Nice, I have #8 . Shame you don’t have the original top panel as it looks like it had the upgrade. Though sometimes I wish mine did too

I’m not sure that I know the difference between the original panel and what I have.

Just has different graphics and font. When the Oscar midi version came out the non midi ones were able to be upgraded which also optionally changed the top panel to the common panel.

Has anyone tried to do something about the aged and shrinking rubbery bits? I'm wondering if silicone spray used to restore automotive window and door seals would work.

I know there's a guy who reproduced all rubber parts - I'd need to search for his contacts, as I remember him updating me on the production status.

Or does anybody already have its contact details handy?
BR,
Flavio.

He was on eBay for a long while, but I don't see anything now. Guessing he's invested in moulds and parts to reproduce the parts, so hoping there's a good chance he'll be back with a new batch...

Here you go!


John Pilkington <[email protected]>

He's the one!
F.

C'mon ...no

It's a monosynth with digital oscillators....you can buy any combination of say, an analog reissue (Boog, KARP, MS20) and maybe something like a Shruthi or ESQ-1....cover everything an OSCar can do and exponentially more....and bring home $2000

Well I have a KARP and had an ESQ1 for many years and they were nothing like my OSCar. Also none of those have the filter separation that makes some very unique sounds.

Wrong

I've also tried to get partway there through a combo of wavetable and analog eurorack oscillators with MS20 style dual 12db filters, but the OSCar remains a unique sound entirely on its own.

there ARE similar filters, even on synths of the same era that can dial in SIMILAR characteristics of the OSCars filter....you guys are lying to yourselves to feel better about the 2-3k you sunk into it. This is a usual symptom of collectors posing as musicians....

I defy ANYBODY to point out a record where there is the "unmistakable" sound of the OSCar in it......

Mate, my OSCar cost £190. Not quite sure why you're so antagonistic, but hey ho.

Well, I DON'T have one. But how about you show me the synth you're talking about with characteristics that sound like the OSCar, and if that's SIMILAR enough, you can sure as heck feel better and have my 2-3k that I WOULD have sunk into it...

sorry, not trying to come off that way....I have no issues with how anybody else spends their money. Just kind of a peeve of mine when someone drops that level of coin on some "mystic sound" when it's not really the case...be honest, many times it's for the collection lol. And that's OK!


Well, MS-20, Jupiter 6 and the Wasp all can do the formant filter thing...it's just 2 filters in series, with a dedicated knob for the offset. Not really a big deal. There are cheaper entries into the modular market that can also get you there. But I digress....

What... Love's Great Adventure by Ultravox isn't enough for ya?

Well, I get where you're coming from. I do have a jupiter 6, a few Wasp filters in my eurorack cases, and more than a few other synths that I've bought to approximate the OSCar (Microwave 1, various eurorack wavetable modules and filters combined with my Pro1, etc. etc.).

If its worth anything, the closest approximation I have found is an SSSR Kotelnikov wavetable module combined with a solid analogue VCO behind it for girth. That's partway there, but from my experience, the OSCar is still by and large very much it's own thing.

Ultravox - Love's Greatest Adventure.

Love letter to the OSCAR: Love's Great Adventure (EMM Oct 84)

Ultravox LOOOOOOOVED it.

Fsol- omnipresence
Vulva- from the cockpit...every song on there

Unfortunately while you may believe you can approximate it, the Oscar is the sum of all its’ parts which I didn’t get until I bought one either.

Well, emulating old digital chips is nothing new and has been done in software for a long time. Have a look at Chipcrusher by Bidule. It emulates all sorts of very old DACs very well. I’d seriously doubt that it would be super difficult to do a simple additive oscillator like the OSCar’s and some way to to emulate the old chip, even if it had to be done with DSP.

Now, getting the rest of the synth right, all the analog bits... well, they did the Model D pretty damn well, so I don’t see why the OSCar would be much more difficult, unless the overdrive circuit was hard to match.

My Pro 2 does “exponentially more” but it ain’t no OSCar. I’m surprised it has to be said here, but it’s clear that any instrument is more than a check list of features. Along the way a lot of decisions are made that all lead up to a character. Can some things get close to that character? Maybe, but it would take a lot of trial and error before you came up with the modules that altogether approach an OSCar.

Well, I’m not an owner of an OSCar, but when the first impOSCar came out, I was taken by it. At the time, it was a great sounding VSTi, though I have no idea how close it came to the original, or anything anything. I can pretty comfortably say that there definitely wasn’t another plugin that sounded like it, even if they had a similar feature set. I could probably easily make a patch in Zebra that does it, but I’m sure it woudln’t sound like it.

Then, when impOSCar II came out, I was really blown away by it. It went from a plugin that I used every now and then, to one that I use a lot. I have no doubt that it’s more polite than the real deal, and it’s already a beast. I can only imagine that getting the right combination of modules that faithfully reproduced the OSCar sound would at the very least, cost you a lot of time searching and testing. Now, if you just put together a bunch of good modules that did the exact same thing that an OSCar does, well I bet that would sound really good, but still not sound like an OSCar. That might not matter to you, but I’ve heard enough demos of the OSCar to make me think that it’s pretty special. YMMV.

I've been enjoying the OSCar . It's becoming apparent to me that I never really got too deep into the machine the first time around. Well, not to the depth that I would be satisfied.

One thought that came to mind was why the apparent lack of sync and ring-mod in it? Then it struck me that it doesn't matter because waveform building can make hard sync or ring mod type of waveforms. Modulation options are limited so it might not be completely possible to get outstanding sounds but it should be possible to go farther than the apparent limits of it's face plate.

It's something I'm going to play with over the next little while but any fellow owners would like to share some of their thoughts and experience?

Thanks.