OB-City is sourced from legendary American analog synths from the late 70s through the mid-80s, famous for their extremely fat, warm, textural sounds and their iconic filters. Oh, and their attention-grabbing blue stripes! It’s not a stretch to say these synths are “sonically obese”, hence the wordplay in “OB-City.”

There were 2 main product lines by this company: the OB series and the Matrix series. OB-City was sourced from both of these lines. In many cases, the source sounds were double tracked, panned apart, and slightly altered so you end up with massively wide, spacious sounds, as well as the original mono versions.

The goal with the analog synths in the Legacy Series was to capture all their imperfections, instability, and unpredictability. These are the hallmarks of analog, and they are responsible for the warm, lush sounds we all love so much in these timeless instruments. These sounds are alive.

As the largest collection in the Legacy Series, OB-City meticulously captures over 90 new source sounds - including pads, soundscapes, basses, leads, arpeggiated synths, and a handful of famous sounds from pop hits of the 80s - all through British mic preamps for the ultimate reproduction of these sounds.

Multiple round robins and velocity layers were captured where necessary, so they behave like proper analog synths - not as static, lifeless samples. All the random instability you’d expect from an analog synth is there, and the resulting sounds are incredibly organic and musical.

Finally, most sounds are dynamically controllable via mod wheel for expressive filter sweeps, LFO control, or other applicable parameters.

• MainStage 3.4.4/Logic 10.5.0 or later, along with all factory content

• 11 GB post-installation

• TouchOSC version 1 on any iPad if you want to use the optional touch editor (MainStage version only)

OB-City is $99 for MainStage/Logic and includes:

• 90 original source sounds (11 GB WAV data), deep-sampled from various combinations

• Detailed graphic environment for MainStage meant for live performance

• Logic Pro session that duplicates all sounds from the MainStage version including all FX routing

• Custom “Nonlin” reverb impulse sample from the AMS RMX16 reverb

• TouchOSC editor for iPad, for complete hands-on control (MainStage version only)

For a video answer to this question, click HERE (pertains to DX Dreams, but the concept is the same).

The MainStage versions were designed and built specifically for live performance, and as such, they have an elaborate interface with corresponding iPad controls using TouchOSC. They also come with a fully loaded MainStage “Concert” file where all sounds are loaded and ready to play, with onscreen controls that let you dial in effects and other settings as you play.

The Kontakt versions are much simpler: they give you the core sounds themselves, but since they are designed to use within a DAW, they have more basic controls for built-in EQ, chorus, compression, and the AMS “Nonlin” reverb. They are meant to be used as part of a larger production, where you add your own effects as needed from your DAW or other plugins.

It’s important to understand that there’s no way to exactly match some of the sounds between the MainStage/Logic and Kontakt versions; you can only approximate certain aspects since they use different filters, envelopes, and effects. I spent hundreds of hours obsessively tweaking the Kontakt versions to get as close as possible, but there will always be some differences on certain types of sounds.

However, this does NOT mean the sounds are compromised in any way: the Kontakt versions still maintain the world-class sound of any BackStage Pass instrument, and you simply won’t find any other way to get these iconic, massive sounds.

Absolutely! There is a $19 crossgrade for those who need to switch between the MainStage/Logic and Kontakt versions. Inquire HERE.

Yes! Simply send a message here and I’ll get back to you ASAP!