Oberheim Haven

Ran into the Oberheim site with some nice OBX-Xa filter sweeps, pictures, links and more. Very Van Halen. : ) Enjoy.

Zicweb - Patch Resource Site

Just ran into a huge synthesizer patch site. Title link takes you there. Enjoy. : )

Synthesizers Make Hot or Not?

I was reading the comments on this Music Thing post and I ran accross a link to Hot or Not. Of course I had to see what could possibly make that site and be related to synths. Well... I have no idea if this is real or not, but I thought it was pretty damn funny and worth sharing. Title link takes you to the site. The following is the bio:

"I am an Aussie chick who loves a beer and a laugh. I dont like guys who constantly talk about their feelings and their synthesisers. If you are looking for shallow synthesiser free conversation click yes!!!"

Nice...

Nice Yamaha CS50 Shots

The Yamaha CS50, along with the CS60, is a slimmed down one OSC version of the Yamaha CS80. Taken from this auction in Australia. Title link takes you to shot saved for posterity.

OSCar on the *bay

Three shots saved for posterity.

The Many Faces of the Waldorf Wave

The Waldorf Waves, without a doubt were most beautiful synths to me. There are gorgeous synths out there and then there are the Waves. Click here for Till Kopper's Unofficial Waldorf Wave site. One of the coolest things about the Wave, aside from its massive Wavetable synthesizer power with analog filters, was that for an extra fee you could order a custom color for it. The physical design of the synth came from Axel Hartmann of the Hartmann Neuron synth. His design is pure art.

Some jems to make sure to check out:

http://www.unofficial.waldorf-wave.de/big_sahara_wave.jpg
http://www.unofficial.waldorf-wave.de/waveabout.html

The Classic Blue Wave


The Sahara Yellow Wave


The Shadow Wave


And my favorite, The Crimson Red Wave

Lemurbots - Guitarbot

In via SynthSights. Midi controllable slide guitar instrument. Wow. Title link takes you to a .mov that has to be seen to be believed. Click here for the main page. Simply amazing stuff.

The Oberheim OB12

Update: A funny via the comments (White Synths are Better!): http://musicthing.blogspot.com/2004/12/are-white-synthesizers-cooler-than.html

Yeah, I wish they kept the OB12 white, but then... People would go off on it not only because it had the Oberheim moniker but also because they tried to rip off the original OB white. Still... I think they should have done it.

BTW, there have been a few updates on the main thread since I posted this (click on the title link to get there).

Update: Two Sound on Sound articles on the OB12. One before and one after an OS update.

http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/sep00/articles/oberheim.htm
http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/Apr02/articles/oberheimob12.asp

Great post up on Vintage Synth Explorer regarding the Oberheim OB12. Title link takes you to it. I shared why I think it failed in this post - the Oberheim branding. There is no way it could live up to it.

A shot of the rare white OB12 prototype


The following in an interesting nugget from the post that I was unnaware of from CTB:

"I might have told the story about the curator of the synth museum in Florida (Audio Playground, http://www.keyboardmuseum.org/play.html). He was actually involved in the development of the OB-12. The Viscount guys asked him about features, and he gave them a bit laundry list. Months/year later, they plopped a proto in front of him and asked what he thought. The features he told me about sounded really great, and I wondered at the time why the synth wasn't more popular. Viscount actually gave him the prototype - it is the only white one ever made (kinda like the color of x-voice synths), and it is on display at the museum. I have a picture of it. He sometimes posts over on AH - Joe Rivers is his name.

Mr Rich makes me curious to hear one now."

The Moog Strikes Back - New Flickr Shot

Trip. Never saw this one before. Anyone know what synth that is with the mike?

SuperMoe Modular Sequencer Project

An interesting thread came up on AH regarding why modular analog sequencers are not modular in the sense of being able to build as man steps as you like by simply adding modular steps. James Husted posted a link to Dave Bradley's SuperMoe Modular Sequencer Project on hotrodmotm.com.



BTW, I thought the follwoing reason to build this was quite funny. : )

"I spent many months designing an "all in one 10 units wide do everything" step sequencer. It had voltage control or clock selection of the sequencer stage, 16 trigger switches, and could be switched from 8x4 to 16x2 modes. It pushed the very edge of complexity in terms of being practical to attempt to build it using discrete logic. The panel was huge and crammed full of controls. Then I made another survey of all the sequencers I could find both past and present, found 2 more features I wanted to add, and the whole thing came crashing down under its own weight.

So I went back to the drawing board, and repackaged everything in a more modular fashion."

Make sure to check out the title link for much more. On a somber note, track back to the root for a shot of Dave and the late Larry Hendry. He will live on.