Prominent synthesizer manufacturing company from the 1970s and early '80s. Founded by namesake Tom Oberheim, who had previously worked for the guitar effects company Maestro, Oberheim released its first synth product in 1975. This was the Synthesizer Expansion Module, now known as the SEM. A keyboardless tabletop module, this was intended to provide more capability for other analog synthesizers of the day; it was connected via a CV/Gate interface.