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GForce to add OB-e to their lineup


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I own everything they make, have for many years, some of the first VSTi's that I ever purchased. Really looking forward to this release.

 

As an aside, if you watch the now free to view "Bright Sparks" documentary, you can see that beautiful instrument behind several of the interviews at Dave Spiers' studio.

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Someone once asked me which virtual instrument plugin I would keep if I had to give up every other one forever. I chose M-Tron Pro. No question about it.

 

If GForce were to port that plugin and all of its available libraries to iOS, I would be one big step toward stopping laptop-based music production for good.

 

Looking forward to this new one... and it's typical Dave S to do a video like this, suckering folks in deep before revealing the truth. And hey, he's got the real 8-Voice right there....

Dr. Mike Metlay (PhD in nuclear physics, golly gosh) :D

Musician, Author, Editor, Educator, Impresario, Online Radio Guy, Cut-Rate Polymath, and Kindly Pedant

Editor-in-Chief, Bjooks ~ Author of SYNTH GEMS 1

 

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They did try an Oberheim prototype many years ago but weren't granted the rights to release it, as I recall. This project seems unrelated though, as it is SEM-focused vs. OB-X.

 

I still have a few of my G-Force plugs up for sale on the other forum, as I've been trying to consolidate to fewer vendors as I get up there in years. Good stuff all around though.

Eugenio Upright, 60th Anniversary P-Bass, USA Geddy Lee J-Bass, Yamaha BBP35, D'angelico SS Bari, EXL1,

Select Strat, 70th Anniversary Esquire, LP 57, Eastman T486, T64, Ibanez PM2, Hammond XK4, Moog Voyager

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I'm a solid G-Force adherent, but just looking at it makes me shiver. That's a lot of hard-wired modular madness to manage. I also suspect it'll be a CPU-eater like the Arturia Matrix-12. I have faith in them to get it Right, but not so much in my own ability to tweak it enough to justify the commitment. It'd be like putting your granny on a Harley. I guess I'll have to settle for the presets! :cool::laugh:

 "I want to be an intellectual, but I don't have the brainpower.
  The absent-mindedness, I've got that licked."
        ~ John Cleese

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Ah, so this was they were teasing (there's a big thread on this over at KVR).

 

Figures, I just picked up bx oberhausen over the holidays (paid 30 bucks total for this and Thorn so I couldn't say no).

 

This will likely be very good and I await comparisons to other Oberheim-ey synths.

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I'm torn on designs like that (realistic ones). I have various synths and effects that do that, and some of them (not all) aren't as user-friendly as they could be when it comes to resizing or simply being able to grab the (sometimes tiny) knobs with a mouse. I have a devil of a time with certain Native Instrument plugins for example. A knob makes sense in the real world, your hand has to grab and turn something, or slide something. Not to mention that sometimes it can simply be hard to see what things are.

 

A case in point, B-3X. It has the real-looking C/V knob and it's kind of clunky to actually select a position using the ipad. Same with the real-looking leslie speed switch.

 

On the flip side, the realistic designs do add some excitement and mojo (some of my plugin alliance ones are all beat-up and dented!). And of course for veterans of the actual hardware it's a big plus if the plugin looks and acts the same.

 

On the whole, my favorite plugin designs are simple and vector, Valhalla and Logic's redesigned ones are tops IMO. This one looks clean and nice but I'll have to see about the knobs. Mainly I can't wait to see more demos and read some reviews, it should be a monster sound-wise!

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I'm torn on designs like that (realistic ones).

 

Ditto. There is an excellent sounding soft SEM in Reaktor, and you can add modulations points easily, but it's fiddly to set up the polyphonic trickery that makes an 8 voice an 8 voice. Gforce has done that beautifully. Also Gforce does those aforementioned handcrafted patches!!!

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Just got it, sounds pretty incredible so far!!!

 

One thing...the GUI is huge; if you want to reduce the size, there's a tiny triangle in the upper left corner. You mouse over it to reveal a smaller value; close the window and re-open. Works like a charm and makes it a lot easier to deal with.

 

I've always loved the tone of the Oberheim filters...and this one seems pretty accurate to my ears!

Tom

Nord Electro 5D, Modal Cobalt 8, Yamaha upright piano, numerous plug-ins...

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They're looking for an intern to do a JUCE version for Windows support, expecting it to be at least a half year out, from where I read elsewhere today.

 

I'll be curious to hear comparisons with Arturia's polyphonic SEM V, and the bx_oberhausen from Plugin Alliance (aka Brainworx), both of which I own.

Eugenio Upright, 60th Anniversary P-Bass, USA Geddy Lee J-Bass, Yamaha BBP35, D'angelico SS Bari, EXL1,

Select Strat, 70th Anniversary Esquire, LP 57, Eastman T486, T64, Ibanez PM2, Hammond XK4, Moog Voyager

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I"m in and will buy this. I owned the original Oberheim Modular 8 voice, this sounds damn close. Now I just need an M1 or M2 based iMac to replace my aging Intel based iMac.

Using:

Yamaha: Montage M8x| Spectrasonics: Omnisphere, Keyscape | uhe: Diva, Hive2, Zebra2| Roland: Cloud Pro | Arturia: V Collection

NI: Komplete 14 | VPS: Avenger | Cherry: GX80 | G-Force: OB-E | Korg: Triton, MS-20

 

Sold/Traded:

Yamaha: Motif XS8, Motif ES8, Motif8, KX-88, TX7 | ASM: Hydrasynth Deluxe| Roland: RD-2000, D50, MKS-20| Korg: Kronos 88, T3, MS-20

Oberheim: OB8, OBXa, Modular 8 Voice | Rhodes: Dyno-My-Piano| Crumar: T2

 

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Hey Mark, I own the Plugin-alliance and Arturia versions as well.

They are very good but this one seems to have more detail in the "randomness" of the sound...much like an analog synth.

 

I also hate the programming that Arturia do - very few useful programs that I can open and tweak to make my own thing.

Tom

Nord Electro 5D, Modal Cobalt 8, Yamaha upright piano, numerous plug-ins...

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Thanks analogman1, good feedback. I'm on a 2017 iMac so I can try the demo and make sure it runs OK on my system.

 

I recently sold M-Tron Pro as I actually prefer the less authentic one from Arturia, and minimonsta as I use my hardware for Moog sounds.

 

Also, I do prefer Korg's Oddity to the one from G-Force, but I've always preferred the ARP 2500 and 2600 to the Odyssey anyway.

 

My favourite G-Force synth has long been impOSCar, which I am likely to keep -- especially as Version 2 was a serious upgrade.

 

I am trying to sell Oddity and VSM though, as I prefer dedicated emulations to just a few specific string synths, such as Cherry's Polymoog.

 

I did suspect there was something new and major coming from G-Force for some time though, due to some hints, vs. some V2 or V3 revs.

Eugenio Upright, 60th Anniversary P-Bass, USA Geddy Lee J-Bass, Yamaha BBP35, D'angelico SS Bari, EXL1,

Select Strat, 70th Anniversary Esquire, LP 57, Eastman T486, T64, Ibanez PM2, Hammond XK4, Moog Voyager

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Hey Mark, another great-sounding synth is Imposcar 2. Really great sounding!

I like the Apple vintage mellotron because it's so easy and sounds great. I never use my Arturia one...

As far as VSM; I have the expansion packs and like it.

Tom

Nord Electro 5D, Modal Cobalt 8, Yamaha upright piano, numerous plug-ins...

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Ah, memories. I remember drooling over this beast at Guitar Center on Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood in the late 70s. I can still remember that point in time - on the other side of the street from the current location. In the keyboard room - this Oberheim beast, the Yamaha CS80 in front of the sidewalk window, Arp Omni, 2600 and Odyssey in the house, a Roland small modular rig (forget the model number), Fender Rhodes, and a bunch of other goodies. A golden age of keyboards.

 

And now for about $100 bucks, I can recreate that crazy synth I could once only dream about?? Are you kidding me? I'm in.

Hammond XK5, Alesis QS8, Yamaha DX7IIFD, Roland XV2020 (SRX-11 & 12), Kawai RX7, Scheidmayer Clavichord, Strymon (Flint, Big Sky, Timeline, Mobius, Ola, El Capistan), Neo Ventilator II
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I've spent enough time with the OB-E demo now to be able to say that it has no competitors, in any sense of the word.

 

The other SEM clones are one-voice as far as I can tell from the GUI's and the user manuals and programming some custom patches just now.

 

But that's kind of irrelevant, as even in single-voice mode, the OB-E slaughters the rest of the field. Much cleaner sounding, more analog and pure.

 

There's a three-dimensionality that feels like playing a real synth; by comparison, the other contenders feel like thin paper or plastic.

 

I'm not a fan of the presets, and generally do not like G-Force's presets anyway, plus most of them are polyphonic and also make use of the Delay.

 

Perhaps the ones that show up once purchased are way better than this demo bank. At any rate, unlike with SEM V, it's easy to create musical presets.

 

Note that you can set the view to mono vs. poly, but the back panel for each module is also shown if you click the lower-right-corner triangle (now yellow).

 

Feature-wise, none of the three are quite on-par. No point in going into details, as this VI being an Eight-Voice distinguishes it enough on that point alone.

 

None of this necessarily means I am going to buy it, as I am trying to move away from VI's in general and go back to doing more of my music live.

Eugenio Upright, 60th Anniversary P-Bass, USA Geddy Lee J-Bass, Yamaha BBP35, D'angelico SS Bari, EXL1,

Select Strat, 70th Anniversary Esquire, LP 57, Eastman T486, T64, Ibanez PM2, Hammond XK4, Moog Voyager

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My home town music store had one with the expander that I didn't have a clue about back in the early 70's

Triton Extreme 76, Kawai ES3, GEM-RPX, HX3/Drawbar control, MSI Z97

MPower/4790K, Lynx Aurora 8/MADI/AES16e, OP-X PRO, Ptec, Komplete.

Ashley MX-206. future MOTU M64 RME Digiface Dante for Mon./net

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Ah, memories. I remember drooling over this beast at Guitar Center on Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood in the late 70s. I can still remember that point in time - on the other side of the street from the current location. In the keyboard room - this Oberheim beast, the Yamaha CS80 in front of the sidewalk window, Arp Omni, 2600 and Odyssey in the house, a Roland small modular rig (forget the model number), Fender Rhodes, and a bunch of other goodies. A golden age of keyboards.

 

And now for about $100 bucks, I can recreate that crazy synth I could once only dream about?? Are you kidding me? I'm in.

I remember their keyboard room back then was awfully small I did buy a CP-80 DX-7 poly 61 and an SQ80 from them.

Triton Extreme 76, Kawai ES3, GEM-RPX, HX3/Drawbar control, MSI Z97

MPower/4790K, Lynx Aurora 8/MADI/AES16e, OP-X PRO, Ptec, Komplete.

Ashley MX-206. future MOTU M64 RME Digiface Dante for Mon./net

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I like the Apple vintage mellotron because it's so easy and sounds great. I never use my Arturia one...

 

I'm an all-in M-Tron Pro player. The narrow range of Logic's Mellotron feels like having my face mashed between closing bus doors. Arturia's best strength is user WAV drop-in, IMO and only if you want to use their version as your main sampler.

 

Dave Spiers talks about the OB-E on the latest Sonic State podcast. He provides a tidy explanation for the Mac-only release, the short version being that it had an odd development path which began a bit experimentally on that platform. I appreciate his pointing out that GForce internally agrees not to announce things before they're fully baked. He also said a PC version was coming eventually, so, no abandonment there. Just FYI. Its a very nice instrument to have drop from a recently less-than-blue sky. :thu:

 "I want to be an intellectual, but I don't have the brainpower.
  The absent-mindedness, I've got that licked."
        ~ John Cleese

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