John Bechdel, of False Icons, has spoken to Gearwire recently of his Akai sampler, his Memorymoog and his band False Icons' first CD God Complex. When making that record he relied heavily on another piece of old school gear, the Oberheim OBX.

"I was familiar with the later OBX models but found them thinner than the Moogs," says Bechdel. "When I played with Killing Joke, they used OBX’s and I was amazed at how fat they were. Also they created all those dirge and noise sounds which I just loved."

While he mainly uses the OBX in the studio there have been times when it has been out on the road. But his OBX is not necessarily ideal for roadwork.

"I took it on the road when I was in Prong, I used it live on some of the Cleansing tours. It was awesome. Wouldn’t try it now," he says. "We still used them in Killing Joke well into the 90’s. With False Icons, I played riffs manually because I don’t have a MIDI version, then I tweaked out the sounds at the same time, getting some nice performances which we captured into Logic."

There is one quirk with the OBX, which Bechdel says is reliable instrument.

"One tricky thing, in order to reactivate a knob you have to crank it almost all the way first. Overall, they were pretty rock solid compared to the Moogs but still had their moments. Stays in tune and tunes much faster too," says Bechdel. "The OBX is very different from the later OB’s it’s a much fatter sound but more rudimentary than its predecessors. Some of the things about it make it unique and I think they got it right on the first try."

Bechdel says that the OBX is capable of making sounds the other Oberheims cannot. The OBX can, however, make all the sounds of the other Oberheim synths. So it is the sensible one of the lot to have.

"There’s no denying the appeal of the massive OBX’s and let’s not forget the mammoth Matrix 12. They shared that special time when synths came of age. The Jupiter-8 ,the PPG,the Fairlight and Synclavier. They infiltrated all areas of music during that time." he says. "Obviously, there are literally thousands of completely and utterly useless sounds in a lot of these synths. Although there are always a few really good ones, the best sounds can be made by programming your own. That’s what it’s really all about with all the knobs and sliders. it’s easy and fun. I still get frustrated sometimes trying to program soft-synths. There’s a few sounds which are dated and yet still work, like a good filter sweep, but I can still get more modern and useful sounds out of them when I try."

False Icons are playing shows in the good old US of A, plan to tour Europe and are working up a slew of butt whomping remixes.