Oberheim Matrix-1000 | Analog Rack Power
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- Опубліковано 12 гру 2019
- The Oberheim Matrix-1000, a 1-unit rack version of the Matrix-6/6R, with 1000 patches stored.
In this video I use a panel from CTRL, and I've used CTRL for many years now to edit different synths, over MIDI sysex.
espenkraft.bandcamp.com/
Gibson formerly owned the Oberheim name, and just this year they gave it back to Tom Oberheim. He has hinted at producing new synths! Go Tom!
Nice! His newer SEMs seem awesome; I really like that he made a version with a patch panel (I know they've been out for a while, but still). It's great he's still making synths, and that he has his name back
I thought an Italian company, Viscount, owned Oberheim after Gibson?
@@xnonsuchx No they licensed the name from Gibson to make the infamous OB-12, but they didn't own it fortunately.
I wish he'd make synths, but he pulled his synths from the market. The only thing currently produced is really being made by Dave Smith.
TheAtma that OB12 was terrible.
It never fails to astound me that even when we have such powerful synths such as the Matrix 1000, they are quickly forgotten as the latest shiny bauble catches our eye and we just "have" to have one !!! Instead of delving into those synths that we all currently own and REALLY getting the most out of them, we just move on to the latest re-packaged toy. Certainly, there have been some real advances since this synth came out, but good Lord, this still sounds amazing. Perhaps that is still why I own my Kawai K1, K1r, and K3m; my Roland JV-880; Emu Proteus 1 and Morpheus; Korg Wavestation SR; Kurzweil PC2r; Yamaha SY22 and TG33; Waldorg Micro Q, as well as my Waldorf Blofeld and Behringer Model D (don't fear: that is NOT the entire list !!!). I simply cannot part with my old friends that I have come to know and love !!!
With a 1000 sounds you will be delving for a looong time
The pads at 2:50 -> make my knees weak ❤️.
OMG Same here. I melted upon hearing this ❤️
Are the drum sounds also from the Matrix?
@@BarryWarne no.
Beautiful synth module,so many usable sounds and demonstrated with some beautiful chords!
Got a ‘broken’ one off eBay for a reasonable price recently. Even with a dead battery my jaw hit the floor. I spent 2 hours with a delay and verb and absolutely ZERO regret feeling.
They are just majestic
I just found one for sale for around $900. I'm trying to negotiate the sale before someone else grabs it. Generally speaking, they're about $1500 on the market here, and they go months to a year without a single one showing up.
Fingers crossed. Thank you for your video!
Did you manage to snag it.
Lovely old synth, underrated I think. When they were new, a lot of people were comparing them to the OB8 and OB8a, obviously they sound different!
I bought one of these new here in Australia in 1997. I think it cost about AUD $800, which was and is a bargain. I do regret selling this, I thought it sounded beautiful- it does! Espen is doing a great job here of showing off how warm and it can sound.
Thanks for the story Andy! :D
Love the channel Espen, always great, thanks for your content. 15 years ago I saw a used white Matrix-1000 in a local music store rack, it was only 200 dollars, that unit finds its way into so many of my productions, I love that first 100 patch sound bank, killer! Keep up the outstanding work dude, excellent.
Many thanks Ricky, I appreciate your support and I'll work hard to keep up in the same way in 2020. ;-) Cheers
Beautiful compositions, Espen! I still have a Matrix 1000 that I bought from my brother in the 80s and I feel like it's an underappreciated analog masterpiece. Your music really shows off its lush sounds!
Hey, thanks for saying! :)
Matrix 1000 is an exceptionally powerful box, even if it doesn't look the part. When you go beyond its wrong "patch module" image and go deep into programming it - you quickly realize it's basically a semi-modular beast with nearly infinite sound design capabilities. Surely it may not have the tone of a more focused polysynth due to lots of corners being cut, namely SoC architecture - but what it excels at is being an expander to a sonic palette you already have.
I agree 100%
I'm not so sure about the SOC tone argument as someone who owned a Matrix 1000 for many years. I've owned a lot of synths, such as old 70s Moogs, Rolands (VCO & DCO) and I think the sound of the Matrix 1000 is up there with the best synths.
Sure, it sounds different than old individual component synths, but not worse. Similar arguments were made against the Prophet 5 when it was released, many people thought it sounded worse that, say a Minimoog, as the P5 used chips for its filters. But I think better to use your ears!
I might add there was a lot of hate also served at Roland when the Junos came out with DCOs. But I would like to own a Juno 60 at least as much as a Jupiter 8. Yes, VCOs and DCOs sound different, but there are times when a Juno will cut through the mix in a way a Jupiter, while all warm and lovely, cannot.
can you talk a little more about the SoC architecture?
A synthesizer doesn’t have a heart, but I am falling in love right now.🎹😍
As a proud owner, I say M1000 is beautiful: I recently re-discovered it playing through Valhalla "Supermassive" fx and it shines!
Such a full and warm sound.
Hi Espen..beautiful pad sounds..pure analog bliss..got to get my hand on one of these!
That low pass filter... 😳 It's like 3 different synths on the same patch! That's far too much power to assign to one fader. Love it!
Love your videos and music Espen. You have realy inspired me to dig out my jx8p I have had for years, and to also pick up an Esq1 and a Dss-1.
Excellent, get those synths barking! Thanks! :)
this is the only channel that knows what chords to play on this machine....
Man I've wanted one of these for years
!
That Sound is soooo amazing
Cheers!
I agree completely. Wish there was a playlist with the songs he played!
That thing sounds perfect! It’s not too fizzy and brassy like my Prophet 8 but not too clean like my JDXA or System8. It’s the perfect median
Yet another synth I own and love! Great demo!
Thanks! :)
Helvete vad bra det låter!😍 Great stuff as usual, Espen🤘🔥🎶
Tackar så mycket! :)
Class, great compositions . And yes I am jealous. Kudos. Happy Christmas.
Thanks! :)
I've wanted one of these since I read The Future Sound of London used one in a studio interview. It sounds amazing.
Your videos are a lot of fun Espen!
Many thanks man! :)
Great synth, I have one at the center of my setup. Made two little demos of it already and some other videos. A lot of presets are a bit weak but the ctrlr editor has a full menu with patch names so you can browse. It becomes a unique amazing synth the moment you start programming new stuff in it. The ctrlr randomizer helps a lot there.
Some amazing sounds i especially like the pad/ string sounds :)
Excellent! Thanks a lot Mr. Kraft! Ufo sounds on 7:50 is fantastic🛸👽👍
Thanks Sal! :)
Such a underrated synth rack... looking for one at the moment, it’s exactly the sounds I want to run through my chase bliss stuff
It’s like gaze into infinity, love that box, gonna get second one just in case.
Awesome sounds, Espen!!!
Thanks man! :)
In the nineties my friends lent one of these to me and i made some damn clever recordings with it. The sounds were just incredible, synth sounds, special effects, even organ sounds. I had no idea it was analog. I suppose it doesn't really matter, but it seems that anything oberheim just sounds better
one of my fave synths
i wish current synth makers did these versions of their synths too, like they did back in the day...
Me too!
@@EspenKraft Behringer BX-1000!
lol
@@resofactor At this rate it wouldn't surprise me
I know. Personally I say fuck boutique synths!! Haha jk I’m cool with whatever floats yer boat but personally I think those empty rack spaces need filling!
Prophet 08 and Rev2
Really loving the demo
Cheers!
I always wanted one of these back in the day, but I never got around to getting one. Big regrets now of course as the sounds are superb. So warm and lush.
sounds great!
10:55 - Instant childhood memories!
Sounds just like that nice Cheetah module and the Crumar Bit synths
It sounds so awesome. Nice 80ies synth pop track.
Thankyou for this! Great demo :)
Cheers!
1:50 refreshing! Straight nostalgia, no doubt. Thanks again man...
My pleasure, thanks! :)
Superb!
arpeggios sounded really nice, I'm having my white face 1000 serviced, such a great sounding synth and well worth the cost of repair
Seriously, great video!
Thanks! :)
Great demo! And great synth!
Thanks! :)
Very nice sounds
The patch at 10:56 is beyond beautiful.
Everytime you review new hardware my shopping list grows! Haha
Haha... then you better save up, because I have LOTS of goodies coming in the months to come.. ;-)
Great demo!! Thanks, man!
Cheers!
Beautiful.
Cheers! :)
Cool demo!
Cheers!
Cool demo - typical Oberheim pad and sync and also interesting cross-modulated sounds :-)
Thanks for the video. Anxiously awaiting your video of the Casio CZ series.
Since my first serious interest in synthesizers, the Oberheim OB-X/a/8 series was probably my favorite synth line of the 80s, and I was equally as impressed with the original Oberheim Four Voice & Eight Voice SEM based keyboards.
I purchased a Casio CZ as my first hardware synth, and one of my best friends purchased an Oberheim Matrix 6. I played his Matrix 6 all the time. Even considered buying a Matrix 1000. There was only one problem. The Matrix 6 didn't seem capable making most of the famous Oberheim type sounds that I was after. I was playing rock in rock bands, and the main thing I wanted was leads that cut through like the MiniMoog,, which the early Oberheims & OB series sounded even more impressive than the MiniMoog which bands like Styx, Rush & Van Halen demonstrated.
By the time of the Matrix 6 & 1000, Oberheim had been sold to Gibson, and the heart & soul of these instruments for the kinds of sounds I wanted seemed like very different animals. But as you've shown, very capable for pads and those kinds of sounds. My Casio actually seemed a lot better for leads, which was surprising. My friend spent a lot more than I did, and he was an electronics repair expert even as a teen. But yet, the Matrix 6 spent more than half it's life back at the factory as it always broke down. I haven't heard about any reliability problems of the Matrix 1000 however.
Someone in the past 2 weeks told me the Matrix 1000 is not based on the Matrix 6. This was news to me, because that's what I always heard. You mentioned the same in your video, so I'm not sure if we're incorrect or if this person was.
Keep up the nice job on the videos. For people looking for "what I think of" as the classic Oberheim sound, know what kinds of specific sounds you need before choosing.
Thanks! The Matrix 1000 is indeed a 1 unit rack version of the Matrix 6R which is the Matrix 6 in module form. They were able to keep the size down on the 1000 since you can't program it from the unit itself. Other differences are mono output only and no bi-timbral capabilities. There are firmware mods to be found online though.
fun fact is although matrix 1000 and matrix 6/r were patch compatible the detail and output quality of the 6/r is better/higher , when swapping them for matrix 1000 some 30 years ago i was shocked by this and immediately got the matrix 6 again
I always look for a clean used white one. Lovely.
Great ,sorry if I spoke too soon before you announced it ,I just noticed it on iTunes ( and downloaded it 👍)
Excellent video! I managed to get a matrix 6r a few years ago before the prices jumped.
Cheers!
SUPERB !
Wonderful sounds.
Cheers!
@@EspenKraft I bought a year ago Novation Peak and i am really happy about it's capability of it.
And once again in the key of Dm....you must love it :-)...keep up the good work
Yeah, I use it quite a lot, but not always of course ;-) Mostly in demo videos.
@@EspenKraft most people do have this...me for instance am hooked on Cm...as soon as I am at my keyboard its mostly Cm I start playıng..Thanks for the beautiful vids...:-)
Cheers!
Nice presentation and demo :-)
Thanks! :)
Thanks!
I bought mine in the early 1990s and it's the only synth (other than my Microwave XT) which is worth more now than when I bought it.
Hooray! I bought my Matrix-1000 three days ago😁. I'm fall in love.
Congrats!
I had a matrix 6 and a 6r...those together were INCREDIBLY phat. Loved them. But the MAtrix 12 was always my pot of gold, and was unattainable at the time... The M1000 was a nice little box that had a similar sound engine, but was quite good for the price...i think it ran around 300-400 USD at the time.
Great demo Espen. Time to bring mine out of retirement.
Thanks Rod! Get it into action now ;-)
Great setup... Espen Kraft-verk!
Thanks! :)
It's a great and powerful beast in a tiny package indeed! Sounds great in your hands, as always. :D
Ordered a new firmware to it already, hoping that shows up during Christmas. That should solve the bugs and lags using external controllers.
Is upgrading the firmware easy?
If and when you get it back, you'll enjoy it my friend. Thanks again! :)
It's just a chip you need to replace. No biggie. ;-)
@@EspenKraft Hehehe.. yeah, I guess it's probably long time until I get to see it again. ^_^
(That's alright, I have plenty to work with here for now.)
slipknotboy555 Not sure yet, but it seems to just be popping the new chip in instead of the old one. :)
Great demo Espen, I expect you've just pushed the second hand prices up.
Played the wonderful Xpander which is kind of the older brother of the Matrix, but never seen one of these. Glad to hear it also sounds great!
Funny that you mention it - but Matrix 1000 prices at the moment ($700-ish) nearly equal Prophet 08 module's (and if lucky - even keyboard's). That "vintage tax" already kicked in, despite both P08 and M1000 being almost the same architecturally (CEM3397 vs CEM3396 here) with the former having 8 voices versus 6 in the Obie and actual panel controls.
Thanks Alex! It's no Xpander, but for what it costs it comes pretty close, especially in a mix. ;-)
@@EspenKraft Yes, considering it's less than a third of the price of an Xpander it punches above its weight!
@@EspenKraft I upgraded from 6R to Xpander, yes they sound very similar, the biggest difference is voice allocation Xpander is capable, opens whole different world
10:55 Wooooo The Beauty and the Beast - Céline Dion!!!
I was very amazed listening to you play this song, Here in Italy it is sung by the great Gino Paoli
my friend recognized it immediately too!
Espen ,I love your version of in too deep by genesis.
Genesis are one of my favourite bands,I love the quirkiness of the Peter Gabriel years but also the more pop sensibilities of the invisible touch era.
A very interesting version of a great genesis song.
Thanks for saying! I will release a video of this shortly! :)
Mine will arrive next thursday...!
A future-proof black unit with Tauntek firmware and battery-holder...
Crazy for plugging it thru my MKS-50 chorus...!!!
Your drums sound incredible
Thanks! :D
Nice! I've been in love with that Oberheim sound since Rush's Signals album. If Behringer comes through with the UBxa I will be seriously checking it out.
And up go the prices, the Kraft-effect :( It's still on my list and will forever be. Absolutely amazing unit!
already pretty pricy units for awhile, but yea i can imagine that has happened in the past :) . He was just late to the punch on this one.
Héllo !! Mr. Fantástic demonstration !!
Many thanks!
i like too much your edits your sound,, nice and clean ,,,saludosss from Barcelona
Gracias! :-)
nice studio, fam
I'm using the matrix 1000 with a BCR 2000 programmer. there's a preset for it for free at google. The BCR 2000 can't program the modulation matrix so I use it in conjunction with the same CTRLR editor in this demo. This combo is flawless and I can finally have a fully playable vintage Oberheim synth. It's not an OBXA but it cost me much less....
Again never judge a book by its cover, nice work...
Thanks! :)
Quite satisfied with my Matrix 6R...😁
thats so neat
Owned this bad boy in the late 80's. In Keyboard magazine every month there would be patches for various synths. Found some great patches to dial into the Matrix which had a whole bank for user sounds. Best analog synth I ever owned....then I got married. Had to choose between music and her. Someone in Austin TX got it for cheap in 1996.
Sad story.
Sadly sold mine years ago but it sounds absolute beast!
me too! I had exactly the same black version
I bought one that was owned and used by Moby. I upgraded it to 1.20 and use both CTRLR to program it and a Novation Zero XL to add the knobs and sliders to real-time edit. That is a massively powerful combo, and easily one of best vintage synth bang-for-the-buck values available.
*Vintage ANALOG synth, I mean...
It's definitely one of the better analog vintage synths out there. :)
Damnit Espen, why did you steal my Casio watch!
Nothing to say about the Oberheim really. It's Oberheim for goodness sake! Everything Tom made sounded fantastic, especially this beast of a unit! Don't let the size fool ya... :P
You saw the watch? ;-)
@@EspenKraft I've been wearing that exact same one for 3/4 years now hehe. So that's why I noticed it.
Cool man. I'm a old watch collector and I still have some left, even though I sold off most of them some years ago.
Had 3 of them and all had issues overtime but the sound was amazing
The Matrix was the absolute pinnacle of analog synthesis. Thanks for making this video!!
Thanks for commenting! :)
Behringer also returned Tom Oberheim's name and trademark back to him, even though their UB-Xa is still in production. Tom Oberheim knows what he's doing.
I had a Matrix 6 keyboard. It was complex, but I made sounds that I believe could only come from that Oberheim architecture.
This sound so much better than the DS OB6, I’ve been having jam versus matches between these 2 synths, my OB6 is up for sale right now.
I’ll never get rid of my real Oberheim matrix.
The OB6 is great imo, but I can see what you mean. The M1000 sounds very good.
Are you serious?
I have both... and you cannot take a thing away from the OB-6!
so soft and mellow!
8:16 I love this sound. Perfect for Trance!
Quite simple sound you can do on any synth out there though.
@@chakko007 would it come with the goosebumps though?..
@@chakko007 so, great for trance :D
Always sounds a little bit better wearing a Casio watch :)
I didn't appreciate this module when I was 25. Now, 25 years later, I would love to have these sounds again.
A Casio like this is never wrong! ;-)
Stereoping has a programmer for this. It's not cheap, but nice.
Either that, or update with the Kiwi update, and their controller. The Kiwi update adds a LOT to this nice little module.
I really miss that one.
I always wanted one.
So much better sounding than the OB6!
Hi Espen! With a new firmware and a StereoPing controller, you can get hands-on with this wonderful synth.
Hey, the Matrix-1000 is long gone now. It's back with its owner. I changed the firmware for him before returning it though. ;-)