GForce Software OB-EZ gives you the authentic Oberheim 8-Voice sound of the OB-E in a preset player plugin made for producers and players.
In collaboration with GForce Software, you can explore officially endorsed Oberheim plugins for the first time. With the OB-X, SEM, and OB-E, three classics are available as authentic emulation for your DAW. The latter is the powerful Oberheim 8-Voice.
A mighty synth that consists of eight freely programmable SEM modules. Lots of tweak freedom. To make the whole thing more hands-on for producers and players, GForce has created a preset player for it. It’s called OB-EZ and gives you the same sound but more focused control.
GForce Software OB-EZ
The new Oberheim OB-EZ synth is, said, a preset player plugin with macro controls. It gives you the same fat Oberheim 8-Voice sound of the OB-E in a more focused, hands-on interface. According to GForce, it was developed for producers and players to enjoy a more streamlined workflow.
While connoisseurs will see similarities with the 1980 Oberheim OB-SX, a streamlined stage version of the Oberheim OB-X, the intention behind OB-EZ is to make those 8-Voice tones quickly available for producers who need to work fast and want an inspiring instrument full of character.
It’s not a lite version. OB-EZ has the same OB-E engine under the hood. The wall of parameters has just been reduced to the bare minimum, including global settings, vibrato, filter, envelopes, delay, and reverb.
Additionally, you get full MIDI CC mapping support, vintage knob, panning modes, and more. Also, the factory sound content is reduced.
GForce Software selected over 260 of the most beautiful presets designed for the OB-E that fit the OB-EZ control set, ensuring optimal tweaking potential. Not yet implemented is the ability to import OB-EZ. user presets in OB-E, in case you need the full octaphonic Oberheim power. This feature will arrive in Spring 2024.
First Impression
A nice idea to bring a simplified version of the OB-E onto the market. It’s great that it’s free for OB-E users. I would have preferred to have this idea backed directly into the big plugin. This way you wouldn’t have to switch between two plugins.
But I can also understand GForce Software, so they can also sell it as a standalone product. I think sooner or later, we’ll see this as a limited free download somewhere in a magazine or webshop with a possible upgrade. It fits perfectly there.
GForce Software Oberheim OB-EZ is available now for an introductory price of £24.99+VAT instead of £49.99+VAT. OB-EZ is a free download for current and new OE-E owners. It runs as a VST, VST3, AU, and AAX plugin on macOS (native Apple Silicon + Intel) and Windows.
More information here: GForce Software
You should check the actual app. It’s not a player. You can start a new patch from scratch. Here is a description what it really is: (Edit: Thanks for your article, I check it but no promotion/back link of other medias. Thanks 😉 )
Also in a “preset player” you can tweak sound as I written. From scratch not as you can’t modify the oscillator (waveforms, etc) in the depth like in the OB-E. So it’s more like a preset player with macros than a full synth. Cheers
Ah, OK, understood!
I completely agree with the remark about bundling the plugins together; since they have 2 plugins with the same synth engine but different UIs, they could presumably have just added the OB-EZ UI to OB-E, while still maintaining a separate OB-EZ plugin for sale at the lower price, i.e. it would be OB-E but with the full UI left out.
On a related note I also think GForce, who I love BTW, should offer SEM for free to OB-E owners, since they have essentially just bought 8 SEMS in one plugin (and especially as OB-E is over 3x more expensive than Cherry Audio’s Eight Voice!)