Superbooth 24: Oberheim TEO-5 is a new 5-voice budget-oriented compact polyphonic analog Synthesizer à la Take 5.
New products should only be announced when they are planned. Very often to the NAMM or Superbooth. Leaks can ruin the surprise. It can also happen that leaks were planned from the marketing floor.
Whether planned or not, there was an Oberheim leak in April. Today, we know the information was true. Oberheim introduced the TEO-5 Synthesizer at Superbooth 24.
Oberheim TEO-5
After the leak in April, the specs should be pretty much known. The TEO-5 is a new 5-voice polyphonic analog Synthesizer. It’s not officially confirmed, but I assume it’s based on the Take 5 platform, as both synths are very similar.
Monophonic, polyphonic, and enhanced unison modes are available. The latter offers variable stacking from 1-5 voices.
The analog core offers two VCOs with saw, square/pulse, triangle, and noise. Nice, you have simultaneously selectable wave shapes with an additional sub-oscillator for an extra bottom end. You can add harmonics using oscillator hard sync and classic X-mod with through-zero FM.
Then, it has a discrete SEM-lineage state variable filter (VCF) that delivers the classic Oberheim tone. You can morph it from lowpass to highpass through notch, with a selectable band-pass mode. It’s very nice to see a modern polyphonic analog synth with an SEM filter.
Parameter animations are possible with polyphonic and monophonic LFOs with five waveshapes and tempo sync. Two onboard envelopes offer meticulously modeled envelope responses based on the Oberheim OB-8.
A modulation matrix handles the management with 19 slots, 19 sources, and 64 destinations. According to Oberheim, you can also create modulation in audio rate sources and destinations in the TEO-5.
Onboard Effects
Of course, the new Oberheim TEO-5 also offers the best-known vintage knob that recreates vintage synth characteristics by adding voice-to-voice variations in component behavior.
At the end of the signal chain, you have a multi-effects processor with two slots. The first one hosts a reverb effect with damping, pre-delay, and tone while the second is freely selectable.
It includes various algorithms: stereo delay, BBD delay, tape delay, chorus, flanger, Oberheim phase shifter and ring modulator emulations, vintage rotating speaker, distortion, high-pass filter, and Lo-Fi.
Like the Sequential Take-5, the new Oberheim TEO-5 includes a full-featured arpeggiator and a polyphonic step sequencer with up to 64 steps. Other features are polyphonic portamento, 256 factory programs, and 256 custom user programs.
TEO-5 uses a 3.5-octave FATAR velocity- and touch-sensitive keyboard. Not poly but monophonic aftertouch.
Connectivity
On the backside, the Oberheim TEO-5 offers a stereo output (L/R outputs), a headphone socket, pedal inputs, a USB port for data, a 5-pin MIDI interface (in/out/thru), and a built-in power supply. Further, a high-resolution OLED display enables patch management and easy access to advanced features.
According to the press release, Tom Oberheim was part of the development team. He says: “I’m so proud to be able to make a synth like this… compact and affordable, the Oberheim sound for 2024”.
Oberheim TEO-5 First Impression
The new Oberheim TEO-5 looks like a very complete package. Analog polyphony, SEM filters, effects, sequencer, and all for an affordable price. What I’ve heard so far sounds excellent and I’m looking forward to more demos.
I’m almost certain this will be a huge success, especially as its the most affordable original Oberheim Synthesizer that you can currently get.
Oberheim TEO-5 will be available soon for 1699€
More information here: Oberheim
way more interesting than all the ob’s
I hope there will be a desktop version
Agreed, a desktop version would be amazing. I have my doubts though – it seems like the design is keyboard-focused. Also, there’s been no hint of a desktop Take 5.
seems to me its more reasonable to have a desktop version for this than the prophet6/ob6
Very good price for something like this.
I assume this SEM also doesn’t self-oscillate?
people that use their own name on products always strikes me as icky. like people that talk about themselves in the third person; Jimmy on Seinfeld, or Vob ShitzInPants.
probably a good synth though. oh well.
So Moog, Buchla, ARP, Doepfer, Behringer, Dave Smith, Axel Hartmann and Schmidt are icky? Geez.
ghb think so too
Rather quickly you can become an adepted teogolist these days.
Sorry, I meant teologist, guess I’m not there yet.
All this is Thanks to Behringer. TEO5 has great deal of specs and new functions because Sequential couldn’t bear cheap fake. That’s why we need compeptition.
Competition is good when its advancing the tech or offer same tech for lower price, but this is not the case with behringer. DSI they did it before with the rev2, and before that with prophet8, 10 years before the deepmind (the first behringer synth) with specs that surpass this one in many ways, and made in usa (this one is made in china), so its possible we get less quality for the same price because of this kind of “competition”. Behringer business is mostly degrading our beloved occupation to lower standards, in many ways