Now that GForce has released their own OBXa and OB-Xd has been update to version 3 (and others have been updated similarly in the past 3 years), perhaps now would be a good time to do a softsynth comparison redux?
I agree, Obsession is the winner...I love it! As I mentioned in a previous post… I think both its sound quality and its ability to control and randomize (see below) individual voice parameters set it apart from the others. Yes, you can randomize all the voice parameters, just right click anywhere on the front panel and select "Randomize Voice Adjustments". I also prefer its Step LFO approach over a standard arpeggiator... try the presets that use this. I find it more fun and musical to interact with than most arpeggiators I've played with.
One curious observation I have recently made is that there is a common modern “sheen” or “gloss” in the sound (to my ears anyway) with Synpase’s Obsession and their The Legend plug-in. I was a little surprised when I noticed this upon first trying Obsession and began to wonder how much of the unique feel Obsession captures of the original OBs, as well as how much of the minimoog The Legend captures, and how much it is more characterised by something common in Synapses’s modelling approach in general. This is why the OP-X plug-in in this comparison video actually stands out and catches my interest more, despite me finding the Synapse synths pleasant to use. Curious if anyone else has spotted this commonality across Synapse’s synths.
The OPX PRO II is the only soft synth in the four options here that has that Tom Oberheim OBX, OB8, OBXa feel and it's approx 5 years old. All the others soft synths sound like every other modern day soft synth imo.
I always enjoy theese shot out videos.You always have a great attiude about it you are right they do get better & better.I know I have the Arturia collection along with Arturia OB=Xav when you read the update it talks about the sofware bugs so they are in constant improvement mode.I think when any of theese Suft Synths are in the mix they sound great.My friend has a real Oberheim OB-8X he says when he turns it on that he has to mess withit to fix Issues.He has started using software realizes that it is just an easier way to go.When I first bought the Arturia OB-XAv softsyth I went through & marked all my favorites it is a lot of help finding the patchs you like the best .Thanks for the fun
The OB-X and OB-Xa are two of the best sounding synths ever, but unfortunately quite hard to service and keep running. I too know sb (professional synthplayer) who told me about the amount of constant servicing they need, especially the Xa. Read about their technical issues in forums as well, which is why I decided not to buy them, as I'm not a tech at all. So it's software for me too...
So much work put into this comparison, great job sir... again..! :) Little thing to mention.. OBXd have quite a few various skins you can choose from. (not just that "classic blue" you are using).
OP-X Pro II ..... it's just so good. Personally have owned it for 8 years now and it's just so solid! Great comparison though and I didn't know about the Obsession before this and it sounds good. The sound to me personally (OP-X) is fantastic, though I do agree the interface takes time to get used too. Excellent comparison!
I noticed the Arturia oscillators are brighter than the Synapse, which is visible on the oscilloscope. This is audible as well in some of the presets that have a more open filter. I think this can be desirable in some respects, because it's usually more difficult to remove excess high end, than it is to add it where it doesn't exist. Aside from that.... The Synapse has really smooth creamy sound overall, but I love how the VCA Saturation sounds, which it has an option to turn on and off. I also love its CPU efficiency. Obsession seems almost 50% lower cpu on my computer. I just wish it had more of the deeper sound design options of the Arturia. An additional thing I noticed is that Arturia OB-Xa V seems to get the envelope behavior wrong (like digital envelopes), whereas Synapse Obsession gets it correctly analog. When note stealing occurs with analog envelopes, the analog envelope will start from the value of the previous voice, rather than completely resetting. When when note stealing happens with digital envelopes they will typically restart the envelope back at 0. This has the effect of giving digital envelopes a very abrupt sound when note stealing happens, if the envelop was at high value when it was stolen. I can especially hear this with patches that have a long envelope types that control the filter. In Arturia OB-Xa V I can hear the filter envelopes end abruptly when note stealing happens. In Synapse Obsession when note stealing happens I can hear the filter envelopes stay open, like the do on a typical analog synth (with long envelope times). I much prefer Synapse Obsession in this regard.
To me, Oberheim has been my "go to" true-blue analog synth sound. I LOVE it. Owned several OB's over the years, plus the Matrix's, but nothing sounds like em. Arturia and Synapse come closest, WITHOUT the dreaded tuning issues and with virtually unlimited polyphony, so, it's better than I ever could've imagined!, but the Sonic Projects OPX, epecially the latest version (I think II) is pretty amazing. We live in lucky times, and it's easy to be spoiled.
Another great review, thanks Starsky 👍 I demo'd the Arturia and the Obsession but ended up buying the Obsession due to the inordinate number of heart attacks the presets gave me 😄
Always like your comparison vids! Gotta be tough to level match, at least with these synths here they should be pretty comparable as far as features more than say a prophet vs ob6! I have Diva-which should be able to get reasonably close to most ob sounds, though I'm hardly much of a sound designer-so I haven't wanted to spend on something else (at least until I really put Diva through its paces). That said, this did inspire me to fire up OBX-D, my version is a bit older than current. The lack of fx definitely can cause some "initial impression" issues--I'm kind of used to that going back into the 80s, when you tried out a synth and immediately thought: "WHY doesn't this sound like that album I love!" :). Part of the reason is you aren't hearing some uber-expensive hardware lexicon or other 'verb. So I pulled out a few of my favorite verbs and made sure I had one running while going through obx-d patches. Sounds mighty good to me....One thing about Synapse that I noticed after demoing both Dune3 and The Legend--their fx are really nice, and they make very liberal use of them. So for anyone doing comparisons, make sure you compare apples to apples (as was mentioned in this vid). FX can make an enormous difference to how sounds appeal to people, even those that "should know better" :)
The PWM anomaly looks like only half of the modulation signal is affecting the Pulse Width, for instance, only the positive half. The 'dead' time seems to correlate to half the LFO period. Does that make sense?
Excellent deep dive on all of them! I completely agree that the GUI for the OP-X Pro ii is the least accessible of them all. The OPX does have a few extra bells and whistles up it's sleeve. It can invert the envelope like on a Jupiter 8, which I'm guessing through the mod matrix on Arturia you can accomplish this effect. The OPX also has some Jupiter 8 arpeggiator modes for note order input and randomness, and if you double click the 24 db switch, the filter will self oscillate. You can also control volumes of the oscillators by holding the mouse button and moving on the filter oscillator buttons, but this is just that horrible interface as others in the shootout have dedicated volume knobs per oscillator and noise generator. The filter also has extra switches for regular medium and bright modes in those extra control buttons, again to get somewhat, that Jupiter vibe. I don't own the Synapse Obsession so I don't know what else is under it's hood, and while the Arturia does have the mod matrix, the OPX is almost as deep. With some of the extra switching functions, I'd rank the filter on the OPX at the top as far as flexibility. They all sound like Obie filters, but the OPX has even more filtering options tucked away. Too bad they require awkward access from a single interface page. The OPX's biggest failing is that lousy GUI. It is very user-unfriendly to get at those numerous extra touches. For as long as this software has been out there, it sure would be nice if Sonic Projects would redesign/update the GUI to make these functions more accessible, like a page 2 function.
It did take me a few years to master it. I think after about the third year I figured out there were hidden spots on the panning knobs, and the preset menu is such a nightmare I just save my patches in a folder on windows. Soubdwidw though it's, a, beast and probably one of the, best soft synths out there.
@@danielfisch389Sure hope that happens :) The OB 8 had a page 2, and UVI synths have a few pages. Keeps the GUI clean but accessible. Fingers crossed Sonicprojects updates there GUI :)
@@danielfisch389 He did create a new one about a years ago. It's makes it more of a "desktop" looking model with more features exposed. Not sure if that is what you were seeing? I wish the sonic projects guy would simply make a new synth cone, he's clearly amazing at it!
I would love to see a comparison of Arturia's SEM and Cherry Audio's Eight Voice. Even though it's one module vs 8, I prefer Arturia's sound by far. For the OBX, I'm happy with Arturia as well. Or I was, until some people came and said listen, Synapse does it better :-)
I own all these plugins + an actual Oberheim OB-Xa and the new gforce plugin. I feel the OPX PRO II is the most realistic-sounding plugin. I agree the UI and amount of options is or can be intimidating at first glance but the amount of precise tweaking and how realistic it sounds can't be beaten. disclaimer .. I do love the sound of a real OB-X over the OB-Xa. It's rawer, girthier, very big sounding (harder in a mix, but pleasant on its own) maybe that makes me partial to the OPX. Either way great demo.
I didn’t want to put them through anything that may affect the tone... then every now and then they clipped in GarageBand, which I didn’t notice until editing. I wasn’t about to start another mammoth 2 hour recording session again!!
@@StarskyCarr Haha )) yeah, another 2 hour recording of this whole job is a hell )) I've found that Dave Smith's OB-6 sounds much better on x-mod! Soft synths gives some dirt on highs. At least it sounds like that.
Will be surprising for you, but I actually love the presets in the OB-Xd and I like them better than all the other contenders' presets! Maybe because, differently from the other units, the OB-Xd presets are really "vintage-style", as you would find back in the days. The Arturia presets are infected by the ugly fashion of trashy, noisy house- and trance-style sounds. Take the lead sounds in the Arturia... most of them are sync-style leads... and they all sound more or less the same! Really load of crap in the Arturia presets. The Obsession presets are nice, but to my ear, they don't sound like an OBX, they sound more modern, more enhanced with digital tricks. OP-X presets are good, but for me, the presets in the OB-Xd are the winners, really musical and useable in actual music productions where there is real music and not just clangorous techno dance effects.
I cant judge others since I have only OBXd (and original OB Matrix), but agree... OBXd has pretty awesome and musical presets when I was browsing through.
+10! The OB-Xd and the OPX-Pro have the best vintage presets. Later one especially with all the additionally downloadable sound banks. The preset authors for Obsession slammed a lot of reverb on many patches which just sound plain bad. The Arturia patches are, as you say, modern techno crap!
I tested all (demoversions) and I stayed with the free OB-xd because it has for me better and more presets. I tried it with a spreader effect in LogicPro and so the difference with pads and brass presets was even less.
I have the Reason Obsession, I have Aturia mini V the emulsion of the Minimoog and to Me sounds alot like the OB XD. I didn't pay for Mini V it come unlocked with a used keyboard.
Playing around with obsession obxd and opx pro ii I was actually preffering obxd. Opx pro ii sounded dull but still musical (perhaps the most musical) and obsession sound detailed and bright yet clinical. Obxd maybe not as musical as opx pro ii but sounded more detailed like obsession but more musical close to opx pro ii. They are all good though and splitting hairs. I was using better quality effects than the built in reverbs and delays to level the playing field.
OBXD is amazing considering you can get it for free. I have to say that I’ve a real fondness for the OPXii although at times it feels a little too ‘loose’ but with careful tweaking it’s excellent especially considering it’s age and it’s a single hit not a huge team. Love it, which might not come across as strong as I feel in this video.
Now that GForce has released their own OBXa and OB-Xd has been update to version 3 (and others have been updated similarly in the past 3 years), perhaps now would be a good time to do a softsynth comparison redux?
I agree, Obsession is the winner...I love it! As I mentioned in a previous post… I think both its sound quality and its ability to control and randomize (see below) individual voice parameters set it apart from the others. Yes, you can randomize all the voice parameters, just right click anywhere on the front panel and select "Randomize Voice Adjustments". I also prefer its Step LFO approach over a standard arpeggiator... try the presets that use this. I find it more fun and musical to interact with than most arpeggiators I've played with.
I really like the sound of the obsession. Thanks Starsky
One curious observation I have recently made is that there is a common modern “sheen” or “gloss” in the sound (to my ears anyway) with Synpase’s Obsession and their The Legend plug-in. I was a little surprised when I noticed this upon first trying Obsession and began to wonder how much of the unique feel Obsession captures of the original OBs, as well as how much of the minimoog The Legend captures, and how much it is more characterised by something common in Synapses’s modelling approach in general. This is why the OP-X plug-in in this comparison video actually stands out and catches my interest more, despite me finding the Synapse synths pleasant to use. Curious if anyone else has spotted this commonality across Synapse’s synths.
Good notice, I notice the same, there is a character in the Synapse synths all of them, when u have dune3 u notice that
Same. Obsession sounds like a plug-in - too modern. Very bright and glossy and doesn't have much vintage mojo compared to some of the others.
The OPX PRO II is the only soft synth in the four options here that has that Tom Oberheim OBX, OB8, OBXa feel and it's approx 5 years old. All the others soft synths sound like every other modern day soft synth imo.
exactly my thoughts.. thx
I agree too. Owners of all 4 and Op-X is still the go-to
I always enjoy theese shot out videos.You always have a great attiude about it you are right they do get better & better.I know I have the Arturia collection along with Arturia OB=Xav when you read the update it talks about the sofware bugs so they are in constant improvement mode.I think when any of theese Suft Synths are in the mix they sound great.My friend has a real Oberheim OB-8X he says when he turns it on that he has to mess withit to fix Issues.He has started using software realizes that it is just an easier way to go.When I first bought the Arturia OB-XAv softsyth I went through & marked all my favorites it is a lot of help finding the patchs you like the best .Thanks for the fun
I can see that... when hardware starts to
play up it’s a real PITA.
The OB-X and OB-Xa are two of the best sounding synths ever, but unfortunately quite hard to service and keep running. I too know sb (professional synthplayer) who told me about the amount of constant servicing they need, especially the Xa. Read about their technical issues in forums as well, which is why I decided not to buy them, as I'm not a tech at all. So it's software for me too...
Loved The Legend and LOVE Obsession!
So much work put into this comparison, great job sir... again..! :)
Little thing to mention.. OBXd have quite a few various skins you can choose from. (not just that "classic blue" you are using).
Synapse has been killing it!
Killing it? You did what!
@@bdxfhsf Not me, Synapse! lol
All good. I have Obsession and the Arturia and a Sequential OB-6 in the mail.
Synapse Audio Dune 3 is also a very nice synth.
OP-X Pro II ..... it's just so good. Personally have owned it for 8 years now and it's just so solid! Great comparison though and I didn't know about the Obsession before this and it sounds good. The sound to me personally (OP-X) is fantastic, though I do agree the interface takes time to get used too. Excellent comparison!
Yeah I’ve recently been playing more with the OPXII - it’s got such a great feel.
I noticed the Arturia oscillators are brighter than the Synapse, which is visible on the oscilloscope. This is audible as well in some of the presets that have a more open filter. I think this can be desirable in some respects, because it's usually more difficult to remove excess high end, than it is to add it where it doesn't exist. Aside from that....
The Synapse has really smooth creamy sound overall, but I love how the VCA Saturation sounds, which it has an option to turn on and off. I also love its CPU efficiency. Obsession seems almost 50% lower cpu on my computer. I just wish it had more of the deeper sound design options of the Arturia.
An additional thing I noticed is that Arturia OB-Xa V seems to get the envelope behavior wrong (like digital envelopes), whereas Synapse Obsession gets it correctly analog. When note stealing occurs with analog envelopes, the analog envelope will start from the value of the previous voice, rather than completely resetting. When when note stealing happens with digital envelopes they will typically restart the envelope back at 0. This has the effect of giving digital envelopes a very abrupt sound when note stealing happens, if the envelop was at high value when it was stolen. I can especially hear this with patches that have a long envelope types that control the filter. In Arturia OB-Xa V I can hear the filter envelopes end abruptly when note stealing happens. In Synapse Obsession when note stealing happens I can hear the filter envelopes stay open, like the do on a typical analog synth (with long envelope times). I much prefer Synapse Obsession in this regard.
So much choice these days, I'd be happy with either.
To me, Oberheim has been my "go to" true-blue analog synth sound. I LOVE it. Owned several OB's over the years, plus the Matrix's, but nothing sounds like em. Arturia and Synapse come closest, WITHOUT the dreaded tuning issues and with virtually unlimited polyphony, so, it's better than I ever could've imagined!, but the Sonic Projects OPX, epecially the latest version (I think II) is pretty amazing. We live in lucky times, and it's easy to be spoiled.
@@andivax Not at all... See:
www.sonicprojects.ch/opxpro2/description.html
@@andivax I read an announcement from the sonicprojects guy that he is working on a new version including resizable GUIs
@@andivax Which Moog? (Moog sound generally being quite different to Oberheim sound)
@@andivax OK - BTW have you tried Synapse's Legend yet? Excellent Minimoog emulation! The best around IMO
@@andivax indeed. And Diva is one of my faves too!
Another great review, thanks Starsky 👍 I demo'd the Arturia and the Obsession but ended up buying the Obsession due to the inordinate number of heart attacks the presets gave me 😄
OPX PRO 2 is my fav.. it has this dry analog sound with a huge pressure.
Great video...and review. thank you!
OPX PRO II sounds more authentic than the rest. The others seems to try to sound a bt more modern. Is that just me and my hearing?.
It's only you, OPX sounds shitty as hell compared to the other ones
I agree. Bought my OP-X Pro II back in 2015. It's still hands down my fav and best emulation of the OB-Xa. It's so good!
Always like your comparison vids! Gotta be tough to level match, at least with these synths here they should be pretty comparable as far as features more than say a prophet vs ob6!
I have Diva-which should be able to get reasonably close to most ob sounds, though I'm hardly much of a sound designer-so I haven't wanted to spend on something else (at least until I really put Diva through its paces). That said, this did inspire me to fire up OBX-D, my version is a bit older than current. The lack of fx definitely can cause some "initial impression" issues--I'm kind of used to that going back into the 80s, when you tried out a synth and immediately thought: "WHY doesn't this sound like that album I love!" :). Part of the reason is you aren't hearing some uber-expensive hardware lexicon or other 'verb. So I pulled out a few of my favorite verbs and made sure I had one running while going through obx-d patches. Sounds mighty good to me....One thing about Synapse that I noticed after demoing both Dune3 and The Legend--their fx are really nice, and they make very liberal use of them. So for anyone doing comparisons, make sure you compare apples to apples (as was mentioned in this vid). FX can make an enormous difference to how sounds appeal to people, even those that "should know better" :)
The PWM anomaly looks like only half of the modulation signal is affecting the Pulse Width, for instance, only the positive half. The 'dead' time seems to correlate to half the LFO period. Does that make sense?
Excellent deep dive on all of them! I completely agree that the GUI for the OP-X Pro ii is the least accessible of them all. The OPX does have a few extra bells and whistles up it's sleeve. It can invert the envelope like on a Jupiter 8, which I'm guessing through the mod matrix on Arturia you can accomplish this effect. The OPX also has some Jupiter 8 arpeggiator modes for note order input and randomness, and if you double click the 24 db switch, the filter will self oscillate. You can also control volumes of the oscillators by holding the mouse button and moving on the filter oscillator buttons, but this is just that horrible interface as others in the shootout have dedicated volume knobs per oscillator and noise generator. The filter also has extra switches for regular medium and bright modes in those extra control buttons, again to get somewhat, that Jupiter vibe. I don't own the Synapse Obsession so I don't know what else is under it's hood, and while the Arturia does have the mod matrix, the OPX is almost as deep. With some of the extra switching functions, I'd rank the filter on the OPX at the top as far as flexibility. They all sound like Obie filters, but the OPX has even more filtering options tucked away. Too bad they require awkward access from a single interface page.
The OPX's biggest failing is that lousy GUI. It is very user-unfriendly to get at those numerous extra touches. For as long as this software has been out there, it sure would be nice if Sonic Projects would redesign/update the GUI to make these functions more accessible, like a page 2 function.
It did take me a few years to master it. I think after about the third year I figured out there were hidden spots on the panning knobs, and the preset menu is such a nightmare I just save my patches in a folder on windows. Soubdwidw though it's, a, beast and probably one of the, best soft synths out there.
I read an announcement in some forum from the sonicprojects guy that he is working on a new version including a new GUI
@@danielfisch389Sure hope that happens :) The OB 8 had a page 2, and UVI synths have a few pages. Keeps the GUI clean but accessible. Fingers crossed Sonicprojects updates there GUI :)
@@drsamurai009yes, an updated version would be great. Been some time since the last update
@@danielfisch389 He did create a new one about a years ago. It's makes it more of a "desktop" looking model with more features exposed. Not sure if that is what you were seeing? I wish the sonic projects guy would simply make a new synth cone, he's clearly amazing at it!
Obsession!
I would love to see a comparison of Arturia's SEM and Cherry Audio's Eight Voice. Even though it's one module vs 8, I prefer Arturia's sound by far.
For the OBX, I'm happy with Arturia as well. Or I was, until some people came and said listen, Synapse does it better :-)
I own all these plugins + an actual Oberheim OB-Xa and the new gforce plugin. I feel the OPX PRO II is the most realistic-sounding plugin. I agree the UI and amount of options is or can be intimidating at first glance but the amount of precise tweaking and how realistic it sounds can't be beaten. disclaimer .. I do love the sound of a real OB-X over the OB-Xa. It's rawer, girthier, very big sounding (harder in a mix, but pleasant on its own) maybe that makes me partial to the OPX. Either way great demo.
That’s really interesting. I wish I’d have one for the review!
Hi Starsky! Nice comparison! Why not to use a limiter to avoid clipping?
I didn’t want to put them through anything that may affect the tone... then every now and then they clipped in GarageBand, which I didn’t notice until editing. I wasn’t about to start another mammoth 2 hour recording session again!!
@@StarskyCarr Haha )) yeah, another 2 hour recording of this whole job is a hell ))
I've found that Dave Smith's OB-6 sounds much better on x-mod! Soft synths gives some dirt on highs. At least it sounds like that.
Will be surprising for you, but I actually love the presets in the OB-Xd and I like them better than all the other contenders' presets! Maybe because, differently from the other units, the OB-Xd presets are really "vintage-style", as you would find back in the days. The Arturia presets are infected by the ugly fashion of trashy, noisy house- and trance-style sounds. Take the lead sounds in the Arturia... most of them are sync-style leads... and they all sound more or less the same! Really load of crap in the Arturia presets. The Obsession presets are nice, but to my ear, they don't sound like an OBX, they sound more modern, more enhanced with digital tricks. OP-X presets are good, but for me, the presets in the OB-Xd are the winners, really musical and useable in actual music productions where there is real music and not just clangorous techno dance effects.
I cant judge others since I have only OBXd (and original OB Matrix), but agree... OBXd has pretty awesome and musical presets when I was browsing through.
+10! The OB-Xd and the OPX-Pro have the best vintage presets. Later one especially with all the additionally downloadable sound banks. The preset authors for Obsession slammed a lot of reverb on many patches which just sound plain bad. The Arturia patches are, as you say, modern techno crap!
I tested all (demoversions) and I stayed with the free OB-xd because it has for me better and more presets. I tried it with a spreader effect in LogicPro and so the difference with pads and brass presets was even less.
I have the Reason Obsession, I have Aturia mini V the emulsion of the Minimoog and to Me sounds alot like the OB XD. I didn't pay for Mini V it come unlocked with a used keyboard.
Playing around with obsession obxd and opx pro ii I was actually preffering obxd. Opx pro ii sounded dull but still musical (perhaps the most musical) and obsession sound detailed and bright yet clinical. Obxd maybe not as musical as opx pro ii but sounded more detailed like obsession but more musical close to opx pro ii. They are all good though and splitting hairs. I was using better quality effects than the built in reverbs and delays to level the playing field.
OBXD is amazing considering you can get it for free. I have to say that I’ve a real fondness for the OPXii although at times it feels a little too ‘loose’ but with careful tweaking it’s excellent especially considering it’s age and it’s a single hit not a huge team. Love it, which might not come across as strong as I feel in this video.
Obsession blows them away especially with the new genetics function
Which editor are you using for OB-6?
The sound tower ‘official’ one. At least I think it’s Soundtower!
PLS make you tutorial for Synapse Obsession with make new example self sounds !
Not happy all the levels are off
.
..just kidding ..thx for the comparisons great work
Oooh. 😂😂😂😀
Obsession is the best, Arturia (as always) the worst
The price of the Arturia makes no sense
THEY ALL SOUND LIKE VST
GFORCE