Gone is the single pulse-width knob that determined the duty cycle for both oscillators each now boasts its own PW knob, and the widths can be destinations in the Aux Mod section, allowing you to create much richer initial timbres than before. Let's start with the initial sound generation. Less obvious at a glance are additions such as an external audio input and significant enhancements to the arpeggiator, the keyboard controller section, and the chorus.
There's an additional LFO, an auxiliary modulation routing section, a unison section, a ring modulator, a chord play feature, and more. Having registered the ImpOSCar 2 and loaded it as both a stand-alone application and as a VST plug-in within Plogue Bidule and Digital Performer 7.24, it was immediately apparent to me that it has been extended dramatically when compared with its predecessor. Here you can see ImpOSCar 2's Effects window, which appears at the top right of the GUI. The OSCar not only sounded different, it often sounded better.
But perhaps there's one thing that excuses this price, and simultaneously justifies the existence of the original ImpOSCar, the new ImpOSCar 2 and the Touch Digital IMP2C controller reviewed today: the sound. This seems incredible, given the OSCar's arcane operating system, its fragile physical design, and the fact that (as I once discovered to my annoyance) mice like chewing on the rubber used in its construction.
You would have been able to pick up an OSCar for around £600 when I was writing the ImpOSCar review, but one sold for nearly £2000 on eBay in August 2011. At the same time, the perceived desirability of the original synths has also rocketed. (See Sound On Sound, May 2004.) Since then, soft synths have continued to improve, both in terms of the quality of their emulations and the range of extra facilities that build upon the capabilities of their inspirations. Consequently, it was almost inevitable that at least one OSCar soft-synth would appear, and eight years ago I reviewed the first of these the ImpOSCar. Released in 1983, the OSCar was, in many ways, a remarkable monosynth, with digital oscillators, additive synthesis capabilities, an unusual dual filter configuration, an arpeggiator and even a primitive sequencer lurking within its rubberised body. GForce's acclaimed OSCar emulator gets a major update - and a deluxe control surface, in the shape of the Touch Digital IMP2C.
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