I have been doing short recordings of presets from the Oberheims as a scratch pad for the producer in an upcoming series of jingles. I did this with Solaris and Prowave last year when we made a demo that landed these contracts. Live, the Oberheims are so explosive, and seem to overshadow the DSP based synths in monophonic modes especially. But in most other threads that I spoke in, when adding a real monophonic hardware analog to the DSP mix, the new hybrid set up has a much wider range of timbres, which tips the scales more evenly.
In the studio however, I had never compared the 2 in the same venue, so it was hard to make a comparison. But I had the privilege to compare on 4 different sets of monitors, 3 sets being near field, and 1 set of my beloved Barbetta's w/ the stereo sub. Scope has the upper hand for sure. I am not sure why the Oberheims sound so powerful live, as they also excelled through my Barbetta's as well. This confuses me, but after 2 years of playing Johns synths live and in recordings, I do declare them the overall winner in both venues.
I doubt I will do road gigs anymore unless it is something I am directly involved in, as opposed to being the sideman as usual. But The Oberheims will be used with Prowave, and Solaris. But local gigs and shows, and recordings especially will be all Bowen Synth Designs. Their sound coming from Nuendo @ 96k was just astonishing beautiful. I heard them @ 48k last year and was impressed. But synths recorded @ 96K really add so much extra glistening, as well as round bottom, but that was thanks to this studios Genelecs, the 8050A's, and 7050B. I have never heard anything so small and powerful like this since the Bose speakers a friend of mine used on his Rhodes years ago.
I hate to admit it but old analog synths live are hard to beat, @ 96k though their sound goes nowhere, and in the meantime Bowen's just seems to increase dramatically, especially when using the WAV Oscillator presets.
A Very Satisfied Customer,