An
electronic musical instrument manufacturer from the
US.
Oberheim Electronics was formed in the early 70s by Tom Oberheim. The company started out building ring modulators, phase shifters and similar effect units, and was an ARP Instruments dealer for a while. Their first major product was the DS-2 sequencer, followed by the popular SEM expansion module. Based on this unit, Oberheim released the first commercial polyphonic keyboard synthesizers, the Two-, Four- and Eight Voice systems. The Matrix series instruments were also popular, and are still widely used.
Unlike most other legendary synth firms, Oberheim still exists, if in name only. Nowadays they are owned by Gibson, and not surprisingly, the current product lineup consists mostly of guitar effect units with a few electric pianos and MIDI keyboards.
Tom Oberheim himself now works as the president and CEO of SeaSound, a company concentrating on digital audio recording devices. The Matrix series design team has designed synths for Alesis.
Information gathered from several sources.
Oberheim equipment featured in Everything2:
More to come...