After 6 years in the making, Behringer has finally released the UB-XA, a recreation of the famous Oberheim OB-XA, originally a massive 8-voice polysynth famously used by artists like Depeche Mode, New Order, Prince, Queen and more. Now you have a chance to own an almost like-for-like version without having to take out a small personal loan!
In this post-truth world, we now live in, Behringer seems like a racehorse, eyes fixed and charging forward in a straight line, constantly announcing and releasing affordable versions of your favourite legacy electronic instrument all the while blissfully ignorant of the nay-sayers and potential court cases. It seems to be working with their customers constantly engaged online suggesting new classic re-creations of instruments they’ve always dreamed of owning, but it seems Behringer has gone a little further with their homage to the OB-Xa.
More than meets the eye
The Behringer UB-XA adds quite a bit of modern firepower to the original design. It increased the voice count to 16 and dual VCFs for more juice when utilizing the multi-timbral layers or split features. The keybed features Poly aftertouch and is velocity sensitive and MIDI has been implemented which wasn’t included in the original instrument. They’ve also designed 8 vintage modes to add colour and character to patches and this is backed up with plenty of presets and user memory slots for saving all your favourite sounds.
The tones you will be able to produce from this instrument will go from crunchy bass to thick pads and soaring leads with plenty of modulation and control sources. The full-size 61-note keyboard also lends itself well to players looking for a striking sonic instrument with lots of performance controls and dynamic sound design.
Classic Accessibility
Now Oberheim themselves, have not been absent in the release of new instruments, they announced the OB-X8 which combines the tone of three classic 80s Oberheim instruments. They then announced a desktop version earlier this year. It’s a truly amazing instrument and a monstrous piece of equipment, but that comes with a certain price tag. The original OB-Xa can go for up to $10K (AUD) and the 21st century models are close to this price as well! Now that’s a special investment if you can manage it but the reality is that not everyone can, so we are sure Behringer’s version is a welcome offering to many.
For more information visit Behringer’s website here and for more information on Oberheim’s own instruments visit their website here
