More like Amazon. And none of this is their fault. My reason for talking to the rep was trying to squeeze some amp tubes out of Mesa/Boogie. You can't even get them unless you own one of their amps, and they prioritize warranty claims. The tube situation is worst of all. Most of them have been sourced from China and Russia for years, so it's a disaster right now.

A year ago, there was a 10 month wait for a new Gibson. They've slowly improved. I don't blame Sequential for having a hard time meeting demand, but I think it would be good for them to let people know what the situation is. I don't think it will hurt sales. I think transparency is best.

So, owners, what is the consensus so far?
Yay?
Nay?
Unsure?

Today I transferred the funds from savings. Yet there’s been stirrings lately about the VS-1 actually becoming something other than speculation.
And I’m already invested in that for better or worse….

Do I wait on Abstrakt or go Oberheim and have instant gratification vs possibly decades of further purgatory with the VS-1?

What say you fine OB-X8 getters?

I’ve been thinking about adding an external reverb for a while now and narrowed it down to the CMX1978 or Neve RMX16 500-series Digital Reverb. Any input from anyone who’s used them would be appreciated. It will be a while though ‘cause I’ll have to recoup after shelling out the cash for the OB-X8 (which I should have early September)!

It’s just a standard IEC cable - just grab one with a 90° end:

https://amzn.to/3PEF2DK

Thank you I appreciate it.

The BOSS DC-2w looks intriguing. I am trying to learn if it sums the stereo input to make it mono then turns it into a stereo chorus. That would defeat the OBX8 panning feature.

Yay!

No it's true stereo.

I like your enthusiasm. Thank you!

Man, those are both fantastic, top-shelf reverbs but VERY different. The '78 is essentially a Lexicon 224, which is an icon, and possibly the king of dreamy, soundscapey, endless vibe. It's one of my favorite verbs of all time and sounds STUNNING on any good analog synth.

The RMX16 on the other hand is perhaps the king of 80s pop ambience. It's certainly the Phil Collins/Genesis/Hugh Padgham & co. "nonlinear" verb that was a staple in countless synth pop tunes of the time, and I adore that thing - but generally not a go-to for synths unless you're after that short gated vibe; it's not a "dreamy" verb.

Having written all that, if you're after the more dreamy soundscape thing, PLEASE do yourself a favor and check out a Specular Tempus. I have yet to hear anything through that box that doesn't leave my jaw on the floor. I'm a helpless reverb junkie. Reverbs are an obsession for me. They're my kryptonite. It's a problem, I know. And the Tempus might be my favorite of all time. At least in that category... it's the organic, grass-fed heavy whipping cream of reverbs.

Hope that helps ;-)

It may not be “retro” but Strymon Big Sky has stereo inputs, and it’s hard to argue with.

I’ve got 32 inputs of Radial DI’s which sound pure and transparent- 4 x D8’s. I think each 8-channel 1U unit was $600-700 used on Reverb or EBay.

I doubt you'll get any negative tales from those who've just dropped 5k on a synth... Well at least not until a 6k synth gets announced and the race for the first batch begins anew

For what it's worth, I opened my OB-X8 over the weekend and I've been really enjoying using it so far. I decided to make a song to help get to know it, here’s what I came up with:



All of the synth sounds are from the OB-X8, apart from the bass in the B section. I tried to use a few of the distinctive features of the synth (e.g. ‘page 2’ parameters) as well as a couple of presets along the way:

1. The chords that open the track are a sound I programmed using the portamento mode set to ‘bend up’, and an envelope to control the filter modulation so that it only kicks in once the bend has finished.

2. The sound that comes in at around 00:25 is the ‘bubbly cauldron’ preset with the volume and filter envelopes tweaked to give a longer release.

3. The B section uses a patch in ‘double mode’ with the arpeggiator applied only to the top layer, and a slow LFO modulating the filter of the bottom layer to create swells.

I may post something fuller giving my first impressions of the synth some time soon, but wanted to share the song in the meantime. I'm just an enthusiastic amateur who has recently started making full tracks for the first time, so I'm sure I'm not using the synth to its full potential, and I'm not holding out the song as finished (or even good). But given that there's still relatively few demos of the synth online (and even fewer showing it in a song context) I hope it may be of interest to see how it's being used.

Any feedback/criticisms/suggestions very welcome- I don't want to derail the thread with my specific track so feel free to message me about that .

Best reverb on the planet Kurzweil KSP8 (KDFX) kids & contrary to popular belief the DigiTech one's on the original older machines (K2k's) aresn't bad either folks
[P.S.Mangler & Rumor are stellar tooo¡]



¡'All Hail Kurzweil!'¡'Long Live V.A.S.T. !' Thanx for your genius RayK.& HalC.

I guess I’ll have a third reverb to look into as I’m not familiar with the Specular Tempus. Thanks for the tip!

Is there any way to use a 500 series as a standalone? That Neve looks amazing but I don't have a 500 rack.

Thanks for bringing up these options! I've come close to buying a Strymon a couple of times but for synth recording (not talking live performance) I'm not convinced it really would make a huge improvement over my Valhalla plugin which is amazing.

Anyone have thoughts on this? Not trying to open the hardware vs ITB argument but just wondering what people think in regards to reverb specifically.

So far definitely a yay for me! I'm not an advanced sound designer by any means - I bought this because it's my favorite synth tone ever and that's what I wanted to make my music. If Prince used presets that's good enough for me!!

In all seriousness two observations: sound design beyond some of the more obvious pads or leads feels less immediate and accessible than on the Prophet 5. Not saying it's not as complex - it might even be more so. Just saying it takes more getting used to (at least for an intermediate-level person like myself). There is a ton it can do, which is obvious from a lot of the OB-X8 preset banks. Getting there on your own is a bit of a journey.

Secondly: having all those preset banks of the original synths is a little underwhelming to me because they're just subtle variations on the same sounds for the most part. I don't need 4 different clav, trumpet, or flute sounds. I get that it's part of the historical recreation piece but I find most of that pretty useless. I do like the new X8 presets, and have mostly been using those as starting points to edit and create my own sounds. Of course, sometimes starting from a clav or flute is the way to go. All depends! Definitely not going to complain about the sheer number of banks available. Pretty sweet!

Well, I think I can honestly say that money spent has no bearing on an honest take from me. If anything, the more money spent, the more critical I'm likely to be ;-) Having said that, I'm only a week in and haven't had nearly enough time with it yet - but I can certainly give you some initial thoughts!

1. First and foremost, it sounds insanely good. I'm thrilled to say that my early skepticism about resurrecting a true OB successor was unfounded. It's the real deal.

2. Clearly they made every possible effort to stay true to the OB-X design, including all the quirks. I totally respect that, but personally I would have opted for some refinements/improvements. Just one example: the Hold button retriggering notes when you push it; that was always an annoyance and I wish I had the option of it behaving like you'd expect. As of now it's kind of useless, at least for me.

3. On that topic, it really is a bummer that a good handful of major parameters are on Page 2. Yes, that's faithful to the OB-8, but it's kind of ironic that I find myself setting up an external controller to have instant access to stuff I want to control all the time - like cycling through all the filter modes instead of just 3 for example. Thankfully some of this can be addressed in firmware updates, and it's great to see they're already working on that ;-)

...I've gone back & forth on the Page 2 stuff and I'm not sure if I would have done it any differently - but I do wish they would have labeled the panel with the Page 2 controls. Not the end of the world - all part of it being a faithful OB I suppose.

4. My only other major issues are with Double mode, since I tend to use that a lot: mainly, the fact that there's no "linked" edit mode that lets you edit both layers simultaneously; as of now you can only edit one layer at a time. Huge buzz kill when you're working with a gorgeous stereo pad/synth and you have to constantly go back & forth between upper & lower layers to make changes. Thankfully this too is being considered, apparently.

5. Double mode presets are merely "pointers" to single patches, which you learn the hard way after crafting something you love in Double mode, saving it, and coming back to find your edits gone. This makes a real headache out of patch management - reminds me of the Roland JX-10 where you have to keep track of the single patches that make up your "Doubles." I wish Double presets stored both layer's patches along with them - as of now you have to essentially store 2 single patches with their edits AND the Double patch that points to them. Hopefully this might be addressed.

The only other things I find less than ideal are minor, and are already on their update list (have the screen show all parameter values in real time, etc.). That's all I can find to "complain" about so far, so hopefully this shows that someone who drops the cash on an expensive synth can be objective!

I will leave you with this: I've had this thing sitting next to me for a week now, and I've had a full plate of work keeping me from it. And it's been torture. I find myself taking LOTS of breaks to just play the thing - because it's utterly GORGEOUS in every conceivable way. I had an OB-6 and it's a great synth, but this... this looks, feels, and sounds like the Oberheim I grew up hearing but couldn't afford as a teenager in the 80s. This is one of the analog synth icons I dreamed about. It is just plain sublime.

Last things: the keybed is magic. It's gorgeous, but I would have killed for a blue stripe version. And oh how I'm praying an 8-voice expansion card is a possibility ;-)

The obvious answer:

I also am getting an ob x8 this week a few questions about adding reverb and direct box

Direct box: I was thinking of the Neve RNDI stereo? Any thoughts?
Do you need a direct box if running into an interface such as the Apollo?
How about through a mixer? In my studio setting thinking the order would be OB-X8>Neve Direct Box RNDIs>Apollo
when I play Live OB-X8>Big Sky >Neve RNDI> Mixing board? Do you still need DI when going through strymon?

Reverb: Is Big sky a good choice? I haven't used a reverb pedal before with keyboards as all my keyboards have built in reverb. Sometimes I Will add it in studio environment with Valhalla.

Finally with my OB-6 and P6 I have been using 1/4 TRS cables without a problem, does it really matter as I would guess one signal path is just left unused?

Thanks

You can get a single 500 series frame, which of course is an added expense. And while the hardware is dead sexy, it's the same algorithm from the UA plugin, which is superb - and you can run multiple instances without the hassles of hardware.

Sure thing. I had the Strymon for a while because, well, it was the flavor du jour and everyone else had it. And while it's great at what it does, it's kinda like the Roland D-50 of reverbs: you heard it everywhere and it's a very identifiable sound that gets old quickly, IMO. Sometimes it's exactly what you want, and if it works, it works - I just found that when I want a dreamy, atmospheric soundscape, there are other things I like more, like the Lex 224 and especially the Specular Tempus. And yeah, I could get Valhalla Shimmer to do the exact same thing as the Strymon, if that's what I was going for.

Verbs are certainly subjective territory, but I have yet to hear anyone not rave about the Tempus. I ended up dedicating a send/return loop in my DAW to that thing - it's the only hardware reverb I use anymore. It's just magic on analog synths.

After owning my OB-X8 for 3 weeks now, I got to use it on an important session yesterday. It was the dominant synth with a touch of Moog Matriarch used for weirdo effect sprinkles, due to its modular nature. I wish I could post audio but it's for a project that won't be out until next year.

You notice a lot of things when actually RECORDING with a synth, and the thing that strikes me most about the OB-X8 is no matter what I did with it (bass, pads, plucks, lead, etc.) nothing needed tons of processing to sit right. Not even EQ, really. From the big bottom to the delicate top, everything is just sitting perfect. Granted, a lot of this has to do with choosing the correct sounds in an arrangement, but just as is, the raw parts already sound incredible. Tracking through a Universal Audio Apollo Quad into Logic Pro X.

Another thing I noticed is the tuning has been absolutely spot on and rock solid. My OB-6 can sometimes need to be tuned a few times during a session because it's very loose.

I couldn't be happier with this keyboard. The tone is to die for and the build is ultra premium. I'm very happy Dave got Tom onboard with the Sequential family. I can't wait to see what's next. It would be hard to say no to an Xpander or Matrix-12.

Last random thing, I'm getting the most lively plucks out of this synthesizer. So organic and alive! Truly love it.
I find myself turning it on at the oddest hours in my downtime and just playing it. It's a joy.

I have a BlueSky and a Universal Audio Golden Reverb. I’m totally enjoying the UA pedal. The plate and 224 models are sublime.

which do you like better?

Ah yeah the double and split patch management is frustrating... I hope that can be improved on. I want to be able to easily and quickly save a doubled or split patch and call it back up while playing, same as a normal patch. I've been fumbling blind with it so far to see how much I can intuit as I go before diving into the manual... happy to be wrong.

Solid build, expressive controls and a glorious sound. Software and UI issues are solvable thankfully.

The Golden Reverb by a wide margin. You are getting some of the best UA reverbs in a pedal. Now that they updated the app you can change and save multiple presets.

This is the kind of post that sells me on the OBX8: professional use by a professional musician in a challenging context. That’s where the rubber really meets the road!

Strymon is good of course, but it always seems to put a pure and glossy sheen over whatever signal it processes - that might be what you want..

The reason I go with the ChaseBliss CXM1978 is it's 3 modes of fidelity - or lack of. It can sound very clean, or it can sound like low sample rate digital reverb of 1978, which is what we heard from the Lexicon 224 in music of the 80's due to sample rates of the day. The Lexicon 224 put a degree of hair on the signal it processed. It has Hi-Fi, Standard, and Lo-Fi, as well as Room, Plate and Hall. And the motorized flying faders are WYSIWYG. No menu's - love that.

...I like the OTO BAM reverb a LOT, but if I didn't use it for a few weeks I'd have to re-learn what all the illuminated dots meant on the front panel. Truly cryptic, but sounds great.

Unless you specifically need a pedal, you can get a better reverb in a DAW, usually for less money. It isn’t like looking for an analog chorus pedal.

Strymon - before you get one of their reverbs, make sure you like the Strymon reverb sound. It’s not a reverb I would get. But reverb is very very subjective. If I needed a good general reverb pedal is first try the Empress. But I’d rather use Cinematic Rooms Pro or TaiChi.