AUDIO PLAYGROUND'S ARCHIVES OBERHEIM PAGES

Oberheim
MINIGRAND

Description

Made in 1998
Joint venture with Viscount

Digital Piano Expander

This half-rack tabletop module contains six
great piano sounds-three acoustic Grand pianos and three electric.

The samples not only sound real, they feel real-every piano nuance is there:
the thump of the damper pedal being activated, the sympathetic "string-frame"
vibrations, subtle dynamic shadings. All samples are stereo and have 64-note polyphony.

Piano 1 is a Concert Grand piano sample from one of Europe's finest instruments.

Piano 2 is a softer version and Piano 3 is a brighter, sharper version. Electric Piano 1

is based on the classic Rhodes sound, while Electric Pianos 2 and 3 are variations on
the famous FM piano sound.

The MiniGrand has built-in programmable effects featuring: 8 variations of Hall and
Room reverb, plus Chorus, Flanging and Tremolo. The three band EQ system
adjusts Lows, Mids and Highs. The Transpose key allows transposition of +/- one
octave and fine-tuning of the MiniGrand.

Two rear-mounted footswitch jacks allow damper pedal and sustenuto/sustain pedal control.

The magnificent sound of a grand piano is one of the most
difficult for an electronic digital engineer to master. The
complexity of interactions between the strings (struck and
unstruck), harp, sounding boards and case, as well as the
hammers and pedals, had kept truly accurate piano sound an
almost unattainable goal until we crossed Oberheim
innovative electronics with Viscount's centuries of
experience building acoustic instruments. The result is the new Oberheim MiniGrand Digital Piano Expander.

The MiniGrand has six preset piano sounds that can be altered by the player and put into memory:

Piano 1-- A classic European grand piano, suitable for classical and modern music.
Piano 2 -- A softer Grand sound for most Jazz.
Piano 3 --A sharper sound for Rock.
Piano 4 -- An electric piano sound like a Rhodes.
Piano 5 and 6 -- variations of classic FM piano sounds.

With Programmable Reverb. modulation effects (Chorus and Tremolo), selectable Dynamic Response Curves and
a 3-band Equalizer, the MiniGrand can be customized to be an extension of every musician's individuality.

No truer sound at any price

The MiniGrand's suggested retail price is $499. There is a cheaper competitor whose sound does not come close to
this unit, particularly in the high and low notes. There is also a more expensive competitor who has a unit almost as
good as the Oberheim.

The MiniGrand is brand new. You can be the first in your town to discover the amazing sound (unless you live in
Minneapolis, home base of Bruce McCabe, songwriter and keyboardist for the Jonny Lang Band, currently on tour
with Aerosmith. Then you will have to be the second person in town.) See your local Oberheim/Gibson dealer.

Technical Specifications:

Synthesis Technology Extended IS2

Poliphony 64 voices

Sampling memory 4.1 Khz ±18 bit, 8 Mbytes

User memories 6 Banks

Pedals Damper + Soft/Sustain

MIDI: RX, TX Channel, PG, CC filter Memory Bulk Dump

Transposer: +/- 12 semitones

Fine Tuning: +/- 50 cents

Power Supply: 10.5 Vac 1.2 amps

Size: Half Rack space

---

BACK