====================================== NON-OBVIOUS FUNCTIONS OF OBERHEIM OB-8 ====================================== The OB-8 has many functions that a user would never guess existed from looking at the control panel labeling. This is a cheat-sheet to avoid constant reading of the manual. Most of these functions are hidden by virtue of requiring some combination of simultaneously held buttons, or some other such thing that doesn't seem obvious. * Change split point: Pressing the SPLIT button normally takes you in and out of keyboard SPLIT mode, but you can also hold down SPLIT while pressing a key to change the split point. Split points are non-volatile, and will survive patch changes and shutdowns. However, they are also stored with split patches, so selecting a new stored split will recall its stored split point as well, overriding whatever is currently set. * Transpose keys on LOWER keyboard: The keyboard may be transposed by any interval, but the "lower" part in a split/layer can only transpose upward. (Nevermind that in a layer, both patches cover the whole keyboard -- there's always one patch that is assigned through the UPPER button and one that's assigned with the LOWER button.) The reason the "lower" patch can only go upwards is because the interval is selected on the keyboard relative to C0, the lowest C. Press and hold down SPLIT or DOUBLE (as appropriate) and LOWER at the same time, and select the upward interval above C0 on the keyboard you'd like to transpose to. * Transpose keys on UPPER keyboard: This is the same, except transposition can go up or down because the reference point is now Middle C (C3). It's true even if you're transposing a layer ("double"), and both patches are covering the keyboard. Hold down SPLIT or DOUBLE (as appropriate) and UPPER at the same time, and select the interval above or below Middle C. Transpositions of both the UPPER and LOWER components of a split or layer _are_ stored with a split or layer patch! Recalling a split or layer that was saved with transpositions active will also recall the transpositions! * Detuning one side of a split or layer: The "lower" side (the patch assigned with the LOWER button) in a split or layer can be detuned relative to the upper one by holding down the LOWER button and turning the OSC2 DETUNE knob at the same time. This control is only active for LOWER. (You can't hold down UPPER.) Like the other special hidden settings of splits and layers, this one too is actually stored with the patch. Recalling a split or layer that had a relative UPPER/LOWER detuning in effect will also recall that detuning interval. * Reset all split/layer settings to defaults: To reset the split point to Middle C, cancel all traspositions, relative detuning, etc.), hold down whichever button applies currently (SPLIT or DOUBLE), and press the MANUAL button. * Recalling/writing splits and layers: Contrary to the way patch selection normally works on Oberheims when not in split or layer mode, in this case, the GROUP buttons (which are similar to Roland's concept of "bank" buttons, to select a bank of 8 patches) now behave just like regular patch buttons. That is, they don't select a bank of patches, they just select a single patch, and have equal weight to any of the eight regular patch buttons. This means that in split or layer mode, rather than having as many possible patch storage locations as there are GROUP button combinations _multiplied_ times the regular patch buttons (which on Rolands would typically be 64), here you only have the 4 GROUP buttons _plus_ the 8 regular patch buttons, for a total of 12 patches. In split or layer mode, a GROUP button is just another patch button, and it selects a split or layer all by itself, not in combination with a button from the regular buttons. However, your 12 splits and 12 layers do not share slots, and you always have 12 patch locations of each (12 stored splits and 12 stored layers). To recall a stored split or layer hold down SPLIT or DOUBLE as appropriate, and press one of the GROUP or regular patch buttons, keeping in mind that any of them is just a patch button as far as splits and layers are concerned. (There are no "groups" or "banks".) To write one, do the same thing, but hold down the WRITE button until its light comes on first, and then do it. All transpositions, detunes, split points, etc. will be stored with the split or layer. * Modulation lever peculiarity: The modulation lever on an Oberheim has a spring-loaded center position like a pitch wheel, but does nothing if you push it away from you. That's just normal Oberheim behavior. * Pitch bend lever peculiarity: Contrary to the norm adopted by every other synthesizer company, on Oberheims, pushing the pitch bend lever forward makes the pitch drop, and pulling back on it makes the pitch rise. This is completely backwards, but it can't be changed without rewiring the potentiometer. That's also just normal Oberheim behavior. * Modulation lever's LFO waveform selection: This is perhaps the finest example of hidden control panel functions the OB-8 has to offer! First off, the RATE and DEPTH knobs near the pitch/modulation section of the keyboard _pull up_. Yes, that's right, you can pull up on the knobs like the headlight switches on older cars, which turn but also pull out to turn the headlights on. (Bet you would have never even thought of trying that...) Naturally it's not labeled. And here's now you select LFO waveforms for modulation: Triangle Wave Push down the RATE knob while doing doing nothing with the pitch bend. If it was already down, pull it up first so you can then do it. Square Wave Pull up on the RATE knob while doing nothing with pitch bend. If it was already pulled up, push it down first so you can, and then do it. Rising Sawtooth Wave Pull up on the RATE knob while pulling back on the pitch bend lever. See above for if the knob was already up. Falling Sawtooth Wave Pull up on RATE knob while pushing the pitch bend lever forward. White Noise Push the RATE knob down while pulling back on the pitch bend lever. Sample & Hold Push the RATE knob down while pushing forward on the pitch bend lever. This is really how you select waveforms for modulation lever LFO's. Okay. You can stop laughing now. * Setting non-zero amounts of modulation all the time: Since Oberheims have a spring-loaded lever for modulation rather than a non-spring-loaded wheel like everybody else, it's not possible to just park the modulation setting at a non-zero position and leave it there while playing on the keyboard like it would be anywhere else. However, there's a DEPTH knob, which if turned up, will let you set how much modulation you'd like to have running all the time, even when you're not pushing the lever. The trick here is, it doesn't do anything at all when it's not pulled up like a headlight switch. (That's why I'm filing it under non-obvious.) The advantage to this is supposed to be that you can find a setting you like, and jump to it immediately by just pulling up. It may be worth noting (though it's not as unconventional -- lots of synths have this feature), that there is a third source of modulation control possible, beyond the lever and the pullable depth knob, if you have a variable pedal connected to the MODULATION jack on the back. In that case, you modulation amount would be a sum of the current lever position, the DEPTH knob position (if it's currently pulled up), and the pedal. * Setting pitch-bend range: The vaguely labeled "AMOUNT" button near the pitch bend lever is a toggle that can run in one of two modes, depending whether it is lit or not. When it is off, the pitch bend range is fixed, and is always a whole tone up or down. If you turn AMOUNT on, the pitch bend range is programmable. Doing that is, of course, another hidden function. Hold down AMOUNT, and at the same time play any key in the lowest octave of the keyboard up to C1. This will let you set the pitch bend range anywhere from a semitone up to a full octave. The setting becomes non-volatile, and will take effect whenever the AMOUNT light is on. Pressing the AMOUNT button again takes it back to its fixed nature, which is always one whole tone up or down, and you can toggle between the fixed setting and the user-defined one that way any time. * Accessing the arpeggiator controls: The buttons and knobs that control arpeggiator funtions are mostly the same buttons and knobs that control pitch bend and modulation lever functions. The MODE button switches the meanings of those controls between the two roles; when the light is on, you're looking at the arpeggiator settings. * Keyboard HOLD function with the arpeggiator: You might not think to try this, but the KBD and HOLD buttons can be made to come on at the same time. This way, the arpeggiator will arpeggiate notes held down by the HOLD function _AND_ notes being held down manually on the keyboard, both. You must hold KBD and HOLD down together, because normally pressing one makes the other go off. * Arpeggiation types: The UP and DOWN buttons do individually what you would expect -- UP makes the arpeggiator play upward, and DOWN makes it play downward. Less obvious is that you can have them both on to make it play up then down, and having them both turned off puts it in random mode. Also, random mode tries to give slight preference to the first note played, on the presumption that it may be your tonic. * Using arpeggiation ranges: Another wonderfully obscured function, the OB-8 arpeggiator can memorize and recall any of five programmable transposition settings, which then become used only in the arpeggiator. (They have nothing to do with regular keyboard usage.) Also, there is a sixth mode for not using any arpeggiator tranposition, which is the default. It's hard to explain what this does. Obviously, when you're in the default mode, the arpeggiator plays what you played. This is selected (if you're not already in that mode) by holding down MODE and pressing the LEFTMOST of the six buttons below the pitch/modulation levers. (That's the one labeled HOLD, the first button in that row.) Ignore the labeling on the buttons; these functions are totally hidden and have nothing to do with any of those six buttons labeled functions. But if you hold down MODE and this time press the SECOND button in that row (labeled KBD), you enable the first tranposition. Since the OB-8 comes with all the transpositions we're talking about here set to octaves, that means the arpeggio will spread out over an octave beyond the spacing at which you actually played it. However, that interval can be user-defined (see below) to whatever you want. If you hold down MODE and press the THIRD button in that row (the one labeled OSC2 ONLY, but disregard that label for this), you've enabled TWO arpeggiator transpositions -- the one described in the last paragraph, plus this one, and the two intervals combine. So now if all your arpeggiator transpositions are still set to octaves as they are at factory settings, your arpeggios are spreading out over two octaves beyond what was actually played. If they're something user- defined though, then it's your first user-defined interval plus this second one. Hold down MODE and press the FOURTH button (labeled, irrelevantly, "AMOUNT"), and you enable the first THREE transpositions for the arpeggiator -- the two described above, plus this one. At factory settings, that makes your arpeggios span three octaves further than actually played. You get the idea. It goes this way for all six buttons below the pitch bend and modulation levers, without regard to their labeled functions, so long as you hold down MODE while you're selecting them, and so long as you remember the leftmost one is the one that turns these transpositions off (its programmed interval is NO INTERVAL), which means pressing that combination makes the arpeggiator play your arpeggio unmodified. Almost makes you wonder why they bothered labeling the control panel. Half the functions on the OB-8 have nothing to do with anything it says, and are accessed by holding down this and this and pressing that while you play something else. * Programming arpeggiation ranges: As mentioned above, although OB-8's came pre-programmed with all five of the user-definable arpeggiator transposition intervals set to one octave, giving up to a five octave spread to a played arpeggio pattern (remember the first of the six buttons turns the feature off, and is not an interval), those intervals can be changed individually to something other than octaves. To do that, hold down the MODE and ARPEGGIATOR buttons at the same time, and then play five notes on the keyboard, one at a time, not as a chord, while holding down the two buttons. Those five notes will become the new transposition intervals for the arpeggiator, and will become non-volatile, and independent of any currently selected patch (i.e., a global setting of the keyboard). * Pedal sustain time: It is labeled on the control panel (at least on OB-8's that have their PAGE2 funtions labeled), but it's still worth noting that unlike every other keyboard's sustain pedal policy, on the OB-8, the time that a note will sustain while the pedal is down is a programmable parameter of a patch. On any other keyboard, holding the pedal down is simply equivalent to holding the note down indefinitely. * Arpeggiator sync: The arpeggiator sync jack on the back of the keyboard is completely undocumented in the manual. I have heard from one source that it expects a +5V trigger, and I have also heard that sending a loud note from a drum machine into that port will suffice. Although the OB-8 can support MIDI, there is no function to sync the arpeggiator to MIDI clock, and that continues to be true even if the factory MIDI is replaced with the Encore retrofit. (The Encore retrofit for the Roland Jupiter-8 _does_ sync the arpeggiator to MIDI clock though.) * Waveform selection: When setting the waveforms for oscillators 1 and 2, selecting sawtooth or pulse is done as expected with the buttons so labeled. However, it should be noted that turning both SAW and PULSE off selects a triangle wave, and turning them both on creates a composite wave from both the sawtooth and the pulse wave. * Square waves: Square waves can be obtained by selecting pulse wave, and turning the PULSE WIDTH knob fully to the left. * Individual oscillator control of pulse width: More unlabeled joy! You can change the pulse width of OSC1 or OSC2 individually by holding down the PULSE button of the oscillator you'd like to change, and turning the PULSE WIDTH knob while it's held down. Normally, the knob changes pulse width for both oscillators at once (provided they both are set to a pulse wave as far as waveform selection for each oscillator goes). Once the two oscillators have been given differing settings this way, they can be made them same again by turning the PULSE WIDTH knob all the way to the right or left while _not_ holding down anything. * Switching oscillators on and off: The buttons to turn oscillators 1 and 2 on and off (allowing you to create simpler one-oscillator-per-voice patches if you'd like) is in a rather confounding place -- in the FILTER section. Don't ask me why they're not in the OSCILLATOR section. Also, OSC2 has the option of being on at either HALF or FULL volume. (Don't worry, there are labeled buttons for that. You don't have to hold anything down.) Also, there's a white noise generator, and it's turned on in the FILTER section too, right where you'd expect a noise generator to be. * ATTACK settings: This isn't related to the control panel, but is an important fact about the OB-8 nonetheless: The factory documentation distributed by Oberheim for calibrating the envelope generators is _WRONG_, and if followed, will result in the OB-8 being incapable of generating fast punchy attacks. The OB-8 has actually gotten a reputation for having slower attack than its predecessor keyboard, the OB-Xa, because of the number of OB-8's that have been incorrectly calibrated _following Oberheim's own instructions_. In the service manual, where it says to calibrate the EG's to as close to 0.000 volts as possible, that should actually read "as close to -0.256 volts as possible." That is because there is a 0.256 volt difference between the reading your voltmeter will get while the system is running in calibration mode and the setting it will have after the calibration is finished and it is returned to normal operating mode. That will manifest itself as sluggish attacks. This only affects the calibration of the EG's (i.e., the ADSR). All the other calibration instructions should be followed literally. * Envelope reset: In a bizarre but nifty feature, the ADSR cycle of any sound can be cut short as it fades out (the RELEASE stage) by hitting the WRITE button, the button normally used for writing patches. If pressed quickly and not held down, that button serves as a cutoff for still-dying sounds. * Sampled Vibrato LFO The LFO's aren't too badly labeled, but on thing that's not too obvious is that all three of the waveform selectors can be on at once, and in that case, it will do sample & hold from the separate LFO generated by the modulation lever (rather than from noise as normal S&H would do). For regular noise-derived S&H, turn the bottom one on as labeled on the panel. * Portamento bend: In PAGE2 mode (which is itself an alternate control panel mapping, before we even start talking about hidden stuff), there is a button labeled PORTAMENTO BEND, which makes all notes gliss from a programmable interval above or below the actual note played to the actual note. Naturally, programming that interval requires holding the PORTAMENTO BEND button down (while in PAGE2 mode) and playing the desired interval on the keyboard, using C2 (the third C on the keyboard) as a reference point. * Reset all PAGE2 parameters: If your PAGE2 settings have become simply mad, you can reset all PAGE2 parameters to defaults and retreat to the relatively simple world of the OB-Xa (which had no PAGE2 mode) by pressing the PAGE2 button twice, holding it down the second time, and while it is held, pressing the button (for this purpose, irrelevantly) labeled F-ENV, which in this context functions as a PAGE2 parameters reset. * Loading cassette dumps made on other OB-8's Some of the calibration settings on an OB-8 are handled by the CPU, and are thus actually non-volatile software settings rather than physical positions on trimmers on the circuit board. Because of this, those parts of the calibration that are done that way are lost when the battery gets replaced. Oberheim wanted to save keyboard techs from having to go through a calibration just to replace the battery, so they made it so that every cassette dump also includes the non-volatile calibration parameters in the dump. Since every tech already knows to save the customer's patches before replacing the battery (if it's not gone already), it makes getting your CPU-managed calibration settings back afterward happen more or less automagically. The bad part is that anyone wanting to use the WAV files on the Internet which contain recordings of the binary tape leader tone and data from an actual cassette dump of the OB-8 factory patches to get the original factory patches on their OB-8 will also be loading the calibration settings of whoever that OB-8 belonged to. That probably will not sound very good. It also strongly discourages trading of patch banks between users using cassette dump as the medium. If you ever do load someone else's cassette dump, you will want to review all parts of the calibration procedure that are not made with a physical trimmer adjustment (i.e., all software-driven settings) after you get the sounds loaded. It is probably a much better idea to trade sounds with sysex dumps, however: a) Not all OB-8's had MIDI at all, from any source. b) The original Oberheim MIDI could only sysex dump single patches, and had no function for sending a whole bank in one dump. c) The Encore retrofit can send whole banks, but it was undocumented in earlier versions the printed manual, and you might only know you can even do it if you've looked at the PDF file manual now available on Encore's web site. So cassette dump is the only way of saving patch banks that all OB-8 owners can do, but you still probably don't want to do it unless you don't mind checking your calibration afterward.