VITAL STATS
MANUFACTURER: GForce Software
PRODUCT: Oberheim OB-1
PRICE: $55
WEBSITE: www.gforcesoftware.com
Is a synthesizer from 1978 not too “seventies” or “eighties” to be useful for today’s cinematic and ambient music styles? The OB-1 plug-in GForce Software recently released — with Tom Oberheim’s blessing — sounds every bit as modern and fresh as it did when it initially debuted. And as we’re used to from GForce, the plug-in sounds, plays and behaves like the real thing.
As with all of GForce Software’s plug-ins, the OB-1 is an exact replica of the original hardware, enhanced with some features that Oberheim himself approved of. How it actually compares with the original — as well as some of the history behind it — becomes clear by watching this YouTube video (https://bit.ly/3yfWlZd) made by David Spiers, who co-founded GForce Software.
GForce’s OB-1 comes with much of the same features as the hardware demonstrated in that video, including a two-pole and four-pole filter with possibly screeching resonance, augmented with modulation options via X-modifiers, a fully-scalable UI and note panning. Furthermore there’s the excellent GForce preset browser loaded with 300 presets, of which the ones by Myjima and Lightbath are my personal favorites; a high-pass filter; chorus, delay and reverb effects; four programmable macros for easy manipulation of sounds; an efficient and good looking arpeggiator/sequencer; and more.
The OB-1 plug-in offers mono unison, legato and poly modes with up to 16 voices.
Experiences
With the GForce OB-1 plug-in you get eight distinct voices that you can start creating a patch for in grouped mode, then introduce motion on a per-voice (module) basis. That makes it really easy to create rich, massive patches with much motion in them. With OB-1, you only have two oscillators to play with. And yet, even if you discard GForce’s X-modifiers completely, the capabilities of the OB-1 are so broad and deep that you can create pretty much anything you want within the typical Oberheim timbres the instrument is capable of.
I would even go so far as to claim that the range of sounds you can create with the GForce OB-1 compares favorably to modern wavetable-based synths, and that’s in large part due to the OB-1’s ability to add cross-modulation to the oscillators, as well as to GForce’s addition of polyphony and X-modifiers, which allow you to add more dynamics to the synth’s original sound capabilities.
Nevermind how well the OB-1 can compete with more modern plug-in synthesizers, though. When you put it in mono, legato and unison mode, you’ll find that you can recreate patches that sound much like the memorable sounds used in important movies and musical pieces starting in the early eighties, all the while delivering on the promise of many of the included patches being instantly usable for today’s cinematic music requirements.
Verdict
There are no instruments GForce Software recreated as a plug-in that I don’t think the company has done a great job on. Quite the contrary. Each and every digitization of an analog synth done by this British company has been very close to the sound signature of the original.
GForce’s emulations of the Oberheim instruments, however, are on a level that none other can compete with, as they are backed by the master himself. The OB-1 is no exception and its 300-plus presets are among the best the company has included with any digitized Oberheim so far. The OB-1 is currently on sale and I warmly recommend it.
Erik Vlietinck is a regular contributor to Post, and specializes in tools for soundtrack creation and music composition. He can be reached online at:
erik@t
hecontentgame.com.