Synapse Audio OBSESSION is now available!

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e-crooner wrote: Fri Jun 26, 2020 7:59 pm I don't have a technical explanation, I just describe how it sounds to me :)
so leave the technical explanation out (the question was not only for you anyway). ? what do ppl mean by "musical" ? I can understand "big", "small", "warm" and "cold" but could never understood what did people mean by "musical" or as others mentioned here that "the filter sings", is this describing non linear behavior ? lack of stepping and digital artifacts ? what makes Obsession filters and resonance sound better for example than OB-xa V ? after all it's programming code, there must be an explanation, it's not some black magic.

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I think musicality could be that it is other than a test tone of an old digital radio say,
or that it lends itself to music which is plainly not noise

I'll test this Obsession demo with savour soon

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Funkybot's Evil Twin wrote: Sat Jun 27, 2020 2:23 am So yeah, Richard may have modeled the resonance on his particular unit, but it does sound like you can tweak the hardware to be even more resonant than OBsession can get with the trimmers. Not a big deal for me. It sounds great.
As mentioned in my post yesterday the increased resonance (with the voice trimmers or in the mod matrix) is more obvious with the 4-pole LPF than it is with the 2-pole LPF.
Ingo Weidner
Win 10 Home 64-bit / mobile i7-7700HQ 2.8 GHz / 16GB RAM //
Live 10 Suite / Cubase Pro 9.5 / Pro Tools Ultimate 2021 // NI Komplete Kontrol S61 Mk1

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e-crooner wrote: Fri Jun 26, 2020 4:12 pm
Ingonator wrote: Fri Jun 26, 2020 9:56 am @electro: I love the Xils Lab synths and PolyM is awesome.

While OBSession currently is my most used one For "Oberheimish" sounds i got those plugins:
- Synapse Audio OBSession
- Arturia SEM V2
- Arturia Matrix-12 V2
- OB-Xd (freeware)
- U-He Diva (Uhbie filter)
While I know the Oberheim OB sound from a few records (Grover Washington Jr. etc.), I don't know what the Oberheim sound is supposed to be, if it has a signature sound so to speak. One can make all sorts of sounds with such a poly synth, just like with a Prophet or Jupiter. And with some skill, I doubt that the results are very different.
I don’t know where the idea of a unitary Oberheim sound comes from. Is it the. SEM? The Xa? The Matrix 12? They all sound pretty different to me.
Zerocrossing Media

4th Law of Robotics: When turning evil, display a red indicator light. ~[ ●_● ]~

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Ingonator wrote: Sat Jun 27, 2020 6:09 am
Funkybot's Evil Twin wrote: Sat Jun 27, 2020 2:23 am So yeah, Richard may have modeled the resonance on his particular unit, but it does sound like you can tweak the hardware to be even more resonant than OBsession can get with the trimmers. Not a big deal for me. It sounds great.
As mentioned in my post yesterday the increased resonance (with the voice trimmers or in the mod matrix) is more obvious with the 4-pole LPF than it is with the 2-pole LPF.
Yeah but you can't tweak the 2-pole all the way up to self-resonance like you can with the hardware by tweaking the voice adjustment cards.

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Funkybot's Evil Twin wrote: Sat Jun 27, 2020 1:01 pm
Ingonator wrote: Sat Jun 27, 2020 6:09 am
Funkybot's Evil Twin wrote: Sat Jun 27, 2020 2:23 am So yeah, Richard may have modeled the resonance on his particular unit, but it does sound like you can tweak the hardware to be even more resonant than OBsession can get with the trimmers. Not a big deal for me. It sounds great.
As mentioned in my post yesterday the increased resonance (with the voice trimmers or in the mod matrix) is more obvious with the 4-pole LPF than it is with the 2-pole LPF.
Yeah but you can't tweak the 2-pole all the way up to self-resonance like you can with the hardware by tweaking the voice adjustment cards.
Maybe this is why OB-Xa V sounds so different. Could be modeled after a unit that had been calibrated for increased resonance.
Zerocrossing Media

4th Law of Robotics: When turning evil, display a red indicator light. ~[ ●_● ]~

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nirm123 wrote: Sat Jun 27, 2020 3:43 am
e-crooner wrote: Fri Jun 26, 2020 7:59 pm I don't have a technical explanation, I just describe how it sounds to me :)
so leave the technical explanation out (the question was not only for you anyway). ? what do ppl mean by "musical" ? I can understand "big", "small", "warm" and "cold" but could never understood what did people mean by "musical" or as others mentioned here that "the filter sings", is this describing non linear behavior ? lack of stepping and digital artifacts ? what makes Obsession filters and resonance sound better for example than OB-xa V ? after all it's programming code, there must be an explanation, it's not some black magic.
I know what it means to me, but I think I use the term very differently. To me a synth sounds musical when I can set up a lot of per key modulation, like velocity, key tracking, and aftertouch.
Zerocrossing Media

4th Law of Robotics: When turning evil, display a red indicator light. ~[ ●_● ]~

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zerocrossing wrote: Sat Jun 27, 2020 12:54 pm
e-crooner wrote: Fri Jun 26, 2020 4:12 pm
Ingonator wrote: Fri Jun 26, 2020 9:56 am @electro: I love the Xils Lab synths and PolyM is awesome.

While OBSession currently is my most used one For "Oberheimish" sounds i got those plugins:
- Synapse Audio OBSession
- Arturia SEM V2
- Arturia Matrix-12 V2
- OB-Xd (freeware)
- U-He Diva (Uhbie filter)
While I know the Oberheim OB sound from a few records (Grover Washington Jr. etc.), I don't know what the Oberheim sound is supposed to be, if it has a signature sound so to speak. One can make all sorts of sounds with such a poly synth, just like with a Prophet or Jupiter. And with some skill, I doubt that the results are very different.
I don’t know where the idea of a unitary Oberheim sound comes from. Is it the. SEM? The Xa? The Matrix 12? They all sound pretty different to me.
With "Oberheimish" sounds i meant that those plugins are all Oberheim emulations while Diva only has the "Uhbie" filter (buts could stiil do some nice "Oberheim like" sounds).

I did also NOT mean that all those Oberheim synths sound similar!! Of course i know that a SEM does not sound like an OB-Xa and both do not sound like a Matrix-12. Not even the OB-X and OB-Xa sound similar even if the name is very close.

I had made TONS of patches with OBsession so you do not have to tell me that it is quite versatile and that it can do lots of differnt sounds.

Compared to synths from Roland SCI, Yamaha, Korg etc. the Oberheim synths indeed seem to have a certain "signature" sound that is not so easy to describe but that signature sound is not really identical for all those different Oberheim synths.

Often the biggest differences are found in filter resonance and without resonance or small amounts some of those synths can sound much closer to each other than with high or full resonance.
In the OB-Xa and especially in OBSesssion the Resonance always seems to sound pleasing and never really harsh, ear-piercing and/or "ringing" like in certain other synths. I guess this might be why someone called the resoance in OBSession and/or OB-Xa a "musical" resoanance.
Last edited by Ingonator on Sat Jun 27, 2020 6:00 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Ingo Weidner
Win 10 Home 64-bit / mobile i7-7700HQ 2.8 GHz / 16GB RAM //
Live 10 Suite / Cubase Pro 9.5 / Pro Tools Ultimate 2021 // NI Komplete Kontrol S61 Mk1

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Besides different sounding filters the Oberheim synths also got a differnt amount of available filter modes and/or different filter slopes where the Matrix-12/Xpander is the "king" of available filter modes:
- SEM: 4 modes (LPF, BPF, HPF, Notch ; 12dB) -> LPF morphable to Notch and HPF
- Eight Voice/Four Voice/Two Voice: 4 modes (LPF, BPF, HPF, Notch ; 12dB) -> LPF morphable to Notch and HPF
- OB-X: 1 mode (LPF ; 12db)
- OB-Xa/OB-8: 2 modes (LPF ; 12dB + 24dB)
- Matrix-12/Xpander: 15 modes (LPF, BPF, HPF, Notch, Phase, mixed/dual filters ; 6 - 24dB)
- Matrix-6/Matrix-1000: 1 mode (LPF ; 24dB)
- Marion Pro Synth: 1 mode (LPF ; 24dB)
- Marion MSR-2: 2 modes (LPF ; 12dB + 24dB)
- DSI OB-6: 4 modes (LPF, BPF, HPF, Notch ; 12dB) -> LPF morphable to Notch and HPF

From those mentioned in the list in the past i had owned a Matrix-1000 (black version) and a Marion Pro Synth (both with a 24dB LPF). Marion Systems was a company founded by Tom Oberheim. At the front plate of the rack unit the Pro Synth was labeled as "Pro Synth by Tom Oberheim".

OBsession has 4 modes (LPF, BPF ; 12dB + 24dB)
Ingo Weidner
Win 10 Home 64-bit / mobile i7-7700HQ 2.8 GHz / 16GB RAM //
Live 10 Suite / Cubase Pro 9.5 / Pro Tools Ultimate 2021 // NI Komplete Kontrol S61 Mk1

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Ingonator wrote: Sat Jun 27, 2020 2:03 pm
zerocrossing wrote: Sat Jun 27, 2020 12:54 pm
e-crooner wrote: Fri Jun 26, 2020 4:12 pm
Ingonator wrote: Fri Jun 26, 2020 9:56 am @electro: I love the Xils Lab synths and PolyM is awesome.

While OBSession currently is my most used one For "Oberheimish" sounds i got those plugins:
- Synapse Audio OBSession
- Arturia SEM V2
- Arturia Matrix-12 V2
- OB-Xd (freeware)
- U-He Diva (Uhbie filter)
While I know the Oberheim OB sound from a few records (Grover Washington Jr. etc.), I don't know what the Oberheim sound is supposed to be, if it has a signature sound so to speak. One can make all sorts of sounds with such a poly synth, just like with a Prophet or Jupiter. And with some skill, I doubt that the results are very different.
I don’t know where the idea of a unitary Oberheim sound comes from. Is it the. SEM? The Xa? The Matrix 12? They all sound pretty different to me.
With "Oberheimish" sounds i meant that those plugins are all Oberheim emulations while Diva only has the "Uhbie" filter (buts could stiil do some nice "Oberheim like" sounds).

I did also NOT mean that all those Oberheim synths sound similar!! Of course i know that a SEM does not sound like an OB-Xa and both do not sound like a Matrix-12. Not even the OB-X and OB-Xa sound similar even if the name is very close.

I had made TONS of patches with OBsession so you do not have to tell me that it is quite versatile and that it can do lots of differnt sounds.

Compared to synths from Roland SCI, Yamaha, Korg etc. the Oberheim synths indeed seem to have a certain "signature" sound that is not so easy to describe but that signature sound is not really identical for all those different Oberheim synths.

Often the biggest differences are found in filter resonance and without resonance or small amounts some of those synths can sound much closer to each other than with high or full resonance.
In the OB-Xa and especially in OBSesssion the Resonance always seems to sound pleasing and never really harsh, ear-piercing and/or "ringing" like in certain other synths. I guess this might be why someone called the resoance in OBSession and/or OB-Xa a "musical" resoanance.
Just found some time to play around with resonance, compare it to Sylenth1's. It sounds different of course, but not to an extent that resonance would define the Oberheim sound in my view.
The audio file is a bit big, 28 MB, sorry :hihi: But I think the audio quality matters with such things...
https://app.box.com/s/tzuu0wkpq61c3car7fpd9t04a8o78ee3

I still think that the way the voices are panned on the Oberheim plays a more important role, it creates a certain "space" and "movement" in my head.

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e-crooner wrote: Sat Jun 27, 2020 8:41 pm Just found some time to play around with resonance, compare it to Sylenth1's. It sounds different of course, but not to an extent that resonance would define the Oberheim sound in my view.
I would say that the SEM/OB-X filter is much more distinctive.

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I would not refuse a SEM module if it were given to me :hihi:


A nice video on resonance, albeit from the competition, the OB-XD :hihi:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7f-CozwEpk4

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e-crooner wrote: Sat Jun 27, 2020 9:02 pm I would not refuse a SEM module if it were given to me :hihi:
Me neither. Not at all. :)

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zerocrossing wrote: Sat Jun 27, 2020 12:54 pm
I don’t know where the idea of a unitary Oberheim sound comes from. Is it the. SEM? The Xa? The Matrix 12? They all sound pretty different to me.
:tu:

The OB hardware was a little different as it developed over time...

The different CEM chips and circuitry,along with the introduction of more digital control,gave them all a different flavour...

When DCO's replaced the VCO's,it was quite a seismic shift and although I had a few Matrix 6's and Matrix 1000's,the DCO versions didn't really rock my boat...

My favourite was the OB8 :party:
No auto tune...

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vitocorleone123 wrote: Fri Jun 26, 2020 4:29 pmThey're different. Moog, Sequential, Roland, Yamaha, Korg, Oberheim, etc. have different a different character to them.
It is more accurate to say they can have a different character to them but that is often only revealed in specific circumstances. e.g. Most synths can do decent string pads and while they won't all sound identical, those kinds of settings won't tell you which synth was actually used and any of them will give the part the same character. Same for a lot of basslines and things that don't necessarily highlight any of those features that allow you to determine which synth might be in use. In the case of the OB-Xa, its two filters have very different characters, which makes it even harder to know for sure that it is what is being used.
nirm123 wrote: Sat Jun 27, 2020 3:43 amso leave the technical explanation out (the question was not only for you anyway). ? what do ppl mean by "musical" ? I can understand "big", "small", "warm" and "cold" but could never understood what did people mean by "musical" or as others mentioned here that "the filter sings", is this describing non linear behavior ? lack of stepping and digital artifacts ? what makes Obsession filters and resonance sound better for example than OB-xa V ? after all it's programming code, there must be an explanation, it's not some black magic.
What makes any filter better than another? We can all hear the differences between a Moog Ladder filter and Oberheim's SEM filter, we each have to decide which we can make better use of.
NOVAkILL : Asus RoG Flow Z13, Core i9, 16GB RAM, Win11 | EVO 16 | Studio One | bx_oberhausen, GR-8, JP6K, Union, Hexeract, Olga, TRK-01, SEM, BA-1, Thorn, Prestige, Spire, Legend-HZ, ANA-2, VG Iron 2 | Uno Pro, Rocket.

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