Oberheim OB-Mx Sample

Title link takes you to an amazing sample of the Oberheim OB-Mx sent my way via Brian Kehew of The Moog Cookbook. I've heard some samples of the OB-Mx in the past that were good, but nothing like this. There is a bit of controversy over the OB-Mx. Don Buchla helped design the synth. There was an early prototype version said to sound much better than the final release. It's rumored that the final release was rushed to market by Gibson (owner of Oberheim at the time). The synth was buggy, voice boards were prone to failure and tuning problems, it was very expensive, and it was said that it was lackluster in the sound department. After listening to these samples, I'm not so sure. It sounds amazing to me - very unique, heavy and full. This thing has balls. Big stinky, rubber, balls (something rubbery about the sound). Put a plug in it Butt Probe, this is refined nastiness.

OB-Mx Prototype (shot via teknobo)


OB-Mx Final (shot via VSE)


Thanks for the sample Brian. Here are a few older posts on the OB-Mx: 1, 2, 3 (samples), 4 (pics and samples), 5 (samples).

The OB-Mx Story

Click here for a sordid tale of the Gibson Oberheim OB-Mx. If you haven't read this before, make the time to do so. It's an interesting bit of synth history.

"D.N. "Lynx" Crowe and Don Buchla were called in to salvage the OB-Mx very late in the game. They weren't told the whole story of the project to that date; they gradually uncovered the archeological and forensic evidence in the drawings and code. Some details still aren't known, but thanks to the process of Discovery in several civil suits, including depositions of many of the people mentioned here, enough is known to show the mismanagement, fraud, and incompetence that doomed G-WIZ, the OB-Mx, and ultimately OpCode and any other hi-tech company that is fooled into trying to work with Gibson Guitar and its Technohick CEO, Henry Juszkiewicz. Everything spelled out in this narrative is either from my own memories of the time, or from depositions and exhibits already in evidence in the case."

Pictured are two shots of the prototype OB-Mx via Analog Synth Service


Update: OB-Mx Preservation Page.

A Misunderstood Synth...

http://www.tapeop.com/magazine/bonus/fizmo.html

There is a thread on the-gas-station.com, on the Voyager which evolved to comparisons to the soft synth Minis (Arturia's Minimoog V and GMedia's Minimonsta) as being even better. The thread like most goes off into tangents and the notorious OB-Mx comes up. But the theme is all the same. Synths that disappoint, which the OB-Mx is notorious for. So far I've only heard neutral to negative comments on the synth. Neutral is bad when something as anticipated as an uber all analog Oberheim with Don Buchla on helm comes out. But this particular post was *not* another bad one, it was an actual "hands off to Don Buchla." I remember being in awe when the OB-Mx came out (heck, matrixsynth and matrix comes from my first synth the Matrix-6 and my love for it and my "ultimate" synth, the Matrix-12). As the saying goes, there's nothing like the first... : )

I am curious as to what the poster, Giant Robot, has discovered that so few if anyone else has with the OB-Mx. What is the hidden treasure in there? Does it exist? This reminded me of another little flop in the synth world. A little magical synth that was killed before it was ever allowed to shine, the FIZMO. See the link above to read the interview. It's worth reading.

From my post:
"I remember being intrigued by the FIZMO when it came out. Not on the synth legend level but pretty intrigued nonetheless. Then it got horrid reviews and I finally got my hands on one. I wasn't too impressed, but again... only a "2 second" trial and I was in the VA mode digging the Nord Lead and JP8000; so like everyone else, when it couldn't make "those sounds," I dismissed it. Just recently I was more intrigued and out of my everything analog and VA stage. So many beautiful synths out there and just a few methods of synthesis. Transwave being something missing in my gear I thought I'd try it again. One came up locally pretty cheap. I read up on it again and found an article by the maker who stated how sad the whole thing was. The FIZMO was supposed to be anything but VA. It was supposed to be a new take on transwave synthesis with more motion and immediate control. It was supposed to be a beautiful evolving synth, and a synthesist's synth not some sample playback preset synth. And sadly it flopped because of the power supply issue and people just couldn't see past the knobs, thinking knobs = analog/VA.

I picked it up and man... I was and still am blown away. It's an ethereal synth. Just beautiful; in motion. It actually reminds me of a softer version of the Evolver. It kind of sounds like the FS1R, but different - almost more delicate for lack of a better description. It's a beautiful synth that was misunderstood and mistakenly given a bad wrap. I think all synths have something to offer. I keep wondering what the OB-Mx has. Even if Oberheim cut it short, it did have some of that Buchla magic didn't it?"

Oberheim OB-MX 10 Voice Vintage Analog Synthesizer

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via this auction

"For sale is one of the kings of analog synthesizers, the beautiful OB-MX. This is a highly underrated synthesizer & sounds AMAZING with huge modulation capabilities & beautiful sound. I've played almost all vintage & modern synths, the Prophet 5, Andromeda, Jomox Sunsyn, & the OB-MX definitely holds its own against the others, with a very unique sound all to its own. Can do some great pads & effects, and cool analog bass, leads, keys, etc. I have a couple sets of sysex patches that you can load onto the OB-MX via midi, just to give you a few more options. Unit cosmetically is in fantastic shape, near mint. Includes power cable and manual. This one has 5 cards (2 voices per card) for 10 voices total and each card tends to sell for $600 - $800 on its own, so this is a great deal. Don't miss out!"

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Struggle

Published on Oct 20, 2012 by attorks

"Last week I bought a second hand Oberheim OB-Mx with 3 voice cards, so 6 voices. And no, I did not trade my Modular for the OB-Mx. The Modular and some other instruments are at my friends place because of the performance on E-Live on 27 October.
In the beginning you hear the Oberheim OB-Mx 6 voices with the VCA opened. Then some noise from the Waldorf Q Keyboard and notes from the Animoog App on the iPad (my favorite App until now). After some time the sequences from the Doepfer MAQ16/3 start. An 8-step sequence from row 1 is driving the Oberheim OB-Mx, Row 3 has an 16-step sequence with 4 steps active driving the self-built Modular doing the bass tones. Somewhat later row 2 is added driving the Nord Wave doing 2 tones. The Mellotron-like flute sound comes from the Korg PE-1000 doing a solo. After that you can hear strings from the Waldorf Q Keyboard. Anne used my iPhone 4 to film this video.

You can download/see/hear the video and music from my website soon."

Oberheim OB-MX 12 Voice Analog Synthesizer

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via this auction

See the seller's other items for more.

"For sale is an very rare Oberheim OB-MX analog synthesizer. This OB-MX is fully loaded with SIX voice cards for a total of 12 voices! Maxed out and really takes advantage of all the capabilities this synth has to offer. Lush pads, insane modulation huge monos and leads. An amazing sounding synthesizer with some incredible abilities for routing..."

Pics of the installed voice boards below.

You can find a couple of samples of the OB-Mx from Brian Kehew of The Moog Cookbook in this post from 2006.

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Oberheim OB-MX Sound Exploration - No Midi - No Keyboard!

Published on May 13, 2017 100 Things I Do

"Its been a while since I did a OB-MX video. This time I decided to explore the synth without the use of a keyboard. The Mixer section of the OB-MX has a filter offset that allows you to bypass the envelopes and have the raw sound exit the synth. Great for drones!

Due to the early digital nature of the control surface and stepping this introduces you can get some very interesting flavours. The LFO's have variable stepping from Direct voltage to Quantised voltage that has definable steps. I have never come across this on a synth before and it allows you to do some pretty unique things.

I will do another clip in a few weeks time that will explore the modulation matrix deeper but I wanted to make this clip something that was a progression and not a semi-random collection of Timbres. I hope you enjoy and it inspires you to explore your synth in different ways.

I used Valhalla Verb & Sound Toys EchoBoy Jr and Ran the OB-MX through the Warm Audio WA 76. Master bus used Waves SSL Bus Compressor and Logic's Limiter & Multiband"

Oberheim Buchla OBMX SN 1307

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via this auction

"The Oberheim OBMx is a modern synthesizer module with an audio path that is entirely analog. It has an intuitive and powerful interface which makes it easy for anyone to program their own unique sounds. The OBMx delivers the classic Oberheim and Minimoog sounds while being completely programmable and midi compatible.

An historical point is that the OB-Mx is, at present, the last synthesizer designed by Don Buchla. The 'Oberheim filter' provides 12 dB/oct low, band or hi pass filtering, with resonance. And the 'Minimoog filter' uses a 24 dB/oct low-pass filter.

The OB-Mx was one of the few real analog synths, available with completely modern features. And because it comes from Oberheim, you can expect great sounds, design, and features. The OB-Mx is highly user upgradeable. Out of the box the OB-Mx comes with one two voice expansion card which contains the two oscillators, 4 multistage envelopes, 3 LFO's, and filters. Up to 6 of these cards can be easily installed sufficiently adding to the phatness of this synth and its capabilities. It has been used by Nine Inch Nails, Sneaker Pimps, Apollo 440, DJ Spinna, and U2.

Along the bottom of the front panel is a set of buttons marked VOICE STATUS - the LEDs in each of these buttons light up to indicate which voice is being played at a given time. As well as being quite useful, these offer the added benefit that anyone looking at the panel can at least see some action!

Each voice consists of:

- Two Voltage Controlled Oscillators - Two Voltage controlled filters
- A mixer module
- A Voltage Controlled Amplifier
- Four Envelope Generators Three Low Frequency Oscillators."

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Oberheim OB-Mx UPGRADE version 2

oberheimx2.blogspot.com

French blog on the Oberheim OB-Mx. Googlish translation here.
"If the Operating System of your OB-Mx is still version 1.01 (04/18/94) or 1.04 (06/20/94), you can switch to version 2.00, simply by replacing the original EPROM. You can customize the greeting of the OB-Mx eg replacing "version 2.00 11/27/95" with "I am your father Luke"... "

Ashen - Oberheim OB MX

Published on Jan 28, 2017 100 Things I Do

"The OB-MX, possibly one of the most misunderstood synths of all time. While it seems to promise the sounds of the Moog and the Oberheim SEM it does not deliver that hardly at all. The filters are something along the line of but not quite the same as, application is similar to, the filters they are named after.

This made a lot of people angry and disappointed back in 1994. The Brain child of the chap that owned Oberheim at the time during its transition to Gibson. It wasn't until Don Buchla did a major redesign this machine made it to market. The story goes that Don specified very particular types of capacitors and the company sometimes followed instruction, sometimes just used what ever they had in the parts bin that week.

They even changed the VCA' chips on occasion! Don was not one to suffer people not following his instruction and made his objections quite well known. Most of this impacted the stability and application of the VCA. Why Don went to work for another big music company after the CBS issues I do not know.

With all this in mind, if you are looking for something that sounds like a mix between an OB-8, Matrix 12, CS-80 and Prophet 5 you might enjoy it. Éric Mouquet (Deep Forest) Loves his and just released a video of a sounds he has created for his new upcoming album (well worth a watch). Like many things Don created, if you don't apply and commit yourself to the use and headspace of the device, you don't get much out of it! All the sounds were created on the OB-MX using only delays and reverbs."

Cool warning inscribed on the back:

"There are thousands of parts inside but none are user serviceable, so kindly refrain from removing the covers. Do not take the OBMx swimming or play it in the rain. Custom designed for Oberheim by Don Buchla. Manufactured by Oberheim, Oakland, California"

OBERHEIM OB MX : INITIAL CONDITIONS - Patch Creation.

Published on Jul 7, 2018 100 Things I Do

"I thought I would do a clip that shows patch creation on the OB-Mx from 'initial conditions' all the way to a final Timbre.

The Oberheim OB-Mx is a really amazing synth. Its a little unorthodox in places, for example if you take the oscillator above 15 of 100 in volume it starts to saturate, above 27 it starts to FM and almost ring modulate with the second oscillator in a very pleasing and unique way! The MM & OB Filters perform in ways you might not expect. The VCA offset is an awesome feature I wish more synths have, with this you can bypass the VCA and just drone to your hearts content. The Oscillators can sound like silk or Sandpaper, you can get sounds that range from Prophet 5 and CS-80 or some of those Classic Oberheim tones if you work hard. A very unique synth I think will be with me for a very long time!

Soundtoys Echo Boy & Lexicon MPX550 reverb was used on this clip!"

Oberheim OB-Mx calibration ROM and instructions

via Aaron on AH:

"Courtesy Tom Virostek.

See here: http://users.ece.gatech.edu/~lanterma/obmx

The calibration procedure is pretty complex and requires a scope (and preferably the voice board extender card that lets you get to the board while the unit is on). The OB-Mx uses some digital pots with built-in nonvolatile memory. I had always assumed that these were recalibrated upon booting up the OB-Mx, but it turns out they are set in this calibration procedure. I suspect that a lot of errant voice boards that are out there just need recalibrated. Maybe some of them were sloppily calibrated to begin with - who knows.

- Aaron

P.S. One caveat is that Lynx Crowe told me he recalled there being some runs of voice boards where Gibson used the wrong sort of capacitors in the oscillator section, resulting in boards that went out of wack as the temperature changed. He couldn't recall exactly what or where."

Oberheim OB-MX 12 Voice

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via this auction

"An incredibly rare Oberheim OB-MX analog synthesizer.
Fully Loaded with all 6 voice cards for 12 voices total!

100% fully functional with latest v2.0 OS and recently calibrated.
In excellent shape, minus some light rack rash it looks perfect.
Includes rare Original Manual (with some schematics) and power cable.
You aren't likely to find a nicer OB-MX, so if you've been saving up for one of these, now's your chance.
IMHO the sound equals any other vintage poly synth out there, incredible range of huge thick pads, modulations, leads, basses.
Very underrated, the routing options alone make this a powerful beast. Don't pass this one up!"

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Frankfurt Süd- Oberheim OB-Mx -Music Track.

Published on Jun 29, 2019 100 Things I Do

"When you first turn on the OB-Mx like many vintage analog synths, it takes a long time for the voices to stabilise. Sometimes when the voices are out of tune it can be very inspiring and this is whats happened here. I turned on the synth, found the patch.. gave it an initial tune and just let the synth drift.

The OB-Mx in many ways can sound like a CS-80, you can even do faux Ring modulation by pushing the VCA of VCO 1 and VCO 2. A magical synth that was totally out of place when it was released in the 90's! Such a shame they are going for so much money now, I would love some extra voices.

Massively inspired by Brian Eno's work on David Bowie's LOW (I was on the way to Berlin when I shot the footage)

I'm using the Valhalla Delay and Vintage Verb on this track and my home rolled Crystal Echo's patch :D"

Oberheim Buchla OB-Mx Vintage Synth

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via this auction

See this post for the story behind the OB-Mx.

"Oberheim OB-Mx synthesizer designed by Don Buchla. Version 1.04 software dated 6/20/94; inside the unit it says it was manufactured on 8/3/94. Cosmetically in VG+ shape as depicted with light rack rash and scratching top bottom front sides from having been inserted into and removed from racks. Has three voice cards (I think this means "six voices" because each card has two voices). Everything works! Manual is available on-line. Will be heavy to pack and ship; local pick-up in the Los Angeles, CA area welcome. I know there is a lot of debate about the virtues and deficits of this synth but it always has sounded fine to me, you need to run it through some signal processing (reverb, compression) to get the most out of it."

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Oberheim OB-MX

YouTube via rezfilter. "The Oberheim OB-MX. Sonic Fury."
Hopefully we will see more of these. The OB-Mx is a fascinating bit of synth history.
See these posts for more and be sure to see this post. Don Buchla was involved in the design.
Update: Be sure to also check out the samples in the prior posts including these from Brian Kehew of The Moog Cookbook.

Oberheim Synthesizer Factory Catalog Including the OB-Mx

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via this auction

OB-Mx
OB-Mx Two Voice Card
Drummer
Strummer
Cyclone
Matrix 1000

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Oberheim OB-Mx 6-voice analog synth

via this auction

"This is the most mis-understood analog synthesizer. While the software may have never reached its full potential, this synth is capable of nearly any sound you can imagine, and the filters sound great despite what you may have read. The key is: TURN THE FILTER INPUTS DOWN! The oscillator outputs are "hot" just like the memorymoog and will clip the filters for a desirable distortion if set at max. I don't even think the original programmers of the OB-Mx quite understood this! If you are looking for that clean "barberpole" filter sweep, it is here and sounds incredible.

Designed by Don Buchla, with fully discrete voltage controlled filters(!) engineered exactly like both the moog "ladder" filter and the SEM abound on every voice, self-resonating moog and SEM too! The original SEM would not self-resonate, however. (again, turn it down!) The encoders are very sensitve and you must dial them in with precision to get what you want. Spend some time with this asynth and you will love it forever.

The versatility of the OBmx ranks up with the best of them: xpander, etc. but actually sounds warmer than the xpander, and the discrete filters are a welcome design versus the CEM3372 which is another story.
If you believe what you may have read online about this amazing synthesizer, you are missing out! Most who bash it probably never had- or even used one! Also one of the rarest polyphonics ever produced. Quantities are said to be fewer than 300. New battery installed and loaded with factory programs."

You can find more posts including video, audio and the controversial history of this synth by searching on OB-Mx on the top left of this site. Here's a link.

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Oberheim OB-MX 12 Voice Fully Loaded +Spare

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via this auction

"1 OB-MX Serial Number MX001475
Includes newly installed battery.
Fully functional with 4 voice cards installed (8 voices total).
OS 2.0 (latest operating system)

1 OB-MX Serial Number MX001493
Includes newly installed battery.
The brain module is fully functional. Includes TWO voice cards (for four total voices) but these two cards are not responding and are sold as-is for parts/repairs. Not sure what's wrong with them, may be a simple fix or perhaps you can use this unit for spares down the line. I've fully tested the unit using working cards from the other system to verify the brain module's operational condition.
OS 2.0 (latest operating system)

Both units have specially loaded presets that I've worked on for years & they sound really incredible. The winning buyer will also receive the Sysex patch files programs I have saved. Both units are cosmetically in fantastic shape, near mint with only minor rack rash on the tops/bottoms. Front face plates are very clean. Includes two power cables. This is a great package deal & value on a very hard to find synthesizer. Don't miss out!"

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Rick Wakeman Oberheim OB-MX 8-Voice Rack Synthesizer

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via this auction

"This is an Oberheim OB-MX rack-mount synthesizer that was used by Rick Wakeman (as a 6-voice unit) during the recording of the Keys to Ascension album in 1995-1996. I obtained it from Rick's producer, who let Rick use it during the recording of the album.

An additional voice card was later added to make it a 8-voice unit. It can be expanded with 2 more voice cards to a full 12-voice system.

Excellent condition, includes operation manual. New battery, OS 1.04 (a later OS is available for free on-line, OS 2.00).

The Oberheim OBMx is a modern synthesizer module with an audio path that is entirely analog. It has an intuitive and powerful interface which makes it easy for anyone
to program their own unique sounds. The OBMx claims to deliver the classic Oberheim and Minimoog sounds while being completely programmable and midi compatible.

One historical point is that the OB-Mx is, at present, the last synthesizer designed by Don Buchla. The 'Oberheim filter' provides 12 dB/oct low, band or hi pass filtering, with resonance. And the 'Minimoog filter' uses a 24 dB/oct low-pass filter."

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