Tom Oberheim tells Sam Inglis about his early years as an engineer and his accidental route into creating electronic musical instruments. As he celebrates his 50th year since the launch of the SEM, Tom talks about the rise of digital, the resurgence of analogue and the launch of the new TEO-5.
Show Notes
Chapters
00:00 - Introduction
00:26 - An Accidental Engineer
02:46 - Building For Musicians
06:34 - Becoming A Distributor For The ARP 2600
11:05 - Designing The SEM
12:43 - The Filter Design
15:03 - The OB-1 And Patch Memories
16:36 - OB-X - Polyphony And Programmable Presets
19:35 - The Oberheim Sound
22:37 - The Digital Takeover
24:40 - The Resurgence Of Analogue
28:01 - Launching The OB-X8 With Focusrite
29:23 - The Oberheim TEO-5
30:37 - Utilising New Technology
Oberheim - Biog
Oberheim is the 21st century return of the legendary company that helped fuel the original electronic music revolution in the 1970s. Now, just as then, Oberheim is guided by the vision of engineer and inventor, Tom Oberheim. Tom’s genius for innovation introduced the world to the first commercially available polyphonic synth and other groundbreaking electronic instruments that literally changed the sound of music forever.
Today, Oberheim reawakens this extraordinary legacy by bringing the famed Oberheim sound to a new generation of instruments and artists. The company’s passion remains unchanged by time or technology — to once again provide the world with the finest-sounding analogue synthesizers ever made.
Interviewer: Sam Inglis - Biog
Editor In Chief Sam Inglis has been with Sound On Sound for more than 25 years. He is a recording engineer, producer, songwriter and folk musician who studies the traditional songs of England and Scotland, and is the author of two books: Neil Young's Harvest (Bloomsbury, 2003) and Teach Yourself Songwriting (Hodder, 2006).
About the Electronic Music podcast channel
On this channel we feature some of the pioneers of the industry, interview musicians and talk about retro and current gear.
Available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music or wherever you get your podcasts.
