● Manufacturer Profile & SysEx Specifications

Oberheim SysEx Librarian & Patch Vault.

Oberheim is the gold standard of massive, buttery American analog polyphonic sound. The OB-Xa, OB-8, Matrix-6, and Matrix-1000 are famed for their wide, rich stereo unison and pioneering Matrix Modulation architectures. The 1U rackmount Matrix-1000 holds 1,000 analog patches driven by six Curtis CEM3396 chips, but offers zero front-panel editing capabilities. Bipluk unlocks the full sonic power of Oberheim synthesizers, providing real-time Web MIDI patch editing, parameter tweaking, and cloud soundbank preservation.

# Oberheim Hardware & Protocol Architecture

Manufacturer SysEx ID: 0x10 (16 decimal)

Origin / Founded: Santa Monica, California, USA (Founded 1969 by Tom Oberheim)

Synthesis Era: Discrete Analog VCO, Curtis CEM Voice ICs, Matrix Modulation Subtractive

Handshake Protocol: Oberheim 10-Byte Header Packets with high-speed Nibble Encoding and 60ms Buffer Throttling

Battery Standard: CR2032 or BR-2/3A 3V Lithium cell with solder pins; typically lasts 12-15 years

Signature Silicon: CEM3340 VCO, CEM3320 VCF, CEM3396 Synth-on-a-Chip, Oberheim SEM Discrete SVF

Standard Memory Protect Procedure:

On Oberheim Matrix-1000, press Select until Bank/Protect LED illuminates; toggle +/- to display 'U F' (Unprotected) for banks 000-199.

Hardware Advisory:

Transmitting full 100-patch bank dumps to an Oberheim Matrix-1000 without Bipluk's 60ms pacing protocol will overload its 8051 CPU, resulting in dropped patches.

# Supported Oberheim Hardware Synthesizers

1 Synthesizers

Oberheim Matrix-1000 >

1988

Subtractive Analog (DCO-based Matrix Modulation)

Related Oberheim Engineering Glossary Terms

Curtis CEM3396 Synth-on-a-Chip A complete analog synthesizer voice on a single 24-pin IC, integrating dual waveshaping DCOs, 4-pole resonant VCF, and dual VCAs (Oberheim Matrix-6/1000, Cheetah MS6). Oberheim Matrix Modulation Architecture The semi-modular digital modulation routing system pioneered in the Oberheim Matrix-6 and Matrix-1000 allowing arbitrary source-to-destination routing. Oberheim SEM 2-Pole State-Variable Filter (SVF) Tom Oberheim's classic 12dB/octave discrete analog filter offering continuous morphing between Low-Pass, Notch, and High-Pass modes. SysEx Buffer Overrun & 60ms Packet Pacing The flow-control throttling delay required when transmitting large SysEx dumps to vintage 8-bit synthesizers lacking hardware flow control.

31250 bps

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