Oberheim OB-12

I am using Software V1.50 and DSP1.11. The manual is reasonably concise-it could just do with some sound examples to get you on your way. It is the easiest most intuitive synth on the market-baring in mind I have:Roland Jp8080 and JD800,Proteus 2000, Korg 05R/W,Yamaha VL70 and ESI4000 Sampler.

12 note polyphony, 4 FX units, great MIDI Implementation. the FX are easy to use, with endless routing possibilities. The Phrase recorder despite a review in SOS Mag I found easy to use.
I love the unison mode that plays 3 voices to each one played-one lower and one higher that can be adjust-though it does suffer slightly from processer deficiences-affect the speed that notes play in this mode.

I use it for all sorts of music in mr Pro Recording studio from pads to Basses, Rock to Dance. The sound can be Rich and warm, big or small, digital or analogue-it is all there!
The KB action is a joy to use and the versitility of the Velocity,Aftertouch and Ribbon strip is great as just about any perameter from the synth can be assigned to these in any amounts all at the same time! AND you can ALSO use up to 4 Foot controls in Addition!! Though the Overdrive is naff and the reverb not oomphy
enough.

No problems at all-no crashes or glitches whatsoever.

Had no need to use them.

At #499 it is great value (even if it were #200 more it still would be) It is not perfect but what synth really is? I find it laughable that it is not selling well because of the "Sheep" syndrome where it has to have a label with good Street Cred! It is not an oberheim it is a Viscount but no worse for that. Forget your predudices and "name Snobbery" try one out with an OPEN mind (forget the Factory Presets) and you WILL repeat WILL be pleasently supprised!!!

I find this synth very easy to get into - with clear layout of knobs and a big informative display. Very few hidden functions - almost everything is on a "page 1" - level in the system. As a previous long-time owner of Oberheim OB 8 and Xpander I must say that the OB12 is a pure joy to program. I got an instant "Tangerine Dream - feeling" from some of the presets while others obviously caters more for the dance crowd. Also there are some excellent pads and ambient sounds. There is of course some crappy patches also.....

The synth has a load of features in my opinion - I have tried some of the other VA-synths and the OB12 certainly stands up to the competition. 12 voices are more than adequate, with 4 part multitimbrality and a very nice unison mode. The keyboard has a good feel to it - with aftertouch. All the knobs and sliders transmit MIDI-controllers which is great for sequencing. You may also use this for controlling software like Reaktor. It is not expandable - but at this price who can complain? There is an onboard Phrazerecorder and motionrecorder which works ok - but you need an external sequencer to use it in for serious sequencing. Onboard equalizer - brilliant.

Even though the OB12 is easy to program it still has very advanced features - the oscillators can be mixed/ringmodulated/stretched ++ so you can create an infinite variety of waveforms. One thing I particularly like is that almost every knob you turn has an instant distinctive effect on the sound. I got some Zawinul sounds very quickly which I have sought after for years on my other synths - it almost brought tears to my eyes!! Some of the presets are nice but you really need to make your own sounds here. The effects (distortion, chorus, delay & reverb)are decent - the reverb is maybe a bit coarse but it suffices. There is very little noise from this synth. But! The presets vary also in volume - quite a bit actually so you need to sort out the levels here.

I think this synth is reliable (in contrast to my older equipment!!) so I wouldn't be afraid to use it live. It seems very solid - metal casing and woodpanels.

Haven't used them yet.

At this price (599 pounds from Turnkey, London) it can't be beat - looks great, sounds great and has a real "good old analogue" feel to it. I'm extremely satisfied.

I am using the latest CPU & DSP as of Nov 2001. Extremely easy to use, very intuitive.
The manual is not the best, but I have been able to get the info I need when I went looking for it
Presets are a bit extreme, but they are really easy to tweak.

Keyboard has excellent feel & response. Midi is easy & robust.
Expansion options? Hmmm, not sure, I would have like to see a user preset or
a memory expansion option. So far, this has been my only complaint. However, it is easy to
bulk dump a set of presets & reload another, snappy & simple.

I would say that this will adapt to any style of music pretty well as long as you get familiar with it & set up a few appropriate patches.
I like it for ambient & noise, but I can get some great pumping rhythms & screams going within moments. The arpeggiator is great.
Sounds are fantastic & do a great job a VA, you only need to spend a few minutes with this thing to learn a few cool tricks.
It excells in stereo, use stereo output as much you can. The onboard effects are quite good & are easily adjusted, especially due to the
great display. No new instrument is without it's learning curve, but the curve here is very modest. Any bozo with some experience can make this
unit scream. Velocity & aftertouch are as good as any non-weighted synth that I have played.

So far no functional problems, it is very well built.

Excellent & prompt answers to any questions that I have emailed to tech support.
In fact, they are the best online support service that I have encountered online, hat's down, fantastic accurate.

Presets suck, easy to edit though. Best editing on any VA so far.
Manual seems written by a dyslectic martian.

Excellent keyboard action, good built-in efx that are easy to use.
Great MIDI with excellent arpeggiator.

Excellent analog realism. Very easy to use.
Good for synth music; dance, techo, jarre stuff etc. Excellent on-board efx, routing possibilities and modulation functions.
A bit sluggish to keyboard response for dense patches (goes for most VA's anyhow...). Good MIDI timing when used with external seq.
Very sturdy mechanics & excellent keyboard feel.

Built like a tank, no probs gigging this beast.

No bad experience.

This is a synth for people who know what a synth is.

I've been playing dozens of synths since -84, and I can only say - what an excellent piece of work! Sure, it has its shortcomings like any other synth, but man... buying a synth is just so much more than going with the ho-dad cluster raving on about their Viruses, Novations and Nordleads. Sure these are good synths but 80% of today's players can't tell a ring modulator from a hole in the ground. This is the first VA that looks, acts and sounds like the *real* thing.
I just don't get the negative chants about this one in the reviews. I've read things like "mid-range Bontempi synth", no fatness, no pumping leads. That's a bunch of crap, I managed to tweak a phat moog patch within minutes, and a screaming lead after seconds! Not to mention the pads that you can create with this beast. Oh, I almost forgot! That arpeggiator!!!! Tangerine Dream, here we go! Throw your PPG Wave out the window and use this blue thingie instead.

I'd give this an 11 if it would be possible.
At the current price it's an absolute steal. Buy it while it's still out there.
Take a listen, tweak the useless presets into something useful and THEN make your opinion.

BTW, these are the synths I've own or have owned:

Yammy: DX-100, DX-802, DX7, SY-77, EX-5
Roland: D-50, D-20, U-110, U-20 (yeech!), JV1010, XP-50
Korg: MS-20, MonoPoly, Poly800, M1(yeechh!), M1rEX, T3, MS-2000
SCI: Pro-1
Casio: CZ-101
Oberheim: OB*12 8-)

Very easy to use via many knobs (the way a synth should be). No more complex Roland scroll garbage. This comes in very handy because almost every patch NEEDS fixing up!!!

Effects are good, just slightly more difficult to setup correctly. I dearly hope this synth can be upgraded with more usable sounds in the future!

There are MANY sounds I found to be TOTALLY useless. I expected older OB sounds to be reincarnated to do Vh or RUSH stuff, but this simply sounds like an ambient/techno science-fiction synth with a few past analog pad styles. First 2 patches are the best (tweak the OB Brass patch (#2)to get that classic "Jump" sound. The quality of the sounds are good, just not many are usable for rock or new age type stuff.

It's a digital machine from the new millenium, I doubt it will break or go screwy. On the other hand.....the web sites down, customer service is in Italy, and Nobody knows anything about this synth in depth!!! I hope nothing goes bad!!! Come to think of it, the "write" function doesn't store the sounds permanantly like the manual states...that's a downer

What customer service? No mention of it in the manual...No reply from the website support www.ob12.com (That is...when the website was even running!!!)

I dont think I'd buy it again. It's not worth what I paid. I've been playing for about 10 years. I use an Oberheim OB-8, Roland XP-60 and Kurzweil K2000 module. I love the ease of real-time editing, the awsome "jump" sound after tweaking OB Brass, and the beautiful blue color chassis with wood sides. I hate all the crappy/useless patches. Please, Oberheim...if you people read this...ADD MORE USABLE vintage synth SOUNDS!!!! not science-fiction laser-beam noises!!!
By the way, what the hell is Z-domain synthesis anyway?

I sat down at this thing and was tweaking faster than any other VA including the Virus, Nord, MS2000, and Supernova. The OB12 is now going for about $1100. This is a deal.

Polyphony sucks but this isn't a keyboard that should be the core of your rig. Too bad it has no audio input, otherwise it would really blow away some of the cheesier competition.

Sounds crazy. I listened to it and an Andromeda in the same day and it held up OK. Very cool morphing options between sounds.

I don't know about this, but I am wary.

Website is down. I don't own it yet but this is really kind of a touchy area.

Amazing tweaker synth. I would get this as long as you have something else too. (virus, nord, etc.) But this one will surprise you. It's freaky, and a steal for $1000 bucks if you can get one, especially considering it's originl list was like $1999.

Very easy interface. When you touch a knob the digital display shows all values of the specific knob. So it is very nice to work with.

It got expasion capabilities. But i think the manufacots have to work a litle more on the software. But over all it got good features.

The reason i bought the OB12 was to have som fat strings and pads. And i think it is what it does best. It is not a bas synth lie the manufactors want it to be, you can program som cool leads. But its real strange it the pads and strings and sweeps. You can call it very ambient.

I think i can depend on this machine.

Over all i like the synth very much and i own synths like Nordlead, Korg Ms2000 & MiniMoog. This synth is a very Ambient string, sweep monster. So if you are looking for a lead synth or a bas synth donth bother to try this one. But if you are looking for sweeps , pads, strings this one is one of the best.

The control panel is very comprehensible and the various sectors (oscillators, filters,...) are easy to use.
Editing sounds is not difficult but not very easy, I think that it is a synth for advanced users and not for beginners.
I've got an italian/english manual and it's very understandable

The polyphony is a little limited (12 voices) and I think it cannot be expanded.
The keyboard is excellent, aftertouch and velocity are very performed.
The operative system can be updated via MIDI like Waldorf, and this is a good thing.

I think that the sounds of this blue wonder are "darker" than the sounds of other synths (ex. Clavia).
I do gothic and dark ambient music and I think that with these kinds of music (not only these 2) Oberheim sounds great (like other Oberheim, ex. Matrix 1000).

I hate people that says that Oberheim isn't good like others (ex. Clavia, Korg,ecc...)because all Oberheim models are similar in their sound expressiveness. This is a characteristic of Oberheim Synths.

Let me preface this review by stating that I am NOT an owner. The presets of the synth, like most VA's, are boring. There are enough hardware controls to change any aspect of the sound, however, the hardware is so poorly implemented, that it might was well have no controls at all.

Keyboard action is OK. Effects seemed OK (passable, not great). Best feature is the display and graphic waveform display...very nice indeed.

The bulk of the sound capability is firmly seated in the midrange, for the simple reason that this synth is incapable (in its current incarnation) of either treble or bass. No high end, no low end, just a grey mush in the middle. Someone might find it useful for dark ambient, but there are MUCH better machines out there.

I would never buy this, in that I already have a Roland JP-8000 and a Korg MS2000, both of which have superb sound quality and excellent GUI.

Ever tried to call Italy for customer support?

If someone inflicted me with this toy, I would leave it outside my front door with a note attached: "STEAL ME." I would then take the insurance money and buy a real synth. Whoever approved of the release of this is an amateur, and I'm glad he's in the music hardware business, and not in the airline landing gear inspection business.

OS Version 1.2. Sound too digital against a Waldorf Q or an Access Visrus. Morphing don't sound very good with digital zipper noise, click and audibile crack. Flat reverb and digital overdrive. Good manual, excellent control panel. Resonance is instable along the keyboard and the filter don't have life per se.

Good FM, not powerful modulation. At high speed the sound became digital rumours.

Lack lifeness, not a boom bass or superlead synth. Some good pads but very dark

Like Korg MS2000 and Roland JP8000 this is an entry level virtual analog synth, without the warm and the big sound of others virtual synth like Access, Clavia or Waldorf