Any VST Synth VS Oberheim OB-6

[machinesworking]

Regarding backward compatibility, I think most brand names maintain their software products for a decade or so. How far does one have to be able to go back in time with a DAW project?

I have a 1978 Gibson Les Paul Pro I bought in 1998 for $450.
Software fades over time, needs updates that cost money, goes extinct etc.

No I'm sorry you're very wrong here, don't do over generalizations on things that simply are not true in all the cases:

Software fades over time

It doesn't, there are virtual machines and I know I can continue using that software even for decades if needed.

needs updates that cost money

Uh no, some companies offers even lifetime free updates; where is your paid upgrade?

Also again I can continue using the same software with virtual machines if necessary with some not-restrictive OS.

goes extinct etc

No it doesn't, I have my products and my keys saved in my external hard drive and in any case if I want to install the same compatible OS and virtual machine in my future pc It continues being there, is not eternal, but it could outlive me easily.

I had to, with all respect.

Sure, me being able to plug my guitar into any amp and play is just the same as you creating a tenuous at best emulation layer in your modern OS to host some VST and old VST host and use some MIDI program that may or may not be able to talk to the open OS emulating software in your setup and communicate with your modern DAW. Yeah, exactly the same, no issues.

The fact is software out now is temporary, because none of us do what you're suggesting, we simply move on, replace VSTs with new ones etc. etc. To pretend that software has anything like the longevity of hardware is just hard headed thinking. Now, with a lot of things this isn't an issue. Who wants to use GigiStudio when we have Kontakt? UVI? etc.

[BlackWinny]

I know that the letter Y is getting close to the end of the line in alphabetic terms,but in the audio world,Yamaha should be near the top of your list,because it would always be a very smart choice

Good to know. Unfortunately they don't seem to make Midi controller keyboards.

They did. But not currently. They had the KX series which was quite good:

• yamaha midi kx - Google
• Yamaha Midi Controller Keyboards (KX Series) - KeytarHQ

They discontinued the series in 2010. But it was very good !

I think that Yamaha will produce a new series, sooner or later, to replace the KX series. I'm pretty sure that it will come. Because those from Roland (A-300, A-500 and A-800) are awesome despite a low price (I recently purchased my wonderful Roland A-800 (yet better than the Novation Launchkey 61 MK2) for only 300 euros... VAT and shipping included !) and it is sure that one day Yamaha will enter on the ring to compete with Roland on the market of the plugins/plugouts and on the market of the MIDI controller keyboards. The question is... when? But, hem, it will be probably a huge revolution for the Yamaha's designers... because it's been a long while that they have become allergic to the knobs and sliders.

[Robmobius]

I'm still tempted to buy Nord at some point. I don't need one but I want one!

I've got a lot of the top soft synths - But nothing I've found sounds like a Nord (and I love the Nord sound!).

The one thing I find software lacks (with a few exceptions like RePro, etc.) is in the bass department. That said, you can get damn close with FX and EQing. But 'right out of the box' HW always wins for me. But I love my softies as well, so all in all it's a good time for music production.

[currentsound]

Isn't there some Oberheim VSTi plugin(s) out there?

[BlackWinny]

There are excellent plugins which make great basses.

I'll not tell about the 303 plethora and that kind of "basses" as they are not at all my cup of tea.

But... you have two excellent SH-101 emulations (TAL-Bassline-101 and D16 LuSH-101), and Korg MS-20 and Korg Polysix and Xils PolyKB III and Rob Papen SubBoomBass 2 (even better than the version 1) and Spectrasonics Trillian and NI Massive and U-He Diva and XhunAudio LittleOne and several Roland plugouts and a good number of awesome Minimoog emulations.

There is a choice of great, great bass sounds for every wallet.


And I miss many other software gems that are out of my mind at this moment.

The software world lacking in the bass department ? Hmm...

[e-crooner]

If an accurate emulation has good bass, likely the original hardware already had a non-flat frequency response to begin with. So, it is a bit unfair to say workarounds like using an EQ could fix the lack of bass.

And let's face it, in the studio they often removed the excessive bass of hardware, Roland even included a separate HP filter in their classic synths.

Great bass lines don't depend on massive bass, anyway.

[BlackWinny]

Isn't there some Oberheim VSTi plugin(s) out there?

There are...
- OP-X Pro II
- Several Arturia plugins
- etc.

But the OB-6 is very special. What I've heard has absolutely nothing to do with some of the famous OB-X series and quite few in common with some of the n-voice series or of the SEM series. As far as I've understood I can take the OB-6 as a sort of hybrid between a Prophet-6 and a kind of OB-8 (or 12) with the filters inspired from those of a SEM and with a plethora of features, tons of modulations, a huge memory to store personal presets, VCOs which have variable waveforms instead of static waveforms, a DSP using exclusively discrete components (ICs being used only for the controls if I have correctly understood), etc.

So... absolutely nothing to do with all that has been done until today for plugin Oberheim emulations.

If I'm wrong somewhere, I ask the real users to correct my wrong understandings.

[e-crooner]

Two more Oberheim emulations are the ones from Aly James and WOK.

[BlackWinny]

Two more Oberheim emulations are the ones from Aly James and WOK.

[sureno]

I have an OB-6 and pretty much every soft synth worth having, I don’t play live but produce tracks for release and yes granted you’d be hard pressed for the OB-6 to stand out more then anything else (in the music I make, techno/house) but if/when I just have a noodle by itself it carries a presence I can’t immediately get with my soft synths, I’m not saying it’s not possible but I think I would of definitely lost my mojo by the time I matched the sound in a soft synth. I have it solely because I want it, definitely don’t need it or require it for any specific task and would continue to make music without it to no lesser effect

[tehlord]

I have an OB-6 and pretty much every soft synth worth having, I don’t play live but produce tracks for release and yes granted you’d be hard pressed for the OB-6 to stand out more then anything else (in the music I make, techno/house) but if/when I just have a noodle by itself it carries a presence I can’t immediately get with my soft synths, I’m not saying it’s not possible but I think I would of definitely lost my mojo by the time I matched the sound in a soft synth. I have it solely because I want it, definitely don’t need it or require it for any specific task and would continue to make music without it to no lesser effect

You have it because you are a disgusting addict. DIS-GUS-TING

[Tj Shredder]

Everybody on KVR with more than 1000 posts is an addict, that is a tautology...
You are her because you cannot resist all the deals and temptations and need some validation for your decisions, and you will get it which eases the stay...

[pdxindy]

I like dedicated hardware, I like to turn on a synth and just listen to it through the mixer in to the PA/Monitors.
Could you emulate all of that acceptably? Probably....but I don't have to, so I don't...the cheap Behringer synths have given me that option (I had a P8 before that) and I am more than happy with my choices. If I couldn't afford the hardware, I would be more happy with the current software emulations which are excellent.

Yup... played live right to the monitors and the difference is obvious. I’ve got the top soft synth emulations and they do not touch the sounds and characteristics I get from the Moog Matriarch... or the Behringer Neutron or Analog Rytm for that matter.

I love various software synths and they sound like soft synths. There is a sort of predictable tame quality that isn’t necessarily easy to put in words but which is immediate and obvious to the ears. The beautiful subtle nuances that effortlessly flow out of the Matriarch require a lot of work to get a bit of with softsynths and it still never really does.

As much as the sound, I like hardware with knob per function (or nearly) interfaces. It is such a joy to play real instruments, tweak real controls. There is a kinesthetic pleasure that for me is absent on the computer. I like the results I can get with computers, but I don’t like the physical experience itself. With hardware I enjoy both and so I find myself more creative and inspired.

[electro]

No VST does Oberheim better than Sonic Projects OP-X. U-he DIVA contains a very precise Filter module based on the Oberheim SEM and OB-X.

[HTT]

Wouldn't both hardware and software alike suffer when published on YT?
There are videos of older songs on YT, which sound fantastic to my ears.
So, I don't think one can blame YT. Having said that, I am sure that such a quality hardware synth sounds superior to even the best plugins of the same type. And you don't have to worry about sampling rates, drivers, CPU power, bugs, and such nerdy things. You just turn it on and it sounds fantastic out of the box.

Another aspect: I wonder how old the person is who opened this thread. As you get older, your hearing becomes worse and you might not hear the subtleties anymore like you used to decades ago. It surely is case with me, unfortunately.

I'm 62. And I grew up in a world of hardware going all the way back to 1977 when I got my first synth. In fact, up until 2014, all I had was hardware, buying synths constantly. I'd dare say I probably owned more hardware synths than 90% of the people here.

And I'm telling you straight out, and I was totally against going to in the box, I was blown away by the sound quality of the top soft synths. And since I don't play live (only record my songs) I can honestly say that, within the context of a recording (wav file, mp3, whatever) my software synths take no backseat to my hardware synths. In some instances, they surpass the hardware.

Again, I'm not talking about how these synths sound in my room playing live, which I couldn't give to craps about. I'm talking about the final, finished, recorded product.

In that respect, Youtube, Soundcloud, Spotify, Bandcamp, live or whatever, doesn't matter to me. I know what does and doesn't sound good to my ears.

To that end, I will never go back to buying expensive hardware ever again. It is not even close to being worth it go me.

YMMV.

I hear you. I built my first synth from PAiA modules back in the 70s. I love synth hardware, with all of its nostalgia and feel, but I would 100% of the time take a capable iMac, u-he Diva, and/or u-he Zebra/HZ, and a capable keyboard controller over any hardware synth.