Unison, Portamento And Hold

These modes may seem pedestrian on the surface but they vastly expand the OB-6’s sonic palette…

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Press Manual + Write to initialise the sound. First let’s engage ‘hold’. This button is great for latching the arpeggiator, for creating drones and also as a pseudo sustain – for example, if you want to tweak a sound with both hands while a sound is droning.

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Portamento can add much to poly and mono sounds, smudging and bending the note attacks. The OB-6 gliding polyphonically between two 6-note chords (at a slow rate) is a magnificent thing! Experiment with the different portamento modes (press/hold Portamento) and tweak ‘rate’ for different feels.

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Unison is a magical button that flips the OB-6 between a 6-note poly and a monophonic/legato monster. Hold down Unison and use the increment/decrement buttons to set how many voices are stacked on a single key, then use Detune (slop) to make the soundfield wider.

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The Unison button also accesses the vintage-style ‘chord memory’ which essentially allows the OB-6 to ‘sample’ itself, remembering any chord you’ve played, which can then be re-triggered using any single note across the keyboard. To engage, play/hold any chord, hit unison then play away!

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Use the ‘key mode’ button for setting which note takes priority when holding down a note while playing another (in mono/unison mode) or if notes retrigger the envelopes on each key press or not. Press/hold ‘key mode’, then select the mode with the increment/ decrement buttons.

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Let’s record a sequence. Press record, hit single notes or chords in sequence up to a maximum of 64 steps. Insert rests by pressing the increment button, or for ties, hold a note while pressing increment. Transpose by holding record + pressing any key. Simple!