Why contemporary "Analog" isn't quit there yet!

[Julio Di Benedetto]

OBERHEIM 8 VOICE



The video wont load so you will have to click the link,  if you can't make it through the long technical section go to 15:35 to listen and sit up to some electronica that still can not be matched by todays synths analog or otherwise in sound. Except that Tom has a 2 voice in production and a 4 voice possibly on the way....

Its worth listening to the whole thing from start to finish just for the amusing commentary as well. 

[Julio Di Benedetto]

 It did load after all!

[LNerell]

I use to own all at one time three Oberheim 4 voice synths, so guess I had a 12 voice.   I didn't watch the video but I've had extensive experience with all things Oberheim over the years including all variations of the SEM in all flavors. The SEM is a great module, and as Tom designed it, as an expander to an Arp 2600 or a mini Moog it is great. Putting a couple of them together is fun, more then 4 and you start to get headaches.   

Have you ever noticed no one else has ever tried to duplicate the 4/8 voice? There is a reason for that. Basically its a pain in the ass to keep everything sounding the same. That's if that is what you are trying to do, and most people that is what they what they want with a poly analog. The programmer for the 4/8 voice was extremely limited, first you had to put all the modules to a default setting so they sounded about the same, that took about any hour. Then the parameters were very limited that the programmer controlled, so not a lot of variation. And then I think you could save maybe 8 sounds, god forbid anyone touched any of the knobs on those SEMs. I basically just forgot about the programmer and used the 4 SEMs as individual synths.

I didn't keep all three 4 voices very long as I already had a 2600, a mini moog, an OBXa, a Moog Modular, and two EMS Synthi A's, so I sold two of them and kept one.  All of that stuff is long gone now, was a lot of fun but I don't miss it much. Now, I go eurorack and if I needed a new poly analog I would probably get a Prophet 6, but I think the Prophet 12 is good enough for me for now.  I'm not interested anymore in having a synth museum. Just my 2 cents.

[APK]

"I'm not interested anymore in having a synth museum."

I liked that 

[LNerell]

Here you, a panel from Sweetwater with Roger Linn, Dave Smith, and Tom Oberheim. You can listen to Tom talk a bit about the SEM module in this discussion.

https://youtu.be/gWkDOeiDEYk

[Julio Di Benedetto]

Thanks for the in-depth post Loren...the narrator of the video express just your sentiments about the problems of the SEM based voiced synths and most definitely the eight voice, but for him its this that makes the programming experience very special because of the sounds that emerge.  Never having played a SEM myself I cant say but I do enjoy these old machines and how they sound.

Incidentally, I do think we are very fortunate to live in this time with analog coming back strong in modular and keyboard form and that the fathers of synthesis are still making instruments to this day.....so really "Analog" is better than it has ever been!

Took a quick look at the sweetwater video, looking forward to watching the whole thing!

[hdibrell]

"I'm not interested anymore in having a synth museum."

I liked that 

Yeah, I feel the same way. Although I have great memories of playing my old gear, maintaining a vintage instrument got to be a pain. I don't have anything but an Ensonic Mirage left. That's only because it's not worth much used.

[Julio Di Benedetto]

I have 2 vintage synths, a Roland Juno 60 and a Oberheim Matrix 12.  I dont use the Juno much and if it died would sell it for parts but the Matrix 12 is another story.  So far other than the occasional I feel like being a Matrix 10 or 11 with voices deciding to take a break at random....they always come back usually when the power is turn off and on.....this synth I would spend money on having it serviced because I have not played a synth yet that can come close to its timbre for me.  Perhaps the Modal 008 or the Prophet 12 are such instruments but I have not played them.

It is the limitations of these vintage instruments that for me are their strengths, of course so long as they power up

If owning a room of vintage synths that could produce such joys as playing the Matrix 12 then I would be happy to have a museum but one that was functional to the music and not a collection.

 

[LNerell]

I am not against having some old instruments around, I still have my OBMx, its about 20 years old now, still going strong, still being used. But it has value to me like your Matrix 12 does to you. Things that don't have as much personal value, like my Prophet VS, which was a nice synth that I enjoyed, I had to weigh the advantages to the possible disadvantages of keeping it. I decided that I didn't enjoy the interface that much and with some parts now being unumtanium I decided it was maybe time to let it go. The Prophet 12 seemed like a good trade off, as it has some of the VS type sounds with more knobs and a more modern package. Hey and it has a warranty. 

Anyway, I think I took exception to your subject title that analog isn't quite there yet, and your example to me was kind of strange as to why it isn't. The 4/8 voice was a quirky interim poly synth that wasn't quite there itself! And once the Prophet 5 showed the way, Tom dropped it and came out quickly with the OBX, and no one complained one bit back then. 

And I have to say if contemporary analog isn't quite there yet, well it's a lot closer then it was just a couple years ago. So give it a couple of more years, you might be surprised.

Also, when I was at the NAMM show last January I was talking to Tom and the others at his booth, they basically told me, if you want to recreate an old 4 voice, to buy 4 SEM eurorack modules when they come out, that would be the quickest and easiest way to do it.

[Julio Di Benedetto]

Hi Loren.....I think the title of this thread was a tad provocative in the hope of generating an interesting discussion and it was also my reaction to watching the video as I had not heard an 8 voices before and the sound even though youtube quality really shined in a way that quite surprised me.

As I mentioned in an early post I do think we are very fortunate as electronic musicians to have this array of analog designed instruments available to us both modular and keyboard, add the digital/software element in the mix and it is a very exciting time indeed