"LFO Volume Dest" special sauce

[discombob]

Did anyone else notice yet, that for OS 2.0.0.1, if you send the "LFO Volume Dest" mod out to one of the OSCs instead of program volume *without* actually enabling Volume Mod button in the matrix lane 2, it now lightly overdrives the signal of that OSC to the VCA.

Pretty awesome, as you can for example, target the OSC doing the bass part and it will actually snarl a little and gain some low-bass weight; not quite minimoog levels of course, but getting closer to like a Prophet bass, and you can still turn it down a little in the mixer (though not all the way down, which proves the change). Mid-range becomes a little more wet and saturated in certain configurations as well.

@OberheimSupport... pretty please do not "fix" this "issue" in newer firmware, if possible.  In fact, I'd rather there was a page 2 function for some VCA gain in general with even finer steps since this trick makes it sound more like certain vintage Xa demos when I've tried to patch-match some of the gnarlier sounds I can find, which actually caters more to the design goal of it being able to emulate the originals.  Even if those demos were attained via a production technique such as recording interface input overdrive, it's really nice having at least a modest boost right in the synth because the sound quality remains Ober-level for the recording stage.

[Denis Goekdag]

Indeed, this is a useful "feature" - good find! I guess an offset is added to the OSC level to make sure the bipolar LFO does not go into negative CV ranges (aka silence on a VCA).
That said, on my OB it makes voices 1-4 and 5-8 sound noticeably different. I guess the calibration doesn't account for this.
I would suggest fixing this unintended behavior, and adding a BOOST or DRIVE amount to the two oscillators individually. Same thing, more logically consistent.

[X-Minus-1]

Just trying it out now.  Very nice discovery!  It very noticeable.  On mine the effect on OSC2 is smaller than on OSC1.

[discombob]

It can only affect 1 OSC at a time, but you can use a double+ mode patch to get it to affect osc1 solo'd on the lower part and osc2 on the upper part if you want to see how hot you can get things.

That said, I recently discovered the opposite is true specifically for the OB-X / SEM filter, where if you want the filter resonance to be super clean when it is turned up to the max, you have to back the OSC levels off to under 96 or so.  Try that as well; it can be gorgeously sing-song and clear / softer metallic that way.  The other filters don't seem to be quite as bothered by OSC levels.

I do wish we could get some virtual trimmer settings in page 2 (rather than just a vintage knob with limited range) to get things significantly out of spec and explore a wider set of tones at the outer edges.