GForce Oberheim Matrix-12 is the first officially licensed software recreation of the Oberheim Matrix-12 and its predecessor, the Xpander. GForce built it with Oberheim and with Marcus Ryle, one of the original hardware's designers, which sets it apart from the long-running, unlicensed Arturia Matrix-12 V.
The engine keeps the source intact. Each of the twelve voices has two oscillators with triangle, saw, and pulse waves, noise and hard sync on the second oscillator, and FM. The filter is the centerpiece, with fifteen modes spanning one- to four-pole low pass, high pass, band pass, notch, phase, and combinations, feeding two VCAs in series. That filter is the reason a Matrix-12 pad sounds the way it does.
What makes it a Matrix-12 is the modulation. Every voice carries five envelopes, five LFOs, four ramps, three trackers, a lag processor, and vibrato, and any source can reach almost any destination, including itself, across six bipolar slots per parameter. Full MPE, six micro arpeggiators, and four macros push it past the 1984 hardware, while a Flow diagram, a Mod Matrix grid, and a Visualiser make that depth usable. Single mode plays all twelve voices as one instrument; Multi mode splits them across six zones with their own timbres.
At $83.99 during the intro window and $119.99 after, it undercuts the hardware by orders of magnitude and ships 570+ patches, with a 14-day trial of the full version. For other takes on vintage analog, u-he Diva models mix-and-match classic circuits, the free OB-Xd covers the earlier Oberheim OB-X, and the officially licensed GForce Prophet-5 is its natural companion.