New GForce OB-EZ

[MrJubbly]

buy now

It's FREE!

... for existing OB-E owners.

I had no choice, it was already in my GForce account upon launch.

[BONES]

Reading the blurb in the news section made me realise what this is - it's kind of a retro version of the OB-SX -




But instead of being an OB synth, this one is for SEM-related instruments. It is quite clearly where the inspiration has come from and, back in the day, the OB-SX was probably the most common Oberheim synth I used to see people using on stage, often with a Pro-One or a miniKorg 700 sitting on top of it.

[MrJubbly]

The GUI of OB-EZ, has me a little bit perturbed regarding the GUI for the next update of OB-E, whenever that happens to release.

For the record, I am not a fan of some of the recent "Arturia-ish" pseudo-3D, skeuomorphic GUI designs coming out of GForce Software of late.

I don't like the OB-EZ GUI and I have a sneaking suspicion that GForce may be planning to also give the OB-E a similar GUI-overhaul treatment to both this OB-EZ and their other similar recent attempt for their v1.5 update of the SEM.

The latter of which, GForce only reluctantly backpaddled from, after receiving customer backlash, by allowing a more "3D-less" option in their subsequent v1.6 release. It's worth noting that the aforementioned is called "Zoomed" in their settings and that the skeuomorphic view is still termed as "Standard" by them. Which hints at things to come.

Hope I'm wrong (but I'm usually not, when it comes to spotting suchlike patterns developing.)

[MrJubbly]

btw, "Bing" search engine incorrectly assumes that "OB-EZ" is a misspelling of the word "obese."

Bing being Bing.jpg

Well done, Microsoft.

Wecome the the "super advanced" A.I. technological age of 2024

Cue: the inevitable barrage of people asking why anyone would even use Bing.

Hey, we all make mistakes!

[aMUSEd]

Tried it but it seems a strange omission not to have the filter morphing since that is such a signature Oberheim feature

Also I wish they would stick to one browser design for them all

[Teksonik]

If you weren't constantly looking to pick fights with people, you might have realised that.

You have broken the Irony meter. You're someone who only exists to pick fights on forums. It's stunning how someone can be so self unaware.

Irony.png

I see it is that programming synths is so far removed from artistry

The same old tired and predictable response from KVR's resident NPC that we've heard dozens of times over the years.

If we start with silence and end up with something musically interesting then that's art. We know you have no respect for sound designers and that's most likely because the task is over your head or you're just incapable of understanding the basic fact that is indeed an art form.

Is programming synths rocket science? No, absolutely not, anyone can do it with a modicum of skills and imagination.

It just takes time on task to learn how to program any synth and I think that's the issue for some people. They simply are not willing to put in the work. In this case anyone who is intimidated by a simple OB emulation should probably find another artistic outlet.

The old "ooooh but I don't have time" falls apart when someone spends countless hours posting on various forums.

Do we have to learn how to program synths to make music? No of course not but unless you're fine with sounding like what other people think you should sound like instead of creating your own sound then learning the task of synth programming is simply the process of defining your own style in an attempt to stand out from the other 100,000 tracks uploaded each day. I mean you could simply use loops and then you wouldn't even have to learn composition. Maybe some day someone will make a plugin with a single button that creates chart topping hits with a single push. I'd bet that someone would still complain that it's too much work.

Anyway the only logical reason to buy this EZ plugin is because you can't afford or justify the expense of the full synth. If someone just wants to "play a synth" and not program it then it makes more sense to buy the full version because they can also play it and not be handcuffed by limitations. The few seconds you might save using the EZ version is not worth the trade off of having a more capable plugin.

Now having said all that I'm going to go make some patches and some music and I'll find artistic satisfaction and pleasure in both.

*End of Discussion*

[zvenx]

Tried it but it seems a strange omission not to have the filter morphing since that is such a signature Oberheim feature

Also I wish they would stick to one browser design for them all

Most likely the older ones like ob-e will be updated to this newer browser.
rsp

[seafire]

Anyway the only logical reason to buy this EZ plugin is because you can't afford or justify the expense of the full synth.

Nope

If someone just wants to "play a synth" and not program it then it makes more sense to buy the full version because they can also play it and not be handcuffed by limitations. The few seconds you might save using the EZ version is not worth the trade off of having a more capable plugin.

In your opinion.

[mi-os]

For the record, I am not a fan of some of the recent "Arturia-ish" pseudo-3D, skeuomorphic GUI designs coming out of GForce Software of late.

I'm not a fan of the cheap and partly odd looking 3D scenery either. Having to toggle the simple 3 stage envelopes is also a baffling decision. Looks like added at last minute. I don't think this is good UI design overall.

[SLiC]

Also not a fan of the GUI/UI either but for the price of a pre-set pack no real complaints . I have had enjoyed playing through the patches the afternoon and have found a few I may use. Not sure if I prefer it to OB type VSTs I have, but it is a good sound and the patches are well programmed so kudos to the pre-set designer!

[zvenx]

I too am not a fan of this and other newer gforce guis.
Sadly I think this is the path thry have chosen.
But the more feedback they get, it may change their minds. Look at the SEM.

rsp

[Uncle E]

Anyway the only logical reason to buy this EZ plugin is because you can't afford or justify the expense of the full synth.

Can we all agree that OB-E is daunting to look at? And that’s not just to beginners, if someone isn’t fully immersed in the peculiarities of Oberheim’s, they’re going to look at it and be confused about where to begin. They might even RTFM (gasp)!

[aMUSEd]

Anyway the only logical reason to buy this EZ plugin is because you can't afford or justify the expense of the full synth.

Can we all agree that OB-E is daunting to look at? And that’s not just to beginners, if someone isn’t fully immersed in the peculiarities of Oberheim’s, they’re going to look at it and be confused about where to begin. They might even RTFM (gasp)!

It's a bit less so with the zoom enabled but for some stupid reason it changes back to the 8x view when you change presets (and lock doesn't work)

[BONES]

The same old tired and predictable response from KVR's resident NPC that we've heard dozens of times over the years.

It's called consistency, born of a lack of evidence to the contrary. In this case, I remember an interview with Martin Gore, where he explained that he hired a couple of synth programmers as a way of getting himself off his arse to start working on a new album. It had nothing to do with those guys having skills he didn't possess or his belief they had anything of value to add, it was purely that if he was paying them it would motivate him to get to work. This was 20-odd years ago and it was the first time I had realised it was work you could get, because even back then it wasn't something I viewed as a specific or useful skill, it was just something you did so that you could do other stuff. It's like you don't do the laundry because you like doing the laundry, you do it because you like having clean clothes (or, more correctly, because society expects you to have clean clothes and you want to fit in).

If we start with silence and end up with something musically interesting then that's art.

That's a pretty low bar, don't you think? It's like saying if you mix paint on a palette and come up with an interesting colour, that's art. It's not but it might allow you to make some worthwhile art if you have the creativity, skills and knowledge. Ultimately, both are just steps along a path to making art.

They simply are not willing to put in the work.

It would never occur to you that they may simply be uninterested in it? I can work on my car, I don't need a mechanic to fix it most of the time, but I completely understand why the vast majority of car owners have no f**king clue how to do even the simplest maintenance task on theirs. They have no interest and why should they? I worked that out when the DX-7 was released - I couldn't get a useful sound out of it to save my life, except by accident, but it didn't stop it from selling up a storm, because it seemed most of the market didn't care at all about making their own sounds. And that attitude doesn't seem to have changed much - look at how popular preset packs are today and how much people are willing to pay for them, so they don't have to make their own patches.

In this case anyone who is intimidated by a simple OB emulation should probably find another artistic outlet.

I'd hardly call an 8 Voice simple, more like boring and repetitive when it comes to patching. Of course, it can be simple when you slave 7 modules to the one you are patching but that's also a bit limiting, not taking advantage of the unique nature of the instrument.

The old "ooooh but I don't have time" falls apart when someone spends countless hours posting on various forums.

Again, you seem to miss the point that people might feel that they have better things to do with their time. Again, it's like cars - I fully understand why people take their car to a mechanic rather than spend their own time crawling around underneath it themselves. For me, it is something I do as I go, not something I feel I need to separate out as a different task, very much like mixing colours on a palette.

Do we have to learn how to program synths to make music? No of course not but unless you're fine with sounding like what other people think you should sound like instead of creating your own sound

The thing is, you don't need one to do the other. Your sound is, ultimately, determined by a range of factors, of which the source of your patches is an increasingly small component. I'd also suggest that collaboration, even if it's just using someone else's patches, almost always yields better results than doing it all yourself. You can find things someone else has done that you'd never have thought to do yourself, which can inspire you to create something you'd not otherwise have thought to create. Working with someone else's patches is a great way to broaden your creativity and these days, with literally hundreds of synths and tens of thousands of 3rd party patches available, the chance that you'll use anything other people will identify is vanishingly small.

defining your own style in an attempt to stand out from the other 100,000 tracks uploaded each day.

Again, there are myriad ways to accomplish that and synth programming is an increasingly minor one. I think what makes our music stand out, for example, aren't the sounds so much as the way we use them. If you listen to the "solo" in Over, for example, what Craig has done there isn't something anyone else would think to do but it works. And there are hundreds of instruments and patches we could use for that part and they'd all work just as well.

Anyway the only logical reason to buy this EZ plugin is because you can't afford or justify the expense of the full synth.

Yep, same as anything you buy, really.

If someone just wants to "play a synth" and not program it then it makes more sense to buy the full version because they can also play it and not be handcuffed by limitations.

I think OB-E presents a whole raft of different limitations so, realistically, it comes down to which ones you'd rather put up with.

The few seconds you might save using the EZ version is not worth the trade off of having a more capable plugin.

It is if you can accomplish in a few minutes what might take you an hour with OB-E. Of course, if they added the unison controls to OB-E, I'd be much more in agreement with you but that one button transforms the experience for me and you can only get it from OB-EZ.

I too am not a fan of this and other newer gforce guis.

When it sounds as good as it does, I don't really care what it looks like. I'm more critical of them, and everyone else, slavishly sticking to the stupid three-knob envelopes instead of just doing a proper ADSR, than anything else. It's a limitation that restricts what you can do with the instrument that doesn't affect its character or anything else. It's sheer bloody-mindedness to slavishly stick to the original like that and it surprises me that everyone does it.

[JerGoertz]

Sorry if this was stated earlier, but does anyone know whether OB-EZ has any new presets compared to OB-E?