Image: Alison Cassidy, CC BY-SA 4.0 — via Wikimedia Commons
Oberheim Prommer
| Category | Electronic (monophonic sampler) |
|---|---|
| Country of origin | USA |
| Classification | sampler, synthesizer |
| Wikipedia | en.wikipedia.org |
| Wikidata | Q56290379 |
Overview
The Oberheim Prommer is a rack-mount monophonic sampler released by Oberheim Electronics in 1985. It records short audio samples — typically a single drum hit, vocal phrase, or sound effect — and stores them either in internal RAM or in user-burned EPROM chips. The chips can be transferred into Oberheim’s DX and DMX drum machines to replace or supplement their factory voices, which was the unit’s main intended use case.
Origin & History
The DX and DMX drum machines used EPROM-stored samples for each drum sound, and Oberheim provided factory chip sets with different drum collections. The Prommer let users record their own samples and burn them into compatible EPROMs themselves, effectively turning the DX and DMX into early user-sampled drum machines. It was one of the few commercial sampling tools designed primarily for chip-based playback rather than disk-based libraries. Production was short-lived as polyphonic samplers and CompactFlash-based instruments soon overtook the EPROM workflow.
How It’s Played
The user records a sample through the rear-panel input, edits its start and end points on the small front panel, and either triggers it directly through MIDI or burns it into an EPROM chip for later use elsewhere. Triggering the Prommer from a MIDI sequencer makes it function as a single-voice sampler in its own right.
Cultural Significance
The Prommer is a niche instrument that mostly served studio engineers customising DX and DMX kits in the mid-1980s. It is now collected by hardware sampling enthusiasts and by Oberheim drum-machine users who want to keep their EPROM workflows alive.
Related Instruments
- Oberheim TVS-1A – Oberheim companion product
- Oberheim DMX – the drum machine the Prommer feeds
- Oberheim OB-8 – contemporary Oberheim polysynth
- Casio FZ-1 – contemporary 16-bit sampling keyboard
- Korg DSS-1 – contemporary sampling keyboard
Frequently Asked Questions
Is the Prommer polyphonic?
No — it is strictly monophonic.
Why does it burn EPROMs?
So that recorded samples can be transferred into Oberheim DX and DMX drum machines.
Was it made for long?
Production was short — the EPROM workflow was overtaken by RAM- and disk-based samplers.