The OB-8 Versus the MKS-80

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The Oberheim OB-8 and Roland MKS-80 are two massive vintage polys, each sporting dual oscillator, eight note polyphony provided by sixteen VCOs. There’s a lot of similar functionality between these machines. The switchable two or four pole filter and modulation routing is a little more flexible on the OB-8 but the MKS-80 makes up for it with cross modulation, velocity sensitivity, and after-touch. The technology used in the MKS-80 seems much more advanced even though it was made only one year later than the OB-8. The MKS-80 is a compact rack-mountable device, while the OB-8 is a massive behemoth that currently dominates my studio space. Ultimately comparing these two machines is not really a productive thing to do. They both sound fantastic. The MKS-80 is better for me because my musical style generally requires the expression possible through velocity and after-touch, but the OB-8 is easy and fast to program with lots of luxurious feeling knobs.

I recorded a little freeform jam session with Unearthed Music‘s graphic designer, Ben Montag, experimenting on the OB-8 while I twisted knobs on the Bitstream 3X driving the MKS-80. See if you can identify which sound is coming from which synth.

OB-8 Versus MKS-80

Ostracon and Low-Gain Live: Wednesday, August 10, 2011

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Unearthed Music just got a new run of cassettes made of my release, Unauthorized Modifications by Ostracon (me and Graham O’Brien). We will have them at shows and select local record stores including Shuga Records in Northeast Minneapolis. Checkout unearthedmusic.com for more details.

A great place to get your tape is at our show this Wednesday, August 10, 2011 at the Honey Lounge in Minneapolis. Master modular maestro, Low-Gain, shares the bill with us. Doors are at 9:00pm and music starts at 10. The new cassettes will be on sale at the show for $5, which includes a free download code (normally $8 just for the download) and if you are one of the 25 customers who bought the previous cassette that was recorded only on one side, bring it to the show and I’ll swap it with a new one for free!

Here’s a sample from our release show on June 24, 2011:
Ostracon Release Show Segment 3

Classic Video Game Sounds on Vintage Analog Synthesizers

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I often find myself producing similes of classic video game sounds on my vintage analog gear like the Pro-One, Casio CZ-1000, Juno-106, MKS-80, or in this case on the Oberheim OB-8 that I am borrowing. Usually this involves pulse wave oscillators, LFO modulation, or high-speed arpeggiation. Aside from being nostalgic it is a good exercise for learning the synthesizer’s controls. Here’s some Pacman-esque sounds done on the OB-8. I converted it to mono and left it unprocessed to exemplify it’s vintage sound.

Classic Video-Game-Like Sound

Standalone OB-8 Demo

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Here’s one of the first recordings I made with the Oberheim OB-8 Once I started experimenting with it in my studio. This recording was made without any external sequencing or arpeggiation. I used the on-board arpeggiator, held down a chord, and then started turning knobs. Here’s a small segment of what came out. You will notice the hard panning on the voices. This was also done on the OB-8.

Standalone OB-8 Demo

Oberheim OB-8 Oscillator Synchronization

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This is a sound programmed on the Oberheim OB-8 using the oscillator sync mode. I set each oscillator to the pulse wave, enabled sync, then modulated the frequency of the synched oscillator. This made a very rich sound and when I viewed it on the oscilloscope I saw these crazy animated castle walls going by. I used my Nexus One to shoot the screen then added in the recorded audio so you can properly hear how it sounded.