Why the omega 8 has me so transfixed.

[Tony Scharf]

Recently, I took delivery of a fully stocked 8 voice studio
electronics Omega 8 on behalf of Nial.  It has become the
end-all-be-all of synths I have ever had the pleasure to play, and has
turned me much further to being a believer in pure analog than
anything else.  Of course, retail this synth would go for around
$5000, so its not your usual instrument.  I also would say that, with
the quality of its engineering and design, it justifies that price.

Ok, so whats so special about it?  Try this:

Take an envelope with the attack set to maximum, decay to minimum and
sustain to maximum.  Assign it to control an LFO's Rate.  Now assign
the Modulation Wheel (or any controller) to also control the same
LFO's rate.  Assign that LFO to control Filter cuttoff.  Now play a
note..

Once the LFO reaches the maximum rate in the sustain stage of the
envelop, move your mod wheel.

If your on a VA synth (or any synth with digital modulation), chances
are you will hear nothing.  On the Omega, the LFO goes even faster,
and whats more if you change the shape of the LFO you will hear a
distinct change in harmonics.  On a synth with digital modulation, the
max rate on the LFO will turn ALL the LFO's into square waves (thanks
to Niquist).  I would also contend that a digital synth pushed to the
extremes of modulation will not sound as musical as an analog pushed
to those same extremes.

Very few synths past this test.  My PEK cant do it (4 LFO's but all
digital ones), the ATC cant do it (digital modulation again) and the
SE1x can almost do it, but its LFO's speed seems to max out (though
they dont change to square wave) well below the audio range.  Oddly
the only other synth I have ever played with that could go into this
territory was the Moog LP, and so I would assume the Voyager as well.

I think what I am learning is that the problem with modeled
instruments is that they are not designed with the extremes in mind.
They are made to sound good within the normal limits of what normal
synth people might want to do most of the time. Pushing them into
extremes causes their models to break down a bit (not necessarily a
bad thing) and the differences between the model and the real deal
emerge.

the big problem?  Once you make this realization, I think your fucked.
 At least, your credit card balance is....

Tony