Oberheim OB-Xa Demo (HQ)

The OB-Xa is a massive analog synthesizer with digital control, allowing for highly sophisticated and complex sounds while still maintaining an analog signal path. It has been fully restored and is currently for sale. It includes a very well padded and durable flight case that is in exceptional condition. See the video above for the condition of the unit and to get a taste of how it sounds.

0:00 - Intro
1:18 - A demonstration of the patches currently stored in memory
2:31 - Dual sawtooth patch with subtle portamento and filtering
3:02 - Dual square wave patch for an ambient pad
4:05 - Electric piano/rhodes/wurlitzer sound
4:40 - Wood block percussion sounds
4:54 - Mellotron-like synth pad
5:31 - VERY huge and gritty-sounding unison patch with pitch bending
5:58 - White noise demonstration and filtering
6:30 - Sparkly-sounding synth piano
7:02 - Dual sawtooth sound demonstrating the snappiness of the envelopes

SOLD in 2018

This particular one has 8 voices which can be split, layered and stored. They all featured patch memories in varying degrees. This one has 4 banks of 8 for a total of 32 patches. All models of OB-Xa featured the new Curtis chips which offered great stability for an analog synth and they are attributed to its great filters and sounds.

The OB-X was very similar to the OB-Xa except that its voices could not be split or layered and, more significantly, the OB-X had a lowpass-only discrete SEM 12dB/oct state variable filter, which had a great and classic Oberheim sound. The OB-Xa changed that in an attempt to economize manufacturing and increase stability by switching to CEM3320 Curtis chips for its filters. The Xa offered two switchable filter modes: 12 dB/oct (2-pole) or 24 dB/oct (4-pole). When compared with the OB-X, people will often say that the OB-Xa is capable of nastier, grittier, more powerful, and immediate sounds.

Splitting the keyboard mode separates the OB-Xa into two 4-voice synths with two available patches. The Layer mode plays the two patches simultaneously. There are also some added effect sources, perfect for any analog polysynth, including portamento, unison, sample & hold, chord memory and three LFO's!