Shear Electronics Relic is back: The return of the kid and his OB-X clone

31 Oct 2022 by Robin Vincent |

4,4 / 5,0 | Approximate reading time: 2 Minutes

Shear Electronics Relic · Source: SonicState

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At SynthPlex 22 Jacob Brashears reveals the latest version of his Relic clone of the OB-X, except it’s no longer a clone; it’s now something more and no less extraordinary.

Relic

We first saw Jacob and his Shear Electronics Relic synth at NAMM in 2017. He was 18, full of enthusiasm and had a machine that was going to clone the Oberheim OB-X and bring it back to us. Behringer then came along with the apparent ability to bang out any polysynth you want and after a 2018 NAMM appearance, the Relic and Jacob seemed to fade into obscurity.

However, Behringer hasn’t been able to come up with the goods (yet), and in another twist, Oberheim re-emerged and released the awesome OB-X8. And so now, four years later, Jacob is back with a radically reworked machine and a level of patter and depth that could be sold in bottles.

In an exhaustive video from SynthPlex 2022, Jacob takes us through his extraordinary machine. It’s now twice as wide with an interface from the bridge of the Star Trek (TNG) Enterprise. I’m not sure if I can keep up with his deep dive into the inner workings of the design and the fast pace of the interface. But what I do know is that it’s now an 8-voice analogue synthesizer, bi-timbral with every control laid out and a super-interesting light-bar driven touch-responsive interface.

Shear Electronics Relic · Source: SonicState

Nothing to hear

Sadly, there was nothing to hear. All the lights and knobs and details were awesome, but the lack of sound is holding it back a little bit, I would say. This is down to them still working on the calibration algorithms or some such technical shenanigans.

Jacob says they have enough components to do a limited run of 8 machines and hope to have them shipped by March 2023. If you’re interested, then you need to get yourself on the waiting list. It’s still in development, still changing and, so it’s hard to put a price on it, but he suggests it will be at least $6,500. Jacob insists that the sound is as authentic as anything out there today, combined with a massively enhanced interface that transforms it from an Oberheim clone into something from the future.

It’s undoubtedly cool and fascinating. I can’t wait to hear and see it making music. Check out the video below for all the detail.

Shear Electronics website.
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5 responses to “Shear Electronics Relic is back: The return of the kid and his OB-X clone”

Vincent Vice says:

31 October 2022 at 18:38

I can’t see the plus in having to print fixed markers / values, which btw are not illuminated, on the chassis (and both above & below that bar) while units are typically very easy to read WITHIN common displays, and can be later even changed in style or spread / mapping with FW updates.

Looks again like a solution in search of a problem.

Modern3 says:

1 November 2022 at 19:54

I admire the engineering prowess of this young man, however the interface still lacks the solutions that could have been presented to alleviate the complexities of this synth. The fixed “screens” are truly useless, and in their place there is one small LED display. Certainly, we must wait to hear what this sounds like, still at $6500, this is not viable to me in its current iteration.

Jacob Brashears says:

2 November 2022 at 08:20

Originally, I displayed the units on a screen.
But it turns out that a digital readout interferes with the link between imagination and reality.

Our natural instinct is to listen.
This lightfader system is really fantastic, it’s the perfect balance between natural feel and numerical precision.
If I could show you in real life, I’m sure I could win you over! (:

Robin Vincent says:

2 November 2022 at 17:58

I’m sure you could too 😀

vincent mitchell says:

16 February 2024 at 09:00

would love to get my hands on one