Upcoming Synapse OB-Xa: Obsession

[zerocrossing]

There were no subtractions.

It’s literally a subtractive synth.

[vitocorleone123]

I also hope there is an OB-X skin. I can't stand the dark Xa with horizontal lines. Or on the newer OB-6 either. Everything is so much less clear. Tee light blue plain X is much easier to look at.

I think the desktop OB-6 is fantastic looking. Fewer blue lines that are also somewhat less decorative in nature - it looks less retro (comparatively) to me than the keyboard version. I'm biased, though.

[Funkybot's Evil Twin]

You can't really compare a synth and guitar like that. A guitar only comes with one "preset", the famous "A001 Guitar" preset, while a synth can create (synthesize) many different kinds of sounds.

You're clearly not a guitar player. Probably best not to post comments that imply a guitar has one sound. Guitars can, and are, manipulated a million different ways.

Anyway, back on topic...I've got literally zero Oberheim lust (I can't point to a lot of music made with Oberheim's that I enjoy), but I'll certainly be purchasing this anyway. I appreciate a hyper-accurate emulation of a classic synth, and I'm always looking to fall in love. I wish U-he and Synapse would continue to model a bunch of the old classics at that level just so we can have a virtual synth library ITB.

Anyone know if the Synapse P600 is still on? I remember they were discussing 3 emulations after The Legend: the OB-Xa, P600, and MemoryMoog (which I believe was pending some major servicing before work could even start). We even heard the P600 filter at one point if I'm not mistaken.

[EvilDragon]

All of that is still on but obviously gonna be happening later.

[Funkybot's Evil Twin]

All of that is still on but obviously gonna be happening later.

Awesome! I'm particularly stoked about a great virtual MemoryMoog.

After that, I think the only things I'd really lust after would be a kick-ass Jupiter-8, Jupiter-6, and an equally accurate CS-80 with MPE (after that G-Force video - wow).

BTW, before anyone says anything, I have the following Jupiter-8 emulations: U-he, Roland Cloud (and a System-8 hardware), and Arturia. The Diva version sounds the best of those 3. The Roland Cloud version is better than the Arturia, but still sounds thin and boring IMO.

[e-crooner]

Where does the OB8 fit in soundwise, I mean relative to the X and Xa? Feature-wise it was superior to both judging from the specs.

I kind of like the Xa hardware panel, it was on the front cover of my first synth programming instruction manual, like, 40 years ago. But surely one would have to change things a bit on a software GUI for the sake of usability.

[Kian Russell]

Hopefully this Synth will put to bed the Disco Dsp thing that was given and exploited for cash.

[e-crooner]

Isn't it still freeware?

[hma]

It`s both, freeware and exploited.

[Mr Arkadin]

Anyone know if the Synapse P600 is still on?

As much as I want the Obie, this sounds very interesting as no-one really does emulations of synths like this. Always wanted one, not sure why, but would be nice if it had the functionality of the kit you can get for it.

[EvilDragon]

After that, I think the only things I'd really lust after would be a kick-ass Jupiter-8

Roland Cloud's JP-8 is as good as it gets so far. It's closer to the original than Diva's JP-8 emulation IMHO, however at a higher CPU cost (and no dynamic CPU allocation per used voices like what Diva has). I wouldn't at all say that it sounds thin and boring.

Where does the OB8 fit in soundwise, I mean relative to the X and Xa? Feature-wise it was superior to both judging from the specs.

See this post: viewtopic.php?p=7685992#p7685992

[Funkybot's Evil Twin]

After that, I think the only things I'd really lust after would be a kick-ass Jupiter-8

Roland Cloud's JP-8 is as good as it gets so far. Better than Diva's JP-8 emulation IMHO.

I strongly disagree and have both. There's no weight at all to the sound of the Roland model. There's no chunk. It's like there's an octave missing off the top and bottom. The filter is incredibly weak. Look, I spent almost 2k on the System-8 and subscribe to the Roland Cloud. If anything, I should be biased towards the Roland, but after a few years I've just accepted that it just sounds bad to me. I really tried to love it. But whenever I compare with Diva in the Jupiter-8 template, the beef comes back, the filter sounds great, and all feels right with the world again. The only reason I'd want anything more than the U-he model is the complete interface and matched parameter ranges that make the RePro's so amazing, along with a slightly higher filter cutoff.

Is it possible Roland nailed it and U-he's version sounds better than the real thing? I guess. I don't buy it. Any analog U-he filter (talking Diva, ACE, Repro) sounds better than the Roland Cloud filters IMO. Though they do vary. The Roland Juno filter feels like the best of the bunch. The System-1 filter is pretty interesting. Anyway, just last night I was watching the Dave Spiers Jupiter-8 [hardware] video and I thought, "yeah, that sounds way more like the Diva J8 template than the Roland Cloud one."

[EvilDragon]

Diva has extended parameter ranges for the filter (but it IS capped at 20k, because CPU), can go brighter than on actual JP-8 from what I remember. There were even discussions at some point to add a "muffle" button to Diva to make it sound closer as those 30-40-something years old components would today.

[Funkybot's Evil Twin]

Diva has extended parameter ranges for the filter (but it IS capped at 20k, because CPU), can go brighter than on actual JP-8 from what I remember. There were even discussions at some point to add a "muffle" button to Diva to make it sound closer as those 30-40-something years old components would today.

Also, having never owned a real Jupiter-8 to compare to, what up with this? Take the Roland Cloud version, just open up some saw waveforms at full-blast, VCF routed to Env-1, Env-1/VCF mod to max depth, zero out the LP cutoff, fastest VCF attack and release, no sustain, but add a bit of decay to Env-1 for a short, plucky sound. Env-2 fastest attack, full sustain. Now play some notes: why does it sound like the VCF Env Depth is only at like 25% when it's at maximum? You have to start opening the filter cutoff to get the filter to fully open, which means the starting point of the filter is higher than I might want.

Maybe it's a bug. Maybe the hardware truly does that. Maybe it's why I much prefer the U-he version. But it just makes the Roland emulation sound super weak when you're doing deep VCF modulation via the Env. There's no attack or oomph. Sounds so bad!!! If I ever got my hands on the real thing, that's the first thing I'm doing. I suspect Roland QA missed a bug in the VCF Env Depth.

Sorry. I'll stop. Synapse Oberheim you say?

[EvilDragon]

No, that's how a number of actual analog synths worked. Filter cutoff knob range was limited and to fully open filter you would need to add envelope. That is the same way it's on Prophet-5 and on OB-X/Xa/8 and so on. Consequently Synapse's OB-Xa works in the same manner.

Roland Cloud version has more closely matched parameter ranges than Diva does. But that's the blessing and the curse for Diva because they had to do the mix&match thing and everything needed to be normalized to some range, which is not really matching the actual parameter ranges of any of the included synths.