Oberheim • DSX
In the early 1980's Oberheim unveiled a new (pre-MIDI) proprietary system called the Oberheim Parallel Buss. This was a system in which several newly released pieces of Oberheim gear could be easily connected and synchronized. These included the lush OB-8 eight voice synth, the DMX drum machine, and the DSX Digital Polyphonic Sequencer. The DSX can interface directly with other Oberheim synths as well, including the OB-Xa, OB-SX, and OB-X. The DSX can synchronize to the DMX, or it can control the OB-synths. In addition to controlling these synths, the DSX features 8 CV and Gate outputs to control up to 8 more other analog synthesizers!
For an analog synth player, the DSX adds an incredible amount of sequencing power never really seen on other analog synths' built-in sequencers of the time. The DSX records in realtime the notes and patch changes you create while playing your OB-synth. It can hold up to 6,000 notes! The DSX can store up to 10 different sequences/songs. Each sequence can have 10 polyphonic tracks for multiple OB-synths and DMXs. Patch info including splits and doubles can be stored too. Quantizing, looping, editing, transposing, and sequence merging are a few more features. If you've got any of these classic (pre-MIDI) Oberheim analog OB-synths lying around, the DSX is an easy way to directly control them in a classic way, and without any need for MIDI retro-fits or interfaces.
Its main drawbacks are that it requires either a OB-X/OB-XA or OB-8 keyboard to input notes, and its limited to real-time recording, there's no step input.