The OB-6 sound on a budget?
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 5 ก.พ. 2025
- In this video I take a brief look at building a simple Eurorack effects box to mimic the beautiful sound of the OB-6 and Oberheim synths in general.
The gear I purchased and assembled in this video is as follows:
Doepfer A-106-5 SEM Filter x 2 - Used prices were £67 and £69.
Doepfer A-145 LFO - Used price was £40
Doepfer A-100LC1 48hp Eurorack case - Used price was £85
Total cost excluding cables: £261
Finally, a huge shout-out to Starsky Carr for his fantastic OB-6 vs Prophet6 video which kick-started me on my journey of gear-lust for the OB-6! You can find his video here:
• Dave Smith: OB-6 vs Pr...
As an owner of an OB-6, I can say this sounds just about bang on.
thanks so much - this not only offers me a route to (or at least substantially towards) the sound I cant afford with the ob6, but also demystified some ‘getting started with’ eurorack confusion.
especially appreciate your calm, clear and focused style of teaching. great job!
@ghost mallVideo is literally about doing a specific effect on a budget. Then you pop in and ask the only question that goes against the entire spirit of the video.
Thank you very much Tim. This is a really clever, nice and gentle introduction into Eurorack for a modular beginner like me.
Same here. I've always been modular-curious, but that looked really simple!
Timestamps for comparing sound: 14:28 P12 before stereo SEM filters; 18:39 & 19:10 with stereo SEM filters. 20:50 increased resonance and LFO rate; 21:55 inverted LFO in left channel. 22:21 LFO square wave; 23:21 another... 24:42 comments/summary
I watched the same video, I bought an OB-6. Loved every day since, yes it’s expensive but I really don’t think about it. Great video btw
Interesting choice to run the P12 through your filter box. You get the flexibility of the P12 with some of the OB's character. Very nicely done and sounds great :) That said, when you play/hear an OB-6 live, it simply "sizzles'. Its an awesome (costly) instrument. TH-cam videos (sonically) can't begin to demo the depth and richness it delivers. While Sonic Project OP-X Pro II is about the best software emulation I've found to emulate the sound, side-by-side you can immediately hear the distinct difference the OB-6 delivers. There is no comparison to the trained ear. Again, well done project! Thanks :)
@23:20, nailed it for me! Wow, Thanks for this video. I’ve never considered modular gear before and this was an eye opener!!
like the idea of not just blindly following gas, but use ones creativity to create the sound with what's (almost) already in our hand. And yes: notch filters are great and mostly overlooked.
This looks like a great solution but there actually is a great SVF in a guitar effect pedal/box: The Fairfield Circuits Long Life is fantastic. Pairing it with my Prophet 10 has pretty much cured my Oberheim GAS. The cutoff or resonance can be modulated with CV and the former can also be hooked up to an expression pedal.
Awesome video man, subscribed. I've hesitated to get into Eurorack because I already own a lot of wonderful machines and don't wan't to go down that rabbit hole. You've presented a nice, affordable entry point into that rabbit hole that I can use to extend my current sound design options. Well done. Thank you.
This is a great video. My main synth is an Arturia Polybrute, and I've never really played around with the notch filter in the Steiner filter before. I figured I could do what you were doing here and set up LFO 1 as my mod source on the Steiner cutoff, but the nice thing with the Polybrute is you can use the voice number as a mod source, so I used that to spread the LFO rates, LFO phases, and filter cutoffs across all the voices, which really thickens up the swirling nicely, and brings some of that vintagey richness in. Fantastic, informative, and inspirational video - thank you! Would never have occurred to me how great that notch filter could sound without this.
Nice concept! Ported the idea to Blofeld using the 12db/octave Notch filter. Set panning to unisono, instances=3 then used free running sine LFO to each of the instanced filter. So each of the 3 instances will have a different stereo presence!
Mark Pigott I need to do that once I’ve fixed mine. I love the Blofeld but mine is plagued with hardware issues. Changed the opto coupler and now (I think) the final stage opamp.
I was just thinking the same...”hey, my Blofeld has a notch filter and a mod matrix...”
@@markbennett2856 I'd love to hear how close it can replicate the SEM
Hmm, then it's probably doable on a hydra too...
Have heard the OB6 yet but what you've done here sounds fantastic. Thanks for the walk through 🙏
So I got this set-up and I must say I love the SEM filter it's DIRTY! and smooth and a really nice sounding thing :) reminds me a lot of the OBXa I used to have thanks Tim I am now wandering into the rabbit hole of modular I'm sure my bank manager will love you for this :
Well done. Eurorack is a magical journey. You might want to check out some of the Dreadbox "white line" modules - cheap and cheerful. The Splash module is an amazing effects unit.
This is brilliant. I had the OB-6 on my list for a long time but now I'm thinking about saving some money and getting a Prophet 12 and doing exactly this. All the modulation options in the 12 plus the Oberheim sound if I want it, along with the filters that come in the 12. Thank you for this video.
20:47. Beautiful. Excellent, well done. And thank you for sharing your ideas and building process. You have made making one seem very possible.
Really enjoyed the video. So well presented, informative but most of all enjoyable.
Great video. I will try it out with a Doepfer A-121s Stereo Multimode Filter and see if I can get similar sounds.
Even I wasn´t interested into the modular I watched till the end and I started to be interested :-D. Very nice introduction!
Sounded pretty close to my ears, modular has been calling me for a couple of years now and you have just showed me that I don't need to go out and buy 30 modules to get started.
Thanks Tim. This idea made my cz-1 complete. Got the 2 doepfers got a bunch of LFO's from a nyx and microvolt. Lets see were this fascination/passion goes. This vid is a great help in the the love for oberheim-ish thing going on in my life.
Awesome. I was wondering about this. I wish I had your abilities. I’m
Deeply moved by the Oberheim OBX & Xa sounds. Sadly I was parted from my old OBXa long ago. I’m
About to purchase the OB-6 that’s on back order just now. I’m also looking forward to the release of the Behringer clone. I’m also very partial to the Oberheim LFO the features the S & H wave! God I love that for some reason lol. Love your work Sir!
22:30 Oh I love it! It sounds like the stereo trickery the UDO 6 does.
Definitely sounds like an OB6, nicely done!
I had an Ob-8
once for a little while. There is just so much sparkle shimmer and shine.
Amazing Video,
I appreciate the thought you put into it. I do wish the playing part was a bit longer, but it provided the necessary effect.
It has inspired this outlandish thought;
From the comments nedonanalog mentioned that each voice would need its own filter,
Perhaps a mophox4 + tetra would be able to output each voice into its own filter.
Guessing at cost, used tetra and mopho could run you about 1,100 total.
Then 8 Doepfer filters at around 80 each, another 640,
Plus LFO, and another mixer to handle this much signal.
Very fun idea, but possibly easier to just buy an OB-6 LOL
It sounds really cool, but for full stereo lushness, I would definitely go with a second separate LFO, so both left and right are fully independent...
John Wright overdubbing
Nice video Tim, thanks a lot 🙏🏻🙌🏻🎹
you are feeding line levels to the filters. Would be interesting to hear if anything changes when you boost the stereo out of the synth to eurorack levels, which is what the filters expect at their input
I agree. I'm sure there would be a slight improvement in the sound. The 4ms Listen IO module would work well here, then he could go back out at line level if desired.
Yeah bring those levels up to euro so you can give the filters something to actually chew on
@@stateazure Thank you, I've learned something useful there, appreciated :)
indeed, i felt all of it was somewhat weaker sounding than expected, until i realized its not euro levels feeding the doepfers..
My trick for achieving this effect is a Vermona PH-16 phaser - if you plug a dummy (ie connected to nothing) TRS plug into the CV input, then use the CV intensity knob you've got a manual notch freq control. No control over resonance, but it sounds delicious. True stereo in/out as well.
Great video and I love how you are always thinking ahead, knowing that these projects are always a work in progress. Would love to see an envelope added, which is probably a future thought of yours. Am really happy I came across your channel a few days back as it has great content and superbly presented. Take care and keep up the great work.
For folks who don't wish to go the hardware route, the Arturia SEM standalone filter vst does a fantastic job as well. It also has an LFO/env/sequencer. I've been using it with my Prophet 6 and while I won't say it's an OB6 it's pretty damn close.
Would you mind explaining how you’ve set this up? I got my eye on the sem filter for the purpose of this, but i’m not yet experienced enough to figure it out by myself. Your help will be greatly appreciated!
@@ronnie_astro the arturia filters run as an insert on your track so whatever sounds/synth on the track will pass through the filter. The SEM filter imparts a great deal of character so just having it on there will change the sound even when the filter is open (in analog/analog modeled filters opening a filter never completely bypasses it’s effect). Regarding the lfo and sequencer you can set their destination to settings on the filter so it will change those parameters over time depending on how you have it programmed-so you can program things like the notch filter to move. And finally since it’s in your DAW you can assign a midi controller and map the filter cutoff to do your classic filter sweeps.
Great video as always Tim. Nice to see a practical approach to finding the tone you are after. It's so easy to get caught up in the ida that you have to spend the big bucks and to own everything (I'm looking at myself here!)
Super inspiring. I have a sherman filterbank which has 2 filters and an lfo and was able to get a nice notch filter after wondering if the filterbank could do it and it can. It's not an ob-6 sound but was nice passing some percussions through it and listening to that phasing effect. Going to experiment more using it in this way for sure. Thank you.
Nice work but you should have left the filter of the P12 wide open with the envelope configured as a gate (open/close). We are actually hearing the P12 filter with some attack and decay and afterwards the SEM filter with LFO modulation creating a rather odd mix which was not the original intention I believe. This setup is actually an external effects setup and the result is a paraphonic articulation of all voices so it's not the same as having separate filters for each voice. But it's an interesting concept nevertheless.
Love your channel and your work- continue with this! Your sound was improved with your 1.0 experiment. What my minds eye found lacking was that Oberheim “fizz”, for lack of a better word. Other comments pointing out the polyphonic aspect of the o.g. synth could be a stumbling block, but let’s see!
Great video as always Tim. Your production value is just awesome, and I find the types of questions you ask really useful.
I just wanted to point out though that you got the notch and band pass filters mixed up in the beginning. The state variable filter goes from low through notch to high pass, and the filter may be switched to band pass. Cheers
Very nice :) I've been doing something similar with my Dual Borg SVF, when you have them around notch mode I find you don't miss being able to trigger a different filter envelope for each key press, so a final output stereo filter can get you the results you want for pads and such. For a lot of other sounds though, six filters with dedicated ADSR is necessary.
It sounds authentic to a Xpander to me, I owned an Oberheim Xpander many years ago. It's 6-polyphony was perfect for my Yamaha G-10/G10C...
Will test these Eurorack-filters out! To achieve the same stereo-sweep sound for a fraction of the price is very appealing!
Great video! You can get similar results with Analog Heats multimode filter and LFO 🙂
THANK YOU!!!
A month ago, I decided I wanted to buy an external filter 'cause I love my 2pole and 4-pole curtis (mopho x4) but I wanted a bit more diversity. I've looked at desktop filters like Shermann (sounds great but way too expensive for me) and Vermona (it's only mono (wondering why but well..)).
So I tried finding a solution in modular. At that point, I know it's expensive but I thought if it's just for a stereo filter and some modulators (like LFO and/or EG) + rack and power, I'll probably find some solution for below 400euros. So during research I found a forum where someone asked how to do just that and what minimum modules were required. Someone then answered : A stereo mixer (for input) + filter x2 + VCA (as output). So that would probably end up being aroud 300euros 2nd hand for a simple filter with no mods.... :( Not really knowing anything about modular I thought he was right and gave up the idea considering how expensive it could get with mods. But thanks to your video I know I don't need 2/3 of what that man suggested, so I think I'm about to take the plunge, you've made it easier than it looks, and I appreciate that a whole lot! Thank you.
I only had one question: Do you think building an effect rack for my synths would offer me more than guitar pedals can? Would it be much more expensive than guitar pedals as well?
Modular will give you more flexibility than pedals, more modulation capability, more extendability. But for stereo you'll end up with two of everything. Not sure about cost, there are some pretty expensive pedals out there. For simplicity and for a choice of reverbs I still use pedals, but for more complex modulation, granular effects and filtering etc I prefer the modular route....
Filters scare most guitarists 😂 Also, that Doepfer SEM filter is one of my favorite filters. Great choice. Also, multiple LFOs with different mods, and possible even some envelope following could really bring the modulation to life. The OB6 is moving that notch with envelopes as well, so that’s going to really affect how much flex you will get out of those filters when they’re interacting with your tone. I use just raw waves from my Rev2 to run into my SEM filter, for an OB monosynth feel and that really delivers more so than just running patches through the filters-but I have to use triggers and extra envelopes to really get it to come a full synth voice.
Could you do a video about running Rev2 into OB6? I love your channel btw (those long videos about Rev2). If I can get into OB6 pad territory with Doepfer SEMish filter...that's it...REV2 wins for me on its cheaper price and flexibility.
@@piotr803 yeah I could do that for sure. Thank you for the kind words as well!!
@@sauce_aux I've been getting great results with running Arturia Prophet 5 through a Dave Smith Character module (based on P12). Makes much easier to mix in vsts with modular. But nothing beats a D/VCOs ...especially running through that awesome creamy SEM filter it seems :-)
20:00 It sounds like my EHX Small Stone😂 That is some really nice sounds!
I love your videos! Great work! Very interesting experiment. Ob6 is my dream synth...
Nice and lovely. It´s different, but more signature!
I don’t know if it sounds like an OB-6, but it sounds great!
smile! good work Tim.
the struggle is real!
I don't care if it's close to OB6 or whatever sound. Adding stereo EFX to any synth's sound is a good idea. Have two Behringer VP1 phasers behind an Yamaha SY22. This adds analog warmth, life and stereo width. The Behringer Dual Phase is also a good solution for something like this.
Nice explained and lovely sounds Tim ^^
Hi Tim. Thank you for doing this video. I've just managed to order all these bits as well. Have you added more to this little set up? I'm going add beads for some granular fun. I'm intrigued to see what else you added to this box of SEM goodness. Thank you again. Your videos are brilliant
Useful video thanks. Personally, u-he Diva is the way to go. The SEM filter emulation is spot on, and has "that sound" as Nick Batt puts it (reviewing the OB-6). So good in fact that I'm tempted to build a PC into a synthesizer enclosure and pretend it's a physical synth.
Here's a great example of what your talking about: www.synth-project.de/diva.html
try using it on stage until the cpu crashes ....for syudio work its close. i use it at home. but will probably buy the behringer ubxa when it comes out.
u mean like a modwave?
Just stumbled upon your channel. Very very nice. You now have a new subscriber.
Thomas Røntved Thank you very much, it’s really great to know people enjoy the channel :)
@@TimShoebridge Super Amazing, Very Informative, High Quality content. Never stop! :)
I would recommend the Make Noise QPAS for those looking for a stereo SVF.
Lovely sound!
Excellent job. Very well done 👍
To truly mimic the sound of an OB-6, you would need 6 filters or 12 (one for each voice of polyphony, in stereo), and that’s part of the high cost. What you have recreated is lovely, but it’s a paraphonic as opposed to a polyphonic solution.
Great build, you can use rubber bands to mechanically move two or more knobs together.Offset the filters to make an awesome double notch filter ..
You could also use a device like Make Noise Lapsus Os and control both filters with a single slider.
this actually worked quite well
Another way to get that sound, which is very similar to the Tangerine Dream sweeps is to use the Compacting Phaser designed by Haible (Compact Phasing X). Essential a notch filter. It is also called the Kraut phaser. It has a very intense but ethereal jet sweep which is very similar to what the OB-6 does. The Vandaal Electronics version is around £350, so a good alternative to a notch filter. That sound can be heard a lot throughout the Stratosfear album used on the Mellotron and the Gr500 guitar synth.
Great ideas thanks for this!!! I use the pro 2 with a model d going through the prophet and sem style filter. Then i control the model d with the cv outs from the pro 2. thats a big combo!! Even with wavetable on the top from the pro 2 and mixed and filtered with the vcos of the model d.
But in terms of price its not that cheap...
Would love to see a review of your Grandmother, wonder how different it is (aside from spring reverb etc) from the Mother32
Ha! I'll ask her for permission! ;) Sorry, just can't come to terms with the name! But yes definitely I have been planning a video on the GM for some time now...
Haha the name throws you off. We'll all be grandmothers some day. Nice videos!
Beautiful! Thank you for sharing, Tim. One might well describe the effect you're getting here as "creamy" in texture. I don't really care how close it comes to emulating the real OB-6, it is beautiful for what it is. For me, that is what matters most -- the sound. That elusive unicorn called "authenticity" will always be secondary to the sound.
Nice, im yet to bite the euro rack bullet yet. im so tempted.
Great content!
I would say “it sounds very nice....” ls an understatement of collosal proportions,-
I‘d love to see a P12 video! :)
Great demonstration anyway!
Nice idea, thank you!!!
Very illuminating and clarifying demo of unique filter design effects. I love the explanation of stereo effect. I will definately try this on my System 90 (system55 + system35 comined). Thanks.
I believe Rolands pkg filter does the same thing on their synths.
Thanks for making this.
Fun fact: I just bought an OB-6 with keys for less than whats used in this video :D
Sounds amazing! Are you still using the synth's ADSR amp envelope with this setup? I'm a bit of a novice, but do you not need one after the audio is sent through the SEM filter?
I wasn’t sold on one till I heard/tried one in the shop. No room for anymore keyboards in my studio, so I acquired the ob6 module. Probably my favourite synth at this moment in time. Stupidity satisfying. You program a sound from a basic waveform, sit back and have that smug feeling that ONLY an Oberheim can achieve THAT sound! Fair play for experimenting with certain modules. P.s. not sponsored by Deopfer my fat ass!! 🤔😂👍🏻🎶
Thank you for the video, I appreciate it. If I ran output from a Hydrasynth (digital) through this filter, would the sound coming out of the filters become analog? Not much experience to ask the question correctly.
The regular audio output jacks on any synth - whether it's a digital or analogue synth - are analogue outputs. Is your question, will it sound analogue? Think of those eurorack filter modules as being like an external effects pedal, you either like the effect you hear or you don't, it's all about what sounds good to you.
Great video and great idea for a paraphonic OB-6! ...I was massively distracted on whether you have any top teeth though 🤣
I’d say: Mission accomplished! Sounds lovely. It really makes me think of putting my euros into euro rack too. The flexibility that you buy is worth the relatively expensive nature of it. And I guess there’s a lot of kits making it cheaper.
Interested in how to do this with software maybe reaktor blocks ?
Would the same exercise be possible with CS80 ?
Great video. How did you get this look on camera?
Great video. Question: did you run the filters on the P12 wide open? Or did you use the P12 filter and this external dual A-106-5 setup in series, in effect?
Am now tempted to do something similar.
What a great idea. This may be the way I scratch my OB itch.
brilliant video
what happened to the black levels in the video?
Sounds pretty nice. Don't know if it sounds like an OB-6 or SEM filter, but nice enough! Did you connect the ADSR to the unit?
Thanks Tim. Great video. Didn’t help with my Eurocrack problem though 😀
Budget oberheim would be a OB6 desktop. Lol
James High Ha! Yes I am waiting patiently for one.... at the right price :)
Major OSC, you are so right. OB 6 is my favorite new analog synth and no software could match it with my eyes closed esp when playing solo.
Nice workaround. Still the ob6 has got actually one of those filters per voice. So actually 6 of them...plus 12 envelope generators. Plus lfo, plus the vcos... if you start to add up you see how an ob6 is actually really well priced.
Doesn’t the OB6 just have one filter that all 6 voices pass through?
@@robscasey No, the control makes it look like 1 filter, 1 amp envelope and 1 filter envelope but actually there is one per voice. So the ob6 actually has got 12vcos, 6vcfs and 12envelopes
@@robscasey that's the reason analogue polys are so expensive by the way
@@ionianechoes I see, I own both the ob6 and p6 and have never heard that before. Do you have something I can read about the design in that regards? I can’t see anything online
@@robscasey BOTH? I hate you...haha I won't ever afford one of them...sad face. I mean that's just how analogue polyphony work... it's actually a complete synth voice per voice. They have got one complete voice pcb per voice, you can see in the picture for example. www.reddit.com/r/synthesizers/comments/5yg6zg/a_look_inside_the_ob6_and_prophet6_modules/
Just brilliant in its simplicity,- Are you happy and fully content ?
Thank you!! Well it's not a replacement for the full polyphonic OB6 implementation as others point out but I'm very happy with the results. I've since added a MIDI to CV module, an envelope generator and another LFO, so now I have a paraphonic solution, I'll hopefully get a follow up video put together at some point soon.
@@TimShoebridge Great Tim, i really appreciate youre video´s. for the thorough explorations, of the instruments, and , for fine tunes, you play aswell-
I feel like another major part of this OB6 sound is the square sub oscillator
Wow that was super cool! I saw a video once where Dave says the main difference between the Prophet 6 and the OB-6 was the filter. So instead of buying both, you could instead get the Prophet 6, build your SEM modular rack, you still have enough change to get a Matriarch 😂
my thoughts exactly :D
Nice at 23:43...if you want an Oberheim on a budget, get a Matrix 6.
Hi, did you add more modules? Didn't see a follow video on your channel.
what about the Rossum Morpheus Z-Plane Filter
I like the Morpheus and the XAOC Belgrad, both of which I think would yield interesting results... the start of a nasty euro-crack habit though :)
Another great video, thanks! What cables did you find necessary to connect your gear? Have you had similar success with other synths besides the P12? Cheers 🥂
Hi Chris, No special cables needed, we're just dealing with audio here, just need to be mindful of levels but otherwise this approach will work with any sound source.
Tim - amazing video thank you! I would like to try this concept with a Matriarch. Would it be possible to essentially 'replace' the stereo filter on the Matriarch with a dual SEM setup like you have here? Would I just patch the wave outs into two signals (2 oscillators per signal) into each DOEPFER module, then patch the output of the SEM modules into the input of the envelopes...or am i getting that order wrong?
Thanks very much! Well, if you want to replace the existing filters then there is a slight issue because what is hidden from you (but which would be under your control in a fully modular system) is the fact that the Matriarch is internally gating the output from the oscillators. If you take the wave outs from the oscillators you'll hear that they are always on, whereas the Matriarch's behaviour without any patching is to send audio from each oscillator to the filters selectively depending on the mode you are playing in (ie. monophonic vs paraphonic). In paraphonic mode for example you hold down one key and only one oscillator is heard, the others remain silent. It's not possible to replicate this paraphonic behaviour of the Matriarch without taking over full control and basically utilising an external MIDI to CV converter module and an awful lot of patching. I had a go at this kind of thing myself and it got to the point where there was very little of the Matriarch that I was actually using in the end. This is an issue with semi-modular synths, they are extendable but they come with limitations. So how successful you will be depends on the mode in which you are wanting to play, so perhaps the easier option would be to leave the signal flow of the Matriarch intact but leave the internal filters wide open and use the SEM filters like an external effect at the end of the synth's signal path.......
@@TimShoebridge That makes a ton of sense actually. Thank you!
@@TimShoebridge One more question Tim! In theory if i wanted the envelopes of the Matriarch to effect the DOEPFER SEM's I would take the Envelope out from the Matriarch and put them into the CV in next to the freqeuny knob on the DOEPFER right?
@@superlean5991 Yes the CV-in on the SEM module is where to apply the envelope CV from the Matriarch
how does it compare to the OB-6 sound?
Great video!!
Once you got everything going, the sound reminded me of Spandau Ballet.
wow educated and enlightened