Oberheim TEO-5 Desktop synthesiser

General

The old Tom Oberheim (1936) seems to be holding out quite well, approaching the age of 90. Not someone to muse behind the couch about how everything used to be better. So focus on the future, and that includes a new synth now and then. In this case, the Oberheim TEO-5 Desktop, obviously the keyless version of the previously released TEO-5. That TEO-5 has proven to be quite a popular device, and why not: an analogue beast with a thick Oberheim sauce over it. Who wouldn't want that!

Features of the TEO-5 Desktop

With a polyphony of five, it's a great device for leads, basses and effects. Basically also for chords although you probably would have preferred six or eight voices there to give the envelope release some space. Thanks to the effects (such as reverb), you can of course generate that release in other ways too. So, in a way, the polyphony of 5 is not even that much of an issue. The sound then; analogue, with two oscillators and one sub-oscillator per voice (and that's five times), followed by a nice SEM multimode filter. Modulation matrix, presets and user-presets, it's just a nice complete thing. For this paltry sum, a real Oberheim in your studio!