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Gear Spotting- My Place


Markyboard

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I spent some time yesterday and figured out how to render wave and mp3 files in Reaper. It was very easy once I got past having to send track(s) to the Master bus which was never mentioned in the manual but now makes sense (duh). I recall doing this in Cubase but it been quite a while. I should be able to post some examples pretty soon.

 

Thanks Paolo- looking forward to some of your examples on the new baby en route.

 

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Mark, I dig your writing!

 

Some more Obie-spotting: Lyle using a 4-voice for a pad at .44 and 1.00 then a single horn note at 6.52 (but what a horn) ...

 

(IIRC the signature high pitched detuned pulse leads were originally Obie ... dunno what he's using here)

 

If you watch carefully,- you´ll recognize,- at 4:20, Lyle´s left hand starts playing exactly this/his "signature" sound on the OB 4-voice.

 

On top of the grand, it´s a Prophet 5, and even he´s playing the Prophet in the earlier parts of the title, you´re listening to this signature sound as a layer too.

 

I´ve seen the band many times in halls but also small clubs and I assume he was able to midi up things already at this times. The most prefered MIDI/CV interface for a OB 4-voice was the Roland MPU-101 and if I remember right, I´ve seen a Cooper (?) midi-matrix in his rig in the past.

I think he was able to play anything in his rig via midi by almost any keyboard available except the grand piano.

 

Cannot identify the other keyboard left and below the OB 4-voice,- sorry.

 

 

 

Horns:

Obies are great for horns,- 1st I listened to Oberheim horns was on Jan Hammers "The 1st Seven Days" album,- all horns done w/ Oberheim 4 voice/SEM.

 

A.C.

 

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OK - this is a test just see if I got this figured out. I chopped the mid/high stuff off the PC3x sample so the SEM lead sound doesn't get stepped on. The SEM is totally dry but I may add some delay for future samples. The Voyager/SEM comparison stuff is coming but I'm betting most of what I hear gets lost in the conversion process. Assuming this works I'll have a better sampling of the SEM flavors later this week.

 

SEM 1

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Anyone notice the vintage synth collection in the back of Keyboard Mag this month? Quite a few Oberheim SEMs there. Along with every other collectible vintage synth.

Muzikteechur is Lonnie, in Kittery, Maine.

 

HS music teacher: Concert Band, Marching Band, Jazz Band, Chorus, Music Theory, AP Music Theory, History of Rock, Musical Theatre, Piano, Guitar, Drama.

 

 

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  • 2 months later...

Can't believe no one has replied to the audio file posting...unless it was mentioned elsewhere. Just read this whole thread as I am a huge fan of the 4 voice, Lyle, and Tom O's newest inventions.

It's a lovely sound I'm hearing here...very soulful (the tasteful tune and playing helps of course.)

 

It strikes me that there is something valuable about having no presets. (maybe ten would be nice...), but seriously, for sound like this I'd happily forego a thousand sounds at a button press.

 

Thanks!

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OK - this is a test just see if I got this figured out. I chopped the mid/high stuff off the PC3x sample so the SEM lead sound doesn't get stepped on. The SEM is totally dry but I may add some delay for future samples. The Voyager/SEM comparison stuff is coming but I'm betting most of what I hear gets lost in the conversion process. Assuming this works I'll have a better sampling of the SEM flavors later this week.

 

SEM 1

 

Great sound! Thanks for posting this Marky!

-Mike Martin

 

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The Big Picture Photography Forum on Music Player Network

 

The opinions I post here are my own and do not represent the company I work for.

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I highly recommend a legal copy of this album of course, but I'd like to call attention to it as a tour de force of Oberheim goodness, courtesy of Lyle Mays:

[video:youtube]

 

One anecdote I recall was they came up with that album name because they thought "Suite for Synthesizers" sounded boring.

 

Mark, belated congrats on the SEM!

 

 

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The reason the early Oberheims sound so dirty and creamy is the VCA. Back in those days, the VCA was a CA3080 OTA. The 3080 isn't a high fidelity device and can be overdriven if desired (its linear region is a tiny 20mV range). The early Oberheims exploited this overdrive feature. By the time the OB-8 came around, the 3080 was replaced with a CEM3360 dual VCA. That's why the sound got "too clean", and that's why the Voyager with a 12dB filter won't sound like an Oberheim.
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The reason the early Oberheims sound so dirty and creamy is the VCA. Back in those days, the VCA was a CA3080 OTA. The 3080 isn't a high fidelity device and can be overdriven if desired (its linear region is a tiny 20mV range). The early Oberheims exploited this overdrive feature. By the time the OB-8 came around, the 3080 was replaced with a CEM3360 dual VCA. That's why the sound got "too clean", and that's why the Voyager with a 12dB filter won't sound like an Oberheim.

 

Interesting - I never would have picked the VCA as the device to make or break the character sound of a synth. But what you say does make sense. Thanks for sharing.

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