We love a good vintage synth emulation, but does this latest offering from GForce honour an Oberheim synth classic? OB one way to find out

£149.99 MAC

> Back in the day and before polysynths became a thing, Oberheim upscaled their SEM (Synthesizer Expander Module) monosynth into a number of multi module designs. The most ambitious (EVS-1) used eight SEMs and was better known as the 8-Voice. This delivered 8-note polyphony where each voice was basically a different synth and could therefore create rich polytonal sounds. But things moved on and Oberheim developed a synth (the OB-X) that achieved polyphony in a more efficient fashion. Thankfully software developer (and proud 8-Voice owner) GForce has finally got round to emulating this complex synth – no mean feat – and OB-E is now available for Mac OS X (AU, VST, AAX, standalone).

“GForce has finally got round to emulating this complex synth – no mean feat”

Nitty Gritty

OB-E is arranged with all eight SEMs and their outputs and pans simultaneously visible. SEMs are also grouped for the Split keyboard mode – Lower (SEMs 1 to 4) and Upper (SEMs 5 to 8). The bottom section of the window includes the preset browser, global controls such as playback mode, Portamento, Vibrato and global editing options. On the lower right is a 49-key keyboard and the corner icon switches this to show the MIDI Sequencer and Stereo Delay. SEMs also have more parameters on a Rear Panel view and can be flipped individually or collectively. A Zoom option places one SEM – front and rear views – across the whole SEM section. There are no further hidden panels, which is great, but the interface is quite busy. Thankfully, the window can be accurately resized to work best with your screen resolution.