Oberheim Inspired Analog Synth by Shear Electronics | NAMM 2024

video upload by Anthony Marinelli Music

See the Shear Electronics label at the bottom of this post for more.

"I had an inspiring and heart-warming experience meeting Jacob Brashears from Shear Electronics at NAMM 2024. Jacob, along with his mother Cheryl Brashears (a high performance systems engineer with a storied background) have together created a truly remarkable sounding discrete analog polyphonic synthesizer in the style of the Oberheim 8-voice Iconic SEM Synthesizer. It's aptly called the "Relic". In addition to achieving the classic sound and offering all the familiar routing of it's predecessor, the "Relic" delivers a new take with voltage controllable filter profiles (the ability to transition between HP, LP and BP filters for example), waveform blending, rich intermodulation distortion at fingertip control and all parameters are controllable with the highest resolution digital encoders available. Be sure to keep following and support this next generation synth company of mother and son on their journey to follow their dreams. I'm looking forward to playing their instrument(s) soon and seeing them flourish for a long time to come!

00:00 Anthony's Intro
00:18 Jacob's Story
00:53 About the "Relic" Synth
03:22 Sound Demonstration
04:18 About the Filters
05:08 "Take it to 11" (harmonic distortion)
05:56 Dry vs Reverb Sync Piano
06:44 Oberheim Inspired Sound
07:36 Plans for the "Relic"
08:10 Introduction to Cheryl Brashear (co-designer/engineer)
09:09 Anthony's Summary
09:56 Logo (music)E

____________________________________
*ABOUT ANTHONY*

Anthony's musical touch as both composer and performer is connected with some of the most influential creative minds over the last 40 years. He’s composed and conducted original orchestral scores for over 80 feature films including _*Young Guns*_ , _*Internal Affairs*_ , _*The Man From Elysian Fields*_ , _*15 Minutes*_ and _*Planes, Trains & Automobiles*_ , been commissioned by the *Los Angeles Philharmonic* for his symphonic work "In the Family Way", written over one thousand TV commercials in a myriad of musical styles, co-founded Levels Audio Post (LA's premiere post production facility) and performed and arranged on big-box-office films and influential hit records such as *Michael Jackson's* _*Thriller*_ .

His extensive work as a young arranger, orchestrator and performer for *Quincy Jones* , *Jack Nitzsche* , *Lamont Dozier* , *Arthur Rubenstein* and *Giorgio Moroder* was vital in launching his own career. His early years pioneering modular analog synthesizers along with his wide-ranging music scholarship positioned Anthony at the center of the music technology revolution. He attended the University of Southern California School of Music as a piano and composition major."

NAMM 2024: Shear Electronics Relic - No Talking

video upload by sonicstate

"The journey of the Shear Electronics Relic has been a long one, first seen back in 2017 - a young lad Jacob Shear had a project he was showing, which back then was pretty ambitious, an analog Oberhiem clone (before everyone elses!).

A couple of iterations and a redesign later, its nearing completion and we were finally able to hear it in action. In this video Jacob and Jim Heywood of @EarmonkeyMusic flip some presets so we can get to hear the unique instrument.

There are very few units, each being built to order, but you can put your name down, the price is expected to be in the region of $6500 with units coming online in March 2024.

https://shearelectronics.com/"

SynthPlex 22: Shear Relic OB Inspired Poly Is Back!

video upload by sonicstate

It's goes to 11.

"Some time back, we spoke to a young guy: Jacob Brashears (still in college) who was working on an Oberheim inspired analogue poly synth. At the time it was very inspiring and great to see some talent coming up. Then it went quiet. I mean a lot has happened since then right?
Jacob has finished school, now is working on bringing his vision to life. It's also acquired another couple of voices, so probably should be called the Relic 8 now..

Jacob has a pre-production prototype form and it's a lovely looking thing with a lot of really neat (and expensive looking) UI ideas.

Sadly we can't listen to it yet, as the semiconductor shortages have meant that they haven't been able to get it quite ready. The hardware is pretty much done, it's just now the software and auto calibration - which as we know is a non-trivial job in itself.

It's clear that he has been living and breathing this instrument for years and has really immersed himself in it's production. We really hope he can bring it to fruition in the planned timeframe which is going to be March 2023 for a limited production run. With more to come.
The shearelectronics.com website needs updating, but you can still email them if you are interested in this machine at relic at shearelectronics.com."

See the Shear Electronics label below for additional posts featuring previous designs.

An Update on the Shear Electronics Relic - Oberheim OB-X Inspired Analog Synth

You might remember the Shear Electronics Relic, OB-X based analog hardware synth from last year's NAMM. If you were wondering what happened to it, the following is an update from Shear sent our way via swissdoc.

"Happy New Year from both of us at Shear Electronics!

2017 was an exciting year for us, and I hope you all had a wonderful year as well. With all the speculation about our radio silence since February, we figured it was about time for an update.

Most of you probably heard about our demo at NAMM 2017. Here’s how it played out for me:
I bolted together our first prototype at 2 AM on Tuesday morning. At 8 AM, I flew back to Los Angeles (I had classes all week). Wednesday at 6 PM, I was testing broken cables in our booth at the Anaheim convention center. Sunday morning, camera crews found their way to our booth. Monday morning, I was watching myself on YouTube. I felt a little behind the times... 11,000 people saw the Sonicstate interview before I did! We were getting a hundred emails a day. On YouTube, a thousand likes before our first dislike.

So I was sitting in my dorm room, and I thought this was some pretty phenomenal demand for a garage prototype. For two weeks, I read every single thing anyone said about the synthesizer. I would like to issue my deepest and most heartfelt thanks for your epic worldwide focus group.

After a few months went by, many of you began to speculate that we gave up or sold out. I understand your skepticism. But there’s a reason I’ve kept quiet. For one thing, I’ve never been the type to dwell on public relations. I spent three years on this project before announcing anything.

More importantly, I’ve been hard at work. The reality is that our design is among the most complicated and extravagant systems ever proposed in the history of analog synthesizers. We are going to succeed in this market for one reason—we put everything we’ve got into the product.

If you thought that the “essential components of great-sounding synths aren’t available anymore,” you might be right. But the “missing link” to the golden age of synthesis isn’t some elusive old- stock field-effect transistor. It’s the essence of old-school design philosophy. In today’s world, the pursuit of perfection loses to the bottom line. 2,584 components on our voice cards. 97 suppliers on speed dial. And all this in a culture that scoffs at the price of monophonic synthesizers?

We doubled down and committed to delivering a machine worthy of your love. Yes, we’re still building a discrete analog polyphonic synthesizer. And yes, we’re still building the exact same audio path as the legendary OB-X. But thanks to your input, it’s going to be a lot better than the first prototype.

Every detail was given a closer inspection. It starts with a hard anodized aircraft-grade aluminum top panel. The indicators shine through panes of chemically strengthened anti-reflective glass. We miniaturized the light bar technology to allow individual bars for every encoder. Top-shelf optical encoders will prevent mechanical wear and tear. The figured hardwood side panels are matte- finished in tiger rose black. Software upgrades can be done at home with a MIDI cable.

Sorry for the six-month silence. We haven’t focused enough on public relations or business decisions, we’ve been focused on the product. But from now on, we’re committing to regular updates.

The new Relic is amazing, but it isn’t quite ready for production. We won’t have a booth at NAMM 2018, but we will be at the Anaheim Convention Center anyway. If you’ve got any questions, or just want to say hi, come find me at the Synth Section anytime Saturday afternoon. If you want to talk, feel free to send me an email. I’d love to meet you!

Finally, I’d like to thank every single one of you for the overwhelming wave of support for the Relic.

Sincerely,
Jacob Brashears CTO, Shear Electronics
Cheryl Brashears CEO, Shear Electronics"

Shear Electronics Relic-6 - NAMM 2017

Published on Jan 31, 2017 Sound On Sound magazine

Another NAMM floor video of Shear Electronics Relic-6. See the Shear Electronics label below for more.

NAMM 2017: Shear Electronics Relic-6 - New Six Voice Discrete OB-X Based Analog Desktop Synthesizer

Published on Jan 22, 2017 sonicstate

Another sleeper surprise from NAMM. Note this is the first Shear Electronics post on the site. Jacob Brashears started working on the synth at the age of 15. The Relic-6 is based on the circuitry of the 1979 Oberheim OB-X. It has touch sensitive knobs with interactive display queues. Note the active light strip that runs through the middle of it as well as the lit colored labels. It has an all analog signal path with digital control voltage modulation (digital emulation of the Curtis 3310 envelop). You can actually adjust the spread between envelopes. Two VCOs feature a Saw and Pulse wave with various width, with sync. It has the original Oberheim 12db 2-pole lowpass filter with the ability to layer two sounds. It consists of 3000 transistors, an all glass front panel, hand crafted wood sides, and aluminum metal case. Retro future Star Trek look. They are targeting $3499 and hoping to ship this Summer. Currently they are planning to make five prototypes to get out there for testing and use.

Update: one more demo from Synth Anatomy:

NAMM 2017: Shear Electronics Relic-6 Analog Poly Synthesizer

Published on Jan 22, 2017 Synth Anatomy

Some additional info via http://shearelectronics.com

"Discrete analog extravagance.

Our voice card isn’t really dipped in solid gold. Aside from that, no expense was spared.


In our search for unparalleled sonic character, we looked to one of the most revered synthesizers ever made: The Oberheim OB-X.

We dusted off archived schematics of this 1979 behemoth and painstakingly recreated the entire signal path. Every single component of it.

Voltage-Controlled Oscillators.

Forget about DCOs, NCOs & PCM. There’s only one type of circuit that resonates with the freedom of a guitar string and the power of a live brass section.

Still, some VCOs are better than others. We’re using:
36 Resistors
12 Transistors
4 Capacitors
1 Diode
In each oscillator.

Excessive? Absolutely. But this old-school complexity creates a sonic depth that’s impossible to describe. Once you hear it, you'll never want to give it up.

Legendary State-Variable Filter.

First appearing in Oberheim’s groundbreaking SEM synth module, this voltage-controlled lowpass filter is arguably the greatest polysynth filter of all time.

The gentler 12dB/octave curve kept all the biting resonance of the 24dB Minimoog filter, but added more air and sizzle.

We built it the old-fashioned way, right down to a faithful Texas Instruments clone of the notoriously gritty RCA 3080 chip.

Back in 1974, the famous SEM filter required ultra-precise silver-mica capacitors to produce its signature resonance. Today, silver-mica capacitors have become ultra-rare. Of course, we used them anyway.

Scorching in Stereo. Old-school VCAs weren't always perfect, but they were never boring.

In the days before crystal-clear amplifier chips, subtle distortion used to color your sound whether you liked it or not.

On top of that, the earliest polysynths had knobs to manually pan individual voices for a striking three-dimensional effect.

After all the scorching texture of the oscillators and filter, our voice card’s output stage delivers the finishing blow.

And with two discrete VCAs for each voice, the stereo field is flexible, powerful, and programmable.

Envelopes with Curtis Curves.

The Curtis Electromusic CEM3310 Envelope Generator shaped control voltages for the Prophet-5, Memorymoog, and the entire Oberheim OB-series.

The original chip was discontinued in 1985, but we’ve examined authentic datasheets and recreated its distinctive curves with a 40 kHz output rate at 14-bit resolution.

The unique attack stage rose to 6.5 volts, but was truncated at 5 volts — not quite exponential, not quite linear.

Our emulation matches it perfectly.

Often, rise & fall times were glaringly inconsistent from one voice to the next.

Our ‘fatness’ parameter lets you dial up the vintage looseness when you want it, or stick with timing accuracy when you need it."