Thursday, January 24, 2019
Oberheim Xpander | Living in the Matrix
Published on Jan 24, 2019 Alex Ball
"The Oberheim Xpander (1984) is quite a curious release from the legendary developer.
It has the classic muscly Oberheim sound with 6-voice polyphony at 2 VCOs per-voice. However, it then becomes very interesting because it then has some deep digital control. There's five LFOs and five envelopes per voice, lag processing, tracking generators, ramp generators a filter with 15 modes and a whole bunch more. Pretty amazing for 1984!
The instrument is fairly chunky, but most of the control is built around page diving and a modulation matrix. So, it would be absolutely enormous if they had a switch or potentiometer for each function. It's kind of a modular-esque synth without any cables and some elements being virtual.
Furthermore, there are multi-patches where a different single patch can be loaded for each of the six voices. The voices also have their own CV/Gate and discrete outputs if you so wish. It's also fully midi equipped and so some folk use the Xpander as a midi to CV converter to control various parts of a modular rig.
After I'd read the manual and got my head around the workflow, I programmed a few patches, tweaked a few others already saved on the unit, did some live playing, some midi and some CV/gate sequencing and this was the result.
All synth sounds: Oberheim Xpander
Midi control via Prophet REV2 and my DAW
Drums: Oberheim DX
Vocals: Recorded with an AKG C414
Guitar: Dan Electro Baritone / Boss HM-2 / Fender Blues Junior mic'd with an SM57"
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MATRIXSYNTH - EVERYTHING SYNTH
© Matrixsynth - All posts are presented here for informative, historical and educative purposes as applicable within fair use.
MATRIXSYNTH is supported by affiliate links that use cookies to track clickthroughs and sales. See the privacy policy for details.
MATRIXSYNTH - EVERYTHING SYNTH
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