Oberheim OB-12

(CPU V1.52 / DSP 1.11 updated after a user-induced crash)
Ease of use? In this day of software synths how can one complain about any synth for #360 second hand, with a FULL compliment of knobs for every function not unlike a medium-sized modular? top notch. Presets are great to get one started and demonstrate it's capabilities. From them you have a full compliment of stuff to get started. Manual? who needs that.

Keyboard is sound. A good solid and relatively quiet action italian type found on many high quality units out there today. Velocity response good. The effects inbuilt are great if you need them. If you use this in the studio as just one of many, it's a geat addition.

The questions for these input boxes are funny. Is it good for Rock? Classical? Dance? A piano is an instrument used by the great symphonies of the world, as Elton John, and me. What you do with a synth is up to the task; This one will fit into any realm you want. Enough said.

It crashed after I uploaded a bad binary (sysex) file into it once. My error, and after some kind assistance from Viscount, and a couple of pre-release firmware updates, I was up in an hour. The display has just fliclered in a cold room, but other than that, it's as reliable as my fridge. (also italian.. actually.. hmnn.)

They were superb. Personal e-mails to my simple questions. I was sent debug OS files to get info for them, then a proper update, AND!! an actual explanation as to why I needed it. "You have a board with newer flash on it; the os in yours had a problem with it's speed; here's one from a new rev; you have this version. I hope it solves it!" -and it did. And with a confident answer, how can you complain. That is what one referrs to as real expertise.

I saw it in a second hand store. Immaculate shape, and it is heavy. All steel and wood casing, a real power cord, it is a proper synth. Some of these reviews look as if this unit is the user's only piece of kit; I added this to a vast collection and don't care if it hasn't a sequencer - buy a sequencer for that -(christ! what a lousy complaint!) and isn't like... something else. It is a unique synthesizer with some great sound-making capabilitles, and if you spend the time on it, it will do the trick. It has filled many a gap in songs all over the place from noise pish-poosh-reso pops to great stringey-voice pad sweeps; the arpegiator provides hours of twiddle fun for the accustomed old synth user.

Editing is amazing - not just easy but really, really fun. You get the same kick out of fiddling with all those sliders and buttons as you do on a real analogue synth. I've had mine for a little while now, perhaps as long as a year, and editing started out easy and it just seems to get easier and easier as I get more used to the synth.

I'm the kind of person who can't stand the digital method of programming - as soon as I get an idea for a voice, I want to get it down immediately before I lose it. The OB12 really lets you do that, especially as you become more experienced with it.

The PC editor software is a bit confusing though - there is no manual (despite the promise of its arrival on the ob12 site) and I don't expect there ever will be, so I'm a bit wary of using it the wrong way and messing up my sounds. Still, you can of course dump all your settings to a midi file and then mess with confidence.

The manual for the synth is generally very good, especially considering it's translated. There are very few grammatical errors and it's generally easy to understand. There are a few places, however, where you feel they've missed out an important point or two, assuming you know them already. This is probably not the best manual for a complete beginner, especially as far as midi goes.

People don't seem to like the effects much so far....I would agree that the overdrive is the hardest to use well, but the other effects (chorus, delay and reverb) are very good, feature-rich and dead easy to use. The overdrive just (in my experience) takes a bit of patience, but ends up with very useable sounds.

Of course, every single thing on the synth is MIDI compatible, no problems there.

Post-DSP update, the sequencer (phrase recorder) is very good, and the motion recorder was always great. The motion recorder can be used as extensively as your imagination allows.

I'll give it 9 just because of the slight difficulty of use of the overdrive.

Don't even consider this synth if you want realistic instrument sounds! But then, I don't want that, and it's not what I paid for. What it does do, it does very well in my opinion. I think it has a very wide range of possible uses, it's quite versatile. I've managed plenty of different voices ranging from 80's synth pop sounds to techno-ish sounds to subtle, mellow, ambient sounds for any sort of music from rock to new age.

The sound itself I think could stand to be a little bit more analogue, a little more punchy. However, it can be very thick indeed, although it just requires a bit more thought to produce than with a true analogue. The inbuilt graphic EQ is very useful in producing punchier sounds, and you've got plenty of waveforms to fiddle with to thicken it up.

Velocity and aftertouch are great, as is the ribbon controller. I love being able to apply literally any parameter, or even multiple parameters (I think the number is unlimited) to any or all of these! It allows you to have complete control over how the synth sounds when you're playing. When you add in the phrase and motion recorders, you've got some serious real-time sound control there.

Never had a problem yet. No crashes, no data loss, not breakdowns, nothing.

In actual fact, and this is absolutely true, I have SPILT HOT CANDLE WAX on this synth (it was too close to said candle while making a stupid spoof video with a friend) and no harm at all has been done to it!

The casing, as well as being incredibly cool-looking, is solid as...well, a big lump of blue metal!

Absolutely I would gig it without backup. Still worth carrying around in a flight case, but I can't imagine it getting damaged or breaking down on me.

Not had to deal with them.

I would definitely buy another wer it stolen etc, although maybe not immediately due to money concerns! It's definitely worth what I paid.

I love the ease of use, the look, the feel, the sound, everything. Like I say, it could sound just a touch more analogue, but I have analogue synths as well, and everything does something different in the end, and I love what the OB12 does.

I compared it to the Korg MS2000, the obvious competitor, but I decided upon the ob12 because for one thing I thought the 4-voice polyphony of the MS2000 would be a bit limiting, but also because of the greater programmability of the OB12.

It's pretty much my favourite synth at the moment, because it's so versatile. I might translate a patch I've made on the ob12 to another synth later because it sounds better on another, but I'll always try to get it down on the OB12 first since it's so easy to do, and it always ends up sounding great anyway (if you know what you're doing!).

Having said that about the MS2000, I am looking to get one soon, since I still like it a lot, and I'm also looking at possibly at some point getting a Roland jp-8000. I guess I'm a bit of a VA man...

It'd be nice if it had one more octave, but that's just me speaking as a pianist. The 4 octaves works fine, but the extra 5th would be the icing on the cake.

But amazing value all round, and even if it's not for absolute beginners, it's a fantastic synth.

Ver 1.52
DSP 1.11

These are the latest updates and strongly recommend you download these at www.ob12.com. Also on the website you are able to download 2 extra sound banks including the original. I strongly recommend you download the Virtual Analog 2 bank, the factory bank has to many sound effects and not enough synth patches. This bank definately emulate some great Moog and Sequential Circuits sounds and even the classic Oberheims. I give this a 9 due to the fact they shipped with shitty patches. But once again, the new banks are outstanding.

Polyphony is very good 12 voices. Unison mode doesn't seem to be as fat as you would think it should be, but decent. Action is great, I use this board for bass and lots of leads. Keys nice and springy, great aftertouch also. Built in effects are great, i don't use the overdrive much, its to loud. This synth sounds great even if you turn off the effects. Just remember, I only recommend this synth if you download the virtual analog 2 banks. On the OB12.com website, you can download a patch editor. But why should you, everything is laid out for you to tweak and save your work in up to 128 user locations. The motion recorder and phrase sampler come in handy. I use the phrase recorder quite a bit for my bass parts.

This is as close you can get to an analog synth. Some of these patches are amazing, and if you for example put the OB-8 and OB-12 next to each other using the same patch, you will not be able to tell the difference, well, until you start tweaking. That's when it become noticeable. You can hear the steps when turning for example the resonance. Onboard eq is definately a plus especially when shaping your sounds. They did good!

It is pretty damn reliable. It has never crashed on me and I plan on using this synth out on just a few gigs in the near future. The only problem I find with this synth is that it is to damn beautiful. I don't want to ruin her face out on gigs, so i think I might sample some of her sounds.

I have sent e-mails and they have always responded within 48 hours. I give them credit considering Customer Service reps are all in Italy, and are very helpful.

I will buy this again. It is definately one of the best synths I own, and for a virtual synth, this synth comes the closest when emulating vintage synthesizers. Better than the Korg MS2000 or Roland Jp8000.

OS 1.52

This board is extremely easy to use, very well layed out. the only reason i give it a 9 is because of the lack real-world parameter values. All the values on this synth are an arbitrary range of 1 to 100. for instance.. when you set the LFO speed, or the time of an envelope stage, you have no way of determining Hz or seconds. Other than that OS is pretty well layed out and the display is very descriptive.

The effects section of this board is not very musical, with overdrive being the worst. It's hard to get the overdrive to produce any kind of sound without clipping. It would be nice if this board had a modulation matrix like many other VAs.... the modulation routings are very limited. Also feels like the DSP is underpowered. it has 12 voice polyphony but when running in unison mode it often seems less than 6.. on the plus side, the numerous controls on the front panel are excellent and the ribbon controller is a great addition that i think should be on every synth. The onboard eq is another excellent idea seen on too few boards.

this is where my real disappointment came.. when i first bought it i was very impressed, but, as i got used to it and had the chance to compare to other gear, i realized how thin and digital it really is. i've had it for over a year now and i think i've gotten to know it pretty well. The high end of the frequency spectrum has audible digital anomalies on nearly every patch, and the oscillators really lack depth. in addition, the envelopes and LFOs are very slow...
One thing i've noticed that i havn't had the chance to compare to other gear is the unpredictable output level. On some patches i have to turn the amplifier almost down to zero to avoid clipping, and on others, i get weak output even with the amp all the way up. For a digital board this seems like it would be easy to work around in the OS.

it's never crashed on me, but, the backlight on the display has been giving me problems lately. sometimes it works fine, sometimes it flickers, sometimes it doesn't come on at all.. doesn't seem to be any rhyme or reason to it. i probably wouldn't gig with it for fear of not be able to see it :)

Website hasn't been updated in a -very- long time, and the unit is out of production, so, draw your own conclusions. i've never actually dealt with support personally

If it were lost i'd definately buy something else... i don't think it's worth what i paid for it. it sorta feels like a big midi controller and software synth in one box.

i like all the front panel controls and the display, but, this board lacks where it counts most.. the sound.

See my first review.

In addition to my previous review, I do think the unison mode needs more CPU power unless you play in mono mode. But, if you try to increase the filter attack time slightly, this latency time won't be so noticable.

Many VA oscillators cannot produce more than one waveform simultaneously without any loss of polyphony. OB-12 is in fact a 6 oscillator VA, because each of its two oscillators can give three waveforms at the same time (up to your choice of course). This gives the ultra thick character to its sound. By properly programming, it can sound as phat as a Jupiter 8. In fact, it can convincingly give most of the Jupiter-8 sounds in the ''Best of Go West'' album. When experimenting with new sounds, try also bypassing the filters and hear the pure oscillator sound which is better to my ears than filtered one in some cases. I am also processing its sound by an Akai MFC-42 analog filter bank (by bypassing,flattening its onboard filters). Result is very good in most cases.

See my first review.

See my first review.

See my first review.

I'd like to add something about Unison latency problem to my previous review. If you use unison in mono mode or in poly mode, but using only one note at a time, there is no latency. It only occurs when you play chords. You can even play polyphonic riffs and it will soun OK, but avoid chords! I even use 1 unison and 2 normal pathces in some performances and there's no problem. Well, maybe a click occurs every now and then... I have to mention the sound stealing problem I've noticed on some performances. It is especialy noticeable if you use arpegiated bass and a pad sound together, or when sequencing with external sequencer. the result is a terrible compression! Because of this I avoid using OB12 in a sequencer setup and multimode. 2 sound performance is maximum. I've read other reports of this problem. I hope they'll fix this in the upcoming CPU upgrade. It should be available soon.
I've also come acroos the LFO and Arpeggio sync problem. There's aparently no way to sync those to external midi clock!!! THIS SUCKS BIG TIME!!! No synced LFO sweeps presents a huge downside for me. I hope this too will be fixed in new CPU version.
It also happened that a certain patch that used FM sounded unusable after powering up the synth. What is this? A true analog emulation??? haha! It hapened 3 or 4 times, but everything was OK when I turned it off and then back on.
Phrase and motion recorder are both pretty useless. Morphing feature is usefull for sound creation, but not for performance as it has it's dissadvantages.

I am more and more satysfied by its sound. Like previous reviewer wrote, it doesn't sound mastered and I like that! Most VAs and softsynths sound compressed and mastered. Well, this could be a good or a bad thing, but I prefer raw sound. They all have smiley shaped EQ sound, and OB12 has lots of mids. I love mids! As for low end:
I managed to program fairly deep and also very punchy, percussive basses. It IS necessary to use EQ to boost up low-end, but EQ is there, isn't it? :) I've figured out, that making bass pathces requires lots of work and a bit different aproach than on other synths. But results are quite good. I still think this is one of the best synths for strings, brass and pads, so those are the main things I use it for. Oh, and I love it's unique leads more and more every day! Overdrive and reverb are a joke really. I couldn't use them in any musical context. Overdrive can be used as some sort of Lo-Fi effect, but its usability is low.

Pretty reliable so far, except some nasty FM stuff. I plan to gig with it in 2 months.

At this price it couldn't be much better. Although I'd like some things implemented like:
independent control over two filters (adsr, lfo, pan)
way more filter types
more envelope triggering modes (they always retrigger, which can be a pain)
more envelope curves - at least for attack (linear, exponential)
filter overdrive
syncable lfos and arp
mod matrix
step sequencer
panable delay
more usefull morphing function
motion recorder as a part of patch or at least performance

whoa!!! i've just build up a dream synth, haha!

This is one of the easiest and most pedagogical synths to use in the world. Sliders, buttons and knobs for all everyday parameters. Just a few parameters (ie advanced envelopes) is hidden, but easily accessed. Grab a knob, and the big lcd screen shows what you are doing.
The factory presets are the worst found on this planet. I erased the entire memory and started programming from scratch. But rest assured you'll do marvellous sounds of your own in no time.

It's only 12 note polyphony, and the allocation scheme should have been programmable. Polyphony is OK, since you don't want to use this synth as a workstation anyway.

There are four flexibly configurable and easy to use effects. The weird overdrive is mostly good for industrial effects. The chorus are one of the best I've heard. Sounds "analogue" in a great way. The delay is sadly not pannable, but makes a great flanger. The reverbs are barely useable (and I can't get enough volume from them), but you always want to use external high quality reverbs anyway. Everything sends midi data, so tweak away.

I wish it had another LFO (it has two), and two envelopes for the two filters. And a knob for the filter delta.

There is so much weird opinions about the sound of OB-12 it's unimaginable. I use loads of real analogue synths like Arp Odyssey, Korg Trident, Mono/Poly, MS-10, MS-20, PS-3100, Micro Preset, Oberheim Matrix-6, Matrix-1000, Studio Electronics ATC-1. I've been an analogue maniac since the 1981. I never thought I should buy a VA synth, and really hated all I tested, apart from Waldorf Q:series which I think is OK. Just for fun I tried Korg MS 2000, Novation Nova and OB-12 at a music store. I ended up buying the OB-12. This thing is even fairly alive when you switch off the effects and the filters sound "real". Other V/A sounds "already mastered and compressed techno hit" no matter how you tweak it. The OB-12 is "unmastered". It can sound weird, outright awful, and marvellous. Though resonance doesn't sound analogue when self oscillating, it sounds like real wild feedback. Not like a bland sinus oscillator placed at the cutoff frequency.

This sure isn't the synth for everything. It can do fairly good imitations of early 80's polysynths. It can sound like a DX-7 treted with a shotgun. It does a much much better "old PPG" than my Waldorf XT. The people complaining of limited bass and high ends are... well, what synth have they been trying? This thing competes with my Studio Electronics ATC-1 for bass on the upcoming Moulin Noir album. Hmmm... maybe they've used the filters in bandpass configuration. It's great for 80's synthpop. Van Halen rock is a piece of cake. All sorts of industrial and electronica too. For middle of the road hits and techno: Go buy something else. The same applies if you want to use one synth for your sounds. OB-12 is at it's best when it does one or two special sounds in the mix.

Built like a german tank. NEVER crashes.

They aren't answering emails... but the OS seems to be updated now and then though this synth flopped. I see I can update mine from 1.50 to 1.52. You need at least 1.50. Running update from Cubase always works.

This is the V/A for those who hate V/A. I havent tried Alesis ION which may be a stiff competitor for that title. But nowdays you can get an OB-12 extremely cheap.

OS 1.50 has some annoying issues, like the volume of the rectangular wave increasing when the wave becomes narrower. And why can't I modulate the amplifier negatively from the ribbon controller, since ring mod and oscillator FM can increase volume substancially. Unison modes have timing problems (but weirdly layering sounds works fine).

If you haven't got real analouge synthesisers... buy yourself some old analogues. If you already have a bunch of analogue synthesisers, and want "more" (but with a strange twist), or if you want a digital synth that is lightning fast and fun to tweak: Buy the OB-12. But try it first, it isn't a synth for everyone.

After making a detailed search on the net about VAs, I decided to buy an Oberheim OB-12 (latest version) and a Nord Lead 2X. Currently I am using both of them for my future 'new age' style of music plans. As far as the ease of use is concerned, I can't imagine a synth easier to use than this. Every control is easily accesible for playing, recording, sound design, etc. purposes compared to my Nord Lead. To be honest, preset sounds on Bank-A are average to good and those on Bank-B are terrible, except for the ''80sPolyGlide'' sound in B-02 position which is the sound I like the most on this synth. I solved the preset 'problem' partially as I mentioned below. Manual is really helpful and easy to understand except some grammer problems. In fact, one can use the OB-12 without a manual.

Well, it has 12 polyphony which is better than most of the synths in its price range. Keyboard action is fine to me, resembling a bit the DX7 of the 80's. All onboard effects are okey, but I like chorus and reverb more than the overdrive. (I really wonder what this overdrive is used for). I haven't used the phrase recorder yet, but it seems extremely easy to record patches. It has more features than my Nord Lead with just 2/3 of its price.

As I mentioned above, presets on Bank-B disappointed me at the beginning. ( This is not only the problem of OB-12s, but also Nord Lead 2X and even 3 models, Yamaha AN1X, etc.) Thanks to the free download sounds on www.ob12.com, I partially solved this problem. I strongly recommend the Virtual Analog-2 Sound Bank on their website, which actually reflects the power of the OB-12 much better than the factory presets. Don't forget to back-up your edited A-Bank sounds, because uploading the new sound banks writes the new sounds to B-Bank and overwrites the original A-Bank sounds again, so any change on A-Bank is lost after the uploading procedure. With this new analogish sounds, now it is comparable to my Nord Lead 2X. In fact, pads and some solo leads are better than that of the Nord in terms of smoothness and expresiveness. But Nord sounds better for brass and electric piano type of stuff and for that Prophet 5 emulations. If I can find enough time, I am planning to program some Nord sounds on my OB-12 since they have similar architecture except some sine wave type of stuff on the Nord. As a conclusion, I like the new sounds on my OB-12 which are of quite analog nature.

No problem so far, I hope I wouldn't face with any problems. Because I don't know the repair servicing level in my country ( I imported it from the UK supplier, turnkey).

Viscount guys are really helpful and they respond to any question within 1-2 days. So no problem in that department.

If it was lost or stolen, I would definitely buy another OB-12. It has nice features and a powerful sound engine for a reasonable price. It has a built quality comparable to German synths. It is so easy to make music on the OB-12. In my opinion, it has a place between the group Waldorf/Access/Clavia and Korg/Roland/Yamaha (VAs). I love it.

This synth is very tricked up. Great for proffesionals. The real time controls are phenominal too. One small problem that the synth does have is the access time to the memory seems to take a second or so.

Contol is idea. All the parameters are there and it simple. Probably the best example of analog emulation on the market.

As with everything, Once you've sat down for an hour or two it becomes very simple. I'm still elarning new things about it.

The synths playability regarding the keys is again spot on. The joint venture with viscount may have proved the influence for this. THere's nothing mch I can add to this that hasn't already been said previously.

The onboard presets aren't too bad. There are some amazing pads to be had but this syth should reallly be used as a design your own sound tool. Once the practice is done in programming this monster you can get any sounds imaginable

t has crashed once, but the firmwarm on it didn't seem to be damaged and hasn't happened again

Not requird

I bought this brand new for a rediculous price. And would buy it again without any hesitation. I've seen it for sale for $1000 on ebay and am in shock that it hasn't been snatched up.

If your considering buying an analog synth this is well worth a though. Jupiter 6 or 8 is nice, but because of there age and IC's noise does develope. THe OB-12 however has more versatility to it. By all means, I highly recomend analog synths but this does the trick. The sounds are fat, big and bold.

I've own a JP8000, Jupiter 6 & 8, MC 505, PC, Kawai K5, X5D, Dx7, XP 30, Hammond L110.

Now, the OB-12 wouldn't be used in every recording you'd make, however it can fill any gaps that may be needed, and it can do al the bass work you may need.

This synth is only good for the eletronic scene. I wouldn'bother if you were loking to use it for rock or jazz. If you want rock try the JP8080 (just for it's vocoder). If you want Jazz then the good old fasion piano and hammond are the answer. The scope is very narrow for the OB-12, but the quality it has and then name it holds makes it well worth purchasing. Very good for D&B and ambient house/techno

I have the latest software, so many bugs are gone. Nice. Manual is OK. Presets are just crap. How could they ever put out a product with such bad presets. Some sounds are just pure nonsense. Stupid. You really have to make your own. Well, that's what all the knobs and sliders are for, right? So, editing patches is dead easy, and so is program editing. The big display really helps. And you just twist a knob and display goes to that page. QL:) FX editing is a bit odd. Routing configuration is very confusing and limitin. Check this out before you buy this synth. You might hate it. I do. It's ok if you intend to use OBI as 1 or 2 part synth. Midi page is very nice and shows everything graphically. I love it.

Polyphony is 12, which can be limited if you use unison pathces which eat up 8 voices. Keyboard action is fine. I'm totally confortable with it. There are many velocity curves, from soft to hard and there is also aftertouch whith many curves. It has 4 FX processors: overdrive, chorus, delay and reverb. Overdrive eats low end a bit, but generaly sounds ok. I don't use it much, though. Chorus is the best one of all. It's quite important to use it, because OBI sounds much like mid 80's DCO synth. It reminds me of my ex Roland JX8P. Chorus really phatens the sound nicely. Delay is nice, too. It has also some modulation, so it can get really wacky. Reverb is ok, but certainly not great. Again, FX routing configuration sucks!!! But I can live with it ;) For me, the ribbon controler is the best tool for live performance. You can assign two parameters to it and in that way you are able to manipulate patches nicely with only one controler. I use it a lot. Pich and mod wheels work ok. There is also an onboard EQ, which can help you get some bass, as OBI lacks bottom end. EQ is wery musical and I recomend using it. Arpegiator is plain and simple, works great, but I don't like arpegiated stuff so much, so I don't use it a lot. I also don't use the stupid phrase recorder. Not intuitive at all. BUT, I do intent to use motion recorder. You can record live knob and slider tweeks and save them on one of only 2 memory locations. That's a shame! I can see myself playing with it all the time. It's like a mod matrix under your control. Great for long evolving pads. Film soundtracks? oh yeah!

This is a pure synthesizer, so here's no home for realistic stuff. Just pure synthetic sounds. And I love it this way. OBI sounds different. It lacks bottom end for sure, so It's not your ideal do it all dance synth. It has lots of character, thanx to its unique oscilator section. Each osc. can has saw, pulse and triangle waveforms. All can be played simultaneously, which results in totally new waveforms. OSC1 also has waveshaping for all three waveforms. Great!!! Triangle WRAP rules! You can read about other synthesis features in other reviews....I'll just say, that ring mod adds a lot to OBI's character. I think of OBI as a wonderful digital synth, capable of producing warm and phat analoguesque sounds as well. It can't do a bass like other VAs can, but can do it in it's own style. A bit FMish, hard, with lots of mid frequencies. Good, but not usefull all the time. Yesterday I created a good electric sitar sound. It reminds me a bit of DX7. Metallic, a bit of odd, digital noise,...QL. I LOVE the digital side of OBI. I would recoment this synth to someone looking for a different sound. It can be used in all styles of music, you just have to use its strong points not the weak ones ;)

So far no problems. I hope never. I would use it live without backup, and I also will. But not live in a midi setup. NO WAY.

Never dealt with them. Again, I hope I'll never have to.

Lost or stolen. No way!!!! God have mercy on me. I had to borrow money to buy it. And it's my only synth now (well, beside Quasimidi Sirius which I'm going to sell soon). I used to have Korg Poly 800, Roland JX 8P, Kawai XD5 drum synth and Yamaha TG 77. I also played Roland Alpha Juno, Elektron Sidstation, Yamaha SY1, Roland JX 305, Yamaha DX7, Akai S3000 sampler, and some other unimportant stuff, too. I am very satysfied with it, and I think I'll keep it as long as it'll work. I hope for 20 or more years ;)