Tom Oberheim Interviewed by Sweetwater Sound 

Four years late, but this is absolutely fascinating. Mitch's approach of just letting him talk and cueing a few key points really makes it perfect. Thank you!

can you imagine Zawinul calling Tom? History in the making. My God

Top man, very humble too, he helped in the creation of countless pieces of music with his inventions. That Includes us, we used his first drum machine and one of his synths on some of our early songs. Bravo, hats off to him.!

A living legend, huge amounts of respect for Tom!

This is great. I still have, and love, my Matrix6

This guy is so super-cool. Thanks for talking with him, Mitch.

Such a wonderful interview by the amazing Mitch Gallagher. Such a treat.

Tom really is the best - hardest working man in the biz! I own an SEM and would love to own a TVS one day. too bad I missed out on the TVS pro!

Oh man oh man! This is 24 karat synth gold! Thanks for posting this! ❤️❤️❤️

I'm still kicking myself for not picking up a two voice pro when you guys were offering them. Toms a legend, his work very clearly reflects that.

great interview..no interrupting👍

One of my favorite human beings! 😃❤️

DX, Matrix 1000 and an OB8 here - big love for such a lovely genius guy!

what a legend, how does this not have more views!

i am the proud owner of an obxa , matrix6, matrix 1000, dpx1Mister Tom Oberheim is for me the most legendary man with Dave Rossum in the electro music industry.Thank you so much dor all that u have done and what you will do in he future.You changed the history music...RESPECT

Two people I immediately know of who purchased the Maestro Phase Shifter that Mr. Oberheim designed were John Paul Jones of Led Zepplin (think the live version(s) of "No Quarter") and the late Terry Kath of Chicago (think "Call On Me," "Searchin' So Long" and "O Thank You Great Spirit"). The Maestro product line was so present in rock music that you can see them used to create control panels during segments of the 1908 film Flash Gordon.

Vary inspirational as i am working on getting into the business myself.

Awesome interview. Glad I found this gem. I love my OB-6 even more now! :-)

what an incredibly humble genius.

These have been some of the best interviews. Thanks so much!

Legend

Thanks for sharing your journey Tom! It's so inspiring!

Lovely, interesting interview, thank you both :-)

amazing insight into the history! hugely important (and now hugely expensive) synths like the SEM, two voice and four voice were then a little tricky for him to sell back in the day! hilarious!

sweet legend!

What a guy.

If he's not, he should be in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame & Smithsonian in DC.

A unique mind!

I wish I could get him to repair my OBXa!! Still sharp as a tack !!

Very,very intresting this.Great man Mr Oberheim. Ill have MSR 2,OB 12 yes i Know ,Matrix 6 ,so i apreciate his instruments , but know Sem,2,4,8 Voice is much more analog sounding.

Wonderful interview, Tom Oberheim is such a nice guy, contemplating and engineering so many industry‘s firsts, phenomenal. He really is an idol for me, being one step ahead of anything conceivable, mentally ahead of any competitors, ahead of any customer wishes. Kudos to the interviewer, well informed, just encouraging Tom to detail more of his incredible work and life. P.S. I love the sound of the OB-Xa. If I had room for it, it would be mine.

I've loved Oberheims since I started playing the synth and bass in the early 80's. I've since accrued quite a few wonderful synths. Fell in love with Moog and Oberheim due to Geddy Lee and Rush using these synths. Personally I'd love to ask Tom why he wouldn't consider bringing the price of his synths down so more people could afford to purchase a synth from a legend like himself. He could still make a killing! Instead of selling 1 synth for 3 to 4 grand he could sell 10 synths to make the profit he made by selling the 1 for a huge price tag. He would sell so many units so fast, he'd never be able to keep up with the demand! It's not like Tom is hurting for cash these days. He would rule/dominate the market! He gets upset because Behringer took his OBXA and they’re going to mass produce it and make a killing. Well he's not changing his business model. He sells a few for big bucks. If he helped put one of his synths out and undercut everyone around, he'd make a killing on how many synths he'd sell. I don't understand how some of these dinosaurs think anymore. He used to make one of the best poly synths on the market. Too bad he as well as many other companies can't seem to get the message. The more people have one of your synths, the more common they become. More people will hear what you are doing with that synth and want one. If they aren't really expensive, you'll sell many, many more units. It's not hard to understand, however it seems like the selling practices of these companies will never change. If all you sell is to 1 demographic (The typical cork sniffers), you can't get angry when your company is on it's way to bankruptcy. They no longer have the market cornered like they used to... thank God! We now have a choice!

The man who gave DMX his name

why did Oberheim go out of business? their synths were popular

Tom pretty much fell off the earth. He had some eurorack products in the pipeline as well as software updates to the Two Voice Pro. Nothing ever became of the prototypes. I would have loved a SEM-X.