Arturia OB-Xa V

[Ingonator]

Yep! It is time to save for good headphones! Let me see how much is the DT 990 here!

Bought the DT 990 Pro back in 2018 at Amazon for 116.75 € (including shipping costs).
Currently several shops in Germany (including Amazon) seem to offer it for 118 €.

[rasmusklump]

It is absolutely OK to prefer one synth over another, but people may get a bit fed of beta testers saying a synth that no one else can hear is so much better than another one.

Perhaps wait until they are both out before stating one is better than another so that we can all joint in the debate...there are other factors than the sound (which is subjective but I suspect it will be superb) such as polyphony, CPU use, browser, cost etc., it will be good we can 'all' compare both side by side.

+ 1.000

[urosh]

After my previous Audio-Technica headphones were broken

Which AT? I have ATH-M50, which are good for critical examination of synths (any harshness/flaws will be magnified), but not so good for playing/using synths, for the same reason.

[Ingonator]

Just noticed this article from 2019 about giving the Oberheim name and Trademark back to Tom Oberheim:
https://www.synthanatomy.com/2019/07/gi ... demar.html

The 3 Oberheim emulations by Arturia seem to be some of those that are allowed to use the actual name and GUI design of their corresponding hardware counterparts. This seems to have changed with their Roland and Moog emulations that involved name and design changes over the years.

Somehow i am glad that not both of the current OB-Xa plugins have the same name which would result in some confusion.

The current version of the Tom Oberheim website only includes a link to the OB-6 but no information about his new SEM modules. Currently the OB-6 also seems to be the only newer Oberheim product being available for purchase while this one was done together with Dave Smith and is sold under the "Sequential" brand name.
In the OB-6 the VCO and VCF design seems to be based on the Oberheim SEM and/or OB-X while the rest of the synth engine is based on the design of the new Prophet synths (e.g. Prophet-6).

[Ingonator]

After my previous Audio-Technica headphones were broken

Which AT? I have ATH-M50, which are good for critical examination of synths (any harshness/flaws will be magnified), but not so good for playing/using synths, for the same reason.

It was around 2 years ago but iirc the old headphones were audio-technica ATH-M40fs.

Sound wise those were already an imrovement over the quite cheap Sennheiser headphones i had before (don't remember the name) but i like my new DT 990 Pro much more than any of those i had used before.

[TheMaestro]

The arguments become a little bizarre. "If the Arturia OB-Xa V's filter isn't authentic enough for you, just use the generic multimode filter in the fx section". Well, that filter isn't authentic at all, because it wasn't even modelled on the OB-Xa's filters (neither were the MSEG's). Might as well just route the synth into a filter plugin then, and use that.

Very bizarre, since you haven’t even tried the synth?
I’m no sound designer, so I can’t tweak all the possibilities with this synth. But I’ve come close with the features available.
You have one, maybe two Youtube videos to make you opinion. I have the synth. And it’s a beast.

[Niowiad]

https://voca.ro/mjakl9BvkaR

First one is the hardware unit from the youtube video, the second one is the Arturia demo.
All parameters from the front panel (no extra multimode filter), 100% dry and unprocessed.
Resonance was far from being at maximum, I think it was around 90%.

Of course they're not identical, but overall I think they share a very similar character.
There are about a dozen key parameters involved and finding the exact combination to match the original sound would probably require more time or better skills. Without the demo resetting every 20 minute I'm sure I could get it closer.
But maybe it would also be hard to 100% replicate the same exact sound on the very same hardware unit after resetting all parameters to defaut, slight variations of parameters could have a big impact.

The biggest difference I could notice and really couldn't get around too well was in the top end.
The hardware unit in the youtube video always had a little less top end and honestly I have no idea if the youtube encoding could have something to do with it... or if the OB-Xa V was modeled after a different unit with different top end response. I really don't know.


But the main thing worth pointing out is to never assume any sound demo (including this one I just posted) is the absolute best that synth could do because there are too many variables in place.
Still this is something I see all the time done on forums or the youtube comment section.
A big example would be the "Jump" preset which opens with any new instance of the Arturia OB-Xa... nothing against who designed it, but it's definitely far from the best that synth can do to replicate the Jump sound.

[4damind]

Btw. is the old developer (who later founded Xils, Xavier Oudin) still involved in the new emulations of Arturia?

[TheMaestro]

https://voca.ro/mjakl9BvkaR

First one is the hardware unit from the youtube video, the second one is the Arturia demo.
All parameters from the front panel (no extra multimode filter), 100% dry and unprocessed.
Resonance was far from being at maximum, I think it was around 90%.

Of course they're not identical, but overall I think they share a very similar character.
There are about a dozen key parameters involved and finding the exact combination to match the original sound would probably require more time or better skills. Without the demo resetting every 20 minute I'm sure I could get it closer.
But maybe it would also be hard to 100% replicate the same exact sound on the very same hardware unit after resetting all parameters to defaut, slight variations of parameters could have a big impact.

The biggest difference I could notice and really couldn't get around too well was in the top end.
The hardware unit in the youtube video always had a little less top end and honestly I have no idea if the youtube encoding could have something to do with it... or if the OB-Xa V was modeled after a different unit with different top end response. I really don't know.


But the main thing worth pointing out is to never assume any sound demo (including this one I just posted) is the absolute best that synth could do because there are too many variables in place.
Still this is something I see all the time done on forums or the youtube comment section.
A big example would be the "Jump" preset which opens with any new instance of the Arturia OB-Xa... nothing against who designed it, but it's definitely far from the best that synth can do to replicate the Jump sound.

Exactly. And good job.

[vurt]

squeals like a pig stuck in razor wire!

[PatchAdamz]

I even was demoing Matrix 12 yesterday and I really liked it!!

The Matrix 12 stands out...
Its a good sounding synth, not sure how close it is to the original but the plugin is useful.

[fmr]

Btw. is the old developer (who later founded Xils, Xavier Oudin) still involved in the new emulations of Arturia?

No. As you said it yourself, Xavier now has its own company, and he hasn't been involved with Arturia since he founded it, AFAIK. Why did you ask?

[TheMaestro]

Awfully quiet from the Youtube demo team.

[PAK]

After making some more sounds, overall, I really like it. There's a definite "character" to OBXA V and it's capable of some quite beautiful sounds.

The open matrix (once you've selected destinations, the grid stays on the screen) makes it very easy to try things out - Using "key" to adjust sound properties is much under-used! I'm a fan of the "draw your own shapes" mod system Arturia uses too. It gives a lot of control to get something to do exactly what you want.

It'd be a shame if some people nitpick too much and miss the forest for the trees here.

One thing I did notice, and maybe it's just because I tend to use a lot of X-mod with high tuning , but it sometimes feels like you're fighting the synth to keep the useable keyboard range higher on the keyboard? IE I'm often having to turn master tuning down to -12, and then using one of the mod destinations to bump down the osc 1&2 freq a further octave, and even then playing at a lower position than I'd like! It would be nice if Arturia would allow you to adjust the tuning range by several octaves, rather than "just" one on the main control..

[raiderpdog]

After making some more sounds, overall, I really like it. There's a definite "character" to OBXA V and it's capable of some quite beautiful sounds.

yes, after a few days with it, it is a welcome addition to the V Collection. Very easy to make nice sounds.

A solid synth and will be used a lot in my rotation.