OB-Xa 0385 MIDI Kit

If you have an Oberheim OB-Xa with MIDI, specifically on the left side panel, you could have a MIDI retrofit kit with the numbers 0385 printed on it. If you did not receive instructions with it, you might be stuck in OMNI mode. Below are some notes on how to get out of OMNI mode via Boele of SCD. If you have the full instructions for this kit feel free to post a comment or contact me directly. My contact info is on the bottom right of the site. That said, here are some notes via Boele:

"If you click twice on "Chord" you'll get into a sort of second page, like on the OB8. (you'll notice because the burning leds will change and you won't be able to choose any preset sounds anymore). If you press "Write" plus 1,2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 or 8, you will choose the desired midichannel. Without doing this procedure you will stay in omnimode. Unfortunately this is non volatile(?) so every time you turn the ob-xa on, you'll have to do this. The midi interface enables you to send program changes and pitchbend info to the Oberheim. You can also dump sounds through system exclusive, but I can't recall how unfortunately. BUT you should ber able to check it out against this manual of an encore midi kit. Although it's a different kit, just by trying I found out the same sort of programmability. I think with the A, B, C and D knobs something must be achieved in terms of sysex dumping etc. http://www.encoreelectronics.com/ob8mk.pdf"