GForce Software today releases an authentic but enhanced version of the Oberheim OB-1 synth.
Said to offer a sound “as full and robust” as that of a Minimoog and “as aggressive and snarling” as what you’d expect from a Korg MS-20, GForce has released its plugin emulation of the Oberheim OB-1, and it comes with a warning that ‘it’s angry and ready to bite’.
Launched in 1978, the original OB-1 was the world’s first programmable monophonic synthesizer (it enabled you to create and store your own sounds) but, even in these days of retro revivalism, has remained somewhat under the radar. That could be about to change, though; GForce’s software reboot was developed in collaboration with Oberheim and adds a number of new features to the original features.
Promising an authentic sound, the GForce OB-1 also offers an enhanced signal path that includes a new waveform as well as waveshape modulation, discreet level control for the oscillators, sub and noise, LFO sync & retrig, envelope looping, discreet key tracking, cross-mod, pan spread and more.
Further to this, the OB-1 is now 16-voice polyphonic and has a unison mode, while the X-Modifier opens up modulation options aplenty. A high-pass filter has been added, as have chorus, delay and reverb effects. Four macros give you quick control over key parameters, and there’s a built-in arpeggiator and sequencer.
The 300 presets come from a diverse range of sound designers and can be easily sorted and searched in the flexible browser.
The OB-1 has a regular price of £120 but is currently available for the intro price of £60. It runs on PC and Mac both standalone and in VST/AU/AAX formats. Find out more on the GForce website.
You can learn more about the original OB-1 in the company’s mini documentary below:
Developer Geert Bevin (Moog Music, LinnStrument, the MPE Specification) has released a new tool, ShowMIDI 1.0.0, that turns MIDI information into beautiful and easy to understand visuals.
Most MIDI tools display the protocol’s messages as essentially a ‘firehose’ of data, which can make it challenging to understand. ShowMIDI parses and visualizes the data, translating the stream of details into concise charts and visualizations that make it much easier to understand.
“Instead of wading through logs of MIDI messages to correlate relevant ones and identify what is happening, ShowMIDI visualizes the current activity and hides what you don’t care about anymore,” explains Bevin. “It provides you with a real-time, glanceable view of all MIDI activity on your computer.”
Best of, it’s free and available now for iOS, Linux, Mac + Windows.
ShowMIDI is designed to be always on. Using the spacebar or play/pause button, you can pause the flow and focus on a data snapshot with the latest state of any MIDI entity.
ShowMIDI can be run as a standalone application that automatically detects all your MIDI devices, or as an AUv3 plugin in your DAW or host to visualize MIDI data in your sessions.
ShowMIDI visualizes:
MIDI ports
channels
program change
note on/off
channel pressure
polyphonic pressure
continuous control change
pitchbend
RPN and NRPN
MPE configuration and channel modes
In addition to being free, ShowMIDI is available as open source via Github.
Today, Behringer asked its fans on social media if they’d like to be able to order directly from the company and have gear shipped directly to them.
They used a ‘D2C’ graphic (direct to customer) to illustrate the post that suggests that they may be considering creating a Behringer app or web store, where you could order synths and other electronic music gear directly from the company.
The move would cut out their ‘super-partners’, like Amazon and Sweetwater, for at least some of their sales. If Behringer cuts out the middle man, it could mean higher profits for them, or even cheaper prices for their customers.
Here’s what they shared:
“We’re exploring an additional direct-to-customer shipping model, where products would be sent straight from our factory to you. This would help ensure faster delivery and access to all our products, especially those not carried by our retailers.
We do cherish our super partner relationships and would consider this as an additional channel to ensure we can reach customers in areas currently under-served.
We’d love to hear your thoughts! Would you appreciate this direct shipping option? Let us know!”
The combination of inexpensive knockoff products, mobile ordering and direct-to-consumer shipping sounds similar to the business model of Temu, one of the fastest growing companies in the world. Temu’s sales grew from $290 million USD in 2022 to $14 billion in 2023.
This is possible because international shipping is now so good that companies can now ship products quickly and reliably from China to anywhere in the world. And technology has made it possible to manage this at scale, diminishing the value that distributors add.
By cutting out the middle men and focusing on knockoff products, Temu is able to sell ‘look alike’ products for a fraction of the price that people are used to.
While Temu is essentially trying to disintermediate Amazon, creating a platform for Chinese knockoff manufacturers to sell anything directly to consumers around the world, Behringer is more likely to look at extending their ‘vertically integrated’ business model.
Behringer has been successful by focusing largely on knockoff or ‘copycat’ products. This could also be a risk for them, though, as platforms like Temu make it easy for Chinese manufacturers to sell directly to the public, anywhere in the world.
Behringer already specializes in knockoff or ‘copycat’ style products, minimizing their design overhead. Their core business model, which they describe as a ‘market follower’ business model, is to market inexpensive copies of other company’s popular products. And, after doing this for 35 years, they’ve gotten very good at it.
They manufacturer their products in their own ‘factory town’ in China, first ‘Behringer City’ and then later ‘MusicTribe City’. And they’re big enough that they can eliminate suppliers by manufacturing many of their components in house.
For example, Behringer’s sister company CoolAudio makes clones of the integrated circuits that were used in many classic synthesizers. By doing this, they can get key parts for making synths more cost effectively than competitors.
While Behringer says that they “cherish our super partner relationships”, it’s hard to imagine the company not trying to cut out Amazon and Sweetwater down the road, if their Direct to Consumer approach is successful.
Could Temu Disintermediate Behringer?
While Behringer says that they’re ‘exploring’ this direct to consumer idea, its likely that the company will soon be under pressure from Temu itself to act. Otherwise, Temu could essentially disintermediate Behringer.
Temu already sells a wide variety of musical gear, mostly generic instruments and cheap knockoffs of popular gear. Here’s a video from musician EmmaMcGann, demonstrating a handful of instruments she got for nothing off of Temu:
These instruments are so cheap that people can buy them as a laugh. But Temu’s product offerings already are moving into Behringer’s own turf.
A video, via GtoneGuitars, that looks at Temu’s cheapest guitar pedal knockoffs:
These pedals are obviously cheap knockoffs, but they’re already alternatives to Behringer’s own line of knockoff guitar pedals.
Temu’s platform has the potential to make every cheap knockoff manufacturer in China into competition for Behringer. The risk of these bottom-of-the-line knockoffs to Behringer is minimal, for now. But it seems like Behringer knows that this won’t always be the case.
Behringer’s business model has been so disruptive because they’ve focused so intently on making inexpensive copies of other company’s gear. This is easiest to do with old analog gear, because it’s not covered by patents. But it also means that Behringer’s own product line is largely made up of gear that other companies could copy, and that this is more of a risk to Behringer than to companies that create original designs that may be covered by patents, copyright and other IP law.
Because of this, it seems inevitable that Behringer will move forward with trying a direct to consumer approach. The only question is how quickly will they do it.
What do you think about the idea of buying inexpensive synths and music gear directly from Behringer, cutting out Amazon, Sweetwater and other distributors in the process? Let us know your thoughts in the comments!
