Oberheim OB-X8 vs OB-Xa - all original factory presets

In this video I played all factory presets of the OB-Xa, which are in the OB-X8 as well. I don't know, if they were accurately reprogrammed or just took as wav file into the cassette interface of the OB-X8. Most were really spot on. Here an there they are not, so it is mandatory to tweak a bit, like modulation rate, filter and envelopes. Some sounds were not equal in volume, I had to adjust.
I recorded all in Mono using the Mono out of the OB-Xa and Stereo out pair (but with mono setting) from the OB-X8. The mono out has in my unit some hum. I will check it out with the distributor or I don't know what happened here. It's not much, but it's there. My unit is only borrowed for a review I have to do for a german music magazine.
I am really impressed by the OB-X8 and it's a great substitute for the very rare and expensive vintage units. The sound is around 90 to 95 percent perfect. Some minimal variances you can hear in the original, maybe due to perfect circuit of the smd-chips instead of old through hole technology with lots of calibration pots (the OB-Xa hat around 150 of them!).
Also here no FX or processing used.
Thanks for watching and listening. Please comment your thoughts and see you next time on my channel.

[danieldelphi]

For once in my life I think I can consider buying the new synth over the original, well done oberheim 👏👏

[devinbelangermusic]

Amazing comparison! I enjoy the slightly brighter sound, mixes these days are overall brighter, so this will help it cut through. Besides that they sound very much the same.

[BruceCopenLaboratories]

Great comparison - thank you very much! It confirms what‘s expected - the Xa has that bit more grid and life to the sound and the X8 is a bit more tight and „modern“ - amazing how the X8 can emulate the Xa though!

[taxmoneyyy]

A million thanks for your time and effort. Your contributions to the synth world is pricesless! Love

[noir]

New one sounds more tight
Old one sounds more wobbly which makes sense since it’s an older synth. Very very close though couldn’t tell the difference on some presets.

[chandeleerjet]

Thanks for taking the time to do this. I love the OBX8 the only downside is volume output. I have my preamp at almost it’s lowest setting and the ObX8 at a very low setting and it’s still almost clipping. Then when I have to turn it up a tiny bit it gets really loud super fast. I find myself always adjusting the volume when changing sounds.

[alexmagor]

The new one sounds tighter, more controlled and the sound more closed off, where the old one sound brighter, and more open and free. I prefer the old one.

[classicarcadeamusementpark]

Now I'd like to hear them compared to the Oberheim VST clones.

There is finally an official new Oberheim OB-X VST. I'd also like to hear a comparison with these hardware versions against the OP-X Pro II or Arturia OB-Xa.

[MacXpert]

Much closer than I expected. Both sound incredible! I think the OB-X8 is the closest modern recreation of a classic synth (although the new Prophet is also fairly close). On some patches I did like the OB-Xa better. But there were also patches where I preferred the OB-X8. But on many it was so close there was no real difference to speak of.

[obwanz]

Thx for this. Pretty dramatic difference on some of the patches, especially the resonance!

[Bernd_Bruening]

Astonishing, how close they are. Great video!

[AudioLomtik]

The OB-X8 sounds more like the OB-XA did back in 80's when it was new and creating its legacy. Discrete analog components change their sound over time. Adjustments to the vintage knob can apply the same general category of properties that happen with aging, but there is no magic setting that says vintage knob at setting <fill in the blank> is going to sound exactly like an OB-XA that is <fill in the blank> years old. Compare two vintage OB-XA units (or two OB-X) side by side and you'll find they are only 90-95% the same... sometimes WAY less than that because they've been serviced differently along the way. But still, great video and thank you for this comparison!

[Samwilson]

I’d be more interested is seeing 2 obxa’s put together so everyone can understand all the old ones will sound diff from another so…. I think the x8 is a great choice for esp for haste free usage.

[talentotech-pe]

OBx8 has digital envelopes whilst Obx has analog envelopes. I think that makes quite an important difference in the nature of the sounds, and really discards OBx8 for me

[ziggaziggaah]

Thanks for this comparison--this confirms what I suspected, which is that the X8 is brighter than than Xa. I had done a 1:1 comparison between the X8/OB-8 and noticed that as the main difference. I imagined the Xa would be the same and it is--there seems to be a filtering cap in between the oscillators and filter on both the Xa and OB-8 (this gives them their mid-heavy sound). Other than that tho, there really aren't any other differences to speak of aside from the fact that the X8 will phase-lock when oscillators are in unison, but this is possible to avoid with slight detuning. If you don't mind the brightness the X8 is really the no-brainer choice these days.

[synthartist]

The Obx8 sounds brighter on many of the patches.

[klstay]

This was great; well done and thank you. I do have a question - if you set panning to 4L4R and then bring up a split or layer program is the "A" patch strictly in the one stereo output and "B" strictly in the other? (Also, is split/layer is strictly 4/4 and nothing like Polybrute where you can set 5/1 or 4/2 etc.) IF split/layer patches can each be sent to one out then to me the only thing keeping this from being a great companion to a P10 desktop (at least to those for whom the price is not a barrier) is the lack of Poly AT. Personally, I would have paid more to have that since I am already into the "big boy" synth price range anyway.

[AlainHubert]

The OB-X8 sounds just a bit brighter with a little more mids than the OB-Xa (on certain patches) but that might be due to components aging. Or perhaps Marcus Ryle did that intentionally on the OB-X8 in order to try to impress customers who forked over a LOT of money for a somewhat limited synth (for 2022)? Anyhow, they failed to include a lot more controls on the front panel, since there is room for them. Thanks for this 1-to-1 comparison.

[Pacer]

Because I'm old, I have a lot of the old synths (Prophet 5, PPG Wave, OBX, Synthex, Prophet VS, etc. I also have a lot of new synths (Waldorf M, UDO S6, Oberheim OBX-8, and I A/B'd the Prophet 10 with an original P5 (but I don't own a new P10 - just an old P5). When you A/B / Compare these synths in the room, and you're not testing static sounds as synthlegends is above, then the difference becomes even more obvious. As described, by Alex below, the New Synths aren't as open and big sounding, or as organic sounding. I'm not sure why. My gut is that it has something to do with the tolerances on the vintage chips. Also, the new SSI Filter (humbly speaking) does not sound as good as the Original SSM Filter. Now, I'm not suggesting that the diff is huge. It's not. And I'm not suggesting that you can even tell the diff in the track - because once the sound is buried you can't tell. Plus great is great. The OBX-8, the UDO S6...they still sound great - and they don't need constant servicing, and the new synths stay in better tune (which is important). I'm simply saying the diff is the diff - so don't feel like you have to start selling your old synths. Sadly, they do sound better - imho.

[juno]

Great job! The X8 actuality sound great. I'd like to see/hear a comparison with the OBX.