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Weapon of Choice: Oberheim
Oberheim
Electronics is a company, founded in 1973 by Tom
Oberheim (a former design engineer at Maestro), which manufactured
audio synthesizers and a variety of other electronic musical instruments.
Originally a manufacturer of electronic effects devices, and briefly
an ARP Instruments dealer, Oberheim went on to create several ground-breaking
products in the early days of synthesizers and electronic music
including the DS-2 (one of the first analogue music sequencers)
and the Synthesizer Expansion Module (SEM). The first commercially
available polyphonic synthesizers, the FVS-1 two-, FVS-4 four-,
and FVS-8 eight-voice configurations were based on these modules.
The two voice FVS-1 included a two channel volatge controlled Sequencer,
and the FVS-4 and FVS-8 machines included a rudimentury Programmer,
capable of recalling sound settings.
Oberheim's later synths like the OB-X and
OB-Xa abandoned the relatively bulky SEMs in favor of individual
voice cards, and common cabinetry and power supplies. Oberheim continued
to make synthesizers until the late 1980s. Other notable Oberheim
synthesizers include the OB-1 (monophonic), the OB-8,
the Matrix-6, the Matrix-12, and the Matrix 1000.
Some famous players include Joe Zawinul, Jan Hammer,
Geddy Lee of Rush, and Rick Wright of Pink
Floyd.
Oberheim closed its doors in 1986, when it was acquired by Gibson
Guitar Corporation, a larger musical instrument manufacturer.
The trade mark was later licensed to Viscount International
SpA, an Italian digital-organ producer, by Gibson. Viscount developed
in a few years various instruments that were very innovative for
the time and are still requested: the digital synth Oberheim
OB12, the guitar DSP GM-1000 with lot of effects, the MC
series of master keyboards, and the OB32, a portable and inexpensive
imitation of the popular Hammond series of organs.
-- courtesy of wikipedia
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