User Guide / Owners Manual

ARTURIA – Matrix-12 V – USER MANUAL 12
afford a second modular synth, not to mention the added bulk and complexity of
carrying around two systems.
So Tom realized that a small, self-contained module could provide a cost-effective
solution, complete with oscillators, filter and input/output connections. This unit
could be connected to the sequencer while the user played the main synth. And
so the Oberheim Synthesizer Expansion Module, better known as the SEM, came
into being.
He enlisted the help of Scott Wedge and Dave Rossum, engineers who were
pioneers in their own right as founders of E-mu Systems. Together they unveiled the
SEM at the Audio Engineering Society Convention in Los Angeles in May, 1974.
The SEM was also a great way to expand the sound of a Minimoog or an ARP
Odyssey by using their Control Voltage (CV) and Gate connectors to trigger the
SEM.
Pictured below is Arturia’s SEM V, our reverently rendered DSP model of the SEM:
The center panel of Arturia’s SEM V modeling software
Patch cables had been replaced by internal connections, giving the unit a clean
and simple appearance. But on close inspection you will see there is a lot of power
behind that pretty face.
Among other things, people began to take notice of the SEM because of its
innovative filter section. It had lowpass, highpass and bandpass filters like the Big
Boys, but there was something new: a continuously variable filter control with
lowpass on one side, highpass on the other, and a notch filter at the 12:00 setting.
This became known as a “multi-mode filter”, and it truly set the Oberheim sound
apart from the competition.
The SEM proved to be sort of a “Cinderella synth”: too beautiful to stay in the
background for long. And so the humble expansion module took center stage, as
Oberheim Electronics combined an increasing number of SEMs with a keyboard in
a single, portable package.