ARTURIA OB-Xa V

December 1980 saw the release of the LA-based synth wizards Oberheim’s OB-Xa, a redesign of its OB-X released the previous year. The new hardware synthesiser continued the Oberheim tradition of rich polyphonic sounds, and was beloved for its synth brass and string patches. It featured two VCOs per voice, with eight-voice polyphony, a switchable filter with 12dB per octave and 24dB per octave slopes, and a resonant low-pass filter, two LFOs, two envelopes, one VCF and one VCA.

The OB-Xa helped define the sound of the decade to come, and featured on such seismic songs as Harold Faltermeyer’s 1984 instrumental Axel F and Madonna’s third-ever single Holiday, as well as on Prince’s Let’s Go Crazy and When Doves