I LOVE IT !!! now Arturia, OBERHEIM MATRIX 12 or 8 voice ??

[Anonymous]

I would pay $250 for a good VA of the matrix 12 ( say, but make it 24 voice ) and the 4 voice SEM with say 16 voices.... !!!

to be honest, I HATED VA products until I tryed the CS-80V !

So there is a real future here with fast CPU speed.

[Ob-GUY]

If Arturia ever made a faithfull re-creation of the Matrix-12 (what most true synthesists consider to be the ultimate analog synthesizer of all time), they could name their price.  Not sure it would be that easy to do, but they would go down in hastory as the ones who did a Matrix-12, the ultimate synthesizer.  I would rate the Matrix-12 above all others, as wold most astute studio synth programmers.  The matrix-12 is the ultimate studio analog synth.

[GDarcey]

The Matrix 12 and Xpander are nice. I have an Xpander that I bought new when they came out.

I'm an astute programmer and would disagree on how cool they are.
The routing and modulation cababilities are great but the sound isn't. The Envelopes are slow to respond so really punchy sounds are impossible to make. The filters and VCO's are pretty thin sounding unless you stack voices, which it allows, but it cuts polyphony. The Linear FM is OK but the ability to have Exp FM (cross mod in Roland Jupiter 8 speak) and if it had the ability to route the Oscilators as mod sources (sound you could do balanced mod witha VCA) it would much cooler. The noise generator is thin to point of uselessness.

Bottom line is the sound quality needs to be there.

I would like to see a virtual Matrix 12 if it had the OSC/FILTER sound quality of an Oberheim OB-Xa and a faster Attack time on the envelopes.
The Martix 12, Xpander and Matrix 6 were the only Oberheim's that didn't sound like a big old fat Oberheim.

[mmetlay]

As someone who writes about music gear for a living, I have to be very careful about showing my prejudices, but fortunately my magazine doesn't review synths very often and this particular piece of my resume is public knowledge.

I was the head of the Xpander User Group for Oberheim and have been using an Xpander for over 18 years. No one attempts to make me see reason on the subject of the Xpander; I still consider it the greatest analog synth ever made, with only the very spendiest synths of the past two or three years even coming close to what it could do in the 1980s.

Through the XUG I have had contact with hundreds of Xpander users over the years, from people like Steve Roach and soundtrack artist Carter Burwell to Trent Reznor and Allan Holdsworth. Some of them have moved on from the Xpander; some have not. There have always been complaints from here and there that the envelope attacks aren't snappy enough and that the Xp and M12 don't sound as fat and sloppy as the OBXa; I've even heard that from Tom Oberheim himself. Like any good fanatic, I don't care what those people say. Let them go find OBXas or whatever and go be happy and leave the rest of us alone.

If Arturia decides to model the Xpander, I will be first in line to volunteer to beta test it and program the presets for the final release. My guess would be that in a fashion similar to the CS-80V, they will have a way to add more features and different sounds, as well as having an "authentic" mode.

What will be truly interesting to watch them try to do is to emulate the Xpander's many DIGITAL quirks, including its criminally slow CPU. There are entire classes of patches that rely on the fact that the CPU bogs down if loaded too hard and that would be ruined if it zipped along at full speed.

mike

[GDarcey]

When I bought my Xpander, I bought with a goal of replacing my modulars that were getting beaten up by gigging with them. Like I said, the modulation routing has never been beaten. Except in the it's ability to get outside controllers in. 2 Pedal and 2 Level controls don't give you much. I've done programming for a bunch of people, wrote articles for a magazine and a bunch of other garbage, you can read about it at www.applied-acoustics.com if you're interested.
I spent so much time with mine I even found the "Hi mom" page without any hints. I still have my Xpander and will never sell it because I love it, BUT...

The problem I've had with the Xpander is that it never had a personality sound. You could always hear and point out an OB-Xa, Jupiter 8, DX-7, D-50, Arp, PPG, or Mg. But the Xpander never really had it's own sound. It's sound was closest to a late model Prophet 5, which I also had and loved, but didn't have the x-mod that allowed for some really grungy stuff.
I still love my Xpander, I've done programming for EWI players and we alll love the fact the Xpander is the only synth that can smoothly deal with constant volume and AT information and do it without zipper fx.

If Arturia decided to make an Xpander, I'd love to do sounds for it, like I did for the CS-80V. But I'd rather see some of the more rare synths be recreated. The Aries modular, the Arp 2500, the Buchla, Polyfussion or Serge systems would be my first choices.

[AlexChigos]

I would love to see Arturia develop an virtual Oberheim 8 voice (or more) Modular virtual synth.

This incredible machine allowed each Synthesizer Expander Module (SEM) to be programmed the same or differently so that each successive note played would have a different sound (ie Tomita - Snowflakes Are Dancing).  Chords would have different voices and could be set so that they sequentally selected each module in turn or they could be set by position on the keyboard (ie lowest to highest).  All, or some modules could be included in a program.

I loved my hardware 8 voice, although it was a clumsy temperamental beast.



Of course my favorite plugin is the Mg Modular V, although I wish I could get it to work in my Muse Receptor!

[JWaltman]

check this one one out in the meantime..

http://www.sonicprojects.ch/


it really rox!

[Sweep]

Thanks, that's really rather good.

[poropat]

I would like to see a virtual Matrix 12 if it had the OSC/FILTER sound quality of an Oberheim OB-Xa and a faster Attack time on the envelopes.

I own a matrix12, and I agree 100% with you Glen.
But It would be good to have option to keep
the choice between Matrix12/xpander filter and OBXa filter
because this 15 modes filter on Matrix12 it's really something very
great.

check this one one out in the meantime..

http://www.sonicprojects.ch/

I have the OP-X and OP-X PRO, and I'm very happy, free running oscillators ,sounds very good, and very steady.
I only would like it becomes an 8 voices instead of 6.

[fractured]

If Arturia is listening, I'd love an emulation of the Syrinx, but the Matrix 12 makes some sweet bass!