Author: synthchaser

Recently got a question from someone unable to save patches on his OB-Xa.  “Where is the memory protect switch located?”.  On the OB-X and OB-Xa, the memory protect switch is located on the main processor board inside the case.  To access the switch, you will need to unscrew two screws on the left and right of the synthesizer to lift the front panel and access the board.   The switch is located as indicated in the pictures below.  On the OB-8, someone finally got a clue and moved the switch to the back panel where it can be accessed without opening the synthesizer.

Today we have a look around inside a of couple Oberheim OB-X synthesizers. I give a techincal overview of what goes on inside the synthesizer, we look at some of the differences between the earlier and later OB-X, and I show you the weak links that you’d want to address or at least keep an eye out for when repairing or restoring one of these synthesizers.

Some people claim the Oberheim OB-SX is a smaller, preset version of the OB-X. But is that really true? In this video we take a look the voice cards of the OB-X, OB-SX, and OB-Xa and explore their similarities and differences.

This OB-8 was brought to me because it wasn’t outputting any audio. In this video we troubleshoot the problem and then bring the Oberheim back to life with a few cool upgrades like a new Fatar keybed and my Synthchaser Battery Eliminator modules!

In this video we have a look around inside the new Marion Systems Tom Oberheim SEM Pro. And thanks to the kindness and generosity of Tom Oberheim himself, we’re able to repair a problem this one is having with an envelope randomly getting stuck “on”. The birds in my area love Oberheims (remember the OB-Xa Hummingbird?), and a Red-Tailed Hawk comes to check out the repair job.