Sorry, my rating was supposed to be 4. A solid 4 that is.
Rating: 4 out of 5
posted Thursday-Jun-23-2005 at 17:52
Jazebel
a professional user
from Sweden
writes:
I bought the Xpander some 10 years ago when they were really cheap.Finally, I said to myself, I´m gonna have THAT wonderful, ballsy , gutsy Oberheim sound.I was a quite dissapointed because I could not nail those sounds that I have heard since I was a kid and always dreamed of.What? The Rolls Royce of Oberheims ? So I sold it after 6 months and got almost 3 times as much as I paid for it.Well, much later did I understand that the envelopes are software and SLOW which takes away the punch.The OBX, and OBXA are much punchier and fatter but I have never tried them yet.I was not by far a good programmer at the time but I did nice bass (fat in unison mode but not punchy),nice strings, pads and some weird sounds.I also learned that you can´t do all the analog sounds with one machine only.It´s like colours or spices.The Xpander really shines with its Mod matrix, 5 EG, 5 Lfo, multimode filters (which sounds really good),Fm etc,etc.A lot of stuff that I could not take advantage of at the time. So, was I an idiot who sold it ? According to Joe Zawinul, The Master Genius of keyboards and one of the greatest musicians and composers in the world, who I had the incredible pleasure of inviting for dinner at my place...He called me "a fucking idiot" when I told him I sold mine...ha ha....Do I miss it ? Yes because I don´t have any analog gear right now.Then some days ago I read an interview with a master programmer who said that the Xpander is the greatest synth ever built !!! And that he could even do acoustic emulations with it..One thing is for sure, the Beast has a lot of hidden potential in it.So if I want the "jump" sound, I have to get an OBXa, monster bass, get a minimoog etc etc. To be completely happy I might have to get the entire OB line from SEM to Xpander or better yet the Matrix-12 and then the Moogs and the........ I learned that its important to understand and focus on what a machine CAN do instead of what it CAN´T !!! The Xpander has its place. Amen.
Rating: 3 out of 5
posted Thursday-Jun-16-2005 at 05:23
Bill Graham.
a professional user
writes:
In no way does this sound as good as the Andromeda. It is a fine sounding instrument, nevertheless. The chips are difficult to locate. As is well known, alot of the system is shareware, software based logic. You can get those bits quite easily. The modulation routings are good and extensive, though not even close to those found on the Andromeda. The vcos are cleanish and quite fat. The interface is complex and the membrane control system is worrying. The matrix 12 is a better deal, though that synth isn't as good as the Andromeda, either. The Andromeda has dented the reputation and value of this synth quite badly. Be warned. The parts for this synth are difficult to locate and mostly expensive to buy. You need the manual to know what to do and it is very easy to get lost whilst editing. DX7 complex. The display doesn't help. Membrane front panals are very difficult/impossible to locate. They cost a fortune if you see one for sale. It is easy to achieve cheap, thin sounds on this synth which is the sum of its parts! It can work out of its skin and sound very complex. Not Prophet vs complex but still enormous. For what you get they are overpriced. Like the memorymoog, owning this synth can be an expensive labour of love. The Andromeda is a better synth in every way. It sounds better, has tons more features and is reliable. Think hard about that before you go hunting an expander.
Rating: 5 out of 5
posted Sunday-Jun-12-2005 at 08:47
mr_dex
a hobbyist user
from Australia
writes:
Excellent sounding synth, better than todays Andromeda (sound wise). Unfortunatley unless someone starts making the VCO chips again it will be dead as a dodo. Or you could go 6,5,4,3,2,1 (thats the voices going...while laughing like the count). No doubt people will be buying xpanders to fix up their own. If anyone has any leads for the vco chip let me know.
Rating: 4 out of 5
posted Friday-Jun-10-2005 at 05:25
Denis DeFrange
a professional user
from USA
writes:
I also bought the expander when it first come out. At the time it was great and used it for many years. But if you compare it to other of it type it not that good. I also used a Polyfussion modualar system which sounded excellent. The expander was too noisey for todays recording and there are hundreds of plugins that do the same job!
Rating: 0 out of 5
posted Friday-Oct-22-2004 at 09:39
