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Hello, Ujiie here again.
Right? The Oberheim OB-8!
It's back for another visit.
But this time,
well, it was quite a while ago that we demoed it here,
so I pulled it out one more time,
and after playing it I was reminded just how good it sounds.
I got a whole new understanding of it.
So here we have a new environment,
and I thought why not re-visit this great synth?
So here it is, the OB-8.
You know, Oberheim is GREAT!
And wonderfully so.
I mean, the texture of the sound?
And the sharpness?
Right? Oh and by the way,
I've got a TC Electronic Chorus Plus,
which is an analog chorus,
and this unit here, also a TC Electronic,
reverb and delay unit (M-350).
For just a touch of added goodness.
Actually I always use these two when I play analog synths.
And wouldn't you know, they sound GREAT!
Love that portamento!
Pads like this next one are great too!
Beautiful. Just beautiful.
And the filter?
How good is that?
I used that organ sound so many times...
Gotta have a sync lead!
I make a point everytime I demo an Oberheim to mention
that the levers are setup backwards from those on other synths.
Pitch bend, for example...
like so. Pull down, the pitch goes up.
Usually, if you push the wheel up, the pitch goes up.
The idea behind this,
is how guitarists play,
having to hold down the strings against the frets,
moving their fingers like so.
This way to raise the pitch.
Same idea as that.
Move the strings this way...
It's confusing at first.
But you get used to it right away.
Modulation is the same. Pull down...
and you get modulation.
So pitch bend, or bend modulation...
A lot of thought went into this design. Great for playing live.
Excellent.
For super fat sounds, there's Unison mode.
Can you tell it's in Unison mode?
Turn Unison off and how does it sound?
It's polyphonic. Turn it on and...
How many voices is this?
8-voice polyphonic, 2 VCOs, so that means
16 oscillators all at once.
Increase the detune here.
Fantastic!
Pads like this, Oberheim written all over them.
Clavinet sounds like this,
really feel so good to play!
How about that decay?
The way the VCO fades out so slowly like that?
Just exquisite!
This has got a kind of acoustic feel to it.
Mm. Nice sound.
Right? Like a pipe organ.
Human voice.
The resonance on this packs a punch.
Around here? Like this?
Very nice, and not something you get via sampling either.
It's kind of like a high pass filter is on it.
Superb!
Nice pan flute.
Good.
By the way, Bank A has 8 patches,
B has 8,
and C
and D have 8 also.
Ok? So that means 8 times 4,
32 in all. OR SO YOU THINK!
The truth is...
That's not the case.
Press A and B together...
That's the AB Bank.
This is... These strings are nice!
Fantastic!
Ok, so we've got Bank AB,
which means there's a Bank AC too.
Is that a Rhodes electric piano sound?
Sounds nice.
There's an AD Bank too, natch.
Good.
Ah this is neat. Press A, B and C!
The ABC Bank!
They did a good job here. ABD Bank.
Press them all!!! ABCD Bank!
It's in there.
So what do we learn from all this?
It's kind of a gimmick.
Bank A patch 1 is THAT famous sound...
THAT one.
So whatever you say, it's ready for rock riffs.
Actually, this is a pure, unfiltered sawtooth.
Add just a little bit of detune.
That's all there is to it.
But just that is enough, I mean,
considering the feel and texture and depth of the sound.
It's actually quite unique.
Just as you'd expect,
it's loaded with usable sounds.
That's how it feels.
So, the Oberheim OB-8.
Ah, there's one more thing. If you look at the panel I think you'll see,
here's the oscillator section,
easy to understand. Edit the oscillators here.
Change the waveforms.
Or pi...
Change the pitch.
And the filter here.
Add noise.
Right? Change it to 4-pole.
Two envelopes, both with attack, decay, sustain, release.
Right here.
Top is VCF, bottom is VCA.
Very nice.
And the master section over here.
For tuning,
and the controllers gathered together down here.
Actually, there's a secret mode too.
See the blue lettering?
The blue letters, kinda special to the OB-8,
the Page 2 function.
Uh, the page 2 button is over here.
With the page 2 button active,
the secondary functions can be edited.
So as you can see, the truth is
although there are not so many knobs and buttons here,
laid out as well as they are across the panel,
but because of that hidden mode,
there's a certain uniqueness remaining to the OB-8.
Oberheim!
Sounds great too!
Fantastic!
Translation & Captions by:
SWCreativeJapan.