OB-6 Desktop

[Sacred Synthesis]

The OB-6 Module is now on the DSI web site:

https://www.davesmithinstruments.com/product/ob-6-desktop/

[Jan Schultink]

I got my p6 right at the time when the OB-6 got announced and was sure to get the space-saving desktop as soon as it would come out. Now, a few "cooling down months" later I realise how much I have to learn still how to get the most out of my P6 still so I will wait a bit more..

[tempted11]

great news!  now if there only was also a fully knobbed Prophet 12 desktop too ....

[Sacred Synthesis]

It would have to be huge!

[Bryan_D]

Lord willing, I hope to trade in/sell my two Tetras and JU-06 (and perhaps some other hardware) to help finance the desktop module and bring my Oberheim quest to an end. I'm pretty sold on the OB-6 sound, but I would love to try one out in person before buying. Might have to travel a few hours (or more) for that.

Hmm . . . to bring my wallet, or not to bring my wallet . . . 

[wagscpa]

Oh well, so much for holding out for the 12 voice.  I pre-ordered the Ob-6 module for now and I guess we will see if an OB-12 ever sees the light of day.

[marzzz]

Looks nice, but oh how I wish DSI would produce a minimalist rack mount module like the old PolyEvolver Rack...

[Bald Eagle]

Oh well, so much for holding out for the 12 voice.  I pre-ordered the Ob-6 module for now and I guess we will see if an OB-12 ever sees the light of day.

You can poly chain 2 of them.

[musicmaker]

Any idea where the NORM <> BP knob  in X-MOD section went ?

[Shaw]

Any idea where the NORM <> BP knob  in X-MOD section went ?

Excellent question... I just looked to see if the OB-6 module's manual is online -- it is not. 
I'd guess it's accessible with a key combination... But then how would you be able to tell that it is active?
Interesting.

[Syntedon]

Would have preferred this layout. More close to the OB6 keys with text located above the knob/switches, the same output section and the cool blue lines. I think it would have fit in a 19" rack just increasing the height. But well. what do I know :-)

[DavidDever]

Any idea where the NORM <> BP knob  in X-MOD section went ?

Good question - thing is, does that functionality actually WORK on the kbd version? Bandpass mode would require that one can serialize LPF and HPF (cutoff the highs, then cutoff the lows), whereas notch mode is simply parallel LPF and HPF - not sure how you'd smoothly change between two different topologies unless you continuously rotate phase (which seems like a lot of effort for an under-utilized feature).

Norm - BP: Selects the filter mode as a modulation destination, changing smoothly between normal filter behavior (low-pass, notch, and high-pass modes) and bandpass mode.

The impression I get is that the other elements in that row all have the same number of buttons as on the kbd version, but that the X-MOD options were intentionally changed for this panel to eliminate that feature, functional or otherwise.

[extempo]

The unit in the photos is a prototype. The production version of the OB-6 Module will feature the Normal to Bandpass switch in the Xmod section.

[Bryan_D]

I'm pretty sold on the OB-6 sound, but I would love to try one out in person before buying. Might have to travel a few hours (or more) for that

So I took that trip across the state line to a GC that had an OB-6 on the floor (next to a Prophet 6). I was quite excited to finally hear my dream synth in person. When I entered the store, hardly anyone was there, and no one was in the keyboard area. I sat down in the cool, dimly lit space, plugged in my ear buds, and spent just over an hour working through the first three or four banks of factory presets, tweaking them to taste. My reaction? Unexpected.

The layout was clean and fairly easy to navigate. I liked the simplicity. I wasn't expecting too much from the effects. They were okay, but I would probably only use the delays for the most part. The chord function was new for me. Handy. And potentially interesting. None of my other synths could do that as easily as the OB-6. But I wondered how often I would use that feature.

Then there was the sound. It's true that the filter is perhaps incomparable, with gorgeous, sparkling tone, especially at higher resonance settings (if I could just transplant that filter into my Nord Lead 2X, it would be all over for me).   

However, this is what was unexpected. As I played the patches, I found myself thinking, I've heard many of these sounds before--in the synths I already own. Big pads, yes, but I have those in the Nord Lead 2X (w/ H9) and Radias, and analog pads with the Tetras, and all three with greater polyphony. VCO cross modulation, yes, but I have even warmer versions of that in the Slim Phatty and Nyborg-12. Eighties synth sounds, yes, but again, Tetras, JU-06, Pro 2, etc. I did finally hit a patch (don't ask me which one) where I dialed in that big, loose, arpeggiated bass sound that characterizes so many techno tunes of old, and I thought, There's that sound I like! The resonance was cranked, and the filter was low, and the envelopes were just right. I just listened to that for a while, riding the envelopes, the filter and the BPM. That was a good moment. But I was surprised that there weren't more good moments.

Strangely, when I got up to leave, I knew that I wasn't as excited about this instrument as I thought I'd be, and that I would have to reconsider taking a loss on my current hardware and parting with more cash just for a bass sound and chord memory. We'll see. 

[Sacred Synthesis]

Thanks for your observations on the OB-6.  Have you tried the Prophet-6?  I'm just curious if you would find it more flexible and to your liking.  It seems often to be the case with people who don't take to the OB-6.

[DavidDever]

However, this is what was unexpected. As I played the patches, I found myself thinking, I've heard many of these sounds before--in the synths I already own. Big pads, yes, but I have those in the Nord Lead 2X (w/ H9) and Radias, and analog pads with the Tetras, and all three with greater polyphony. VCO cross modulation, yes, but I have even warmer versions of that in the Slim Phatty and Nyborg-12. Eighties synth sounds, yes, but again, Tetras, JU-06, Pro 2, etc. I did finally hit a patch (don't ask me which one) where I dialed in that big, loose, arpeggiated bass sound that characterizes so many techno tunes of old, and I thought, There's that sound I like! The resonance was cranked, and the filter was low, and the envelopes were just right. I just listened to that for a while, riding the envelopes, the filter and the BPM. That was a good moment. But I was surprised that there weren't more good moments.

Strangely, when I got up to leave, I knew that I wasn't as excited about this instrument as I thought I'd be, and that I would have to reconsider taking a loss on my current hardware and parting with more cash just for a bass sound and chord memory. We'll see.

I had a similar experience while trying the OB-6 at a very-large-national-catalog-retailer showroom (as finding a GC location with both units would be quite a surprise, even with my once-upon-a-time experience as a GC manager).

Here's what struck me - although the OB-6 was plugged into a floor-level keyboard combo amp, the Prophet-6 plugged into the same combo amp model all of ten feet away sounded perfectly fine, as did the Pro-2 with the same SEM filter as the OB-6. The OB-6 sounded thin and only mildly interesting, which just did not jive with the online demos I've heard or my own gut instinct / blood lust for a dual-oscillator Oberheim with knobs.

So I am going to try this at a different retailer, just to be absolutely certain that I'm not losing my mind!

[Shaw]

However, this is what was unexpected. As I played the patches, I found myself thinking, I've heard many of these sounds before--in the synths I already own. Big pads, yes, but I have those in the Nord Lead 2X (w/ H9) and Radias, and analog pads with the Tetras, and all three with greater polyphony. VCO cross modulation, yes, but I have even warmer versions of that in the Slim Phatty and Nyborg-12. Eighties synth sounds, yes, but again, Tetras, JU-06, Pro 2, etc. I did finally hit a patch (don't ask me which one) where I dialed in that big, loose, arpeggiated bass sound that characterizes so many techno tunes of old, and I thought, There's that sound I like! The resonance was cranked, and the filter was low, and the envelopes were just right. I just listened to that for a while, riding the envelopes, the filter and the BPM. That was a good moment. But I was surprised that there weren't more good moments.

Strangely, when I got up to leave, I knew that I wasn't as excited about this instrument as I thought I'd be, and that I would have to reconsider taking a loss on my current hardware and parting with more cash just for a bass sound and chord memory. We'll see.

I had a similar experience while trying the OB-6 at a very-large-national-catalog-retailer showroom (as finding a GC location with both units would be quite a surprise, even with my once-upon-a-time experience as a GC manager).

Here's what struck me - although the OB-6 was plugged into a floor-level keyboard combo amp, the Prophet-6 plugged into the same combo amp model all of ten feet away sounded perfectly fine, as did the Pro-2 with the same SEM filter as the OB-6. The OB-6 sounded thin and only mildly interesting, which just did not jive with the online demos I've heard or my own gut instinct / blood lust for a dual-oscillator Oberheim with knobs.

So I am going to try this at a different retailer, just to be absolutely certain that I'm not losing my mind!

Perhaps taking a good set of headphones might help.  I'm not suggesting that you base your opinion solely on a demo through headphones, but it could give you one more frame of reference while also removing the amp (as an unknown quantity) from your demo --- it might also filter out some of that GC background noise (i.e. some freckled kid with a Les Paul plugged into a Marshall who conveniently knows every R chord in the book)


Good Luck with your hunt.

[Fuseball]

Perhaps taking a good set of headphones might help.  I'm not suggesting that you base your opinion solely on a demo through headphones, but it could give you one more frame of reference while also removing the amp (as an unknown quantity) from your demo --- it might also filter out some of that GC background noise (i.e. some freckled kid with a Les Paul plugged into a Marshall who conveniently knows every R chord in the book)

That's exactly how I demoed the OB-6 at a local store, with my own headphones that I'm used to. It didn't help that the cable to a nearby amplifier had been plugged into the headphone socket rather than a line-level output. 

I felt pretty much the same way as Bryan_D after trying out the OB-6. A lot of the sounds seemed quite similar to each other. A few great ones in there but largely because they reminded me of mid-'80s Depeche Mode!  I thought it had a much more distinctive character than the Prophet-6. It was unmistakably an Oberheim. However, from my perspective, that limits how useful I would find one. £2.2k+ (and rising) is more than I can afford for a synth that would likely only ever be a specific accent colour for me.

[DavidDever]

I had a similar experience while trying the OB-6 at a very-large-national-catalog-retailer showroom (as finding a GC location with both units would be quite a surprise, even with my once-upon-a-time experience as a GC manager).

Here's what struck me - although the OB-6 was plugged into a floor-level keyboard combo amp, the Prophet-6 plugged into the same combo amp model all of ten feet away sounded perfectly fine, as did the Pro-2 with the same SEM filter as the OB-6. The OB-6 sounded thin and only mildly interesting, which just did not jive with the online demos I've heard or my own gut instinct / blood lust for a dual-oscillator Oberheim with knobs.

So I am going to try this at a different retailer, just to be absolutely certain that I'm not losing my mind!

Perhaps taking a good set of headphones might help.  I'm not suggesting that you base your opinion solely on a demo through headphones, but it could give you one more frame of reference while also removing the amp (as an unknown quantity) from your demo --- it might also filter out some of that GC background noise (i.e. some freckled kid with a Les Paul plugged into a Marshall who conveniently knows every R chord in the book)


Good Luck with your hunt.

This demo was not at a Guitar Center location - most of which generally have stereo monitors at the keyboard stations - it was at Sweetwater. 

I've done the headphones thing too, but it's not typical of the manner by which the unit would ultimately be used.

In general, one would think that a $3K instrument would get a reasonable spot on the wall, in preference to a bevy of sub-$500 faux-analogue units, but hey - it's their store / business model etc. Broken keys / missing knobs on the floor units do not install any degree of confidence, and I would hope that they'd eventually figure it out sooner than later....

One of the best demo setups I've heard, by the way, was at Corner Music in Nashville - it's really not that difficult to get right.

Anyway - on point to the prior remark regarding OB-6 factory patches - I do agree that these are a bit weak on the polysynth side of things, given the quality of the Prophet-6 factory patches in conveying the sound of the unit. I'd like to hear the intermediate filter positions / settings / anomalies that make the unit unique, but hey - why not throw in the original OB-X factory patches just for comparison's sake? I could do without the banks and banks of arpeggiated / sequenced patches; I can play fast enough on my own to get the idea.

[Shaw]

One of the best demo setups I've heard, by the way, was at Corner Music in Nashville - it's really not that difficult to get right.

I live in Nashville; Corner Music has been doing it right for over 20 years.