Oberheim vs. Oberheim

[Uncle E]

is it upsampled? because i can totally tell the dif in my 50$ headphones. 2* is obvious. on the other hand, they tend to be more f.u.n.

I meant the real Oberheim OB-Xa keyboard.

[Dasheesh]

i never owned a hardware obie, but i'm liking the brassiness of the software. it's easy to play and listen to.

[pdxindy]

I used to own the OB-Xa... bought it new.

Looks like Tom Oberheim has announced a new Two Voice Pro to be released this year.

[Uncle E]

i never owned a hardware obie, but i'm liking the brassiness of the software. it's easy to play and listen to.

The SEM's were good. I liked the OB-1, too, but it wasn't very brassy.

[dahwoud]

Hehe seems Tom is back on the hardware market

https://www.gearnews.com/tom-oberheim-a ... l-edition/

[zwhita]

The real OB-Xa is such a shite synth.

Thank you for your opinion. My own is that it's no OBX, but has plenty of character and was worth the $400 I paid for it in 1997. I only sold it because I didn't want to pay to add Midi and wanted to buy a Kurzweil K2VX instead(which I still have). Prices for vintage these days are for collectors and the wealthy, so I consult the past in terms of their worth.
ObSession is a fine emulation and I'm quite happy with it.

What about obxd?

I did a comparison between Sonic Projects OP-X Pro II and OBXd in 2014 and felt both were lacking as emulations of their source, but both had good preset libraries and I enjoyed them for a little while just to play around with.
The more recent VSTI's have advanced quite a bit in emulating circuits, imo. Only thing I emphatically did not like about OBXd was that the resonance was excessively brash and unpleasant. OP-X Pro II I ultimately did not click with either. Weak top-end. Too conspicuously digital in character.

My hardware SEM Pro(with Tom's signature on the case front) I would describe as big, punchy and fizzy. A little harsh on the top end by itself, actually. I tend to run its output through another lowpass filter and that sounds really nice. The Analogue Solutions Telemark sounds smoother to my ears by itself. Boomstar SEM I've no experience with.
The SEM Pro is supposed to be able to interface with modular equipment, but all the outputs are unbuffered so you have to run the CV output signals though something that is buffered first. I agree it's quite unique and I don't intend to sell it. The Telemark/Nyborg-12 are pretty great too. I'd get one of them if I had some extra money and space.

[Uncle E]

Thank you for your opinion. My own is that it's no OBX, but has plenty of character and was worth the $400 I paid for it in 1997.

I got mine around that same time and paid $350 for it. It was certainly worth that or more just for being such a substantial keyboard but I would never got one again, no matter the price.

The SEM is a completely different story. That's a great synth.

[crickey13]

I really don't understand why people get so anal about the sound of Curtiz ICs such as the ones in OB-Xa. They sound different than SEM stuff, perhaps a bit thinner, but still sound very nice IMHO, more in-your-face, but in the nice sort of way. Different strokes for different folks I guess.

[Acid Mitch]

Hehe seems Tom is back on the hardware market

https://www.gearnews.com/tom-oberheim-a ... l-edition/

Prices quoted over at Gearslutz are around $5000 and it's already expected to be sold out. The " contact for pre orders" message on Toms site only lasted a few days before being withdrawn.

[chk071]

$5000 for such a limited two voice synth... the synth hardware people are really nuts.

[Halonmusic]

nuts indeed

[D-Fusion]

The real OB-Xa is such a shite synth.

I feel the same about the Prophet 5 too.
The Sem Oberheims has a much better sound in my view

[EvilDragon]

can confirm the three pole is sorely missed in most instruments.

This is kind of a myth, 303 actually has a 4 pole filter.

http://www.timstinchcombe.co.uk/index.php?pge=diode

Scroll to the section "The 18dB versus 24dB 'dispute'".

$5000 for such a limited two voice synth... the synth hardware people are really nuts.

At least they're not guitarists.

what?

The (in)famous Final Countdown brass is a stacked sound of a TX-816 and a JX-8P, that's what the guy was referring to.

[NikkiA]

$5000 for such a limited two voice synth... the synth hardware people are really nuts.

It's all about the cachet, seeing someone using a "2 Voice Pro 2021" instantly conveys that they are 'successful' enough to drop $5000 on a single synth.

[drsamurai09]

There are a LOT of presets available for the OP-X Pro ii as compared to the Arturia. I have both and the OP sounds better out of the box, probably because by default the oscillators and filters have some slop in the initial presets. the Arturia OB-Xa V can add pan width and envelope response slop which brings it very close. If you need a lot of presets go with the OP-X Pro ii, if you have the V collection already, then upgrading to the OB-XA V gets you there plus the Moog Vocoder string machine which sounds really nice too.

Honestly they both sound good, but IMO the OP-X Pro ii has a slight edge even after dialing the Arturia version up with some slop.