The Oberheim OB-XA Synthesizer

Here’s a look, via perfectcircuitaudio, at the vintage Oberheim OB-XA – a polyphonic analog synthesizer from the early 80’s.

The Oberheim OB-XA was available with 4, 6 and 8 voice polyphony, has 12 & 24db/octave low-pass filters and a massive analog sound.

If you’ve used the Oberheim OB-XA, let us know what you think of it!

4 thoughts on “The Oberheim OB-XA Synthesizer

  1. The right word to describe this machine is “Eccentric”.
    It does a lot of things different than other poly synths of that era.
    At first the synth is very confusing.
    Some buttons only function in correlation with others.
    I don’t know of any other synth where the knobs have a fine adjustment setting relative to the position the preset is set to. To use the full range of the knob, one has to fully close and open the knob.
    Very odd, but somehow unique as well.
    Don’t buy this synth for its features. You buy it because it sounds incredible.
    The sound is ever evolving, making it sound very musical and alive in the mix.
    I understand why some people hate it.
    Thoroughly read the user manual first before you get the shits with it, you will start to appreciate it a lot more.
    It’s not as stable as its Japanese counterparts, but that’s part of its charm.
    You have to work a lot harder to get results on this baby.
    Listen to “New Gold Dream” by the Simple Minds and you realise how they got that big sound.

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