GForce Software Oberheim SEM

Full Description

The only recreation endorsed by Tom Oberheim

Introduced to the world in 1974, the Oberheim SEM was designed to accompany sequencers within the Oberheim product range, enabling the creation of monophonic sequences. Intentionally designed to be extremely simple to use but extremely powerful and flexible. Standing out from everyone in the crowd, the combination of usability and innovative engineering built the foundations of subsequent Oberheim instruments. This expansion allowed you to chain multiple SEMs together to create polyphonic synthesizers. Over the next 50 years, the demand for Oberheim SEMs has only grown stronger, remaining as relevant and sought after as ever, helping to shape the career of many influential musicians including Stevie Wonder, Chick Corea and Herbie Hancock.

Given the seal of approval by the original designer, Tom Oberheim, this GForce emulation is the only true authentic SEM experience. Designed in collaboration with Marcus Ryle (world-famous Oberheim engineer) and Tom himself, every aspect of the original design has been painstakingly analysed and emulated to provide unrivalled authenticity and accuracy. For a truly analog sound palette, every micro-interaction and inaccuracy of the original hardware design has been meticulously recreated, offering the same character and tonality you would expect from the real counterpart. Remaining true to the original design, the GForce SEM captures the monophonic ethos and distils it into one stunning plug-in package.

Authentic SEM sound

At the heart of SEM is two VCOs with pulse and sawtooth waveforms, two ADS envelope generators, one LFO and finished with the classic, world-renowned multi-mode filter. Greater than the sum of its parts, the simplicity of the SEM delivers a huge sound, brimming with punch and character. Complexity beyond its design, the SEM sound has been made famous by many seminal musicians from Prince to Radiohead, cutting through dense layers of production, drums, vocals or any other instrumentation with ease. Harnessing every detail of the original design, the GForce SEM maintains the sonic authenticity of the hardware whilst continuing with the monophonic design, allowing you to introduce the timeless Oberheim SEM sound into your productions.

Beauty in simplicity

Simple never sounded so good. Ever since its inception to the market in 1974, musicians have praised the Oberheim SEM's feats of impeccable engineering combined with the stripped-back and innovative usability. The refined feature set was intentionally reduced to enable musicians and sound designers to think outside of the box, pushing monophonic creativity to its maximum to inspire a new way of composing. Whilst the core features are restricted, accessing warm basses, soaring leads and sweeping arps is made simple by the usability, allowing you to spend more time creating music and less time endlessly tweaking parameters.

Contemporary additions for modern producers and musicians

Enhanced where it matters, the GForce SEM expands on the original design to add more functionality and flexibility without interfering with the core principle of simplicity. Perfect for modern producers, composers or sound designers, the GForce SEM features a third VCO that can double as an audio-rate LFO for extended modulation and FM capabilities, tempo-syncable LFO and a host of performance controls via velocity, aftertouch and MPE. Perfect for live performers, GForce SEM has introduced a fast and simple arpeggiator alongside a scratch-pad step-time sequencer to help create interesting and expansive grooves and phrases.

A range of newly designed, luscious effects are now included, allowing you to add the professional polish and final touches to your sound design alongside a host of over 400+ new factory presets. Created by industry veterans including Dave Spiers, Graeme Rawson and Tom Wolfe, each preset highlights the vast range of tonal possibilities that can be unlocked with GForce Oberheim SEM. Categorised and tagged in the redesigned library menu, you can quickly easily store and recall your favourite presets in any future projects or sessions alongside loading them into your GForce OB-E synthesizer instrument to make all your sounds polyphonic.

Reviews

"It’s so good to hear something that’s dear to my heart done properly in software.” - Tom Oberheim

"The beauty of the SEM lies in its combination of great sound and simple-to-use architecture. That’s why, since its release in 1974, the SEM has remained highly coveted and musically relevant. Over four decades later, we’re beyond thrilled to release our software version with Tom Oberheim’s full blessing, collaboration and endorsement” - Dave Spiers & Chris Macleod (Co-founders of GForce Software)

"The GForce SEM manages to be both simple to use, and yet diverse. It has been a continual source of inspiration for me, and the depth and quality of the sound have kept my creativity flowing whenever I sit down to use it” - Tom Wolfe (Sound Designer)

"You legends! The arpeggiator is lovely and the FX and filter are sublime. I love the simplicity of it. So, so simple!” - Nigel Hopkins (Sound Designer, Producer, Composer)

Features

• The only software endorsed by Tom Oberheim himself
• The synth that started it all, a classic rebirthed for the 21st century
• Shape incredible sounds in an instant and go deeper when you need it
• Most authentic Oberheim monosynth with an added sequencer, arpeggiator, expression mods, third oscillator and more
• Small package but huge sound and light on CPU
• Based on the multi-award-winning OB-E
• Full of character and punch with luscious onboard effects
• Over 400+ factory presets highlighting the sonic possibilities of SEM
• Intuitive preset Librarian view lets you tag and categorise your favourite presets
• Extended LFO, aftertouch and velocity
• Import presets from SEM into OB-E to make them polyphonic

Specifications

• Operating system:
• Mac: macOS 10.15.x or above
• Windows: Windows 7 and above