Tom Sawyer? That was done on a OB-X. It has the 12 db filter we all know and love oberheim for. This had more of a Moog like 24 db filter. This also was more reliable though among other benefits over the OB-X. It has a lot to offer though even without the SEM type filter.
Hi Alex did you try Phoenix on Gadget for iOS? it sounds very good to my ears but I would like to hear an expert opinion about software recreations of such unique synths, of course anyone can give his opinion as well, I am just curious
Matt is such a versatile, virtuosic and creative player. He's exactly the right person to showcase these synthesizers. Its all very inspiring to me and educational..
Matt, your channel truly shows what all those vintage synths were made for. Your videos are a great contribution for any musician, but for future generations as well, I am sure!
This thing is a damn monster. Absolutely stunning. Easily one of the best synths ever made. If Dave Smith/Tom Oberheim ever do a reissue, I’ll be racing to get my hands on one. So so good
Matt you are an absolute Genius on the keys! I've spent endless hours listening to you. I Just got the OB-X8 and your doubling the same patch with detune is game changer for me with this synth! and panning 4L4R in it is HUGE! Thank you!
As I always say your limits are your own creativity imagination regardless of the instrument. If we were all given just a pencil and a bit if paper we would all do something different with it. Most I guess would just draw , some would maybe make a model with the pencil and the paper some would do both. What I love about Matt is,his ability to be expressive and always comes up with something delicious no matter what ingredients are on his table.
Great video, thank you! I’m amazed at the simplicity of the OB-Xa and how featureless it is, but the sound that comes out of it is absolutely enormous! Tom Oberheim knew how to milk every last drop of sound out of his circuits. You can tell if an Oberheim is being used on a track almost immediately by the fullness of the sound, especially when lower notes start to shake the fillings in your teeth loose.
@@kretzschMusic Tom (Oberheim) and Dave Smith collaborated on the OB6 rather than Tom being on their team as such. The OB6 and Prophet 6 are near identical designs save for the voice cards. When Dave was working on the Prophet 6 he and Tom were discussing a new Oberheim when Dave made the suggestion of piggy backing off his existing design. There's a long interview with Dave somewhere on the internets where he explains it all.
The basic nature of this synth definitely is part of why it is so awesome. That’s the thing with most analog polyphonic performance synthesizers. You can’t help but have fun with one when you know how it works. Furthermore, that one thing you played at 17 minutes remind me in a great way of this (slightly) obscure Survivor song from 1986 called “Is This Love”, never to be confused with the Whitesnake song of the same name. For reasons I’m not likely ever to ascertain myself, the Oberheim synthesizer model I’ve been daydreaming about since the early 2000s has been the OB8. Perhaps, one reason is that this model, the Xa, has always been the cat’s meow and the 8 has long been like the overlooked stepbrother. Was the 8 when the SSM microchips that were used for creating the synthesis engine were replaced with the CEM chips that people say were less desirable?
mine is signed by Tom himself. it was originally owned by Juan Gabriel, then the Ghostly artist Aeroc, then me. I used it on a track i did for the Pete Namlook memorial compilation. i could _never_ sell it. glad to see you love it so much.
16 years old, when i first saw this machine on the Frankfurt Music fair in live performance. I always wanted one… never hat the time and money to play it. Thank you for showing the possibilities of this beautiful Keyboard.
Wow, that intro blew me away! The Funkmeister at his best! Brilliant video, you can‘t beat Matt at what he calls „messing around“ with keys, just too good to be true ❤️
That improvisation starting @ 14:00 is just totally awesome!!!! I could listen to this all day long... I'm not that much familiar with those fast pentatonic runs, still learning. Progression is Ebm9, Fm9, Bbm9.
One of those keyboards I drooled over as a kid and would still love one. Alot of the songs from the 80's I love are thanks to the sounds created on this beauty. Great demo.
Great demo. I would agree with all those who say this is one of the most iconic synths ever made. Those Oberheim synths always had great filters. "Instant 80s", lol. In the best possible way, yes absolutely. That "plain patch" sounds so good. doubled or not. wow.
That was a great Demo. I’ve been playing Synths and Keyboards for over Forty years, and your Demo has taught me more about the Instrument today than I ever knew before. Thank you . Ken fromScotland.
Had one for about fifteen years. Incredible incredible one of a kind sound. It was notoriously unreliable, had it serviced multiple times. Finally ended up selling it broken for over $5000. Grabbed every software plugin as well to bridge the gap and get pretty close. Good to watch Matt take it for a spin.
Cheers. Been waiting for this since you first mentioned you got one in the studio. Amazing demo as always. The fatness of this thing is mindblowing. Can‘t wait for the next big reissue.
It is always a special day when Matt Johnson releases a video and a legendary day when he releases music. Matt much appreciation from a kindred spirit and as always thank you for sharing!
It's amazing how much better all these synths sound with your backing of the Vintage vibe. Thank you for sharing. I really like the Moog with it as well.
The world would be a little better with this mega dream collab... Matt Johnson + J3PO? Let's dream about it. If the Calvin and Hobbes comic strip made us (and still makes some of us) feel the world a little better, a dream collaboration between Matt Johnson and J3PO would make us feel like the world is or could be a little better.
Thank you Matt for yet another great video. I love your passion for music, knowledge of synths, specifically analog, and the content you provide on your channel. There is always something of interest to me that I can relate to. And this video especially grabbed my attention because as I mentioned to Alex Ball, I am one of the lucky ones to actually own an OB-Xa myself. I've had it since 1985 and absolutely LOVE it, even for all its' "wonkieness" if that's a word. It sounds powerful, "phat" (fat), warm, funky, jazzy, symphonic and I feel I can do basically anything with the Xa. I just need a few minor repairs and she'll be outstanding once again. Thanks again Matt for all you do and God bless you.
Matt, an OBX in your hands is like a light saber in the hands of a Jedi!💥🔥⚡️I am happy for you. I consider this to be one of the best sounding and most iconic synths ever made, along with the Roland Jupiter 8 and even the much hated Yamaha DX7.
Restoring one of these beauties right now! I have to say it is unbelievably fun and just as you say its "alive" in your hands. I'm a guitar player first and I find the OB to be highly interactive and responsive to play not to mention the gorgeous sound. I heard that part of it is the filter design but I also think its the way the 8 different voices all have their own nuances. Unison mode is absolutely huge!
I feel like I am watching Johnny Lawrence in a curiously sudden and inexplicalble British accent! In all seriousness, terrific overview and demo playing! Subbed!
Your channel and your delicious way to play keyboard seems to me like… a person who’s honoured with love inside with music who show us the best you can….because you can! Thank you so much for that gift to us… 🙏
Oh the beautiful vintage wonkiness! This makes me want to sell my Montage and buy that Rhodes (with bad action) at my local music store; sell all my guitars and get a Moog One or Prophet and then I can live in a mid 70's era Gino Vannelli soundscape! As always Matt thank you for sharing. Cheers!
It's such a warm hug, this. I just got it as a vst plugin but it was the first one for me. I went for some more VST´s, but I always find myself coming back for this. Only if I could embrace the real thing...
Great, now I want one even more! Honestly though, the only synth for me that manages to be truly fat while still sparkling. They just sound utterly wonderful. Brilliant demo, thank you!
My very favourite synth for 40 years. The fascinating thing about it that you can generate a gazillion of very different, gorgeous sounds with this “pathetic“ feature set. In so far it is similar to the Prophet 5. Unfortunately I could never afford a real OB-Xa, but even some VST clones like OBsession are so much fun.
Great clip, Matt! You've reminded me of when Toby Smith visited me in the 90's in my Knightsbridge bedsit and he just amazed me with his musician's skills. In about an hour he did things with my synths that I did not believe were possible until I met Toby! Watching your demo, I see you are just as good as him!! Respect! :-)
Beautiful playing Matt! You remind me of why vintage Oberheim is my favorite. I have an OB8 that I'll never part with. They are fantastic, classic synths that stand the test of time. When I bought mine, I had to choose between the Prophet 5, the Memorymoog, the Jupiter 8 and the OB8. I picked the OB8 because I always loved the Oberheim filters, wanted 8 voices, and saw Tom Oberheim give a demo of the complete Oberheim System at Hanich Music in West Covina, CA - my mind was blown! To me, the huge black instrument looked intimidating, like the bridge of an alien spaceship. It was a great time to buy a new synth. I got the MIDI retrofit as soon as it was available. Mine has been 100% reliable for ~40 years! I personally like the paddles especially the ability to do bipolar modulation and to control the bend of both paddles easily with one hand. They have just the right amount of detent in the middle and are very smooth. Being able to modulate one VCO is so cool! The control setup was genius - my OB8 had an amazing programmable arpeggiator in the same real estate! FWIW, Bruce Forat in LA has a modification to make the noise volume controllable. He told me about it the last time I got it cleaned and calibrated.
This is amazing. I finally 'get' why the OB-Xa is such a revered synth. My only hope is that behringer finally complete their reproduction of it. I somehow need this thing in mylife..lol Thanks for the amazing demo Matt :)
I miss that a lot in nowadays reviews. That they talk about the sound. Same when you watch headphones reviews.. If you are lucky in the end they say something about the sound. Anyway. Want to grab this moment to tell you how much joy your music brought me in the 90's and gives me happy memories of good times. This synth has a balaced sound signature that gives that warm full sound I guess. And the analog drifting gives it character.
Great video. Especially like the last demo sound with the oscs tuned in 5ths. Got an OB8 with the (XA mods) and use these type of sounds a lot. The OB8 has page 2 features for modulation that greatly expand on the xa. My favorite is the LFO phase control for great panning effects, and also does LFO tracking, arpeggiation, external pan pots,lfo envelope mod, and lots of other stuff. You can also turn off voices, for true mono synth operation. Love your voicings brother!
This was one of the first VSTs I bought when I started learning music etc, its got such an amazing sound and that growl! Love the noises you get from it!
Thanks Matt for this wonderful exploration. I highly anticipate the behringer ubxa as financially could not afford the original. My dream Synth is almost in my hands, a clone yes but will be a faithful representative.
Hi... Your video's get better and better.... This one shows us a very happy Matt in his element with a fantastic synth... Great stuff most appreciated.....
As always, you make any synth sound amazing. They should of got you to create some OB-X8 patches. You really squeeze the potential out of these vintage synths.
I notice the blue 👕 shirt you was wearing with the blue pen strips on the Oberhejm OB-Xa 👍 great on the details on the video. I know they have the most unique sounds in the world. Great video thanks!
Excellent video Matt!! Thank you very much for sharing. It brings back memories from the 80's. Lucky you have the hardware to play with, I've only played it as VST. Cheers!
