Gforce Software Oberheim SEM

[Arashi]

To you. Not to me. as an OB-E owner, I now own SEM and it's a great addition.

What is with you people being so narcissistic? Do you not understand how this works? Amazing!

Where's the narcissism? All I said is I don't think it's worth the money. To you it is…great. We have different opinions. Wouldn't need a forum if we all agreed on everything.

Maybe grab a dictionary and learn what that word actually means?

[emasters]

Right - why in the world would GForce charge for their time and effort -- to utilize the code from the existing product, modify it so it looks and behaves differently, test it both internally and with beta testers, document it, communicate and coordinate with Oberheim, and market/distribute it (of course channel partners happily market and sell at no cost to GForce). I'm with you -- every developer should just work for free when they use an existing product as a starting point. Shame on them for charging for their expertise and time! For that matter, you no doubt work for free... why would you charge your employer/customers for your time and expertise...?

No one is saying they should simply give away their work for free. The product is meant for people who don't already own OB-E, and they are charging £50 for it (£30 intro). Plenty of people will be happy to have the SEM sound for a lot less than the £150 OB-E. GForce will be paid for their work.

However, for people who already paid £150 for OB-E, there isn't a lot of value in this mono version of the exact same thing. Maybe some OB-E users will buy it anyway. Some (including me) don't think it offers enough value to justify spending another £20. I don't expect them to give it away, but it would have been a nice gesture.

Yeah - I get it. And for many, it probably isn't worth the investment to get the spin-off version. My (cynical) point was from their perspective, it still takes a reasonable amount of time and effort (and thus cost) to produce the spin-off product. So I guess I'm not surprised they're charging a cross-grade fee. Would it have been a nice gesture to give it free to those who already have invested in OB-E?... sure, of course. Clearly, easy to not purchase if one's not comfortable paying the cross-grade price.

[BONES]

Why isn't this free for people who already own OB-E? It's just the exact same SEM repackaged as a single module. They're charging £19.99 for OB-E owners. Pass!

Maybe they think that if you already have OB-E, you don't need this?

If I didn't already have OB-E, I'd definitely be getting this one. I love the sound of it.
This SEM is a great way to get in to part of that sound for a lot less money.

I tmight be if bx_oberhausen didn't exisst but oberhausen will shit all over this, for the simple reason it is polyphonic, and it's almsot always available for less money than this, too.

you can't get the attack stage of the envelopes to be tight. They're always a bit open the whole time, even when you turn the circuit emulation thing off. And, if you turn it on, I find the variance of the LFO speed to be too much, and the variance of the envelope stages as well.

Maybe that's because that's how a real SEM is?

Pay Our Software Developers. Im not a dev but I work in digital. Its work. They should be paid.

I'd literally be buying 1/8th of a Synth I already paid them nearly 200 dollars for. Does that honestly make sense to you?

That's a reason for you not to buy it, it's not a reason for them to give it away so you can sell it in the Buy and Sell forum for a profit.

This is a weird crowd here. I'm just pointing out the obvious: there's little reason for an OB-E owner, who already paid a premium for the OB-E, to spend another 36 bucks on this.

The same would be true of anyone with bx_oberhausen or SEM-V or Cherry's 8 Voice, wouldn't it? Should those people also get it for free if they also own another GForce product?

Where's the narcissism? All I said is I don't think it's worth the money.

No, you very definitely said that they should give it to you for free. Like it or not your original post was absolutely dripping with a self-centred sense of entitlement.

Anyway, I've downloaded the demo but I can't see a mono synth competing with bx_oberhausen, 3rd VCO or not. But, as alwys, I am willing to be convinced.

[BONES]

f**k me! That didn't take long. I just played the first patch and bought it. It sounds f**king huge and the MPE response straight out of the box is pretty damned cool.

[bmanic]

....I don't know if it's just me, but, I miss a little bit of bass in this synth. Already had that impression about OB-E. When I think of Oberheim and the SEM, I think of massive bottom end. The plugin has some, but, could be more. Again, could be just me. The sound is great overall, I just think it could be a little bit more beefy.

Oh my gods - you've got to be kidding me


https://knowyourmeme.com/photos/1227689-why-so-serious

This thing is so fat and beefy with such a massive bottom end that it's obscene.

Well, I happen to agree with chk071, kind of. I wasn't all that impressed by OB-E. To me it sounds rather sterile somehow. Not sure where the secret sauce is supposed to be that some people seem to find in it but for me it was just "meh..".

Don't think it's a lack of any frequencies though.. but something is "missing" to my ears.

EDIT: .. and also, I didn't like BX Oberhausen at all. It's even more sterile and thin sounding than OB-E. At this point I'd conclude that I just don't like the Oberheim SEM sound to begin with, but that isn't true.. at least it wasn't last time I played a set of modules. So yeah, don't know what's going on. Gotta get to play the real deal again to make absolutely sure (yes, that means you Benny!, in case you're reading this).

[Arashi]

Where's the narcissism? All I said is I don't think it's worth the money.

No, you very definitely said that they should give it to you for free. Like it or not your original post was absolutely dripping with a self-centred sense of entitlement.

Wrong. I said "Why isn't this free for people who already own OB-E?"

No entitlement. Didn't expect them to give it away for free. Just don't see £20 of value in it as an owner of OB-E.

[felis]

....I tmight be if bx_oberhausen didn't exisst but oberhausen will shit all over this, for the simple reason it is polyphonic, and it's almsot always available for less money than this, too.
.....

f**k me! Thta didn't take long. I just played to the first patch and bought it. It sounds f**king huge and the MPE response straight out of the box is pretty damned cool.

Yes - I think if someone needs convincing, giving the demo a try will probably do it.

I also have Oberhausen, and while it may have some nice features, to me, it doesn't hold a candle to the GForce stuff when focusing strictly on the sound.

[BONES]

Wrong. I said "Why isn't this free for people who already own OB-E?"

Exactly! And if you can't see how that makes you look, you need to step back a bit.

Didn't expect them to give it away for free. Just don't see £20 of value in it as an owner of OB-E.

No, the way you worded it makes it sound very much like an expectation, if not a demand. OK, that was not your intention, and it did seem out of character for what I know of you, but it's definitely how it came across. Don't sweat it, you've explained that you didn't mean it that way and I'm sure everyone accepts that. If they don't, that's their problem, don't make it yours.

[BONES]

I also have Oberhausen, and while it may have some nice features, to me, it doesn't hold a candle to the GForce stuff when focusing strictly on the sound.

Oberhausen wins for me because it has massive, earth-shaking unison, whilst also capturing the character that makes SEM such a special thing. If it's sound isn't as perfect a recreation of the original, I couldn't care less because I have not so much as seen a SEM, much less used one. But when I hear bx_oberhausen, I instantly know what it is.

One thing I don't get, though, is why every SEM emulation out there persists with those three knob envelopes. Putting a couple of release knobs in there wouldn't change the character at all, it seems like pure bloody-mindedness to me.

[BONES]

EDIT: .. and also, I didn't like BX Oberhausen at all. It's even more sterile and thin sounding than OB-E.

Then obviously you didn't try it with 32 voice unison. Because when it comes to thickness, nothing comes close to bx_oberhausen. Even 4 voice unison is more than enough to blow every other Oberheim emulation out of the water, except maybe OB-Xtreme. And, as I said above, whether or not it sounds exactly like the original is totally irrelevant because stacking a few voices means that bx_oberhausen will always blow the original out of the water.

[zerocrossing]

I have to say that I just opened up OB-E for the first time to really start editing things, and the interface is stupidly bad. Not only looking, but it just seems a mess. VCO 3 on the back page? I’ve been using synths since 1982 and a synth this simple shouldn’t be anything but super obvious. I may even have to read the manual!

[BONES]

Really? It works like a SEM, it couldn't be easier. Try hitting the "EXPAND" button in the top-right corner. It took me all of 10 seconds to find that. To save you reading the manual, the envelopes take their Release time from the Decay setting. It seems stupid in every other SEM emulation but with this being Monophonic, it's less of an issue/problem.

[abernathy]

Not to beat a dead horse, but we're talking a mere $25 for OB-E owners. Totally worth it to me just for the new presets and the arpeggiator, plus I really enjoy having a separate monophonic instrument. If it's not worth the price for you then you obviously don't really want it - and why should they just give it to you? Now the M-Tron MKII was too pricey for me for the advantages over the M-Tron Pro, but I understand it's a specialized instrument that took a lot of time and money to develop. I hope to get it on sale some day. I'm not saying people should never complain or express their frustration, but the sense of entitlement and disregard for developer's hard work is a bit ridiculous.

[ghettosynth]

EDIT: .. and also, I didn't like BX Oberhausen at all. It's even more sterile and thin sounding than OB-E.

Agreed, it's like which of the n-voice emus can sound the thinnest. Maybe you just need to use all of them at the same time. Also, too many knobs.

[plexuss]

I used OB-E all over this track. Pretty much all the sequences. Pads are 50/50 VSM and OB-E...


https://soundcloud.com/musicofplexus/lament-op-666