Oberheim Magnets
Description: Originally a manufacturer of electronic effects devices (most notably the Maestro phase shifter), and briefly, an ARP Instruments dealer, Oberheim went on to create several ground-breaking products in the early days of synthesizers and electronic music including the DS-2 (one of the first digital music sequencers). Oberheim synths are still highly regarded today and fetch top dollar by collectors and serious musicians alike.
Description: The OB-1 is a simple and great monophonic synth from Oberheim based on the same synth architecture as the SEM. Released in 1978, it was the first truly programmable analog synth of it's time with 8 program memories. Classic and fat sounding bass & lead synth sounds. Similar in sound and synthesis from the Roland SH-101 to the MicroMoog. It has two analog oscillators and a very capable 2 or 4 pole switchable VCF (filter) that sounds great, and a good LFO that can control the VCA or VCF. This is a very versatile monosynth, especially during its time, and makes an interesting alternative to other more common bass-synths. It has been used by Tangerine Dream, Rush, Vince Clarke, and The Grid.
Description: The OB-SX was envisioned by designers to be a smaller, lighter, more durable "live performance" version of their (then) flagship OB-X. The OB-SX featured the same VCO/VCF/VCAs of the OB-X and a voice card design similar to the OB-Xa in which polyphony was based on the number of 2-voice PCB cards installed (using CEM/Curtis chips). Sacrifices were made to the OB-X's "knob for each function" programming interface (replaced in the "SX" by a few realtime only filter and envelope controls), the ability to save patches (all sounds were preset in ROM) and the last octave of the keyboard ("chopped" to 48 notes).
