The playlist above features videos covering the detailed contents of the Full Parts Kit, the Basic Kit, and build videos for Abstrak Instruments VS-1, rackmount OB-X. These were made for those that purchased kits, but I thought they might be of interest to others as well. You can find full details on the VS-1 on Abstrakt Instruments' website: https://abstraktinstruments.com.
Playlist:
VS-1 w/ Full Parts Kit - Detailed Contents
VS-1 Basic Kit - Detailed Contents
There are two minor omissions in the video...
1) The mainboard includes the MCU Module pre-installed. It is not installed in the video.
2) The kit also contains two 3M GPT-020F double-sided tape strips for OLED screen mounting.
VS-1 Final Assembly - Step 2: - Voice Motherboard Installation
VS-1 Week 178 Update #2
VS-1 PSU Modification
VS-1 Final Assembly - Step 3: Install Fan & Power Entry Module to Rear Panel
VS-1 Final Assembly - Step 4: Attach Bottom, Rear & Right Side Panel & Install Chassis Ground Wire
VS-1 Final Assembly - Step 5: Assemble Power Switch Cable
VS-1 Final Assembly - Step 6: PSU Installation
VS-1 DIY Voice Card Modification
VS-1 Final Assembly - Step 11: Front Panel Fit & PCB Stack
VS-1 Final Assembly - Step 12: Front Panel & OLED Bezel Install
Swissdoc created an image featuring the highlights from the video. Here's what he had to say about it:
"I created a focus stack from the movie to get the full picture.
Compared to pictures of the OB-X I noticed these differences:
Knobs for Menu at the bottom left of the Programmer buttons 1-8
In the Portamento/Detune section there are three buttons instead of one
The upper row seems to be identical, I see/guess the same number of knobs
Colors and knobs i.e. the industrial design is taken over 1:1"
He also reminded me of Abstract Instruments rackmount OB-X, the VS-1.
The following is an update on the project from their Kistarter campaign posted just a few days ago on April 25.
"We're back up to full speed making very good progress. We've decided to prepare the DIY kits for shipping with the option to ship the mainboard in a second shipment. There is a lot of building to complete for the kits and this will allow everyone to get started while software development is completed. As mentioned in a few prior updates.. parts for full parts kits are packaged per PCB assembly. Each PCB has the relevant parts separated, even if the same part number is used in more than one PCB assembly. This makes it easier for assembly and partial shipments. For the mainboard we're 'still' testing a few aspects including the new interface option for the OLED and vetting a new ROM IC. We still don't want to make this assembly until 100% sure it's perfect. We're not sure when the DIY kits will start shipping but I will update soon with a delivery estimate once we have a reasonable estimate. The full retail versions are built in groups of (10) units. We've had the first few groups staged for along time already and will start to ship once the software is ready.
I received many messages last Friday and over the weekend regarding the Behringer UB-X. Some colleagues and customer friends were snickering at the notion I might be working for Behringer. I will confirm the answer is no. The design of the OB-X is very particular. On one hand it's a textbook implementation of a polyphonic analog synthesizer. If you were designing a polyphonic analog in 1978 the OB-X is basically what you would find in publications of the time. Discrete oscillator, 12dB OTA-based filter, OTA-based VCA's and the new CEM ADSR IC's. On the other hand there are many minor quirks that you do not want to overlook. That said I know the in-house engineers at Behringer are excellent engineers. At the end of the day these synths aren't rocket science and these guys know what they are doing. The fact that they contracted someone to help is interesting. I do not have any insight as to who or why they have contracted someone. In any case it's safe to say I would not agree w/ all of the design trade-offs that will end up in the Behringer model. The VS-1 is second to none in this regards. Since we are a boutique company we can focus intensely one one or two designs and don't need to make any design trade-offs.
On a personal note I had mentioned that the office was closed at the beginning of the year for family reasons. I wanted to let everyone know at the time that there was a reason for the inactivity, but didn't believe it was necessary to go into details. However I received many personal messages and would like to confirm that there is no concern at home or with the VS-1. My wife and I had premature babies...twins. They came dangerously early and it was full time care for a good while. Babies are at home and healthy.
Three OB-X synths are in the works. One with the orginal build from the original maker, one rackmount, and one compact. It's worth noting Sequential typically follows up with a desktop version of their flagship keyboard synths a few months later as well, and if its not obvious, Oberheim is backed by the Sequential team.
"Technical comparison of the Abstrakt Instruments VS-1, the Oberheim OB-X, and the Sequential OB-6 - including the analog & digital aspects of each synth. It also covers the auto-tune implementations of six analog synths."
Today is the last day of Abstrakt Instruments VS-1 Kickstarter campaign. Click through for details. If you were interested in getting your hands on one, now might be a good time. They not only reached their funding goal but they also added the following stretch goals:
MIDI/MPE Support
Stereo Analog Chorus
Individual Voice Outputs
SD Card Support
MPE
Update: I thought it worth noting that this project is being done with Tom Oberheim's blessing. From the Kickstarter campaign:
"Tom Oberheim of tomoberheim.com and Oberheim Electronics is aware of our plans to market an OB-X-centric synth. We asked permission and he did not have any reservations with our plans and said good luck! We have also offered a royalty per unit but there was no interest. However, even though the VS-1 is by nature a boutique offering and won't break any sales records, we will indeed be paying a royalty in deference to the original design."
"The VS-1 combines vintage analog sound with modern features, designed for those that find modern synths over-perfected. Based on the discrete analog design of the iconic Oberheim™ OB-X, the VS-1 utilizes many of the same design trade-offs, including a signal path comprised of discrete transistors, op-amps, & 3080 OTA's utilizing through-hole components. Combined with modern digital control, a clean & simple interface, and packed into a 3U rack... this is the essence of the VS-1.
It’s all about the tone. Based on the classic OB-X, each voice consists of two analog VCO's and a 12dB OTA Filter (LP/BP/HP) and VCA.
VCO's Two discrete VCO's per voice with saw and pulse waves. Pulse width can be adjusted from 0% to 100%. VCO1 can be modulated by VCO2 (crossmod) and VCO2 can by hard-synced to the frequency of VCO1. VCO's can also be modulated by two analog LFO's, two digital LFO's per-voice, and a DADSR 5-stage envelope generator.
Noise Analog white & pink noise.
Portamento Analog polyphonic portamento gives a natural clustering effect between voices as the analog components are never perfectly matched. Although this requires many additional components it has been included - another example of small imperfections that impart character. In addition, digital portamento with both fixed rate and fixed time modes is also included.
12dB OTA Filter The classic resonant 12dB multimode filter is the desert island filter, simply awesome in a polyphonic synth. The classic OB-X had a fixed lowpass mode, the OB-R has lowpass, bandpass & highpass modes.
Panning VCA's Each voice retains the classic 3080 OTA VCA but also includes a stereo panning VCA that can be modulated by several sources. The spread control make it easy to pan voices across the stereo field.
Envelope Generators Each voice has a dedicated analog ADSR for the filter and VCA. In addition there is a global five-stage DADSR with (20) modulation destinations.
Analog LFO's Two global analog LFO's with triangle, square and S&H waveforms can be sent to VCO1 frequency and pulse width, VCO2 frequency and pulse width, and filter cutoff.
Digital LFO’s Two LFO’s per voice with triangle, sawtooth, reverse sawtooth, square, and random waves with (20) destinations. LFO’s also have dedicated attack-decay envelopes and can be free-running or synced to the arpeggiator, sequencer, or MIDI clock for tempo-synced effects.
For those interested and those that missed it, Abstrakt Instruments Oberheim OB-X calibration video is back online in this post. If you were ever curious about what's involved in calibration an OB-X, this video is for you. It brings back memories of by OB-Xa for me. :) I remember opening up that hood several times.
"This video covers the Abstrakt Instruments OB-X parts kits and specific details relating to the packaging and installation."
[Abstrakt Instruments] Oberheim OB-X Calibration
Published on Jan 30, 2019 Abstrakt Instruments
"This video goes over the calibration procedure for the Voice Cards and Voice Motherboard for the OB-X. Some details are specific to our custom OB-X parts but most is applicable to any OB-X."
If you want to see this happen you might want to back the Kickstarter here. They are currently only $2201 of their $4000 goal with 7 backers. Help spread the word. Abstrakt Instruments brought us the highly acclaimed Avalon Bassline, essentially a TB-303 on steroids.
A quick recap on the campaign:
"This is your chance to help fund and procure parts for the iconic LinnDrum (LM-2) Drum Machine. This is the second in our series of meticulously designed replacement parts projects for vintage synths & drum machines. This project follows up the completion of the Oberheim OB-X Parts Project. We've established a low funding goal of $4k to cover the cost of the custom parts to get the project off the ground.
Before getting into the details of the actual parts we'll clearly state what is being offered. We are offering bare PCB's and PCB Assemblies for the LinnDrum (LM-2) Drum Machine:
LinnDrum MXR PCB Assembly
LinnDrum CPU Board PCB
LinnDrum CPU Board PCB Assembly
LinnDrum CPU Board PCB Assembly (w/o switches)
LinnDrum 5VSR PCB Assembly"
"This is your chance to help fund and procure parts for the iconic LinnDrum (LM-2) Drum Machine. This is the second in our series of meticulously designed replacement parts projects for vintage synths & drum machines. This project follows up the completion of the Oberheim OB-X Parts Project [posted here]. We've established a low funding goal of $4k to cover the cost of the custom parts to get the project off the ground.
Before getting into the details of the actual parts we'll clearly state what is being offered. We are offering bare PCB's and PCB Assemblies for the LinnDrum (LM-2) Drum Machine:
"If funding reaches $25k we will be offering parts & assemblies for a full rack enclosure, front end, and power supply to build your own *OBX rack. We have already developed a front end for testing our *OBX parts but need to raise enough funds to make it worthwhile to dedicate resources to finish development on the full kit.
The *OBX rack kit will consist of the following:
Rack Enclosure with front panel
Panelboard PCB & BOM for building the front end
Motherboard PCB Assemblies for rack version
I/O board PCB Assembly
Power Supply Assembly
Estimated budget for these parts & assemblies is $995.
Do Not purchase *OBX Motherboards if looking to build the rack version, alternate motherboards would be used.
Disclaimer: We are offering these parts for the vintage Oberheim OB-X Synthesizer. The current status of the ownership of the original Oberheim name, logo, and the "OB-X" name are not known. Gibson, the most recent owner, is now in bankruptcy and is owned by a group of financial companies. We have specifically avoided using the original company name "Oberheim" and original model name "OB-X" in the naming of our parts. It may also be necessary to remove the brand and model name from the production PCB's."
Update: (in via swissdoc)
"Answers to questions regarding the stretch goal.
Q) The Rack Option would be the only thing of interest to me. Since you write "Do Not purchase *OBX Motherboards if looking to build the rack version, alternate motherboards would be used.", what would I order to get the Rack OB-X with 8 voices?
a) You would pledge only one item at this time - *OBX Voice Card Assembly (8-pack) $1750. But please keep in mind if the goal is reached the remaining assemblies will cost about $1000 when ready to ship.
Q) Is it possible to get a more clear picture of the front panel?
a) Below is a link, Kickstarter compresses and resizes images. Please note this image is a render. The test control board we currently use does not conform to 3U size and would need to be laid out.
Q) If the *OBX Rack becomes available will the boards be bare or assembled?
a) Either. There would be a BOM but an assembled version would be available as well.
Q) Will the proposed *OBX rack have MIDI.
a) yes, USB and DIN MIDI.
Q) Will the proposed *OBX rack have patch storage?
a) There is no patch storage on the prototype (it does have autotune). Patch storage can be included but the price would likely increase somewhat. We would decide as a community which option to pursue. If it ended up with patch storage the enclosure would be 4U with 12 additional buttons for selection of 120 patches."
"This is your chance to help fund and procure parts for the iconic Oberheim OB-X synthesizer. This is a passion project which came about through product development & engineering. We have built and tested numerous assemblies from our favorite vintage synths for the purpose of studying the intricacies of each design. After testing, these parts are generally used in our in-house machines or neatly stored away. In the case of the OB-X, employees & visitors alike were asking to remake these parts. Since we are not in the primary business of selling parts or kits it took some convincing. These designs are completely finished. We've established a goal of $10k to make sure we have enough quantity to hit our pricing targets. If the goal is reached at the end of the funding period we will immediately send out for the parts to be made. We do not anticipate offering these parts for sale in the future. This project is more of a give-back to the vintage synth community as opposed to a practical money-making venture.
Before getting into the details of the actual parts we'll clearly state what is being offered. We are offering various voice-related parts for the OB-X synthesizer, including bare PCB's, fully assembled PCB's, and fully assembled kits.
*OBX Voice Card PCB
*OBX Voice Card PCB Assembly
*OBX Motherboard PCB
*OBX Motherboard PCB Assembly
*OBX Motherboard Tray
*OBX 4-Voice Expansion Kit
*OBX 8-Voice Kit
*OBX Filter Control Board Assembly
Voice Card PCB
The *OBX Voice Card PCB is interchangeable with original parts. The layout is the same with the following improvements.
ENIG Gold surface finish.
Double-sided black soldermask.
Support for multi-mode filter. The 'Noise Half & Full' buttons can be used to select filter modes. This option requires our Motherboard PCB and Filter Control Board. No other modifications required.
Placements for 25-turn Bourns potentiometers for VCO adjustments
Placements for LM7815/7915 1.5A voltage regulators to upgrade the original 78L15/79L15 parts.
Placements for Panasonic FC radial capacitors to upgrade the original axial components."
