Why I Love My Oberheim OB-Xa 

In 2024 money that's almost $20,000! So yep, you were mad!!

yes thats true!

Agreed, Alex. I've owned the TwoVoice, OB8, and Xpander. Never an OBXa. This is pure Laura Anderson, being her primary synthesizer (not sampler or Synclavier). The dark ending synth line in O'Superman is an OBXa.

@Snake Plissken I haven't seen those comments, but the problem with the Internet is that it is also accessible to those who want to pour out bile, hate and jealousy and so these kind of nonsensical comments happen. There's no reasoning with folk like that and in fact, a response is the one thing they crave, so it's best ignored.

I know the new X8 has the functions of an OB-X, but playing an original OB-X is on my bucket list too :)

I have Obsession VST an emulsion of the OBxa, sounds epic to Me instantly inspired Me to make music with it straight away. Software cant copy the real thing but it's pretty nere.

Arturia did a really good job on OB-Xa V. The latest version added voice dispersion, which can really make it come to life.

Love this, Oberheim should’ve hired you👍

Very interesting.

Wanna sell it to me for 500?

@@Swanlord05 Nope.

He certainly did!! I salivate over that OB-Xa bass sound on Vanity 6’s ‘Nasty Girls’.

@@WrvrUgoThrUR Yes that was Indeed funky!!

Uh oh ..Careful.. you just summoned the “ I bet you in a mix you couldn’t tell “ crowd with this comment 😂

@@electrowayne2918 it’s so fizzy tho!

It is! And I need tom to reissue this asap. I don’t want the behringer attempt. I’ll enjoy my P5 for Now. But nothing like a oberheim

It's about 50% of that, but yes!

Absolutely. The OB-6 is one of the best modern analog synths, and the vintage mode update gave it even more character. Future classic, IMO.

@ghost mall Yessssss!!!

@ghost mall wow! They went up an extra $500 this month. Tbh, it was the vintage mode that sealed the deal for me.

Have you seen the UbXA announcement from Behringer?

@@grantgladden4093 I have. It looks promising. It will be interesting to see how well they do with something that ambitious.

There is nothing like a 'magical' sound. Magical is your personal interpretation. There are no calibrated measuring devices that can measure 'magic' or 'warmth' in a sound. If you think the OB sounds magical, than I need to say that my Summit and many other digital synths I own, simply leave the OB completely in the dark when it comes to magic... see what I mean ? For some reason or another, people get lyrical about mythical or magical powers of vintage synths. There are many (scientifically proved - plse do some research) explanations why 'vintage-believers' try to justify their believe. However, scientific blind-test studies have long proven insights that people can not hear the difference between analog or digital synths. Check Andrew Scheps youtube on the analog myth. These are literally his words : 'Analog is a myth. Not only a myth, but a gigantic myth' Some years ago there was another blind test between Stradivari and cheap violins where as the outcome was simply shocking : (please keep in mind that sonic differences between acoustic instruments are way more pronounced than electronic instruments) The majority (85%) of experts pointed to the cheaper violins as the better sounding ones while the Stradivari is considered as the best sounding violin in the world... But what does that mean ? As soon as people see the instrument, they hear different. So observation (hearing) is influenced by seeing. Believe me if I tell you that I will make a sound on i.e. a Novation Summit, and you will believe you hear an OB8 if I cover the Summit and play it via midi on an OB... And you'll get as lyrical because you believe you hear an Oberheim. Just to give you an idea : back in the late 80's I owned a professional recording studio that was filled with synths like the OB8, PPG2.3 + Waveterm, Matrix12, a Memory and MiniMoog, Rhodes Chroma & Polaris, Jup8, String Ensemble, Prophet 5 & V,... Simply because that were the available synths at that time. Every time I fired up the studio, it was a always the question which synth would not work and needed repair. Nowadays, people ask me how I get my bass so fat in my mixes. Nothing more than a Novation V-Station with a Waves Maxxbass plugin. No way you can make any MiniMoog sound that fat. But know-how is way more important than whatever instruments you own. Instruments are not magical. That is a misunderstanding that holds musicians from being magical.

@@sK3LeTvM1 Don't know if referencing Andrew Scheps in this argument is relative. He has a slew of videos using his massive eurorack ANALOG synth. He IS in the box mixing but he doesn't discount analog synths (modern ones) completely - quite the opposite.

@@BlackMan614 This is the FPGA area. Those synths sound even more analog than real analogs... Give the Novation Summit a try and you'll understand.

Oh nice! Didn't know they were working on that. They did a great job on Avalon. Looks like this one will continue the tradition of adding modern features to a classic synth. It's hard to tell from the renders, but it looks like all the knobs are encoders (i.e. endless knobs)? That could be pretty cool if done well. They'd always be in the right position, and can be as precise as you want.

Can you tell your friends with the units in storage to contact me ??😀

It looks like they are making a rack version. I hope it actually comes out.

Interesting. I heard Ob-X is far more unreliable. How is the heat sync?

​@@bengsynthmusic Most Xs were built in the late 70s and the Xa was mostly early 80s, and a few years can make a difference in terms of reliability. NONE of these instruments were designed to last 40+ years. Yes, the voice cards are very different, but much of the common analog and digital (the "left" slab of boards) are very similar. Also, the "forest" of voice tray pins are common, and problematic, in both. The heat sink on the Xa is very good, unlike the P5r2 and the Prophet VS, where there only a few sq. inches to sink a 5V rail being pulled from either a 36V or 18V secondary. Lots of reflected chassis heat, which shortens the life of many components. In terms of their massive sound, an Eight Voice, X and Xa are all mono synths trying to pretend to be poly synths. Synths like the P5, Jupiter-6 and OB-8 all have voice BOARDs. It is subtle, but the X and Xa are very much like the original SEM poly topology, just with voice cards that did benefit from the Common Analog section. However, the X/Xa are derivative attempts to map the original SEM voice. The voice card in both the X and Xa are the same physical dimensions, so Tom et al. had to (quite quickly, from what I had read) extend the original SEM voice without re-designing the voice tray layout. That mandated integration. CEM was the best option at the time. A little TMI, but I have own my Xa for decades, so they need care and feeding.

Looks like you got your wish with the OB-X8

@@embodie_breaks7089 right?

This could be titled “OBXa Quirks The New One Won’t Have.”

@@deanrinehart Ha, precisely. I challenge J3PO to come in this thread and say "I swear on the life of my OBXa, that I am not aware of any upcoming Oberheim-style synthesizers being released by Sequential."

Perhaps this already is the new reissue that he is playing. Just a thought.

@@TheRealKICKZ the mystery deepens.