Oberheim Polyphonic Synthesizer

The Oberheim Polyphonic Synthesizer is a range of analog music synthesizers that was produced from 1975 to 1979 by Oberheim Electronics. It was developed by Tom Oberheim, and was the first production synthesizer capable of playing chords.

Specification
Oberheim took the idea and electronics of a Minimoog synthesizer and put them in a small box, making a few changes, and in 1974 introduced the SEM (Synthesizer Expander Module), which became the building block of his polyphonic synths. By strapping two, four, or eight of these SEMs together under keyboard control, he was able to create practical, albeit large, synthesizers that could play two, four, or eight notes simultaneously. The Oberheim Polyphonic Synthesizer was born. Each SEM in an Oberheim Polyphonic generates one voice (or note).

There was an optional Polyphonic Synthesizer Programmer module (PSP-1) for the four- and eight-voice models with 16 memories, which allowed the user to store and recall some sound settings of the SEMs, and you could glide from one note or chord to another using portamento.

The Oberheim Polyphonic was later outdated by a new line of microprocessor-controlled Oberheim synthesizers, beginning with the OB-X. The OB-X was fully programmable and significantly more compact than the Oberheim Polyphonic.

Despite their maintenance cost and rarity, Oberheim Polyphonic Synthesizers are still adored by many musicians today for their characteristic sonic 'thickness' and 'depth' caused in part by the random variance between each SEM module.

Notable users



 * 808 State
 * Bill Payne/Little Feat
 * Blue Weaver / Bee Gees
 * Bob James
 * Bomb the Bass
 * The Brothers Johnson
 * Chick Corea
 * Dave Grusin
 * Depeche Mode
 * Edgar Froese
 * Eagles
 * Fleetwood Mac
 * Gary Wright
 * George Duke
 * Goldfrapp
 * Herbie Hancock
 * Hideki Matsutake
 * Jean Michel Jarre
 * Joe Zawinul / Weather Report
 * John Carpenter
 * Larry Dunn / Earth, Wind & Fire
 * Lyle Mays
 * Michael McDonald / Doobie Brothers
 * Prince
 * Patrick Moraz
 * Paul Kantner / Jefferson Starship
 * Pete Namlook
 * Pink Floyd
 * Rose Royce
 * Rufus
 * Geddy Lee / Rush
 * Ryuichi Sakamoto
 * Stevie Wonder
 * The Stranglers
 * Styx
 * Supertramp
 * Tangerine Dream
 * The Human League
 * The Shamen
 * Trent Reznor
 * Vangelis
 * Vince Clarke
 * Yellow Magic Orchestra