Origin of the VCOs in OB-X8?

Origin of the VCOs in OB-X8?
« on: May 17, 2022, 08:57:09 AM »
We know they are 'based on' past SEM OB-X style. Are these basically taken from the OB-6 or completely brand new VCO design? I'm hearing a lot of OB-6 'weakness' in the new X8 and can only think its coming from the VCOs because the Prophet rev 4s sound strong and rich/vibrant from down low to up high, while my ex-OB-6 never did - it too sounded more mids to high focussed and a bit lethargic once you needed some real grunt.

I doubt we'll ever know for sure as they wouldn't tell us if they just copied them over, but I've not been impressed yet with sequentials 'discreet based on' VCOs in either the Prophet 6 or OB-6 I owned (both had decent filters), while Prophet rev 4 is strong in the VCO (legendary CEM 3340 used in many classics) and 2 great filters that suit it well.

Trigon-6 (Keyboard) | Prophet 10 Rev 4 (gone) | OB-6 (gone)

LPF83

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Re: Origin of the VCOs in OB-X8?
« Reply #1 on: May 17, 2022, 05:16:06 PM »
We know they are 'based on' past SEM OB-X style. Are these basically taken from the OB-6 or completely brand new VCO design? I'm hearing a lot of OB-6 'weakness' in the new X8 and can only think its coming from the VCOs because the Prophet rev 4s sound strong and rich/vibrant from down low to up high, while my ex-OB-6 never did - it too sounded more mids to high focussed and a bit lethargic once you needed some real grunt.

I doubt we'll ever know for sure as they wouldn't tell us if they just copied them over, but I've not been impressed yet with sequentials 'discreet based on' VCOs in either the Prophet 6 or OB-6 I owned (both had decent filters), while Prophet rev 4 is strong in the VCO (legendary CEM 3340 used in many classics) and 2 great filters that suit it well.

Going solely on instinct, when I first started the speculation process on this synth, I assumed they would probably put CEM 3340s in it, since that's what was in the OB-Xa and OB-8.  The CEM 3340 was not available at the time the P6 and OB6 came out.  I like the oscillators in those synths though...the P6 sounds a little Jupiter-ish to me at times and the OB6 sounds a little bit Jupiterheim, but both staying true to their pedigree overall.  I haven't been able to find much detail about the oscillators used in the OB-X.

But I'd love to know the details of what's in the OBX8 if anyone has them to share.
Prophet 10, OB-X8m, Prophet 6, OB-6, 3rd Wave, Prophet 12m, Prophet Rev2-16, Toraiz AS-1, Pro 2, Korg Polysix, Roland JP-8080, Roland System-8, Virus TI2, Moog SlimPhatty, Hydrasynth desktop, Roland SPD-SX SE / Octapad, Maschine, Cubase/Ableton/Akai MPC

Re: Origin of the VCOs in OB-X8?
« Reply #2 on: May 21, 2022, 06:47:46 AM »
We know they are 'based on' past SEM OB-X style. Are these basically taken from the OB-6 or completely brand new VCO design? I'm hearing a lot of OB-6 'weakness' in the new X8 and can only think its coming from the VCOs because the Prophet rev 4s sound strong and rich/vibrant from down low to up high, while my ex-OB-6 never did - it too sounded more mids to high focussed and a bit lethargic once you needed some real grunt.

I doubt we'll ever know for sure as they wouldn't tell us if they just copied them over, but I've not been impressed yet with sequentials 'discreet based on' VCOs in either the Prophet 6 or OB-6 I owned (both had decent filters), while Prophet rev 4 is strong in the VCO (legendary CEM 3340 used in many classics) and 2 great filters that suit it well.

This came to my mind when I listened to all the OB-X8 demos on YouTube. It seemed to sound more similar to the OB-6 than to its vintage fathers. The P5/10 Rev4 on the other hand pretty much exactly nails the legendary Prophet sound, and was (thus) an immediate buy for me.
It would indeed be awesome to have some more detailed info on this. The filters and all the other stuff looks and sounds amazing, but the VCOs - I'm not convinced yet.

PS: I'm aware of the fact that it may be bad demos, too! There is one new demo from Paul Schilling on YouTube which seems to sound just right, and I remember the first demos from the Moog One which were somewhat behind the capabilities of this (dream!) machine. So, well, some technical insight is very welcome.