Oberon

The world is full of free substractive synths,and though some of them are really good, others are just repetitions of the same patterns producing the same songs. This is logical, and in spite of that that's always something to praise.

Now Oberon belongs to the former group, being a very good sounding synth.
It has 2 oscillators, and the filters are really quite good actually, making this little beats sounding very very analogical. Its sound reminds me of the best analogical synths, it seems it's inspired by the Oberheim, but I can't judge that. It just sounds good.

When you browse the presets you'll think it's a quite limited synth, very far from Synth 1 or Polyblit for example. But when you play with it you'll realise of its full potential. You can get really good electronic basses,and truly analogical pads. It's much more than what it appears at simple sight.

Its interface is simple and clear: the oscillators, envelope, filters...are very clearly separated and visible. and the GUI is not spectacular but very decent though, with those orange over black.

It has never crashed in my computer, and it uses very little cpu. that, together with its good sound, has made me use it more often every day.

100% recommended

well this is one of my bread and butter synths, no doubt. i should say that this gets used in about half the tracks i write which ... may not be many...

anyway, i really enjoy it. simple, smooth and pleasant. easy to program, good docs including midi ccs.

i don't think the presets show off it's abilities, but then i usually use it for very smooth sub basses with a bit of character. it also does quite decent punchy leads and such, but for me it's a bass synth of great standing.

superb VFM.

the Oberon was really a surprise, it really sounds analogue! it is a cliché, but it is really the case with this one. Sort of like of a Juno, but different, in its polyphonic mode, and very nice analoguish leads in mono-mode with portamento. Not overly versatile, but again like the Juno, kinds of always sounds good in what it does. Very nice vintage-looking interface, I would swear I used that synth in hardware. Again, Juno, Jupiter 4 type of sounds, but not so much the Roland signature sound, but the closest in a VSTi to those kind of hardware. Very warm natural sound, osc and filters. Almost real substractive analog! Great for Jupiter-type strings, smooth leads, ambient organish pads... it is all in the quality of sound, not in extravagant features.

I downlaoded Oberon one day because I was seeking a new synth with the quality of Satyr but not as difficult to program. Oberon fits that bill perfectly. Its a champ for simple virtual analog stuff. I really like the retro-GUI. My only criticism is that it blinks a little when you use the toggle switches.