Oberheim is an American
synthesizer
A synthesizer (also spelled synthesiser) is an electronic musical instrument that generates audio signals. Synthesizers typically create sounds by generating waveforms through methods including subtractive synthesis, additive synthesis and ...
manufacturer founded in 1969 by
Tom Oberheim
Thomas Elroy Oberheim (born July 7, 1936, Manhattan, Kansas), known as Tom Oberheim, is an American audio engineer and electronics engineer best known for designing effects processors, analog synthesizers, sequencers, and drum machines. He has ...
.
[
]
History and products
Tom Oberheim founded the company in 1969, originally as a designer and
contract manufacturer
A contract manufacturer (CM) is a manufacturer that contracts with a firm for components or products (in which case it is a turnkey supplier). It is a form of outsourcing. A contract manufacturer performing packaging operations is called copacker ...
of electronic effects devices for Maestro (most notably the Maestro PS-1A Phase Shifter),
, and briefly a retail dealer for
ARP Instruments
ARP Instruments, Inc. was a Lexington, Massachusetts manufacturer of electronic musical instruments, founded by Alan Robert Pearlman
in 1969. It created a popular and commercially successful range of synthesizers throughout the 1970s before de ...
,
eventually designing the company's first Oberheim-branded product, the Oberheim DS-2, one of the first digital
music sequencers
A music sequencer (or audio sequencer or simply sequencer) is a device or application software that can record, edit, or play back music, by handling Musical note, note and performance information in several forms, typically CV/Gate, MIDI, or O ...
.
In 1975 Oberheim introduced the Synthesizer Expander Module (SEM) to complement the DS-2 sequencer and enable a user to play one synthesizer while the DS-2 played a sequence on another. The SEM featured a two-pole
filter
Filter, filtering or filters may refer to:
Science and technology
Computing
* Filter (higher-order function), in functional programming
* Filter (software), a computer program to process a data stream
* Filter (video), a software component tha ...
that could operate as a
low-pass
A low-pass filter is a filter that passes signals with a frequency lower than a selected cutoff frequency and attenuates signals with frequencies higher than the cutoff frequency. The exact frequency response of the filter depends on the filter des ...
,
high-pass
A high-pass filter (HPF) is an electronic filter that passes signals with a frequency higher than a certain cutoff frequency and attenuates signals with frequencies lower than the cutoff frequency. The amount of attenuation for each frequency d ...
,
band-pass
A band-pass filter or bandpass filter (BPF) is a device that passes frequencies within a certain range and rejects (attenuates) frequencies outside that range.
Description
In electronics and signal processing, a filter is usually a two-por ...
, or band-reject filter, giving it a different sound than the Moog and ARP filters popular at the time.
The company later combined multiple SEM modules with a digitally-scanned keyboard and a 2-channel voltage-controlled sequencer to create a series of
polyphonic synthesizers
Polyphony ( ) is a type of musical texture consisting of two or more simultaneous lines of independent melody, as opposed to a musical texture with just one voice, monophony, or a texture with one dominant melodic voice accompanied by chords, h ...
, beginning with the
2-Voice, followed by the
4-Voice,
and, in 1977, the 8-Voice
which combined a 4-Voice with an external module of four additional SEMs. An optional
programmer module, capable of storing and recalling 16 instances of some of the sound settings, was available for the 4-Voice and 8-Voice. These were among the first commercially-available polyphonic synthesizers.
In 1977, Oberheim introduced the
OB-1, the first completely programmable synthesizer. The OB-1 was later replaced by the
OB-X and
OB-Xa, which replaced the relatively bulky SEMs with individual or compact voice cards, and utilized common cabinetry and power supplies.
Oberheim introduced the
Xpander in 1984, further expanding that product series with the
Matrix-6 and the
Matrix-12. The
Matrix-1000, though bearing the Matrix name, was marketed after Oberheim was acquired by Gibson.
[
][
]
Oberheim drum machines
Oberheim's
DMX drum machine, a staple of early
hip-hop music,
[
] lent its name to the Producer
Davy DMX
David Franklin Reeves Jr. (known professionally as Davy DMX, Davy D or Davy Dee, and also credited under the name David Reeves) is an American musician, DJ, and producer best known for his work in cooperation with Run-DMC, Kurtis Blow, The Fat ...
, electro musician
DMX Krew
DMX Krew is the recording name of the musician Edward Upton. Upton's other aliases include 101 Force, Asylum Seekers, Bass Potato, Chester Louis III, Computor Rockers, David Michael Cross, Ed DMX, EDMX, House of Brakes, Michael Knight, and Viet ...
, and is still used in
dancehall reggae
Dancehall is a genre of Jamaican popular music that originated in the late 1970s. Initially, dancehall was a more sparse version of reggae than the roots style, which had dominated much of the 1970s.Barrow, Steve & Dalton, Peter (2004) "The Rou ...
music.
Oberheim/Gibson
Oberheim Electronics declared bankruptcy in 1985 and was acquired by a group of lawyers who changed the name to Oberheim ECC. Following the acquisition, Tom Oberheim was creatively still at the helm of the company for a couple of years, before leaving to found Marion Systems. After a second bankruptcy in early 1988,
Gibson Guitar Corporation
Gibson Brands, Inc. (formerly Gibson Guitar Corporation) is an American manufacturer of guitars, other musical instruments, and professional audio equipment from Kalamazoo, Michigan, and now based in Nashville, Tennessee. The company was forme ...
, a larger musical instrument manufacturer (who, incidentally, also owned the Maestro brand), acquired Oberheim. Gibson, under the direction of Keith McMillen (who was Gibson's Vice President and Chief of R&D at the time), produced the Oberheim OB-Mx
[
] in collaboration with D.N. "Lynx" Crowe and
Don Buchla
Donald Buchla (April 17, 1937 – September 14, 2016) was an American pioneer in the field of sound synthesis. Buchla popularized the "West Coast" style of synthesis. He was co-inventor of the voltage controlled modular synthesizer along with Rob ...
; the Oberheim Echoplex Digital Pro in collaboration with Aurisis Research (Matthias Grob, Kim Flint, Eric Obermühlner); and re-released the Oberheim Strummer and Matrix 1000.
Oberheim/Viscount
The Oberheim trademark was later licensed to
Viscount International, an Italian digital-organ producer. Viscount developed various instruments that were very innovative for the time and are still in demand: the
Oberheim OB*12 analog modeling synthesizer
An analog modeling synthesizer is a synthesizer that generates the sounds of traditional analog synthesizers using digital signal processing, DSP components and software algorithms. Analog modeling synthesizers simulate the behavior of the original ...
,
[
] the
GM-1000 guitar multi-effects unit,
[
] the MC series of master keyboards,
[
] and the
OB32, a
virtual tonewheel organ.
[
]
Tom Oberheim returns to the synthesizer market
In 2009, Tom Oberheim announced that he was manufacturing a new version of his classic analog
SEM.
[
][
— Tom Oberheim reissued SEM in 2009.
][
][
]
In 2011–2012, Tom Oberheim announced a four-voice SEM called "
Son Of 4 Voice" (SO4V),
[
— Tom Oberheim announces Oberheim 4 Voice in 2011.
] as well as an updated version of the classic Two-Voice known as the
Two-Voice Pro.
[
— Tom Oberheim announces Oberheim Two Voice Pro in 2012.
] The "Son Of 4 Voice" and the Two Voice Pro started shipping in 2014.
[
]
At the
NAMM
The NAMM Show is an annual event in the United States that is organized by the National Association of Music Merchants (NAMM), who describe it as "the industry’s largest stage, uniting the global music, sound and entertainment technology commun ...
show of January 2016, Tom Oberheim announced the
Dave Smith Instruments
Sequential is an American synthesizer company founded in 1974 as Sequential Circuits by Dave Smith. In 1978, Sequential released the Prophet-5, the first programmable polyphonic synthesizer; it became a market leader and industry standard, used ...
OB-6, a collaboration with
Dave Smith resulting in Tom Oberheim's first voltage-controlled multi-voiced polyphonic synth since the mid-1980s; Tom Oberheim designed the VCO/VCF part replicating his SEM module, while control features, arpeggiator/step sequencer and effects processing were designed by Smith using his Prophet platform.
Oberheim trademark returned
In July 2019, JC Curleigh, CEO of
Gibson
Gibson may refer to:
People
* Gibson (surname)
Businesses
* Gibson Brands, Inc., an American manufacturer of guitars, other musical instruments, and audio equipment
* Gibson Technology, and English automotive and motorsport company based
* Gi ...
, returned the Oberheim trademark and IP back to Tom Oberheim as "a gesture of goodwill to the musical instrument industry."
In May of 2022, the new Oberheim released the OB-X8, the company's first synthesizer in decades. As with the
Sequential
In mathematics, a sequence is an enumerated collection of objects in which repetitions are allowed and order matters. Like a set, it contains members (also called ''elements'', or ''terms''). The number of elements (possibly infinite) is called th ...
-made OB6, the OB-X8 was designed and built in collaboration with longtime friend Dave Smith, and it combines the original Oberheim's three signature OB polysynths-the OB-X, the OB-Xa and the OB-8-in a single unit.
Legacy
Both Marcus Ryle and Michel Doidic worked for Oberheim as instrument designers before helping develop the
ADAT multitrack digital tape recorder for
Alesis
Alesis is an electronic music company that designs and markets electronic musical instruments, digital audio processors, audio mixers, drum amplifiers, amplifiers, digital audio interfaces, recording equipment, drum machines, professional aud ...
, (a 'prosumer' grade digital recording multitrack deck designed to compete with the Tascam DA series of digital multitracks) and then moving on to found
Line 6 together.
[
]
See also
*
Tom Oberheim
Thomas Elroy Oberheim (born July 7, 1936, Manhattan, Kansas), known as Tom Oberheim, is an American audio engineer and electronics engineer best known for designing effects processors, analog synthesizers, sequencers, and drum machines. He has ...
*
E-mu Systems
E-mu Systems was a software synthesizer, audio interface, MIDI interface, and MIDI keyboard manufacturer. Founded in 1971 as a synthesizer maker, E-mu was a pioneer in samplers, sample-based drum machines and low-cost digital sampling musi ...
*
Gibson Guitar Corporation
Gibson Brands, Inc. (formerly Gibson Guitar Corporation) is an American manufacturer of guitars, other musical instruments, and professional audio equipment from Kalamazoo, Michigan, and now based in Nashville, Tennessee. The company was forme ...
*
Viscount
A viscount ( , for male) or viscountess (, for female) is a title used in certain European countries for a noble of varying status.
In many countries a viscount, and its historical equivalents, was a non-hereditary, administrative or judicial ...
References
External links
Oberheim AbbeySynthesizer Discussion Forum
at SynthZone.com
Oberheim overviewat SynthSale
Viscount Italymain site
TomOberheim.comThe new Oberheim site
Tom OberheimNAMM Oral History Interview (2005)
{{Oberheim
Synthesizer manufacturing companies of the United States
Musical instrument manufacturing companies based in Los Angeles
Manufacturing companies based in San Francisco
Electronics companies established in 1969
Manufacturing companies established in 1969
1969 establishments in California