Oberheim OB-X
The Oberheim OB-X was the first of Oberheim's OB-series polyphonic analog subtractive synthesizers.[1][2]
OB-X
1979–1981
4, 6 or 8 voices
2 VCOs per voice
1
12dB per octave resonant low-pass
2 × ADSR; one for VCF, one for VCA
No
No
32 patches
None
61-key
First commercially available in June 1979, the OB-X was introduced to compete with the Sequential Circuits Prophet-5, which had been successfully introduced the year before.[3] About 800 units were produced before the OB-X was discontinued and replaced by the updated and streamlined OB-Xa in 1981. The OB line developed and evolved after that with the OB-8[4] before being replaced by the Matrix series.
The OB-X was used in popular music by Rush (on Moving Pictures and Signals), Nena, Styx member Dennis DeYoung (used frequently from late 1979 to 1984), Queen (their first synthesizer on an album), Madonna for her debut album, Prince,[5] and Jean-Michel Jarre who used it for its "brass" sounds.
Hardware re-issues and recreations[edit]
In May 2022, the Oberheim OB-X8, a new 8-voice analog synthesizer with the voice architecture and filters of three classic Oberheim models: the OB-X, OB-Xa, and OB-8, along with functionality and features not included on the original models, was announced. The new synthesizer is manufactured by Sequential in partnership with Tom Oberheim.[10][11]