When GForce Software put together its Bright Sparks documentary - a celebration of the electronic music pioneers who laid the foundations for the buzzing scene we have today - one of the people the team wanted to speak to was legendary synth designer Tom Oberheim.
Unfortunately, at the time the documentary was being made (2015), it wasn’t possible, but the good news is that GForce has now released a new episode of Bright Sparks that serves as a Tom Oberheim special.
Available for free on the GForce Software YouTube channel - you can watch it above - this begins by covering Tom’s involvement in the emerging electronic music industry of the 1960s, then charts his achievements through to the present day. His career has seen him produce countless classic synths, including the OB-Xa, DSX, DMX, OB-8, Xpander and Matrix 12.
Commenting on the release of the documentary, Tom Oberheim said: “I congratulate the folks at GForce for all the effort they put forth to create the Bright Sparks video concerned with my history. What a great way to tell the Oberheim fans and family what I have been doing all these eight-plus decades, in and out of the music business!”
Bright Sparks producer and GForce co-founder Dave Spiers added: “Tom is such an important part of electronic music history, and given the instrumental version of I Monster’s Bright Sparks album features a bonus track dedicated to him, his lack of inclusion in the original documentary always felt like a major omission. I’ve always wanted Bright Sparks to be an ever-evolving project, so I’m thrilled to document his fascinating story with a dedicated chapter.”
GForce previously released the OB-E, a plugin emulation of Oberheim’s classic 8-Voice, which put eight of the company’s SEMs (Synthesizer Expander Module) into a single instrument.
