A3
Oberheim OB-xa
Year of manufacture
1980
Production period
3(1980 - 82)
Polyphony
8
Oscillators
2(VCO)
Waveforms
2+2(Saw, Variable Pulse + PWM + Noise)
Modulation
1(1 LFO)
Filters
1(Low-pass switchable -12dB & -24dB/octave)
Keys
61
Features
8(Portamento, Unison, Hold, Sample & Hold, Chord Memory, Pitch-, Mod-Lever, Auto Tune)
Sound-Memory
120
Oberheim OB-xa
With the OB-Xa, its users can enjoy classic Oberheim sound, which sounds fat and wide as usual. That’s because the OB-Xa offers up to 8-voice polyphony, which surpassed the 5 voices of the Prophet 5. The Oberheim sound sounds so familiar nowadays because many well-known artists have used the synth and its factory presets in their songs. Most notably Van Halen, who used an OB-Xa riff in their song Jump, which became insanely iconic for the time.