Synthesizer Designer
Oberheim's forays into the design of equipment to be used by musicians continued to evolve. His associations with Richard Grayson and later Paul Beaver nurtured an interest in synthesizers, and at the 1971 NAMM Show, Oberheim approached Alan R. Pearlman of ARP Instruments, Inc., asked to become the company's Los Angeles dealer, and subsequently became ARP's first dealer on the west coast, selling ARP 2600 synthesizers to musicians in the Los Angeles area, including Leon Russell, Robert Lamm, and Frank Zappa. Having access to ARP's schematics, Oberheim noticed that the ARP 2500 had a feature that allowed two notes to be played simultaneously (which neither the 2600 nor other commercially available synthesizers at that time were capable of), and Oberheim designed a modification to the ARP 2600 that enabled it to do the same thing. Using two of these modified ARP 2600s, Oberheim and Grayson performed concerts together.
Oberheim further expanded on the performance capabilities of 2-note polyphony in 1973, using his computer engineering experience to design the DS-2, one of the first digital sequencers. The sequencer would completely control the synthesizer, however, leaving the musician with no way to play along, a problem that inspired Oberheim to design a Synthesizer Expansion Module (aptly named the SEM) with the design assistance of Dave Rossum (later of E-MU Systems fame). Oberheim first showed the SEM, the first synthesizer bearing his company's name, at the Audio Engineering Society convention in Los Angeles in May 1974.
The following year, when Norlin (CMI's successor) cancelled several large orders for Oberheim's Maestro products, Oberheim shifted his design and manufacturing efforts to replace that lost business. He expanded the SEM concept, and again enlisting the expertise of Dave Rossum and Scott Wedge of E-mu Systems, combining the SEM with a digital keyboard and creating the Oberheim 2-Voice and 4-Voice synthesizers, the first commercially available polyphonic synthesizers. By combining more single-voice synthesizer modules together, Oberheim expanded the concept to the Oberheim 8-Voice synthesizer, introduced in 1976. Realizing that programming the 4-Voice on stage was impractical, he designed the Polyphonic Synthesizer Programmer, an integrated circuit memory for storing the synthesizer's sound settings, another industry first. Integrating this technology into a synthesizer, Oberheim introduced the OB1, the first programmable monophonic synthesizer, in 1977.
By 1980, Oberheim's products, by then including synthesizers, a polyphonic digital sequencer (the DSX), and a sampled-sound drum machine (the DMX) were designed to be combined to form a complete system, and could be interconnected by a proprietary Oberheim parallel buss interface which pre-dated MIDI.
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