Celebrate Prince’s birthday with OB-Xd, an Oberheim-style synth for iPad

It’s Prince’s birthday, so it seems appropriate that discoDSP has just released an updated iPad version of OB-Xd, an emulation of the Oberheim synths that the little guy was so fond of.

“Oberheims were a huge part of our sound,” said Lisa Coleman, keyboard played in Prince’s band The Revolution when we spoke to her last month. “And the presets were so great and big and fat!

With a sound that’s designed to be “as good and as rich as the original,” the iPad OB-Xd features micro random detuning, which the developer says played a big part in the sound of the original.

One word of caution: as of version 1.0.1 the app only displays correctly on iPad 9.7 and iPad mini models, but the next release, which should land in a few days, will address this problem and also add AUv3 compatibility.  

The OB-Xd is available now from the Apple App Store priced at $3.99/£3.99.

Ben Rogerson

I’m the Deputy Editor of MusicRadar, having worked on the site since its launch in 2007. I previously spent eight years working on our sister magazine, Computer Music. I’ve been playing the piano, gigging in bands and failing to finish tracks at home for more than 30 years, 24 of which I’ve also spent writing about music and the ever-changing technology used to make it. 

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