Beloved OB6 pet peeves

[AlainHubert]

As much as I enjoy the superb sounds of my OB6, there are a couple of things that annoy me so very much, besides the fact that it has only 6 voices.

The envelopes. Their release time is way too short at only 12 seconds. Comparing that to my REV2 with its 35 seconds release time they feel, well, frankly inadequate for some patches.

And second, of course, the lack of individual modulation levels settings for the different destinations. Frustrating to say the least. Especially on such an expensive, modern instrument.

I feel that the Dave Smith-Tom Oberheim duo could have come up with better implementation in some regards.

Interestingly since this is a modern machine controlled by modern MPU and FPGA, except for the number of voices, everything else could probably be remedied with a firmware update. But I fear that there won't ever be such an update.

So, as soon as the upcoming 8 voice UB-Xa (OB-Xa clone from the B company) arrives and if it meets the high expectations, there's no reason it shouldn't, I'm afraid that my beloved OB6 might have serious competition ending up not being used much after that...

Anyone else has any thoughts on this?

[tarekith]

I think my biggest pet peeves are:

- The sequencer resets to step 1 if you save the current patch.  A neat performance trick actually, and also better than the Pro 3 which stops completely when you save.  But I still wish it just saved and kept playing as normal.

- It can be really hard to dial in a knob position to trigger the LED that shows you the current saved position for that knob.  IE, the little red LED in the display. It's almost TOO precise.  Still, again better than the Pro 3 which has nothing of the sort sadly.

- The 1/4" output jacks are really loose.  Even with top end Neutrik or Mogami connectors, my cables are constantly coming half out of the jacks too easily.  Seems to be a DSI (sequential) thing, the Pro 3 is the same way.

- More of a long shot wishlist than anything, but I really wish the patch recall buttons could be used as a one octave keyboard for entering notes in the sequencer.  I love using my OB-6 desktop standalone as much as I can.

[OceanMachine]

there's no reason it shouldn't

 

[AlainHubert]

there's no reason it shouldn't

 

I knew that would raise some eyebrows... 

But, relying on what they did with their VP330 clone (VC340) which sounds 99% like the real thing, it should be very interesting. 

But, of course, the original Oberheim OB-Xa did not use the same filter design as in the OB6 so, naturally, it will sound different in that regard. The filter on the OB6 is indeed sweeeet! 

[shmuelyosef]

The envelopes. Their release time is way too short at only 12 seconds.

And second, of course, the lack of individual modulation levels settings for the different destinations. Frustrating to say the least. Especially on such an expensive, modern instrument.

My thoughts:
...when I first got my OB-6 a couple years ago now, I thought many of the things that you did, and found myself often explicitly trying to get around these limitations.

With time, I have gotten very used to the things that I actually CAN do with this instrument and find that the sounds in my head can be generated on the OB-6 without much trouble...possibly a self-fulfilling prophecy, but it is a rich palette.

Some of the remaining things can be accomplished with hardware and software effects offline...Other than the chorus and distortion, I don't use much of the effects collection, but do use my collection of stomp-boxes (particularly delays and modulators and reverbs) to enrich and extend my pallette of pads. With some tricks they can be synchronized.

I no longer chafe at what it can't do as I've found that it CAN do more things than I have yet accomplished.

[LPF83]

As much as I enjoy the superb sounds of my OB6, there are a couple of things that annoy me so very much, besides the fact that it has only 6 voices.

The envelopes. Their release time is way too short at only 12 seconds. Comparing that to my REV2 with its 35 seconds release time they feel, well, frankly inadequate for some patches.

And second, of course, the lack of individual modulation levels settings for the different destinations. Frustrating to say the least. Especially on such an expensive, modern instrument.

I feel that the Dave Smith-Tom Oberheim duo could have come up with better implementation in some regards.

Interestingly since this is a modern machine controlled by modern MPU and FPGA, except for the number of voices, everything else could probably be remedied with a firmware update. But I fear that there won't ever be such an update.

So, as soon as the upcoming 8 voice UB-Xa (OB-Xa clone from the B company) arrives and if it meets the high expectations, there's no reason it shouldn't, I'm afraid that my beloved OB6 might have serious competition ending up not being used much after that...

Anyone else has any thoughts on this?

I'm into a somewhat vintage sound, and vintage synths had lots of limitations.  I see the OB6 as a synth with a lot of character but also plenty of limitations; I think that's what I like about it, actually. 

It's nowhere near as versatile as my Rev2, while at the same time the Rev2 can't sound exactly like an OB6.  If a good OB clone emerges at a tempting price, I may bite, but I don't think my OB6 is going anywhere.