11/03/2026
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Oberheim Eight Voice // 1977
Introduced exactly 50 years ago in 1976, the Four Voice and Eight Voice (1977) by Oberheim occupies a singular place in synthesizer history. It’s basically regarded as the first "true" polyphonic synthesizer ever produced, and contributed to laid the fondamental of this approach of analog synthesis.
The concept is as elegant as radical, four SEMs (synthesizer Expander Module) In a tolex case, with a four-octaves keyboard and later , a polyphonic programmer section. Each SEMs is a monophonic synthesizer, which carry two enveloppes, hard sync, LFO, two VCOs and a distinctive 12dB/octave multimode filter which is considered as the quintessence of the Oberheim sound for a lot of people.
Beside the programer section which allow you to save each individual SEM’s state or program them all the same way, the most fascinating aspect of this instrument is that its voices can be set as you want, creating endless possibilities and let the instrument behave like a multitimbral analog ensemble.
Produced only at 400..500units, the Four Voice was avant-garde and marked a turning point in the evolution of electronic instruments.
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Work done :
- Change of every polarized and tropical fish capacitors ✔️
- Replacement of every crimp for molex connectors ✔️
- Replacement of every Molex top entry and header connectors ✔️
- Replacement of every calibration trimmers ✔️
- Restoration of every potentiometers ✔️
- Restoration of every slide switches ✔️
- Replacement of every CMOS ICs, OpAmp, Voltage regulators ✔️
- Pairing of brand new 3080 ICs ✔️
- Building of connection cable for expansion module ✔️
- Replacement of every paired resistors ✔️
- Every ICs were putted on top quality « round pin » sockets to ease future maintenance ✔️
- Building of additional internal cables for programer and keyboard modules ✔️
- Complete Keyboard restoration (new J wires, bus-bar polished, new bushing and notes cleaned) ✔️
- External screws are all new, internal screws and standoff were replaced when rusty or in bad condition ✔️
- Internal and External clean-up ✔️
