Best known for their high-end mixing effects and emulations of renowned studio processors, German developers Brainworx have made their first step into the virtual instrument arena with bx_oberhausen (PC/Mac, VST/VST3/AU/AAX), a virtual emulation of the iconic Oberheim SEM analogue synth. Revered for its brash, fat sound, the original Synthesiser Expander Module was a keyboardless box of monophonic power, and Brainworx have sought to faithfully replicate it down to component level – with a few modern niceties thrown in.
Oberheim time
The leftmost column houses functional global controls: Level, Portamento, Legato On/Off, Pitch Bend Up/Down, and Transpose (-2/+2 octaves). Oberheim’s original SEM was monophonic, but bx_oberhausen provides up to 32 notes of polyphony, set using the Voices switch. For uberthick mono sounds, you can switch on Unison mode, whereby the selected…