That's pretty cool. I've never explored the Buchla / West Coast side of things much; had a Volca Modular for a bit, and recently picked up the Cre8audio West Pest. As much as I've learned about Buchla, the OB-mx seems oddly East Coast for something he had a hand in. It reminds me in some ways of the Soma Labs Lyra, a synth that can be made to sound profoundly mournful. In short, as I pass beyond 35 years messing with synthesis, I am more and more attracted to synths that can be made to seem broken. 😃 Unpredictability is a gift.
Hey Mike, Its well worth checking out some of the West Coast stuff, maybe have a listen to what Alessandro Cortini has done with the Buchla Music Easel to bridge the world between east and west :D
I've always been fascinated by how weird and kind of "off" those filters are, I suppose it may be something to do with the components Buchla didn't like to use or whatnot, but they really do sound thin and unusual, which can be fun in its own way
@@100ThingsIDo That would be awesome. You have a great collection & I reckon a series of videos on each of their history would go down well. I especially love the attention to detail regarding circuitry & design
@@highplains Noted! Won't work with all synths I have (some have boring historys) but I have a Fairlight one coming up soon that should have some Historic interest in it :D
HUGE regards from Margaret River bro! insane work so grateful, OBMX my latest obsession as Ive been loving my Xpander recently and OB8 but would love the more experimental OBMX woah! love all your work what a find!
Hey Chris, thanks for much for the kind comments! Margaret River.... Wonderful wines! I would love an Xpander, I almost purchased a broken one once to repair but it was back 10 years ago when the IC's were becoming exceptionally rare before the recent reissues! OBMx is hard to find for sure in Aus, there were only I believe 10 that came into the country (mine being one of those) but sometimes you find a bargain on line so keep your eyes open, its worth having one indeed :D If you get one try and find one with the most voices possible as the voice boards alone almost never come up! :D
@@100ThingsIDo thanks for the tip I will bro, I usually have to source from OS...so far got my OB8 and Prophet 5, PPG 2.3 here and love my Memorymoog! Im a vintage poly man, but would love that tonal colour of the OBMX as its so beautiful and also so many modulations! loved your work for ages had no idea you were Aussie what a day! ps, I had to sell my old XPander 5 years back to move house but last year found another! they are SO worth it brother , extreme amount of modulations also only totally different tone to OBMX thanks to MR Buchla!
"Ashen" ! What you've done with the MX, 3 years ago, is far more than a sound demo. Glad to have that on your bandcamp YT Album. Very good to hear in the car, both calm and mysterious, too- I heard it often but only now realized, that this was made with the Oberheim. First Class Ambient!
Your videos has always been great. Regarding the OBmx, to me it´s the dad of the Andromeda. Very similar specs... 2 vcos, 2 vcfs (Moog and OB), etc. At 1:29 it should say 12 voices. I only know 3 dual VCO synths that have 16 voices... Andromeda, Moog One and Korg Prologue 16.
Excellent video. Thank you. I don't own an OBMX but when I shall, I hope, I'll know about its sound and its quite temperamental behaviour. And well, about the quality of your videos, it's OK fom me, I don't look for fancy cameras, FX and background, I look for info about the gear I like and for passionate people who explain it. And you give me this. Keep on your good work, mate.
I'd like to motivate you to do more (much more) OB-Mx Videos - I liked what you did --- at that time I wasn't happy because I wanted to have "a new Xpander" kind of Synth - but - it is an interesting synth in the studio.
Hi! Very interesting demos!. I have seen all your demos on this synth!!. Just a question, the knobs on the front panel are potentiometers or rotary encoders?.
Its my recreation of the patch. Xpander was originally done on the Oberheim Xpander which is where the name comes from :D Very much the Oberheim bandpass filter sound!
Great video, everybody hate this synth but i love it’s sound, i have a bought a 4 voice but it needs the xicor chips replacement. could you please make a video about the filter wired behaviour and how to have the full range of the filter through the matrix modulation etc ? thnx
I was the same, the layout looked sooooooooo good but the reviews trashed the **** out of it. I'm sure if I spend a small fortune back in the day to buy one I would of felt very let down trying to make more 'commercial' sounds! Its more a trippers tool box... in a great way.. I guess there were not as many trippers in the early 90's :D
The S&H appears to work like I'd expect it to on any synth: it's sampling from the LFO wave. If you want random, you need to use the random/noise LFO. Or did I miss something in the weirdness of it?
You are correct, but ... I have never seen a LFO with a dedicated Sample and Hold before. This feature is only against the pitching as it has a 'RANDOM" wave form where the sample and hold normally is ... so basically an LFO with dual phase LFO. :D
@@100ThingsIDo I think because I have a lot of modular equipment, I see it more like it is here. My MU modular has a Sample & Hold module. The inputs into it are the waveform to sample, and a gate. The length of the gate determines the length of the "hold". Usually, I put the white noise module output into the S&H input, but I could also put the LFO in there. I guess the OB-Mx just tried to simplify that. But yeah, I've seen synths with S&H where this one had the random. I also have a Roland SH-7. Take a look at a shot of that one and see how they put S&H in some odd places, but it lets you S&H any of the LFO waves. :P I enjoyed your video. The OB-Mx has a horrible reputation, but it still looks interesting to me.
@@Psychlist1972 Thanks for the info, yes.. it does have a horrible rep... but if you get into the Buchla headspace the sound and features and quirks all are very Don :D Such a shame he disowned it!
When I had the Music Easel it was 30 mins just to scale correctly from C to C.. then is always slowly went out of scale over time after that! Sometimes you just have to roll with it :D
@@100ThingsIDo yeah there where a lot of “ vintage “ synths with issues like that . I only bring up the phatty because it was a modern ( 2011) mostly digital controlled synth except vco obviously, still I digress.
What a crazy yet wonderful sounding synth.
Indeed, I can for sure hear the Buchla vibe in the sound.. at some points in this demo it sounds like my Music Easel used to :D
@@100ThingsIDo was this the only “ west coast “ synth Buchlu did ?
I think Trent Reznor knew this synth was special when he used it on The Downward Spiral
That's pretty cool. I've never explored the Buchla / West Coast side of things much; had a Volca Modular for a bit, and recently picked up the Cre8audio West Pest. As much as I've learned about Buchla, the OB-mx seems oddly East Coast for something he had a hand in. It reminds me in some ways of the Soma Labs Lyra, a synth that can be made to sound profoundly mournful. In short, as I pass beyond 35 years messing with synthesis, I am more and more attracted to synths that can be made to seem broken. 😃
Unpredictability is a gift.
Hey Mike, Its well worth checking out some of the West Coast stuff, maybe have a listen to what Alessandro Cortini has done with the Buchla Music Easel to bridge the world between east and west :D
I've always been fascinated by how weird and kind of "off" those filters are, I suppose it may be something to do with the components Buchla didn't like to use or whatnot, but they really do sound thin and unusual, which can be fun in its own way
Awesome video! I loved the historical context of this synth.
Thanks, I will try and do more like this for sure :D
@@100ThingsIDo That would be awesome. You have a great collection & I reckon a series of videos on each of their history would go down well. I especially love the attention to detail regarding circuitry & design
@@highplains Noted! Won't work with all synths I have (some have boring historys) but I have a Fairlight one coming up soon that should have some Historic interest in it :D
HUGE regards from Margaret River bro! insane work so grateful, OBMX my latest obsession as Ive been loving my Xpander recently and OB8 but would love the more experimental OBMX woah! love all your work what a find!
Hey Chris, thanks for much for the kind comments! Margaret River.... Wonderful wines! I would love an Xpander, I almost purchased a broken one once to repair but it was back 10 years ago when the IC's were becoming exceptionally rare before the recent reissues! OBMx is hard to find for sure in Aus, there were only I believe 10 that came into the country (mine being one of those) but sometimes you find a bargain on line so keep your eyes open, its worth having one indeed :D If you get one try and find one with the most voices possible as the voice boards alone almost never come up! :D
@@100ThingsIDo thanks for the tip I will bro, I usually have to source from OS...so far got my OB8 and Prophet 5, PPG 2.3 here and love my Memorymoog! Im a vintage poly man, but would love that tonal colour of the OBMX as its so beautiful and also so many modulations! loved your work for ages had no idea you were Aussie what a day! ps, I had to sell my old XPander 5 years back to move house but last year found another! they are SO worth it brother , extreme amount of modulations also only totally different tone to OBMX thanks to MR Buchla!
"Ashen" ! What you've done with the MX, 3 years ago, is far more than a sound demo. Glad to have that on your bandcamp YT Album. Very good to hear in the car, both calm and mysterious, too- I heard it often but only now realized, that this was made with the Oberheim. First Class Ambient!
I still need to master those TH-cam tracks ... I'll eventually get around to it :D Thanks for the kind words! :D
I didn’t even know the existence of this beast before! Oberheim is serious stuff for real!
More a Don Buchla creation than a true Oberheim ... but its still a awesome box of tricks :D
Nice demo! (beautiful S&H) Thanks for sharing.
Thanks, and thanks for checking the video :D
Your videos has always been great. Regarding the OBmx, to me it´s the dad of the Andromeda. Very similar specs... 2 vcos, 2 vcfs (Moog and OB), etc. At 1:29 it should say 12 voices. I only know 3 dual VCO synths that have 16 voices... Andromeda, Moog One and Korg Prologue 16.
Whoops, yep! Damn! I really should use a autocue! :D
Excellent video.
Thank you.
I don't own an OBMX but when I shall, I hope, I'll know about its sound and its quite temperamental behaviour.
And well, about the quality of your videos, it's OK fom me, I don't look for fancy cameras, FX and background, I look for info about the gear I like and for passionate people who explain it. And you give me this.
Keep on your good work, mate.
Thanks :D it is indeed a very nice synth :D
Super interesting. Thanks for that.
This seems to be a synth that wants to be played around with then sampled. 🤔😅
Very much, the more you explore the more you find.. It even has self triggering envelopes ! :D
I'd like to motivate you to do more (much more) OB-Mx Videos - I liked what you did --- at that time I wasn't happy because I wanted to have "a new Xpander" kind of Synth - but - it is an interesting synth in the studio.
I'll see what I can do! Yeh its more an experimenters box than Oberheim Synth... I don't thnk Don could of done 'normal' :D
Hi! Very interesting demos!. I have seen all your demos on this synth!!. Just a question, the knobs on the front panel are potentiometers or rotary encoders?.
All potentiometers besides the Data Adj. Thats a rotary encoder. hope that helps :D
Your videos are amazing, not just ok!
Thanks! 100Things is a but unique in some ways so its hard to judge how good or bad my work is :D
@4:38 So this is the patch used by Sasha for his track Xpander! Makes sense now.
th-cam.com/video/z-87KHrwXQc/w-d-xo.html
Its my recreation of the patch. Xpander was originally done on the Oberheim Xpander which is where the name comes from :D Very much the Oberheim bandpass filter sound!
@@100ThingsIDo Very good job on that patch sound.
To paraphrase Clarkson "he's back!" Nice intro too
Thanks man! Its taken a while :D
Very nice!👍
Thanks man! and thanks for the continued support :D
Great video, everybody hate this synth but i love it’s sound, i have a bought a 4 voice but it needs the xicor chips replacement.
could you please make a video about the filter wired behaviour and how to have the full range of the filter through the matrix modulation etc ?
thnx
Thanks, I'll see what I can do! :D
I thought about buying one back in the day. After reading the reviews, i decided to skip it. But now you're making me second guess myself!!
I was the same, the layout looked sooooooooo good but the reviews trashed the **** out of it. I'm sure if I spend a small fortune back in the day to buy one I would of felt very let down trying to make more 'commercial' sounds! Its more a trippers tool box... in a great way.. I guess there were not as many trippers in the early 90's :D
The OB-Mx doesn't have Sample & Hold, what you are hearing is actually Track & Hold.
Very Don Buchla :D
The S&H appears to work like I'd expect it to on any synth: it's sampling from the LFO wave. If you want random, you need to use the random/noise LFO. Or did I miss something in the weirdness of it?
You are correct, but ... I have never seen a LFO with a dedicated Sample and Hold before. This feature is only against the pitching as it has a 'RANDOM" wave form where the sample and hold normally is ... so basically an LFO with dual phase LFO. :D
@@100ThingsIDo I think because I have a lot of modular equipment, I see it more like it is here.
My MU modular has a Sample & Hold module. The inputs into it are the waveform to sample, and a gate. The length of the gate determines the length of the "hold". Usually, I put the white noise module output into the S&H input, but I could also put the LFO in there. I guess the OB-Mx just tried to simplify that.
But yeah, I've seen synths with S&H where this one had the random. I also have a Roland SH-7. Take a look at a shot of that one and see how they put S&H in some odd places, but it lets you S&H any of the LFO waves. :P
I enjoyed your video. The OB-Mx has a horrible reputation, but it still looks interesting to me.
@@Psychlist1972 Thanks for the info, yes.. it does have a horrible rep... but if you get into the Buchla headspace the sound and features and quirks all are very Don :D Such a shame he disowned it!
Great tone generation but that filter stepping is just inexcusable!
You can advoid stepping If you assign the filter it to the mod wheel as the modulation source :D
It is like having a gold bar
Yeh, its so unlike everything else from that period.. Very Don Buchla :D
Not terrible on tuning time my slim phatty was 30 to 45 mins !
When I had the Music Easel it was 30 mins just to scale correctly from C to C.. then is always slowly went out of scale over time after that! Sometimes you just have to roll with it :D
@@100ThingsIDo yeah there where a lot of “ vintage “ synths with issues like that . I only bring up the phatty because it was a modern ( 2011) mostly digital controlled synth except vco obviously, still I digress.
@@Death_By_Media One of the reasons Digital was so impressive in the 80's :D
sounds nothing like an Oberheim... and pretty lame for a Don Buchla design
When does the music start?
Never! Das Welt ist Klang :D