It turns out that GForce Software’s relationship with Tom Oberheim goes further than simply releasing a documentary about him, as the great man has been helping the company refine its already excellent OB-E soft synth - a plugin version of the classic Oberheim 8-Voice - to create version 2.
This is the first time that Oberheim has ever given his personal endorsement to a software instrument. He worked with GForce to refine the OB-E’s detune feature and to implement a new Vintage knob, which dials in additional “realistic musical inaccuracies” to make the synth sound more like the 8-Voice than ever before.
He was joined on the project by Marcus Lyle, the former Oberheim developer who co-founded Line 6.
Commenting on OB-E and the improvements, Oberheim said: “I was pretty amazed by OB-E, it was pretty damn close right out of the shoot. It was ‘wow!’. I like listening to that. With OB-E v2, it’s like you have the hardware with you.”
There are several other new features in the second version of OB-E, too, including a new reverb, more than 100 new patches and the ability to zoom on the sequencer. There’s also a drum mode that enables you to play each of the eight SEMs on a dedicated key (10 presets are included to showcase this) and PC compatibility has been added, too.
OB-E v2 is available now for the introductory price of $140/£120 (regular price will be $200/£180) and is a free update for existing OB-E owners. It runs on PC and Mac as a standalone application and in VST/AU/AAX formats.
Find out more on the GForce Software website.
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