{"id":149953,"date":"2025-08-22T18:54:30","date_gmt":"2025-08-22T23:54:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.synthtopia.com\/?p=149953"},"modified":"2025-08-22T18:54:30","modified_gmt":"2025-08-22T23:54:30","slug":"new-interview-with-tom-oberheim-the-genius-behind-the-greatest-sounding-synthesizers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.synthtopia.com\/content\/2025\/08\/22\/new-interview-with-tom-oberheim-the-genius-behind-the-greatest-sounding-synthesizers\/","title":{"rendered":"New Interview With Tom Oberheim, &#8220;The Genius Behind The Greatest Sounding Synthesizers&#8221;"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"jetpack-video-wrapper\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Tom Oberheim: The Genius Behind the Greatest Sounding Synthesizers\" width=\"900\" height=\"506\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/eeVL_IPG7K8?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<p>Composer &amp; synthesist <strong>Anthony Marinelli<\/strong> shared this new interview with <strong>Tom Oberheim<\/strong> that&#8217;s a must-see video for fans of Oberheim&#8217;s work.<\/p>\n<p>In the interview, Oberheim discusses how he got involved in making electronic instruments, the early days of his company, and the stories behind many of his classic designs.<\/p>\n<p>Marinelli calls Oberheim &#8220;The genius behind the greatest sounding synthesizers.&#8221; While electronic musicians might argue about what&#8217;s the greatest sounding synth, there&#8217;s no debating that Tom Oberheim is a synth design legend. Classic Oberheim designs include the SEM, the 4- and 8-voice, the OB series and the Matrix-12.<\/p>\n<p>Tom Oberheim is 89 and, lucky for us, he&#8217;s still going strong and coming out with new designs. In the last few years, Oberheim has released the <strong>OB-X8<\/strong>, his ultimate take on the OB series, and the partnered with Dave Smith Instruments on the <strong>OB-6<\/strong> and the <strong>Teo-5<\/strong>. <!--more--><\/p>\n<p>Here&#8217;s Marinelli&#8217;s summary of the interview:<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\">&#8220;Today, we\u2019re at the home of Tom Oberheim \u2014 one of the original pioneers who shaped synthesizers and music history. Tom&#8217;s legacy includes some of the most groundbreaking innovations: (a stand alone ring modulator, the first commercially available phase shifter pedal (my personal favorite), an early digital sequencer, the Oberheim DS-2, and the SEM the first commercially available polyphonic synthesizer made in 2, 4 and 8 voice models, followed by favorites such as the OB-X, OB-Xa, OB-8, Xpander, Matrix 12, DMX drum machine and more&#8230; of course, most importantly he gave us the unmistakable &#8220;Oberheim sound&#8221; on his entire collection of iconic synthesizers that have inspired compositions and performances on countless records by multiple generations of artists.<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\">Joining me for this special interview is my friend Rob Rosen from Rosen Sound\u2014talented musician and renowned expert in synth restoration and preservation, and someone who&#8217;s worked closely for a while with Tom to keep Oberheim instruments and ALL vintage synthesizers alive for future generations of musicians.<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\">We\u2019ll also be joined by Marcus Ryle, who&#8217;s done so much. Marcus began his career working closely with Tom, at Oberheim, was a session musician, designed dozens of affordable and accessible products for Alesis &#8211; including the ADAT multitrack recording, Quadraverb digital reverb, and HR-1 drum machine, and later co-founded Line 6 (creating innovative guitar effects and revolutionizing digital modeling technology). His insight into Tom\u2019s innovations\u2014and his own contributions in music history \u2014makes this a rare, deeply meaningful conversation.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Check out the interview and share your thoughts in the comments!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This new interview with Tom Oberheim is a must-see video for fans of Oberheim&#8217;s work.\u00a0&hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.synthtopia.com\/content\/2025\/08\/22\/new-interview-with-tom-oberheim-the-genius-behind-the-greatest-sounding-synthesizers\/\">Read More <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">New Interview With Tom Oberheim, &#8220;The Genius Behind The Greatest Sounding Synthesizers&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":149954,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[22],"tags":[30613,9696],"class_list":["post-149953","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interviews","tag-interviews","tag-tom-oberheim"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.synthtopia.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/tom-oberheim-interview.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.synthtopia.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/149953","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.synthtopia.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.synthtopia.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.synthtopia.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.synthtopia.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=149953"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.synthtopia.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/149953\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":149955,"href":"https:\/\/www.synthtopia.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/149953\/revisions\/149955"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.synthtopia.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/149954"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.synthtopia.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=149953"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.synthtopia.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=149953"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.synthtopia.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=149953"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}