Oberheim Matrix 6R User reviews -Page 1

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Average rating: 4.5 out of 5

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Ivan a part-time user from Canada writes:

My Oberheim Matrix 6R just arrived in the mail yesterday. First impressions: presets are very "80s" in a good way. 90% of them are pads. Lots of PWM pads, and "1984"-like filter sweeps. Only 100 presets, and there are only 40 or so true patches, the rest I find are too similar. The sound quality of the oscillators... refreshing. Blows my Korg R3 out of the water in terms of rawness, grit and fullness. I can hear audible stepping in frequency sweeps, so the filter values are poorly quantized. I was a bit disappointed about this. The sound of the filter itself is can range from "bubbly" to "spicey". In other words, not the best I've ever heard but definitely musical and unique. Much better than the hissy VA filter on the R3. To whoever said the build quality sucks... get your head checked! This thing is now turning 24 years old and mine looks like it was built a few months ago. The body is built entirely out of metal and it feels tough and of good quality. Definitely shows that it was made in Japan. The front panel might look like a cheap microwave/calculator but it feels silky smooth and substantive. The buttons have a "depth" to them so pressing them isn't a chore, nor requires a lot of force. Physically, the rack is about 1/2 of a medium-sized microwave; bigger than I imagined. Not too heavy, about 15 lbs I think. Great for the price! I bought mine for $310 including shipping, taxes, etc. If you are thinking about purchasing be sure to consider a Peavey 1600x midi controller or something similar to control the parameters; programming using the interface is slow, tedious and not inspiring. Overall I am very pleased and would definitely buy again. I will probably do a follow up review in a few months as my experience grows with this synth.

Rating: 5 out of 5 posted Wednesday-Jul-21-1010 at 23:46

Richard a hobbyist user from NYC writes:

Had to return one with the same problem as Bill's - could receive Sysex and seemed cosmetically fine, but no audio. Found another and am v. happy with it - gorgeous sound and really satisfying programming depth. The pedal 2 input can also be used to trigger an Env or LFO for fun syncing possibilities. A major bargain compared to many other old synths.

Rating: 5 out of 5 posted Friday-Apr-15-055 at 16:43

bill a part-time user from usa writes:

Have owned one for about 10 years. Used it until it stopped sounding. Does anyone know how to reset this machine? help!!!

Rating: 4 out of 5 posted Wednesday-Jan-28-044 at 15:05

ByronE a part-time user from USA writes:

Very muscular...hard to flex, but it grows with exercise. Poor build quality, cheap buttons, caculator comprable display....best suggested use? Put it in a rack and don't touch it with anything but midi commands. Mine was purchased second hand for 250$ about 2 years ago, still works perfect, hope it stays that way. I even disassembled it at one time, purely out of curiosity...still works perfect.

If anyone tells you it sounds like plastic, well, it can if you program it right (or wrong in there case). By far not a beginners synth, but it's no Nord Modular. Best strength's in sound? Crrreamy washes and obnoxiously strong bass slaps.

Realtime control for tweaking? Yes, but limited. You can assign 5 realtime controllable cc#'s to NEARLY any of the internal parameters, but it must be done seperately for every patch you make.

Overall? If it's fully functional, and cheap, buy it. If you can try it out first, do a full calibration test (easy to do from the front panel) to assure all the voices are functioning properly.

Rating: 4 out of 5 posted Thursday-Sep-04-033 at 23:44

J. Hubbs a hobbyist user from Atlanta writes:

I have a Matrix 6R and it is truly a wonderful instrument but I do have two issues with it. One is that the unison mode gives me something other than what I expect, and what I get doesn't sound very good. It sounds very nasal, like comb filtering, as though something is trying to sync the oscs together but not quite in phase. I feel like you ought to get something that should take your head off with fatness, but it's jsut not musically useful. The other problem is that LFO waveforms that have discontinuities - basically, that means everything but triangle - have a little "hiccup" in it that becomes audible for any significant amount of modulation. This also seems to be true when using envelopes for modulation. I don't know if it's a design flaw or just something wrong with my unit. If you want to try to replicate what I'm talking about, route a slow square LFO to DCO pitch and listen to the transitions. I find this real irritating because here's a unit with which you can work absolute magic with control routings, and it gets futzy. On the up side, I have been able to replicate some Moog modular patches from Emerson and Beaver/Krause that you couldn't even get near with other synths of the era or perhaps any era since. I'd love to hear from you if you have different or same problems with your M6Rs.

posted Sunday-Sep-15-022 at 00:22

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