Gforce Oberheim OB-X

[MrJubbly]

A pop up that periodically reminds you to feed your cat and changes the synth to cat sounds while the pop up is present would be epic.

Agreed! Here's the graphics for the popup.

OBX_demo_popup1.png

Can you please make the text stand out more from the background?

Also, there's too much redundant space around the border.

Pls fix, thx

[DashOfLime]

What's wrong with feedback that could be better for sales?

So many things. Mostly, though, it would be because you are only looking at it from one side. You only see how it affects you, you clearly haven't spent one second thinking about what might drive them to do it and whether they may realise it will cost them some sales but they see it as worth doing anyway. Then there is the fact they have been around for a long time, so they probably know better than you how these kinds of things affect revenue.

Cool, that's why I asked. I'm sure many of us would to understand better. Sounds like you might have insights. Please educate us.

His insight is he's smart enough to let GForce worry about how to get more sales. They've been around 20 years constantly creating new products, updating older ones, and creating content for some of them (MTron for instance). They seem to be doing just fine without the clowncar here chiming in.

[Funkybot's Evil Twin]

His insight is he's smart enough to let GForce worry about how to get more sales. They've been around 20 years constantly creating new products, updating older ones, and creating content for some of them (MTron for instance). They seem to be doing just fine without the clowncar here chiming in.

...Except for that period of time where they didn't release new products or updates [outside of M-Tron expansions] and then returned with a Mac only plugin [OB-E] for a long while becuase their developer didn't know how to code for PC or something. "The clowncar here" definitely let them kow that going Mac only was a bad idea and they eventually sorted that and got a PC version out quite a bit later. So if you were paying attention, there was a period for a while there where things were looking a little shaky for GForce. I'm glad they're back in the full swing of things though. Just hope they keep improving.

[DashOfLime]

My question is why? I honestly don't see the point. Look at something like a MiniMoog - it is deeply compromised by its filter. It's usable for some things but, overall, it's not a great synth and was never engineered to be anything but affordable. Why anyone would want something that sounds exactly like it makes absolutely no sense to me. That's where I think Diva is a bit clever because you can swap out the shit bits and put something better into the signal path. So you get the original vibe without too many of the downsides.

I don't know where you keep coming up with this fantasy that the Minimoog was "engineered to be affordable". It was like $1500 in 1970. That was not affordable. It was engineered to be cheaper than their modular systems, not affordable. Bob Moog was a terrible businessman and didn't see a market for the thing. He wasn't even responsible for the first prototype. They stumbled into a level of success but it still couldn't save the business because again, Moog was a terrible businessman.

And you seem to think some world would be opened up by updating the ladder filter circuit while ignoring the fact that it was a f**king monosynth in a tiny case in 1970. Hate to break this to you chief but they updated the ladder filter circuit and it didn't save the company either.

[egbert101]

Popup needs to be more cute...

PLEASE BUY

cutie.png

[DashOfLime]

His insight is he's smart enough to let GForce worry about how to get more sales. They've been around 20 years constantly creating new products, updating older ones, and creating content for some of them (MTron for instance). They seem to be doing just fine without the clowncar here chiming in.

...Except for that period of time where they didn't release new products or updates [outside of M-Tron expansions] and then returned with a Mac only plugin [OB-E] for a long while becuase their developer didn't know how to code for PC or something. "The clowncar here" definitely let them kow that going Mac only was a bad idea and they eventually sorted that and got a PC version out quite a bit later. So if you were paying attention, there was a period for a while there where things were looking a little shaky for GForce. I'm glad they're back in the full swing of things though. Just hope they keep improving.

"they eventually sorted that and got a PC version out quite a bit later". That was planned anyhow. I think you need to go back and reread the history on that product (vs. trying to rewrite it).

https://www.gforcesoftware.com/blog/ob- ... c-version/

Point 2: "While it might appear we’ve been quiet in terms of new instrument releases, over the last few years we’ve been quietly developing some very special in-house development tools. While these tools are trade secrets we can say that they were developed on Macs using OB-E as proof of concept and are evolving."

Point 3: "We recently did a series of surveys with our customers and found a huge majority are Mac users. So, as OB-E evolved into the very special monster that is it, we decided to release it as Mac only and see what the reception was. "

And the reception to the product was great. Says right there in that post that they never planned to drop PC support.

Like figuring out their demo terms they were able to figure out that the Mac market was where their bread was being buttered and served that market first.

"period of time where they didn't release new products or updates [outside of M-Tron expansions] "

Which point 2 of that blog post covers quite well.

"So if you were paying attention, there was a period for a while there where things were looking a little shaky for GForce"

I was paying attention and didn't see a "shaky period" for GForce. What I *did* see was:

1. a small shop who decided to take time and develop some of their own proprietary dev tools and took the time to do so, first on Mac.
2. a small shop who figured out that it was a good idea to not talk about stuff they weren't ready to release after being burned before.
3. released a Mac-only product using those tools because the Mac is where their main market is.
4. released v2 a year later with PC support.

That's not shaky. To the legions of butt-hurt Windows users maybe it seems that way but they got their Windows version anyhow, it just took longer.

[Uncle E]

More cats!

If we had more wholesome cat posting in the J-8 thread, maybe it wouldn’t have gotten locked!

[Frantz]

Can you please make the text stand out more from the background?

Also, there's too much redundant space around the border.

Pls fix, thx

You know the saying that there is more than one way to skin a cat? Well, our cat popup will be fully skinnable and will be developed for VST2, VST3, AU, AAX, and CLAP. It is destined to become the industry standard.

Note that our cat popup will be subscription only which may raise concerns among some of the community. However, we believe it will be unmatched in features and functionality and will be fully embraced once you try it.

[fisherKing]

Can you please make the text stand out more from the background?

Also, there's too much redundant space around the border.

Pls fix, thx

You know the saying that there is more than one way to skin a cat? Well, our cat popup will be fully skinnable and will be developed for VST2, VST3, AU, AAX, and CLAP. It is destined to become the industry standard.

Note that our cat popup will be subscription only which may raise concerns among some of the community. However, we believe it will be unmatched in features and functionality and will be fully embraced once you try it.

i tried to modify the look of my cat. funeral services will be friday, zoom attendance is fine...

[Odd Fella]

My question is why? I honestly don't see the point. Look at something like a MiniMoog - it is deeply compromised by its filter. It's usable for some things but, overall, it's not a great synth and was never engineered to be anything but affordable. Why anyone would want something that sounds exactly like it makes absolutely no sense to me. That's where I think Diva is a bit clever because you can swap out the shit bits and put something better into the signal path. So you get the original vibe without too many of the downsides.

Indeed, seems to be the only reason to buy an emulation. Why else accept limitations when other, generic synths can do so much more?!

If you see limitations, they are only in your mind. I use emulations because they are generally well laid out, which makes them very easy to use so I can work more quickly/efficiently, they generally sound great and they are usually not too expensive. I find a lot more use for bx_oberhausen than I do for DUNE, Hive, PhasePlant or Spire. The idea that a more complex synth is automatically better is utterly ridiculous.

A lot of people LIKE the sounds of the Minimoog. Whether it was intended to sound like that or not, it has appealed to a lot of people over the decades.
The only things I would not like about it are the incomplete envelopes and the fact that it is not polyphonic.

There are also generic synths that are well laid out, and which simply go beyond the usual emulations. In fact, most emulations are already way more than that, they include effects and what not. It's more like "inspired by"

I can't say much about the synths you have listed. I remember trying Dune a long time ago, and I did not like it much. The operation did not match my taste and I don't like synths with knob-based envelopes.

[Uncle E]

Creating a demo system that users* actually look forward to is a worthwhile endeavor.

*including household pets

[Funkybot's Evil Twin]

Creating a demo system that users* actually look forward to is a worthwhile endeavor.

That's all some of us were saying! And fix the low-contrast thing. Otherwise, nothing left to complain about. Seems like a good synth if you like the OB-X sound.

[fisherKing]

Creating a demo system that users* actually look forward to is a worthwhile endeavor.

*including household pets

& which users define what a 'demo system that users actually look forward to' works like?

also, i'd imagine, for most developers, they want you to get over the demo and actually go purchase their plugin....

[Funkybot's Evil Twin]

Here are my suggestions:

Option 1: Time Limtited, No Saving
The Softube/PSP approach. Give users 7 or 14 days from the start of the demo to try the demo out. All patches are available. Restrict patch save and recall.

Option 2A: No Time Limit with Increasingly More Frequently Noise Bursts, No Saving
This is the U-he approach. There is no time limit on the demo. All patches are available. For the first 15 minutes or so of each instance, the noise is relatively infrequent so you can hear it. After 15 minutes the noise bursts, the noise fades in during shorter and shorter invervals becoming more annoying.

Option 2B: No Time Limit with Silence, No Saving
The Audio Thing/Audiority approach. Same as above except silence for 3 seconds every 45 seconds. Saving is disabled.

Option 3 - No Time Limit, One Instance, No Saving
The Cableguys appraoch. There is no time limit on the demo. All patches are available. Only one instance per project. Saving is restricted.

These are fairly common methods throughout the industry. Option 1 seems totally standard with iLok plugins because of how demos are issued - but other, non-iLok devs also use it.

All of which would've been improvements over the current approach, totally non-controversial, and avoided pages of demo discussion. Sure someone will always complain. But not as much.

[bmanic]

Creating a demo system that users* actually look forward to is a worthwhile endeavor.

*including household pets

& which users define what a 'demo system that users actually look forward to' works like?

also, i'd imagine, for most developers, they want you to get over the demo and actually go purchase their plugin....

Most people like U-he's demo system. It's quite universally praised. Also FabFilter demo is very often praised (it is completely 100% fully functional for 14 days I believe).

The whole point of a demo is to not stress out the potential customer and showcase your product in a complete way. While GForce OB-X sort of does that (it skips a lot of the presets but as it's quite a simple synth at it's core, it's not a huge issue) but it does create a silly limitation that can stress people out (the 6 hour thing is completely unnecessary) and caused some users to lose the demo without any real fault of their own, other than not reading the demo restrictions very carefully.

So what people have been complaining in short is: The demo has one single unnecessary restriction (two if you count the missing presets as a big issue). Easily fixable and absolutely no loss to their protection. Heck they could just do the U-He system and add very gentle sounding noise after 6 hours of use.

Other than that, I think the synth is really good. It would be 100% perfect and I'd be raving about it everywhere if it had keyboard tracking as a modulation source.