Upcoming Synapse OB-Xa: Obsession

[zvenx]

lol.
rsp

[wagtunes]

You know what I find very strange. And obviously everybody hears things differently. In all my years of buying and listening to synths (and I did own not 1 but 2 Oberheim synths in my day) I have never heard any synth that has that classic Oberheim sound. As I am not a tech person, I have no idea what it is about the construction of these synths that make them sound so different, but, to my ears, nothing sounds like them. That is why, all through the 80s, they were my favorite sounding synths. I hated the DX 7. I was indifferent to all the Moogs except the Polymoog. I liked the Sequential Circuit stuff but never loved it. Early Korg stuff (MS 20) had a quirky sound and interesting filters that I liked a lot but still not as much as that Oberheim sound.

The soft synths I own? Nothing quite duplicates it. Love or hate Oberheims, nothing sounds like them. Not Diva, Zebra 2 or even the emulations we've had to this point. OP-X II is decent but not great. OBXD, I uninstalled. That's how unimpressed I was with it.

This is probably the first synth I'm going to buy this year and in a very long time as I have just fallen out of love with buying synths. I really don't care that much anymore. I'd rather be spending my time making music.

But this synth has me chomping at the bit.

YMMV...Greatly.

[Niowiad]

The reality is that Rich seems to hate doing the GUI coding so he does the minimum necessary. I thought he might unload all that stuff onto Marcin but it doesn't seem to have improved since he joined the team.

What completely and unmercifully sets the two apart for me (and anyone else interested) is MPE support.
There are going to be things the OB-Xa V simply will not be able to do, saying this as a happy V7 and future V8 customer.

Really? Like what? I've had Roli controllers now for more than two years and I am yet to find any use for MPE.

Sorry, for some reason I missed the quote notification.
I was referring to simple polyphonic expression of MPE controllers.
Random example:

Modulation parameters affect each note individually and not the entire group.
For any chord voicing which is layed down, you get the ability to emphasize specific voices (most notable uses could be pitch-bend, filter cutoff, distortion or simply volume).
Each note/voice pressed during chords gets its own life, they don't move as a whole.

The video is just an example of MPE applications but of course it all depends on personal taste, music genre, writing style and how much you decide to take advantage of polyphonic instruments/patches.

The OB-Xa does great strings, which can sure benefit of MPE, but unfortunately the Arturia version does not support that.

[thecontrolcentre]

This place is just for people craving an OB-Xa emulation or looking for ways to waste money on yet another unnecesary VST synthesizer.

So I'll extend the same question to you as well, then: if this is how you feel, why the hell are you wasting your time reading and posting in a synth thread in a synth forum?

I'm not into vintage cars. Do I spend my afternoon posting insults in vintage car forums? Of course not. But that's exactly what your behavior is like here. Are you just that desperate to feel superior to others?

I think you are missing his sarcasm .
He is one of Obsession's beta testers.
rsp

[Funkybot's Evil Twin]

heres a quick little demo of some patches i made during testing

all sounds OBsession
all FX onboard
one instance per clip
no host automation/arp etc
(44/16 > 192mp3)

http://akadave.epizy.com/OBsession_1.mp3


right click/open in new window

Those demos sound great. Much better than anything I've been able to coax out of the OB-Xa. Filter sounds excellent, synth has some bottom and top-end, can get plucky, good transients. Good stuff.

[Spencer Maddox]

I’ve yet to see a single thing about the OB Xa that makes me think it’s remotely anymore special then any of the synths I already have emulated already or analogue synths I already own.

It’s a saw wave
A pulse wave
A PWM, a noise oscillator.

I’m truly failing to see what makes this synth special. It’s extraordinary basic and you can recreate the same sounds in a synth most of us already have and is well more powerful.

it's hardly worth it, but: A moog does not sound like a sequential which does not sound like an ARP which does not sound like an Oberheim which does not sound like a Korg which does not sound like a Roland..... get the point yet? They all have Saw Waves, Pulse Waves PWM, and a noise oscillator. But, gee, I dunno, folks in the 70s and 80s didn't say "hey, anybody notice all these synths are exactly the same? Guess we only need one of them!", and likewise we don't say that now.

Except you, apparently, which begs the question, why are you reading a synth thread in a synth forum?

Except not. Mabye all vintage subtractive synths, but FM, Wavetable, Additive, Granular, there is a lot more synthesis options then VA and a lot more reasons why I could be on this forum.

If the difference is that much then all glory to y’all: I can hear subtle differences but nothing that would ever be any smidge of importance in a mix. But to each their own.

Also people bought different synths back in the day because it was one gigantic ass synth you could only use once in a song. That plays a big part. A point rendered moot by the Digital Plugin era.

And what got me to comment was more that, these threads are cancerous.
And without naming any names it’s extremly off putting to a potential customer.

You know what I find very strange. And obviously everybody hears things differently. In all my years of buying and listening to synths (and I did own not 1 but 2 Oberheim synths in my day) I have never heard any synth that has that classic Oberheim sound.

Fair enough.
We’ll see if I’m wrong when the final product releases I suppose.

Your video link is broken.

Fixing that.
That’s ones my bad.

[e-crooner]

You know what I find very strange. And obviously everybody hears things differently. In all my years of buying and listening to synths (and I did own not 1 but 2 Oberheim synths in my day) I have never heard any synth that has that classic Oberheim sound. As I am not a tech person, I have no idea what it is about the construction of these synths that make them sound so different, but, to my ears, nothing sounds like them. That is why, all through the 80s, they were my favorite sounding synths. I hated the DX 7. I was indifferent to all the Moogs except the Polymoog. I liked the Sequential Circuit stuff but never loved it. Early Korg stuff (MS 20) had a quirky sound and interesting filters that I liked a lot but still not as much as that Oberheim sound.

The soft synths I own? Nothing quite duplicates it. Love or hate Oberheims, nothing sounds like them. Not Diva, Zebra 2 or even the emulations we've had to this point. OP-X II is decent but not great. OBXD, I uninstalled. That's how unimpressed I was with it.

This is probably the first synth I'm going to buy this year and in a very long time as I have just fallen out of love with buying synths. I really don't care that much anymore. I'd rather be spending my time making music.

But this synth has me chomping at the bit.

YMMV...Greatly.

Maybe because it uses a 2-pole filter by default, while most other analog synths use a 4-pole one.

[Spencer Maddox]

Update link for anyone who cares.

[urosh]

Maybe because it uses a 2-pole filter by default, while most other analog synths use a 4-pole one.

OB-Xa uses 24dB LP filter, but has (separate) 12dB filter as well. Single voice is (electronically) quite similar to Prophet 5, uses same VCO and VCF chips in very similar configuration (if you stick to 24dB response), VCA is biggest difference.

[AnX]

heres a quick little demo of some patches i made during testing

all sounds OBsession
all FX onboard
one instance per clip
no host automation/arp etc
(44/16 > 192mp3)

http://akadave.epizy.com/OBsession_1.mp3


right click/open in new window

Those demos sound great. Much better than anything I've been able to coax out of the OB-Xa. Filter sounds excellent, synth has some bottom and top-end, can get plucky, good transients. Good stuff.

thank you

[SLiC]

Update link for anyone who cares.

Diva Does OB-x as well as anything I have heard so far...

May have to pick up that pack and skin...there’s a sale on

https://swanaudio.co.uk/classic-ob/

[mholloway]

This place is just for people craving an OB-Xa emulation or looking for ways to waste money on yet another unnecesary VST synthesizer.

So I'll extend the same question to you as well, then: if this is how you feel, why the hell are you wasting your time reading and posting in a synth thread in a synth forum?

I'm not into vintage cars. Do I spend my afternoon posting insults in vintage car forums? Of course not. But that's exactly what your behavior is like here. Are you just that desperate to feel superior to others?

I think you are missing his sarcasm .
He is one of Obsession's beta testers.
rsp

My bad! I've gotten so used to this kind of post on KVR, I can't tell it apart from sarcasm any longer

[mholloway]

heres a quick little demo of some patches i made during testing

all sounds OBsession
all FX onboard
one instance per clip
no host automation/arp etc
(44/16 > 192mp3)

http://akadave.epizy.com/OBsession_1.mp3


right click/open in new window

Very nicely done, these patches / the synth sounds great.

I'll be using external fx of course, but many of your sounds certainly show off the synths ability to make wide, dare I say 'phat' sounds -- which I'm assuming is either unison or the 'spread' controls / voice panning, or some combo thereof. Cool!

[excuse me please]

Ok, haven't looked at the answers, but I go for synth B

[zerocrossing]

When I read someone saying, “what’s special about,” something that quite a lot of people feel is special, it reminds me of my friend who loves coffee... from Dunkin Donuts. Laden with sugar and cream. Any decent coffee is considered a waste to him.

Myself... I actually love coffee enough to pay attention to what probably seem like minute differences to most people. I can tell when the same roast that I often buy changes. I don’t expect most people to care about it, but I do.

Being a poor musician in the 80-90s, I often found myself working in music retail. If I couldn’t buy it, at least I could be around it. I used to bring my 4 track cassette deck in to do quick recordings of synths that there was in no way that I could afford. Don’t ask me why, but the instruments that I gravitated to were Oberheims, Sequential and Moogs. Other people seemed fixated on Rolands and Korgs, but not me. It wasn’t that my heroes were using them, either. I didn’t really listen to a lot of synth focused music, at least not exclusively.

Anyway, not all Oberheims sound alike. I sometimes laugh when people say they’re getting a Matrix 6 to get that “vintage Oberheim sound.” May as well buy a Prophet 08. However, the 8, Xa and SEM all have unique and excellent characters. Maybe they’re not for you, but if you love them, you’ll know what I’m talking about.