Yamaha AN1x vs Oberheim OB-X8: Can an analog synth match the glory of a vintage VA???

video upload by thesrabbit

"A bit of a click-baity and facetious title. But there is a goal here. The Yamaha AN1x "005 Soar" preset is magical, majestic, glorious, epic, wonderful, etc. It uses 2 layers, or "scenes" as they're called on the AN1x. 1 layer is a soft floaty arpeggiated line and the other is an epic whooshing pad. It maxes out the use of onboard FX, using chorus, delay, and reverb. The FX mix is obviously very wet too, and maybe too much as it can get kind of muddy.

Anytime I get a synth that can do layers, I try to make a similar patch. It doesn't matter if it's an analog or digital synth. Some synths that I've tried have been the Sequential Rev2, Nord Lead 2, and Roland System-8. Out of those, the System-8 got pretty close, though not quite as epic. The other 2 didn't really impress me at all. So I guess you could say I'm still searching for something that can capture the magic of the original. And by the way, the goal isn't to make them sound exactly the same, but more to get similar epic vibes and feels. I just got the OB-X8, so I had to try it. I added delay and reverb from my go-to Audiothingies Doctor A. The dry/wet mix is about 50/50. The Audiothingies unit just seems to meld well with input sources, rather than taking them over. The arpeggiated layer uses the OB-Xa 24db low pass filter, and the pad layer uses the OB-X SEM 12db low pass filter. A winning combo, if you ask me!

Thoughts and opinions welcome in the comments."