Oberheim four voice 

I loved Lyle Mays' use of one of these over the years. He made it sound so tasteful in a mix.

You are a very fortunate person to own that thing. I'd LOVE to have it in my studio rig. Mad respect.... :) and to all the peeps bitchin' that he's not "playing" it well--I'm no keyboard virtuoso myself--but I do have fab programming/sequencing skills and 3 albums on itunes. You don't have to be a "Joe Satriani" of keyboards to be good.

This video is really interesting. After hours of hunting around, I found this to be one of the most useful for a small paper I'm doing on the Oberheim SEMs. The Four Voice is a really good example of what they are capable of.

Wow, a lot of negative comments on this one. Just wanted to say the price of 4500 € is fair. 1. Since it was sold. 2. That's 1125 per voice. Not a lot for a vintage synth of this kind. Thanks for keeping these instruments alive and working!

One defining characteristic of this synthesizer is that it is polyphonic... but only for a very limited amount of time. It gets monophonic after 1 minute and 45 seconds

Looks like the Oberhiem that Geddy Lee used during Rush's 1980 tour. Every time I see an Oberbhiem like this, I think of Rush's Jacob's Ladder from their 1980 Permanent Waves album.

I'd say the 4-voice contains more rare parts and is more expensive to buy.

@AnalogSweden :) yes, I know that... just glad my analog keys from the 70's stay in good tune ...

If I'm not mistaken, this was Dennis DeYoung's weapon of choice in the glory days of 1970s Styx.... I can definitely hear a bit of how they got their sound, such a mighty synth

That thing is a monster.

Beautiful Voice.

Oh yes. That was last semester. the course it was for was a great introductory course to electronic music.

@jeezuschryst - Sweden and US is miles apart, and the FVS is very rare in europe. + we do service everything before sale.

Nicely calibrated synth and clean. Good sounds and tweaks. The only gripe is that you might have been able to go back and edit the places where you weren't making sounds. At least in that regard people know that it isn't an instant patch synth. I put this vid in my folder.

@jeezuschryst first the USD has gotten considerably weaker against the euro since it was sold, and you must realize that we do a lot of work on these machines, and offer warranty. aswell.

Good walkthru of basic master filters panel . . .

beautiful

@NewShimmer, you're welcome :) yes it's three stages on the envelope.

@davedagreat69 it sold for 4500 euro

@DJPeteJames, No not everything. Modulation routings and filter mode must be set manually

@slammah2012 - it's as good as it gets. It's analog and from the 70s.

@AnalogSweden well at no point was that mentioned anywhere! now it makes sense that it was so expensive!

I think it was built because of Mr Tom Oberheim's passion for electronic sounds and for him to make a living out of it. I'm 100% sure it wasn't built for me to showcase it to you. However, if you have any more specific requests for a demo, please share.

you sound like Yellow Magic Orchestra, YMO. very cool synth for sure! thanks for the demonstration!

@AnalogSweden they're going for about 3500 USD!!

@AnalogSweden What a bargain. Wish I'd had the money for it. ;)

@AnalogSweden I wasn't trying to make a joke :) I've just watched the TR 808 video. The hands are perfectly normal ... but this thing is huge !!

Thanks for posting this. This is the clearest video that I've ever seen of an Oberheim modular poly. Are the envelopes on this only 3 stages? It looks like there are two ASR envelopes.

I promise, there are still four voices available, even if I only use one. Hard to imagine, huh? ;)

@pianist007 - they're both adequate in size, thank you.

c minor is the best chord ever...

@michinco - you're welcome :) More FVS-videos coming very soon!

Life without Synths = for shame. If Synths had been made without ADSR = sacrilege

Try playing the synthesizer solos from Styx's "Fooling Yourself (The Angry Young Man)."

damn this is a fine keyboard! I will get one as soon as I can afford it... *calculating*... 2040 WILL BE A HELL OF A YEAR!!!

@jeezuschryst - the FVS reissue doesn't have a keyboard, and hadn't even hit the market when this video was posted ;)

We so gotta HM-2`up that one!!

@dm3857 you got a four voice for christmas WOW, I bet you are good at piano! I know my way around a synth pretty well, I do own a modular, i do not know how i can teach you but once you learn the filter, oscillator and way voltage producers work you just experiment for yourself and learn

@harpsinth - and a happy day to you too, sir :D

@AnalogSweden i just don't see why it would cost an extra 3000 usd to ship one to europe...

@sleestack808 The same follows with the ob-x The voice cards work the same way.

@AnalogSweden im curious as to why you would need to 'service' a new oberheim synth

@cjsinister6 No. Now get that beer and relax.

@jeezuschryst - I think you're mixing things up here.. this is the 70's original four voice, not the newly manufactured re-issue.

after 1.45 min the 4 voice become a monophonic synthesizer...

@angie4josh - I'm trying demonstrate a synthesizer here, not my playing skills! But since you're a good keyboardist, show me a video of you playing. I always enjoy watching and hearing a skilled musician. That goes for you too @cjsinister6

Did you finish your paper? The video "Oberheim 8 Voice" by "GForceSoftwareTV" has the most definitive description of the SEM I've seen to date

@jpb11380 only if you add at least 7 and 9 ;)

By a few semi tones? Dude, please tell me where it is that off? Just post the time when it occurs...

I woud like to hear the 4 voices!

How hard is it to acquire one of these? I'd LOVE to get my hands on an old 4 voice.

A.S the larger question would be is,that being a 4-voice why not showcase them,isn't that what the synth was built for in the first place???.

Is there a reason why C sounds like Bb?

Is the hand too small or the OB too big ?

great a 4 voice [like the new one obie sems ..900 eu ]

How much did this sell for? I'm curious to know the going rate. Cheers.

Why do you have the whole thing tuned so high? When you're at the bottom end of the keyboard you're still nowhere near bass.

@cjsinister6 That's the problem with guys like you. You don't try hard enough. Take some time off, relax, read a dictionary, have a beer, and try to be nice to others. You might enjoy it :)

duke nukem music. :D

@angie4josh Kind of like how I cringed at your hilarious joke at the start of that post.

@cjsinister6 How is it possible that you have a good keyboard in front of you, and you can't even spell the word good?

Play some Styx or something.....or sel it to me!

@dm3857 Just give it to me.

Your freshly calibrated and serviced Oberheim Four Voice isnt in tune...

Man, it's way out of tune...sometimes by a few semi tones. That's not a characteristic of an analog synth. Something's wrong with the tuning mechanism.