I bought an OB-X8 because of the legacy of Tom Oberheim, Dave Smith and Marcus Ryle. Cool to have something new made by that team with history. As we all know, sad that Dave Smith is not here for the occasion and to see the Sonic Lab review of a historic music machine.
Just before he passed, he mentioned something else new from Sequential coming very soon, so whatever that happens to be will likely be the last thing he ever worked on, unless there's more than 1 thing coming. RIP GOAT.
Your reviews are absolutely amazing. I agree with you that it has more than the OB6, but I must say that it's tough to justify the cost when I currently own an OB6 and a Hydrasynth. One thing that I was curious about, though, does this one have Poly AT?
It does not have a poly AT keybed. I could be mistaken, but I believe the keybed is a Fatar, who (last time I checked) no longer make a poly AT keybed.
I'm glad they didn't add effects. It's just a drain on the budget and anyone can add a reverb post for cheap or a really expensive one if that's your bag.
I'm wondering which effects were added on the original machines back in days while being used by professional artists. Roland Space Echo? Lexicon 224? Ursa Major Space Station SST-282? Quantec QRS? AMS RMX16?
Exactly how I felt about it. It’s brilliant, ‘important’ synthesizer. I loved playing on it and it really is a classic. It’s a Stradivarius…. And yes I’m glad it exists. The men behind this are legends. But, I don’t need it and can’t afford it.
The OB-X8 should have portamento modulating the synced VCO in Page-2. That way it would be possible to make the classic Elka Synthex Laser Harp sound :D
UB-XA aint going to happen for a long time so.... looks at my Moog subsequent 37 and prophet rev2 and think will i sell them to have this machine, i could only possibly afford one synth so would i be mad?
Lovely synth, really! I am considering this one to replace my Rev2-16, even if it comes w/o FX on it. But come on Nick, did you really route this analogue marvel through an MS CDR70??? How dare you! 😆
Nick, sorry for harrassing you from the stage last night in Bath ha ha (it WAS you wasn't it!?). I did try heroically to fit "pulse width modulation" and "sing song harmonics" into the lyrics of my warped folk tunes... I deserve a prize surely...
Looks good sounds great but I have the Synapse Obsession Emulsion of the OB Xa and to Me it is capable of what sounds to Me to be identical, so I'll just stick with that and a midi keyboard.
Have you had a chance to compare that plugin with Geforce OB-E? Tom Oberheim reportedly worked with Geforce on development and said it’s the closest software he’s ever heard to real analog. I’m sure Synapse is astounding too - I love their Model D emulation, though haven’t tried anything else of theirs.
Too much menu diving. I love analog synthesizers, and want engineers to try new things and experiment, but too often these synthesizers have features that hardly get used due to the fact that a lot of your time is spent in the menu. This is disappointing because one of the best reasons I recommend hardware synthesizers over digital, is because something happens when you have everything at your fingertips. It's more stimulating, and thus pulls creativity out of people. When analog synthesizers require too much menu diving, they start to produce the same sorts of workflow a digital synthesizer produces. You have to go in with an idea and a purpose, rather than experiment. Aesthetics should ever take precedent over functionality when it comes to synthesizers.
@@dankeplace There are some emulations of analog synthesizers, but they don't come with controllers. As far as I know , there has only been 1 digital synthesizer that has a control service that doesn't require programming with a mouse. If this is over your head, Idk what to tell you. There is no real benefit to buying analog gear at these price points if you have to spend more than half of your time menu diving. Unless it's for live performances.
@@NikoBased A VA is a digital synth, I doubt you even understand what you're talking about. VA = Virtual analog, this is an emulation of analog. There is a ton of these *Digital* synths readily available today.
@@dankeplace Holy shit, I'm not talking about digital emulations of analog synthesizers. I'm talking about menu diving in analog synthesizers you dipshit. The entire problem with VA or any digital synthesizer is the mouse programming. There's no fucking control surface. Besides live performances, there's no real reason to spend $3000 on a hardware synthesizer if most of the features require menu diving. At that point just go out and buy a digital emulation. Do you understand now you 300IQ genius? I already know there's digital emulations of analog gear. You have obviously never used a real hardware synthesizer if you think "virtual analog" (the dumbest marketing scheme in the industry) is anything like programing an actual hardware synthesizer.
Right your making the classic mistake of getting your definition of digital vs Analog mixed up with software sythersizors. Your talking about software sythersizors not digital synthesizers.
I used to drool over the original OB-8, but time has moved on. I have a Jupiter X that sounds huge and does so much more for less money. Love your review, Nick. You're awesome!
This may be a niche comment, but this is a GREAT synth for a rich parent to buy their musically leaning child…I was blessed to have access to a Korg MS-10 in my school 40 (yes 40) years ago…Plus I had a local music shop (Bonners in Eastbourne) full of synths, drum machines and sequencers…As a ten-year-old! …It changed my life and led me into my professional life in music today…😍😔
Yeah, i'm glad it exists is kinda how i feel too. Its gorgeous, it sounds amazing, but the interface isnt all that inspiring. For the money i would want it to be a lot more routable. For the money i could build 8 SEM voices in euro and go truly wild.
Great sound, no contest there. But with it's price tag, they should have included an instruction booklet about how to do a proper bankjob to acquire this kind of money in the first place:-). I won't be able to afford it, but it sure is cool.
@@SPAZZOID100 Cheers! I'm sure they do. And maybe I'd pay it back eventually and not lose the roof over my head over it. But I cannot justify this level of expense for a mere hobby of mine given my income level. If I was a professional musician, it would be a different question. As it's just a hobby for me, I'm more addicted to synths that offer great sonic possibilities while remaining very affordable. With that said, I do love the sound of this one for sure.
@@SPAZZOID100 Why not? I'd play it. If I had bigger salary. The real limitation here is price, not anything else. So, a wealthy hobbyist wouldn't have that problem, he'd get it and play it. On the other hand, a musician who barely gets by would likely prefer a cheaper option to lower his costs.
“He eventually got the name back” Can’t anyone give behringer even the tiny bit of credit they deserve? Uli released the name back along with a couple others I believe
That's not the whole story. He "gave the name back" after he was told that he could not use it in many countries. After his attempt to release synths under the Oberheim name failed he "gave the name back" and tried to spin it to give his garbage company some positive press for once.
You want to credit Uli with something he originally did not have the ethical rights to? His intentions was to brand a subpar offering and dilute the name. You think Uli n co deserves praise? Remember when he trade marked Peter Kirn's name all just to be able to grief him?
I just took delivery of mine and it's simply the best. Oberheims tag line used to be "Some things are better than others." and with the X8, I am a believer!
I just got mine and it's an absolute masterpiece! The limitations don't bug me as they breed creativity and the entire synth is one big sweet spot! My review is coming soon too :) great video Nick!
It's everything I wanted after selling my OB-Xa. Definitely a niche market, but it's a delight if you are in that market! I love it and have no regrets about my purchase.
You may when you have to answer for the decisions in your life. Beautiful synth and a sound I absolutely love. Then again, you were birthed with your very own, totally unique amongst 8 billion resonant peak/formant/duophonic synth. 50k kids die each day on the planet due to a lack of clean water and food. 50k a day. 350k a week... imagine the stack of bodies, how tall and wide it would be. 1,400,000 a month and you want to trip over Ukraine. 16,800,000 a year - 3 Jewish holocausts of brown kids every single year. In a decade, that's 168,000,000 kids lost to the dirt. How many Einsteins, Oberheims, Chandrasekhars, were lost before they could even begin to expand human understanding, perhaps inventing over unity power sources, ftl engines, extra-dimensional communications, maybe a beautiful poem, or song. But you've got a $5,000 synth. Congrats! I'd love to have one if I could.
THIS IS A WONDERFUL review. These are the Oberheim sounds that people don't focus on. .. Sound such as 15:44, 16:15, and 24:28. Beautiful emotive timbres with no Tom Sawyer or Jump that owners just can't seem to get beyond. Nick did a great job with the arpeggiator explanation. Sounded very musical and a happy-accident generator for those moments when your creative ideas are fleeting.
@ghost mall Nope. The synth should come with a sticker on the facia saying "no Jump or Tom Sawyer'. Just like my guitar shop had a sign in the window saying "No Stairway to Heaven or Smoke on the Water" :)
'I'm glad this exists' is exactly what I've been saying about a few synths I'm unlikely to drop money on in the near future. This, new Prophet 5 and the 3rd Wave. It's nice to see 'proper' synths being made still rather than just the (still excellent and relevant) bargain basement stuff.
The problem Obrahim will have is that at 5k only a very small amount of people will be in the market to buy one, I have a very good OB Xa emulsion software sythersizor which to Me sounds just as good as this synth. I only have 10k in My back right now so no definitely not going to spend half of that on a single physical sythersizor.
@@HOLLASOUNDS honestly, that is probably a lot more then mostly people have that will buy this synth.. good on you for being so responsible.. most people don't have any savings at all and just keep adding debt.
Yes, I agree with you there. It is nice to know that a 'proper' synth, whatever that means, can be purchased if you can afford to splash the cash... but then for the same price as 1 Oberheim OB-X8 you could instead purchase 11 synths (picked at random); Behringer TD-3-AM, Korg Monologue, Arturia Microfreak, Teenage Engineering OP-Z, Korg Opsix, Behringer 2600 Blue Marvin, Elektron Digitone, Moog Etherwave Theremini, Arturia MiniBrute 2S, Polyend Tracker and a Soma laboratory Lyra-8. If I had a 'spare' £5000' and I felt the need to spend it all on synths I know I would not be buying an Oberheim but rather a selection of different synths.
Great review, Nick. This is on my future purchase list, for sure. I'm really not bothered by the lack of effects, I find that a lot of synths really don't have that stellar of effects in the first place. Good reverb/delay pedals aren't too expensive.
Great comment - FX are things modern manufacturers throw in for 'demo dazzle'. They can make a weak synth sound powerful. Most of the classics didn't have FX you added that with outboard gear. I'd rather have a powerful synth with no FX and I'll pick my own FX with my own taste and experience, rather than something packed with FX that I may not even like. Give me more synth, not FX!
Yep .. in the 80’s my Jupiter 8 I ran through a Roland SDE1000 delay and Boss Digital Dimension pedal .. really big sound with those, but I would have welcomed on board FX for sure, I never ran it dry ever. I think a trio of Strymon’s would be cool for this .. or Eventide H9/900’s. Today if I was still playing clubs there is no way I’d use this OB-X8, the Sonic Projects OPX-Pro II VST is close enough .. two 5 octave Korg Micro Key’s and a laptop is what I’d be using today, lugging around a Jupiter 8 and Fender Dyno Rhodes was a pain .. literally. I’m really stoked Tom Oberheim released this even though the parts are manufactured overseas unlike the originals (its assembled here though) Very cool 😎👍
I played with it at NAMM22. Tom O. was there too. This is an immensely good sounding beast, simple and intuitive. You'll find the features in other products, but not the sound. The tactile response of the UI and keys is finest quality. If the price were not so eye watering only... . Awesome video, Sonicstate
Funny that something that sort of weirded me out when I owned a vintage OB-Xa ('the sound changes slightly each time I hit the same key!') is now a feature. I do like it, though - makes the synth feel really 'alive' and a little wild.
I just feel like they missed a huge opportunity to give us that classic OB-X sound with the joy of some modern conveniences... like built in modulatable digital effects, a big LCD screen with some nice endless encoders. We're still talking about a digitally controlled synth. We can do things with digital interfaces today that would be impossible with the limitations of 40 years ago... and not effect the sound.
I think they had a lower budget after fighting the lawsuit to get the Obrahim name back, fact is the sound of the OB Xa is widely available from many hardware and software sythersizors. Its actually not a unique sound at all to be honest as I have heard thousands apon thousands of presets from hundreds of sythersizors and this OB X8 has very little of anything that I haven't heard before.
Prince ( RIP )who would work his OB-8 and OB-XA magic on this thing he would say it’s so nice remember the intro to 1999 and automatic his favorite synthesizers were Oberheims
I think a pure analogue thoroughbred like this, is indeed best served to the customer without built-in effects (which, after all, are going to be digital). Sure - add them with external gear later on, but it was the right decision to leave effects processing out of this synth. Enjoy those pure electrons, raw!
We were using digital effects with these in the 80’s too, myself I used a Roland SDE1000 digital delay, and a Roland Digital Dimension pedal for chorus .. on both my Oberheim OB-Xa and later my Roland Jupiter 8, the effects today like the Strymon and Eventide pedals would have been highly coveted by us back then had they existed 😬👍
This synth has its own limitations, but a lot of them are in contrast to the OB-6's limitations. Therefore, they each excel at different things and have their own Oberheim flavor. I love them both, but I give the edge to the X8. In terms of affordability, keep an eye out for long-term no interest financing deals and don't be afraid to contact your local store directly and inquire about a discount. You might be surprised by the deals you can get. My biggest complaint about page 2 is that I wish the parameters were in alphabetical order, lol.
Look at all that unused real estate on the front panel! I can’t believe there aren’t more knobs on there. The synth sounds great but the programming looks kinda tedious.
Nice balanced review. Sums up my feelings about the synth when I tried it at Superbooth: lovely, but not quite enough to make me sell everything I own to fund it.
I backed away from getting it (had it on pre-order for about six months) at the last moment when Sweetwater called me they got mine. I'll wait until they have one on physical display, and then I'll decide if it's worth to pull the trigger. I bought several pieces of equipment without having the opportunity to physically test them, and while I am mostly very happy with them, there were some I would have given second thought before purchasing them if I had a chance to play them in real world. I'm really picky about he keybeds - not all are created equal even when made by Fatar. It's still in my sights - just not now. BTW, Nick, you're fabulous.
Ironically, I did the same (re: Sweetwater). I already have and OB-6 & Im going to use the 5k I saved to enhance the studio in areas I've been skimping on. That said, if I win the lottery any time soon, I will pull the trigger on the X8 in a heartbeat ;)
I think the summary is a very fair review. From the point of view of buying all four original units which this presents would cost you many more shillings!
Nick is always Honest and objective when he reviews synths.. I do agree that there should be pot for OSC MIX on the front panel, especially when its a 2 Osc synth.
I was just listening to it dreamily and suddenly realized that something was wrong. A real shock, I thought is everything ok with me or have I just had a stroke or something? After skipping back and forth a few times, I was reassured to discover that the OB-X8 was also replacing a hairdresser :)
i have a P10. i bought it way before the OB-X8 was even announced. had i not bought the P10 way back when, and the choice was there between the two, still would've chosen the P10. the X8 sounds like a fine synth though. however, the synth that really has my attention right now is the 3rd Wave.
I've got a Prophet 10 rev 4 too... (and an OB-6) I'm more than happy with them and wouldn't buy the X8 over the Prophet 10. P10's sound is top of the heap! And both of the synths I have have a knob-per-function interface which is a big part of the joy of good analog. I don't like some of the design choices on the X8 (inc the paddles instead of wheels)
£4999 analogue synthesiser through a £99 multi effects pedal (: you could try a seventh heaven, or even valhalla... then again most people are listening to this on their phone sat on the toilet anyway
It sounds lovely, but something messes with my head for the price. For me there were just too many 'yeah buts' in the review, having to excuse questionable design choices or missing features . For what it does I’ll stick with my Peak, which does have beautiful effects.
Yes I also have a Peak and I also have very good emulsion plugin of the OB Xa and I have compered both side by side in terms of sound and they are very similar the peak is capable of replicating the OB X8 sounds very well and I think some of the presets are actually bassed on the OB Xa. Novation often copy patches from vintage synths for presets.
I got a beautiful 1985 OB- Matrix 12 in excellent condition inside of a case at a yard sale the elderly lady said it was her late sons who unfortunately died in an airplane crash he was a keyboardist and Roadie she sold it to me for $250 she stated she wasn’t sure it worked or not I chuckled yes mam as I handed her the $250 I said don’t worry about that I’ll take care of it and the rest is history as they say lol 😂
Glad is exists for those that want this and can afford it....well above my price range but we do need those more expensive synths on the market for the users who want that.
Good review, love the sounds, this looks great. I am happy Oberheim is releasing new synths again. I hope this will also lead them to create new synths for other budgets. Something similar to the Take 5 would be great.
Well stated conclusion. From a modern stand point there are a lot of excuses in UI in the name of the tradition, which, if it was not for the name, would quickly drum up storms of ridicule, (how many times did you mention "page 2"?), but for the 60 year olds with some deep pockets, this is a great resurection of the classic and it sounds beautiful.
Audacious piece of kit and it sounds pretty fantastic any recording I've heard, I gotta try it at a store some time! Doesn't hurt that it looks really cool.
a dream synthesizer but... as a sound designer PARAMETER MONITORING is something that needs to be possible. Hopefully Oberheim updates this in the future.
I'm surprised you didn't go into page 2 and invert the pulse width of osc 2 in the LFO, or use LFO keyboard tracking with PWM. I do it on my OB-8 and that makes some of the most beautiful pulse width patches on any synth, ever. Pulse width modulation going in/out of sync. You can also use the Key Trig Waveform LFO shape combined with the modulation delay/attack amount Inverted and fiddling with the LFO Trig Point to make it sound like the Pulse Width is being affected by an envelope, either once or a retriggering envelope.
The design team at Oberheim/Sequential missed the mark when it comes to the user interface on this expensive, 8 voices only, polysynth. I suspect a lot of people would have expected better in 2022? They could have at least put some silkscreening under the knobs for the page 2 features, à la OB-8?
Nick Bates, you showed the steppy resolution on filter cut off of many synths , all Sequential synths have it, does the Ob-x8 have it when you do your favourite sing song harmonic singing with the filter cut off ?
All that real-estate, such a simple architecture, yet so many basic and important parameters were left off the panel... That's a real sticking point for me. Very disappointing. Cheers!
Can you do a side by side comparison of the new GForce OB-X VST officially endorsed by Oberheim vs the OB-X8 keyboard? I think that is the comparison a lot of people are waiting to see. Ideally, matching the best of the OB-X8 presets, many of which came from the OB-X, Xa & 8.
Nah I’m going to skip this one. I’m not that romantic not nostalgic. Way too pricey and in any case I already have my fantastic JupiterX, Rev2 and my Iridium and some software stuff that does a good enough justice to the OB in most cases. Maybe if they would have this as a desktop/rack I might reconsider🤔
