too bright already. A kHz or two is forgivable if they compensate for a phenomenon of steeper high frequency roll-off, particularly when not oversampling. The BX one obviously oversamples, otherwise they couldn't move cutoff past 22kHz. Hmmm.

Note: The original hardware "officially" hasn't got a self-oscillating filter. But that's not quite true. It starts self-oscillating somewhere between 8 (quietly) and 18kHz (annoyingly), getting stronger with higher cutoff frequencies. I assume that Oberheim capped filter cutoff at about 16kHz because of that, as a measure of containment. This IMHO is the essence of the Oberheim SEM sound, I've seen it in all specimen I own (10+), hence if I was to model an Obie, I'd make sure I'd get that right.

Disclaimer: I'm not in for a peeing contest and I have no intentions here to model an Obie in foreseeable decades - but as people are comparing this work to ours in several posts, I certainly feel the need to point out my stance on things like that. Such details matter to me.

[spunkmuffin]

This IMHO is the essence of the Oberheim SEM sound, I've seen it in all specimen I own (10+), hence if I was to model an Obie, I'd make sure I'd get that right.

In 2017 you modeled a SEM-style filter for Z3.

...here's the quote:

... I just did a circuit-level SEM-style filter for Z3... so...

[chk071]

I just did a quick comparison sweep with Oberhausen and Diva. The difference is not huge. I'd say the Oberhausen filter is a tad more smooth/creamy than the Uhbie filter. I also had to lower the resonance of the Uhbie filter 0.5 on the Diva scale to make it fit better, otherwise the Uhbie filter would have been too screamy/harsh.

https://soundcloud.com/chk-sound/oberhausen-vs-uhbie

The attack stage also seems to differ, as does the range of modulation. Oh, and the Uhbie filter amplifies like mad, not sure why that is. I really had to turn the output down.

[waltercruz]

Not a great scientific test but..

A filter sweep, sawtooth, with resonance all way up.

Red diva, black arturia SEM, Pink bx_oberhausen

https://youtu.be/DL_CunyGKRs

[chk071]

That pictures well what i heard too. The resonant behavior of the Arturia simply differs much, and also has a nasty thumb/bump/hole/whatever at a certain frequency. Diva and Oberhausen are pretty similar.

[Caine123]

Rudiculous price when diva offers much more . .. i know it wants to be a sem but i dont see the advantages with it over diva when it can sound? Nearly the same and costs less.

[plexuss]

This IMHO is the essence of the Oberheim SEM sound, I've seen it in all specimen I own (10+), hence if I was to model an Obie, I'd make sure I'd get that right.

In 2017 you modeled a SEM-style filter for Z3.

...here's the quote:

... I just did a circuit-level SEM-style filter for Z3... so...

A little bit of a pissing match between developers is not a bad thing. a) it provides us with some interesting entertainment and b) it inspires innovation and quality.

[drzhnn]

I've been playing with this synth for a week now and I just can't find anything that I like about this plugin. Well, maybe the random mode of the arp. But the whole thing feels very weird. It's like they took some cool ideas from Diva, Repro and Hive, added some questionable quirks from original hardware, frankensteined filter and FX sections from their other plugins and tried to glue it all into something interesting with tale telling and marketing tricks. Munchausen like.

I don't hear any hardware qualities and magic in the filter section at all. It's a good quality "soft synth" filter with it's own character but that's it. I was comparing it mostly to Uhbie and it's like day and night to me. They may sound very similar in a static state, but try to automate the cutoff on both synths... and it's like watching deepfake videos on youtube - kind of close and funny but definitely not the real Nicolas Cage. The cutoff is either jerky or sluggish, and almost quantized if you move it very fast. And the overall character is not "darker", it's just dull, like in many other soft synths out there. I don't know... It just fails to impress.

And the FX section. If they decided to rip it off from Repro, they could at least added effect parameters to the destination list of the modulation matrix. But they didn't. They didn't even add VCO1, VCO2 and VCF Modulation knobs to the list.

The TNT doesn't add any magic to the sound here. It's just some randomness to some things. I really love this feature in bx_console and IRON, but in bx_oberhausen it is something different and lifeless.

I'm not a PA or brainworx hater, I'm a "heavy hitter" and a "loyal customer" and I really like their effect plugins and use them a lot, but this synth... I don't know, I just actively dislike it and almost everything about it. Probably I was expecting too much after all the teasers.

[Raddler1]

OK, I've changed my mind about this synth. After spending more time with it I realize it is the presets and certain effects that don't work for me. Half (or more?) of the presets use the Air Band effect which sounds awful to me - take a nice warm sound and make it overly bright, shrill (and modern?). I think the reverb takes away from most presets as well - this reverb doesn't sound good at all to me. Strange to me how the beautiful "analog" sound of this synth is obliterated by the harsh effects.

There are a lot of beautiful presets hidden in there if you turn off the effects (at least Air Band, Reverb, and Metal). I really wish this had a global effects switch like Repro (one of my favorite features).

Global effects bypass and a lower price would sell me on this. Crazy over-priced IMO.

Right click on global FX switch on/off to lock it. Applies to all preset changes.