The Official Sequential/Oberheim Forum
SEQUENTIAL/DSI => OB-6 => Topic started by: OBJimKenobi on May 18, 2020, 02:05:59 AM
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Hello
The OB-6 can't display patch names but it does have them, they're in the patch data. They'd have to be after all or the various patch editors and librarians wouldn't have any names to display!
Do you miss being able to see the patch names on the unit or even being able to edit them?
I like patch names. They can inspire and it's more meaningful to write down "Broken EP, great e.piano" rather than "507, great e.piano".
Anyone? Or do you not care? Or is having names in an editor sufficient? Personally I don't use editors much.
Jim
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I do not miss the display of the names. The Minitaur doesn't even have a display but I love it all the same too. MidiOx lets you add and change names. It's free and probably the best sysex tool out there for PC users.
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A lack of page names certainly isn't a dealbreaker but I like them
The reason I ask is, I did this fun little project over the weekend!
Using an Arduino to display Sequential/DSI OB-6 patch names
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2V71R6dMcoU (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2V71R6dMcoU)
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That’s cool. Is it something you’ll be sharing or making commercially available? Is there a way to extend the project so that you could edit the names on the Arduino itself rather than having to use a librarian?
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That’s cool. Is it something you’ll be sharing or making commercially available? Is there a way to extend the project so that you could edit the names on the Arduino itself rather than having to use a librarian?
Potentially yes to all that but very early days. Just a proof of concept right now. Memory is incredibly limited on an Arduino which presents challenges for editing (but I'd like to be able to do that) but they're super easy to mass produce.You can actually roll your own Arduino with about 5 components!
Just canvassing interest at the moment.
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qYcBrYvZEhY&t=10s
LFE showing patch names and categories
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qYcBrYvZEhY&t=10s
LFE showing patch names and categories
Yes the LFE's awesome! I know of your work :) Expensive solution though if you _just_ want the patch part of it.
What's its brain? Something more than a stock ATMega328 I assume.
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It would be nice to see patch names on the device. Neither of my hardware synths shows patch names (OB-6 & SE-02). However, being desktop modules, my computer is always on and I have 2 editors for each synth that display the names.
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Categories are vastly more important to me than patch names.
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Categories are vastly more important to me than patch names.
Yes I'd like to implement that too. Category names aren't stored in the patch just a value representing a category. Presumably those indentified in the official Sequential editor are regarded by Sequential as the 'official' ones. I don't know if there's any other 'standard' amongst manufacturers.
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The LFE's brain is a Teensy 3.6, which is more powerful than it needs! It's core is an ARM Cortex M4 running at 180 MHz.
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Categories are vastly more important to me than patch names.
Which is why the Knobkraft Orm brings you both Patch Names and Categories (with Color Index) for the OB-6, couldn't agree more.
Currently it's a Windows/Linux software (free! OpenSource!), but Mac support is coming and my end goal is to have this running as a touch tablet app bolted to my keyboard rack, to control all synths:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lPoFOVpTANM
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That software looks fantastic! I hope you are successful porting it to Mac. Good luck with your project, and thank you.
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Very cool Sir!
A lack of page names certainly isn't a dealbreaker but I like them
The reason I ask is, I did this fun little project over the weekend!
Using an Arduino to display Sequential/DSI OB-6 patch names
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2V71R6dMcoU (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2V71R6dMcoU)
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I don't miss seeing them, a lot of the time when saving a patch I don't know what words to use to describe it and I'll give some random name just to move on. Saving to a location is pretty straightforward so long as I set a PC message to recall it for a given project.
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Yes, I think they should have used a simple dot matrix display instead of just a giant numeric LED. Even a tiny display like the one on the Arturia MicroFreak is quite usable and so much nicer than trying to memorize hundreds of numbers.
My guess is they omitted the display for aesthetic reasons, perhaps to distinguish the Prophet-6 (on which the OB-6 is based) from the Prophet 08, so people wouldn't assume it's basically another version of the same thing.
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I do miss them, especially when I'm performing live and using more than one patch in a song. I can correspond the patch numbers in order to follow with my set list, but it can be confusing when I'm on song number two, and my OB-6 is showing patch number four. It's much easier on my Pro 2, where I can label the patches under the song name. Whereas the song "Roller Girl" will have the patches in order and labeled as Roller Girl Arp, Roller Girl Pad, Roller Girl Bass, Roller Girl Seq, etc. So for now, I keep a moleskine nearby to write down and keep track of my OB-6 patches for the songs I've written, and for the untitled ones that I'm working on.
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This conversation rings true. In addition to analog synths, I have long been addicted to Nord keyboards. I still have an Electro 3 and Electro 6 (there's a point to this...).
Up until about 2015, Nord only provided patch location information on a teeny-weeny screen, although they have always provided a very good patch manager/editor for Windows and MAC.
My Electro 3 was always adorned with a printout from the software showing which patch was in which location (although I had to use the factory names). Whenever I reimagined my keyboard, I would make a new printout....Nord did provide (on the 73-key versions) large painted regions on both the left and right of the piano top, without controls, where I could tape these in place.
With the Electro 6, they provided a small, simple screen with patch ID, ability to display parameter values by just turning the knobs (which DSI/Sequential DOES provide) and a place you can make up your own name for the patch (a patch can include up to 3 voices...one from each of: organ, piano, synth) and a split keyboard setting. This display is perhaps 2.5X the area of the OB-6 display, however, this simple feature causes me to always take one of the Nords for live settings unless there is special need for an analog synth.
What annoys me the most is that there is absolutely NO real estate upon which to tape a patch list!...no matter how small I make the font.
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Hi Channelizer and kris
Do you know, or have you ever drawn any conclusions on, the size of the OB6/P6 market? How many units are out there in the wild? Well maybe not the wild! Hopefully they're all safe in doors ;)
I'd assume definitely more than a 1,000 but probably not 100,000. As many as 10,000? I've really no idea ...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qYcBrYvZEhY&t=10s
LFE showing patch names and categories
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Hi Channelizer and kris
Do you know, or have you ever drawn any conclusions on, the size of the OB6/P6 market? How many units are out there in the wild? Well maybe not the wild! Hopefully they're all safe in doors ;)
I'd assume definitely more than a 1,000 but probably not 100,000. As many as 10,000? I've really no idea ...
Very interesting question! I did a quick google, but found no definite numbers. Best guess are serial numbers reported here in the forum, which range high for the Prophet 6 (like 4700) and lower for the OB-6, but I have yet to see a five digit S/N. So I'd assume certainly in the range 1000-10000, probably somewhere in the middle.
On the other hand, the thread with the new firmware of the OB has >14000 views, but the firmware itself only 215 downloads here in the forum as of today. So I would think the number of people who care enough about the device to try out new features is probably less than 10% of the original buyers...
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I've tried to find out before but can only guess less than 10k of each type. My P6 I bought in December is serial no just over 7000 and my OB6 is about 3400 which I've had about 18 months now.
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I've tried to find out before but can only guess less than 10k of each type. My P6 I bought in December is serial no just over 7000 and my OB6 is about 3400 which I've had about 18 months now.
Thanks
I guess the only trouble with serial number is assuming they start at 0!
My keyboard version (had the module for ages and decided to finally go for keys) which is about 18 days old from the retailer and can't be that old from the factory as it's 'Sequential' not 'DSI' branded is serial number 4217. That's (4217 - 3400) / 18 = 45 units a month! Sort of :)
Let's work backwards. 4217 / 45 = 93 months. 93 months ago was September 2012. Let's check when it was released. Googles. Earliest reviews I'm seeing are Jan 2016. You'd expect more units to sell in the beginning. So let's revise that. 4217 / (12 x 4.5) = avg. 78 units a month since introduced to the market!
Very rough of course but seems safe to assume then the serial number is simply sequential perhaps with a small offset of a few tens of pre-production units.
So, my conclusion ... not more than 5,000.
As a sidenote, an article on Greatsynthsisers.com suggests between 6,000 and 8,000 of the original Prophet 5's were sold. Interesting that despite the passing years the market size remains comparable.
https://greatsynthesizers.com/en/review/sequential-prophet-5-milestone-and-musical-legend/
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For anyone using Cubase, I made a usable presets list you can add.
(currently only Factory presets, I just got my Ob6. I plan to organize them by category next)
(https://i.ibb.co/W6fG1qw/Cubase-OB6-presets.png) (https://imgbb.com/)
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I do miss patch names. All my other synths that have patch save capability have this feature. Even if the length is only 8 chars long. Heck my 20 year old Roland reverb has that ability.
Honestly I wouldn't mind if it only had a few slots for patches like the Taurus 3 (which has patch names!).
But the OB6 has hundreds of patches and dozens of banks!
I've never used an editor librarian for a synth before. But this alone makes me consider it. Since I am otherwise pretty happy with it.