Alex Ball

Oberheim Xpander | Living in the Matrix (2019x4)

Air date: Jan 24, 2019

The Oberheim Xpander (1984) is quite a curious release from the legendary developer. It has the classic muscly Oberheim sound with 6-voice polyphony at 2 VCOs per-voice. However, it then becomes very interesting because it then has some deep digital control. There's five LFOs and five envelopes per voice, lag processing, tracking generators, ramp generators a filter with 15 modes and a whole bunch more. Pretty amazing for 1984! The instrument is fairly chunky, but most of the control is built around page diving and a modulation matrix. So, it would be absolutely enormous if they had a switch or potentiometer for each function. It's kind of a modular-esque synth without any cables and some elements being virtual. Furthermore, there are multi-patches where a different single patch can be loaded for each of the six voices. The voices also have their own CV/Gate and discrete outputs if you so wish. It's also fully midi equipped and so some folk use the Xpander as a midi to CV converter