Info about voice stealing

[fg]

Hello,
I have a question about the voice stealing on the OB-X8.

I notice that if I press (and hold) 8 keys, when I press the 9th key the voice stealing is not happening (no new note triggered).

Is this a normal behavior?

On the Prophet-10 for example it works as I expect: with 10 keys pressed, the 11th key triggers another note, stealing a voice from the previous ones.

Any opinion about that?

Thanks.

[seqpro3]

If I play an 9 note chord voicing on the OBX8 it won’t play 9 notes. It only plays 8 notes.  I’m not sure of how voice stealing
actually works though.  I’ve heard of round robin although I’m not certain  of that definition  of that either. Most of the time
my voicings are 8 notes at the max.  I wonder what would happen if you used a sustain pedal and played a 8 note voicing and then added the 9th. When I play 8 voices I don’t hold 8 and add a 9th voice.  I have a wide span and I play jazz extensions with two hands.  For example : EABbD in my left hand & ABbDF# in my right hand so from left to right the chord
Would be EABbDABbDF# between both hands played simultaneously.  I omit the root which would be a C Tonic.  So if I spelled the chord it would be C add a major 3rd add a major 6 add a major add a minor 7 add a major9 add an augmented 11. So the chord is C9 #11. I’ve omitted the perfect 5th and replaced it with a major6th. If I play 9 voices it’s an accident on my part. I don’t have a prophet10 rev4 so I don’t have any expierence with how it would respond. I never really thought of voice stealing since my playing style of eight note chord voicings in a jazz context  works well with the OBX8. Even if I had a prophet5rev 4 I would just use 5 note voicings and they would suffice for basic jazz harmony. I could do quartal harmony and basic two five ones and half diminished chords to altered dominants to one. I guess my playing style doesn’t
really employ voice stealing. I’m not sure of the correct way you would employ voice stealing. I wonder how most people use it in a playing context.mi think more like a piano player since that is my background.

[seqpro3]

Maybe I was wrong about the obx8 . I tried two ways of playing a 9 note chord voicing. The first way was holding down a note and adding the remaining notes holding them down one after another. I could hear the 9 th note , it was at the very top of the voicing .  And also playing the same 9 note voicing simultaneously with all the voices at once held down.  I’m not 100 percent sure of what’s actually happening.  If there’s voice stealing going on I’m not sure which voice it’s stealing from.
Sorry I wish I knew the answer.  Maybe  the way it works is real exacting . I’m not sure  how it’s actually supposed to work.
It’s possible I’m not triggering the notes correctly either.  I’d be interested in knowing how it’s supposed to work on the obx8 as well.  The one good thing about pianos and electric pianos is that you don’t have to worry about note stealing coming into play since they have full polyphony. Maybe someone on the forum will explain voice stealing  lucidity.  I’m just thankful the obx8 is 8voices and not 6 since 90 percent of my chords use more than 6 voices.

[seqpro3]

Maybe low note or high note priority come into play as well. I know on the Moog Voyager there are different options for that. I’m not sure how that might work on a polyphonic synth. I’m simply don’t know and  can only assume how it might work.  I don’t know enough about monophonic or polyphonic  synth architecture   Maybe it has nothing to do with it at all. At least on a monophonic synth there’s no such thing as voice stealing. I know if I play a 4 note chord on the pro3  being its 3 note paraphonic  it won’t play 4 notes. I usually use the pro3 as a monophonic synth even though it has paraphonic capability.
Maybe there’s note stealing in paraphonic mode I don’t know . I never really thought about  it sense  paraphonic capability
On the pro3 will let you play a 3 note chord which is  technically polyphonic in terms of music theory although in the synth world paraphonic is  pseudo polyphony.  Never really thought about the limits of polyphony until I acquired  an analog poly synth . Digtal synths usually have more polyphony. Some of the latest have a 256 voice count although  8 voices in a analog
Synth sound massive.

[The Real MC]

My keyboards that steal voices when playing & holding more keys than voices:
Vintage FVS: no
Vintage OB-X: yes
Vintage OB-SX: yes
Vintage Memorymoog: yes
OB-X8: no

Is the OB-X8 "correct"?  Hard to call that one...

[seqpro3]

Pretty cool you have all those vintage synths. Did you get them when they came out? I once had a moog polymoog keyboard. A sequential pro1 and an oberhiem obxa.  I even had an arp that was real old not really sure what model it was. It predated the pro soloist. The arp wasn’t much of a synth. It had rocker switches. And a resonance control. It wasn’t an
Arp axxe either. I remember getting it from a guy that had a orginal arp odyssey. The sequential circuits pro1 was my first real synth. The polymoog keyboard wasn’t that good. The oberhiem XA and Sequential Circuits Pro1  were the best out of the three. The obXA was the cheapest . I bought it used. The pro1 if I’m remembering right was $750 new.  Strange that the pro1 was more expensive than the oberhiem XA , though it was used. At that time people didn’t want analog they wanted digital synths like the Korg M1 and DX7.  If I had kept the OBXA it would have been worth alot today although with the new OBX8 I would think it would be a more viable and cost effective choice. Same situation in regards to the prophet5 rev4 and the Minimoog reissue. Although there are still some people that would opt for the orginal. The orginal prophet 5s
are rare same as the Minimoog modelDI wouldn’t think there would be too many in circulation. Reissues seem like a good option for the most part although the purists may want only the orginal vintage synths.

[The Real MC]

My guess is that ARP synth you had was an ARP Explorer.

All of my vintage synths were acquired cheap, in the right place at the right time.  My Polymoog, Memorymoog, RAM Minimoog, Source, ProSoloist were bought in the 80s-90s when no one wanted analogs.  OB-SX and OB-X both were eBay handyman's specials that I restored.  Another "right place at the right time" synth was my Moog Taurus I bass pedals.

My FVS was another handyman's special from a studio owner; he got the FVS and a DS-2a sequencer (both with Anvil cases) from a buddy who quit gigging.  A repair tech who knew my success with the OB-X gave him my name.  The FVS was very dead; I got the audio to work and was able to assess what needed fixing.  It was a lot more than he wanted to spend for repair, so he offered to trade it for one of my vintage polysynths.  I offered a new polysynth but he insisted on something vintage.  I had a 2nd dead Memorymoog and offered to restore that (it would had been a much user friendlier synth for him).  For about $600 worth of parts to restore the MM, I got the FVS & DS-2a plus both Anvil cases.  Both cases needed re-foaming but it was still a steal.

One restoration pet project on the back burner is my ARP Avatar, which I want to convert into an "poor man's 2600" Odyssey module by installing a MIDI->CV converter and adding extra circuits & I/O jacks.

Pretty cool you have all those vintage synths. Did you get them when they came out? I once had a moog polymoog keyboard. A sequential pro1 and an oberhiem obxa.  I even had an arp that was real old not really sure what model it was. It predated the pro soloist. The arp wasn’t much of a synth. It had rocker switches. And a resonance control. It wasn’t an
Arp axxe either. I remember getting it from a guy that had a orginal arp odyssey. The sequential circuits pro1 was my first real synth. The polymoog keyboard wasn’t that good. The oberhiem XA and Sequential Circuits Pro1  were the best out of the three. The obXA was the cheapest . I bought it used. The pro1 if I’m remembering right was $750 new.  Strange that the pro1 was more expensive than the oberhiem XA , though it was used. At that time people didn’t want analog they wanted digital synths like the Korg M1 and DX7.  If I had kept the OBXA it would have been worth alot today although with the new OBX8 I would think it would be a more viable and cost effective choice. Same situation in regards to the prophet5 rev4 and the Minimoog reissue. Although there are still some people that would opt for the orginal. The orginal prophet 5s
are rare same as the Minimoog modelDI wouldn’t think there would be too many in circulation. Reissues seem like a good option for the most part although the purists may want only the orginal vintage synths.

[seqpro3]

My guess is that ARP synth you had was an ARP Explorer.

All of my vintage synths were acquired cheap, in the right place at the right time.  My Polymoog, Memorymoog, RAM Minimoog, Source, ProSoloist were bought in the 80s-90s when no one wanted analogs.  OB-SX and OB-X both were eBay handyman's specials that I restored.  Another "right place at the right time" synth was my Moog Taurus I bass pedals.

My FVS was another handyman's special from a studio owner; he got the FVS and a DS-2a sequencer (both with Anvil cases) from a buddy who quit gigging.  A repair tech who knew my success with the OB-X gave him my name.  The FVS was very dead; I got the audio to work and was able to assess what needed fixing.  It was a lot more than he wanted to spend for repair, so he offered to trade it for one of my vintage polysynths.  I offered a new polysynth but he insisted on something vintage.  I had a 2nd dead Memorymoog and offered to restore that (it would had been a much user friendlier synth for him).  For about $600 worth of parts to restore the MM, I got the FVS & DS-2a plus both Anvil cases.  Both cases needed re-foaming but it was still a steal.

One restoration pet project on the back burner is my ARP Avatar, which I want to convert into an "poor man's 2600" Odyssey module by installing a MIDI->CV converter and adding extra circuits & I/O jacks.
I don’t even think that arp was even an explorer.Not sure the year the explorer came out. I remember the Arp Avatar I remember it from the Arp YouTube video I think it bankrupted Arp. That Arp I had was barely even a synth.  I think this was 1978 when I purchased it and it was a model I didn’t even know about. At that time the Omni, the arp string ensemble,
and the odyssey were what was being used. I would think if I had it today it would have to be rare. I would think thier wouldn’t be many of them in existence. I have a feeling.  maybe it was an early release there wasn’t much to it as far as a synth was concerned. No ADSR or any filter envelopes or access to oscillators no mod or pitch control.  It would be interesting to find out what model it was but I think I’ll never know. I just remember it had a slider so you could get a wow sound from it.  The explorer was a lot more advanced than this synth was it was really bare bones so to speak. Just had those rocker switches for different presets and not many. It was the first synth I ever purchased. I think it might have been even older than 1978 since I purchased it used then it could have been early 70s. You can tell it was marketed as a simple synth. Maybe it preceded the explorer but it was real basic and you could tell it was from the early days of Arp.

Pretty cool you have all those vintage synths. Did you get them when they came out? I once had a moog polymoog keyboard. A sequential pro1 and an oberhiem obxa.  I even had an arp that was real old not really sure what model it was. It predated the pro soloist. The arp wasn’t much of a synth. It had rocker switches. And a resonance control. It wasn’t an
Arp axxe either. I remember getting it from a guy that had a orginal arp odyssey. The sequential circuits pro1 was my first real synth. The polymoog keyboard wasn’t that good. The oberhiem XA and Sequential Circuits Pro1  were the best out of the three. The obXA was the cheapest . I bought it used. The pro1 if I’m remembering right was $750 new.  Strange that the pro1 was more expensive than the oberhiem XA , though it was used. At that time people didn’t want analog they wanted digital synths like the Korg M1 and DX7.  If I had kept the OBXA it would have been worth alot today although with the new OBX8 I would think it would be a more viable and cost effective choice. Same situation in regards to the prophet5 rev4 and the Minimoog reissue. Although there are still some people that would opt for the orginal. The orginal prophet 5s
are rare same as the Minimoog modelDI wouldn’t think there would be too many in circulation. Reissues seem like a good option for the most part although the purists may want only the orginal vintage synths.

[synthartist69]

So, when I play a few pad patches, I run out of notes. One ex is 1984 by Van Halen. I never had this issue with my OBXa. All 8 voices are working. Very frustrating! 

Hello,
I have a question about the voice stealing on the OB-X8.

I notice that if I press (and hold) 8 keys, when I press the 9th key the voice stealing is not happening (no new note triggered).

Is this a normal behavior?

On the Prophet-10 for example it works as I expect: with 10 keys pressed, the 11th key triggers another note, stealing a voice from the previous ones.

Any opinion about that?

Thanks.