The developers of the Surge synthesizer released a free emulation of the Oberheim OB-Xd. This virtual instrument is called the Surge Synth Team OB-Xf.
The OB-Xf project is based on the work of Russian programmer Vadim Filatov, who published his work on GitHub under the username 2Dat. DiscoDSP later bought Filatov's project, refined the instrument, and released it in free and paid versions.
Surge Synth Team's work is based on Filatov's original project. As the developers note, they forked the 2Dat project, made their own changes, and published it for free use.
The synthesizer is currently in the alpha stage, and the published plugin is a nightly build. Work on the synthesizer continues, and new versions will appear on the project page on GitHub.
The Surge Synth Team's OB-Xf offers several changes and improvements compared to the original 2Dat Oberheim OB-Xd emulation development. Notably, OB-Xf supports up to 64 voices and features a new multi-mode noise generator and independent pitch bend ranges. Users also have access to unison control, improved filters, and a second low-frequency oscillator.
The synthesizer interface has undergone a number of changes and has become more modern. The synthesizer design supports high-resolution displays and element scaling.
The Surge Synth Team noticed that the presets from Filatov's original project are unfortunately not compatible with their version of the plugin. However, the synthesizer comes with a more convenient patch library and browser for categorizing and cataloging presets.
Surge Synth Team OB-Xf is compatible with Windows 10 and newer, macOS 11 and newer, and Linux operating systems. The synthesizer is available in VST and AU formats. The project's source code and instructions are available on GitHub.
