Oberheim Matrix 6 User reviews -Page 1

Synth Site: Oberheim: Matrix 6: User reviews Add review

Average rating: 4.6 out of 5

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Mark a part-time user from USA writes:

Have to disagree with Marti re this:

They are as good as you're going to get before true touch sensitivity hit the market. On these older synths "touch" is a bit like playing on top of cold mashed potatoes.

Maybe his M6 is trashed. It's truly touch sensitive & the build quality of the M6 keyboard is better than most nowadays, imho. Crucial to keyboard feel is matching the firmware scaling to the keyboard break/make contact float time & Oberheim did a good job with the M6. Velocity sensing feels smooth, even, controllable. Same for aftertouch. This may sound like heresy but for me the levers work better than wheels for bends/mods. Wore out the M6 pitchbend pot, but have done that with several synths, so not a knock on the M6. Seem to recall that the M6 does NOT have the usual diode center detent deadband, which is nice for fine pitch control, but touchy when the pot starts to wear out. So it needs to be replaced after a while. Think M6 shows the scratchy bend pot / pitch instabilty problem before other synths because of this, but it makes the M6 real expressive to play. Fair trade, imho.

Also, M6 has release velocity & the mod lever can control 2 different parms up&down. No knobs for in-performance tweaking, but it should take a few years practice anyway to master your bend/mod lever, attack+release velocity, & mono aftertouch technique ...

Btw, Matrix 1000 patches are out there & can be downloaded to the M6 OK, but there's a bug where the names of downloaded patches are garbled on the M6 display.

Rating: 4 out of 5 posted Monday-Mar-07-2011 at 13:29

Duane a hobbyist user from USA writes:

This is a great syth. Extreamly complex sounds. Very think. And very affordable. Now the most important tip you will ever get.....since you can get this synth for so cheap, take the time and effort to track down a Peavey 1600 Midi Controller on Ebay. Plan to spend about $150.00 for this unit. This Midi controler will make programming this machine fun and much faster! Best of all, there are support websites for the Peavey 1600 that have links to several full patch settings for the Matrix 6 so all you don't even have to program the Peavey 1600. All you do is load the presets and you are ready to have close to real time programing of the Matrix 6. The sites even give you templetes to lay over the 1600. You can read more about the Peavey 1600 on this site. As for the sounds of the Matrix 6, they are about as good as you can get but you will have to program it like any synth...the presets are just a starting block. Another tip.....if you have the later Firmware inside the Matrix 6 you can run it along side a Matrix 1000 and get 12 voices rather than 6. I have not done this but have read about it and might try it at some point.

Rating: 5 out of 5 posted Saturday-Oct-11-2008 at 18:34

Panu a part-time user from Finland writes:

My respond to Olle Johansson: Analog loving nerds?! What a f*ck are you talking about?! We "analog loving nerds" love analog because we have something organic and concrete to play with and be less depended of computers, unlike your VA and software synths. YOU are NERD because YOU want to be with your computer all time with idiotic softwares! You sound like very unprofessional person... it's real fact that software can't ever be close to real analog synth. Clean up your ears! Digital and mechanical is two completely different things! The fire can't be the water =D

And about my Matrix-6, it's one of the best synths on the earth. Awful programming? well, membrane buttons are much more finger-friendly than real normal buttons, it's not bad at all, just needs to get used to. It's sound quality is awesome... it isn't just for vintage stuff, it can also sound modern and it's sound sits very well with any kind of mix, but it depends also of your programming skills. Patient is all about goodness. And also there isn't so much differences in sound quality between Xpander and Matrix-6 at all, althought DCO and VCO. Xpander is just more advanced with programming and althought it's VCO, there is so much stuff that there IS also computer dialing things, with some knobs.

Rating: 4 out of 5 posted Friday-Nov-16-2007 at 10:00

vidmagic a hobbyist user from USA writes:

Matrix 6 is a programers dream and nightmare. Still trying to figure out the FM tracking and have had so so luck with the matrix modualation. However I just bought a Peavey 1600x and can't wait to get it up and running with the Matrix 6. Next might come a Matrix 1000 which when combined with a Matix 6 can give you 12 voices. I figure the combination of the three might be like a poor man's Matrix 12. The sounds on the Matrix 6 are amazing but I like to fiddle with knobs and my JP8000 can be a huge distraction. However once I get the Peavey 1600 up and running I might be singing a different tune. If you are willing the take up the challange, the Matrix 6 is one of the last Ebay bargins next to the Ensoniq ESQ 1. The ESQ 1 has to be the most undervalued keyboard on Ebay. It too is a great board and easier to program than the Matrix 6 plus it has an awsome sequencer but the sound quality is not nearly as rich as the Matrix 6.

Rating: 5 out of 5 posted Wednesday-Nov-14-2007 at 23:15

neven dayvid a professional user from berlin writes:

i was put off for a long time by the scarcity of reviews and people mentioning how hard it is to program. now i got one (supposedly defective, hehe: looks like mint and nothing wrong with it - he just was too intimidated by the many mod routings, i guess...). it is - not just for the money - an absolutely awesome synth, very high sound quality (compares well to my jupiters 6, 8, cs 60, k5000s etc). once you get the hang of it (particularly the mindblowing mod matrix) it becomes quite ok to edit. on day two after it arrived i already was making patches to rival my jupiter-8 (no kidding).

what you cannot do is live tweaking, except one parameter at a time.

what you can program yourself is in a different league from the presets, also much fatter and more interesting sounds than the matrix 1000 can be done.

maybe my (relative) familiarity with the korg z-1 helped me to get a quick grasp on the mod matrix.

GET IT !!!!!!!!!

Rating: 5 out of 5 posted Tuesday-Sep-19-2006 at 19:47

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