Oberheim polyphonic


The Oberheim polyphonic is an analog music synthesizer that was produced from 1975 to 1979 by Oberheim Electronics. It was developed by Tom Oberheim, and was the first production synthesizer capable of playing chords.

Specification

Oberheim took the idea and electronics of a Minimoog synthesizer and put them in a small box, making a few changes, and produced the SEM, which became the building block of his polyphonic synths. By strapping two, four, or eight of these SEMs together under keyboard control, he was able to create practical, albeit large, synthesizers that could play two, four, or eight notes simultaneously. Oberheim polyphonic was born. Each SEM in an Oberheim polyphonic generates one voice.
The four- and 8-voice models included a "preset programmer" which allowed the user to store and recall most sound settings, and you could glide from one note or chord to another using portamento.
The Oberheim polyphonic was later outdated by a new line of microprocessor-controlled Oberheim synthesizers, beginning with the OB-X. The OB-X was fully programmable and significantly more compact than the Oberheim polyphonic.
Despite their maintenance cost and rarity, Oberheim polyphonic synthesizers are still adored by many musicians today for their characteristic sonic 'thickness' and 'depth' caused in part by the random variance between each SEM module.

Notable users