Product: Oberheim OB-8
Price Paid: US $900 used
Submitted
03/21/2000
at
01:25am
by
mr. c00l
Email: none
Ease of Use
:
9
I'm using A8. I don't know about the presets but I got the manual
which is a big help. Editing patches is roller coaster ride cause you
can get something different everytime. Manual is pretty straight forward.
Mine does not have the silk screen for page 2. So, the manual is
a life saver.
Features
:
10
8 voices; 3 lfos, arpeggiator, portamento, pink noise source.
Voice Components:
2 VCOs
1 VCF (2-pole or 4-pole LP, selectable)
2 env generators
1 VCA
Osc sync
2 PWMs
LFO Components:
1 VCLFO w/triangle, square, up/down sawtooth
1 S&H
Page 2:
2 Env. Generators
90 and 180 degree Phase switch
Quantizing
keyboard Track
Programmable Trigger Point
Key Modes: Full, Split and Double (very Phat, Unison (even phatter)
split is programmable and transpositions anywhere on the keyboard (in split or double).
Check this out! Each one of the eight voices can be panned left/right by turning these
knobs on the side of the keyboard. Great for splits and live performance.
Lift up the hood and the voice chips can be tweaked to your liking. If you want overwhelming resonance no problem, want a brighter
sound to start with, once voice louder than the other, it can all be fixed under the hood.
Expressiveness/Sounds
:
10
What can I say analog circa '83. This board has incredible sounds. Great
Organ sound, analog strings, and bass in yo face. You've heard it before
Van Halen "jump", The Time, Prince. It can be very sweet and mellow or it
can be phat and nasty, gritty, metallic even. Thank God for cem 3310s and
the engineering genius of Tom Oberheim. Perfect for phatt'ning up guitar heavy songs.
Excels at accentuating dynamics of a song.
Reliability
:
No Opinion
It's 17 years old. I would buy a second one, perhaps a third to take on the road. I only have
one and that was pure luck that I bought it before someone else did.
Customer Support
:
No Opinion
No never dealt with the original oberheim company, or even in it's
current incarnation for that matter.
Overall Rating
:
10
Yep. I would buy it again and I'm planning on it for modification purposes.
This synth eats mixes for lunch. I'm mean it's not that it's loud, it's
dynamic! I've heard it on other records it really stands out in a mix in
a very complimentary way. This is not a toy.
Product: Oberheim OB-8
Price Paid: US $600 used
Submitted
04/21/1999
at
06:56am
by
Will MacLean
Ease of Use
:
10
Software revision: A4
Presets: Dunno. All memories were wiped out when I bought the thing. Had to find another owner and got a tape of sounds (not preset) from him.
Patch editing: Simple. The only quirk is that the knobs, no matter what position they are in, take on the setting of the stored parameter. Therefore, when you start to knobulize, you must sweep the knob all the way around before it can run the whole range for that parameter. Page-2 buttons offers some cool advanced editing options.
Manual: It's very useful. It has foldouts which indicate the functions of the knobs when the synth is in Page-2 mode.
Features
:
10
Polyphony: 8-voice. Keyboard action is cheezy.
Effects: Page-2 offers modulation phase reversal options, but there's nothing like chorus or delay or other such.
Expansion: Inside, there are a couple empty chip sockets. I have no idea what they are for.
MIDI: Kits are available. OB-8 has serial port for connecting to other Oberheim gadgets of the same vintage, or to an Apple II computer.
Sequencer: no. Arpeggiator -- yes.
Expressiveness/Sounds
:
9
Another synth great for strangeness and space sounds. Mega-fun for that. Realistic sounds blah, except organ sounds are good. No aftertouch. Sounds can sometimes be a little crisp. Crunchy. Chewy. Gooey.
Reliability
:
10
Very, extremely reliable. Haven't had a problem yet. Would, in fact, use it for a gig w/o a backup. Very well engineered. This thing is well designed. The top opens up like a car hood after removing only 4 screws. PC boards neatly arranged so almost everything is visible. Only layered boards are voice cards -- 2 of them, 4 voices each.
Customer Support
:
No Opinion
Haven't had to get it fixed, yet.
Overall Rating
:
10
I'd buy it again.
Coolest thing -- each voice has an LED which lights up when that one is in use, making it ultra-mega-simple to troubleshoot a particular voice when only one needs fixing. Very clever.
I wish that the patches could store arppegiator settings. That would be useful.
The only other synth I own I'd compare it to is a Prophet-5 Rev 2. I prefer the sound of the Prophet overall, but I definitely dig both and intend on hanging on to them. They seem to get along fine. They play well together and even eat from the same food dish. I often let them both out in the yard to play.
This synth is presumably the direct descendent of the synth in Van Halen's video for "Jump".
It's huge, but surprisingly light.
