Korg to release ARP Odyssey

[roblabs]

What do you all think will be the price for the reissue?

[SanderXpander]

Odyssea makes sense to me for Korg's current marketing strategy. I also disagree that it is not well known or respected. Perhaps not AS well known as a Minimoog but still famous enough. GMedia even made a softsynth out of it, the Oddity. Which is great by the way, though I can't say I've tested it side by side with the original.

[DrHoo]

So just why would they want to build a synth that sounds like this ?....

http://youtu.be/bacxgzseUvo

[Kevin Nolan]

So just why would they want to build a synth that sounds like this ?....

http://youtu.be/bacxgzseUvo

That sounds pretty good to me!

Other demos sounds excellent too (see below) !! More and more impressed as I learn (and indeed, I do recognise the sound from past tracks I would not have known it featured on - the sound is quite distinctive, but strong and with character). The oscillators and filter are solid. Korg may just be onto something here (but again - can they recreate that actual sound?)! :


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-RdPftsB ... acxgzseUvo


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9OwSNz7lLLo

[aron]

The white odyssey was pretty awesome. My friend had one. Hope I can get mine working again (PS problem)

[djcactus]

So just why would they want to build a synth that sounds like this ?....

http://youtu.be/bacxgzseUvo

That sounds pretty good to me!

Other demos sounds excellent too (see below) !! More and more impressed as I learn (and indeed, I do recognise the sound from past tracks I would not have known it featured on - the sound is quite distinctive, but strong and with character). The oscillators and filter are solid. Korg may just be onto something here (but again - can they recreate that actual sound?)! :


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-RdPftsB ... acxgzseUvo


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9OwSNz7lLLo

because you found the worst video you could, it also sounds like this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3p_xAToFzck

[Broadwave]

I keep looking at the prototype, and I'm now pretty convinced that it's full size - those PPC pads are gonna be awful small otherwise

I doubt if Korg will reissue the 2600 as the TTSH is doing the rounds at the moment (which, I believe, has Alan Pearlman's blessing).

As far as creating an EXI for the Kronos… I don't see the point of Korg doing this as it will take up way too many resources (Unless they convert the "Berlin" Gadget… Hmmm, maybe not).

[djcactus]

I keep looking at the prototype, and I'm now pretty convinced that it's full size - those PPC pads are gonna be awful small otherwise

I doubt if Korg will reissue the 2600 as the TTSH is doing the rounds at the moment (which, I believe, has Alan Pearlman's blessing).

As far as creating an EXI for the Kronos… I don't see the point of Korg doing this as it will take up way too many resources (Unless they convert the "Berlin" Gadget… Hmmm, maybe not).

it would be nice to see the kronos pick up a few more synth engines but thats another discussion all-together. The kronos might be the end all but developing something for it first would be expensive due to the niche market. If something does come out for the kronos it will definitely be after, so i guess to anyone really really willing, hold your breath.

[Joe Gerardi]

Jim:
You think it sounds as meaty as a Mini? Really? Remember, at the time, those were your choices. Comparatively, it was thin and reedy, as I stated. Read the other posts from my contemporaries. Same statements. The Mini was richer, more sonorous.

I had an Arp 2600. Yes, it sounded better. It was also far better for the music I was playing at the time.

In the time since, it might be better loved, but in the day, it was not the first synth of choice, except for the duophony I mentioned above.

..Joe

[Joe Gerardi]

because you found the worst video you could, it also sounds like this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3p_xAToFzck

IIRC, Funeral for a Friend/Love Lies Bleeding was done - multi-tracked - on the 2600, not the Odyssey by David Hentschel.

..Joe

[DrHoo]

So just why would they want to build a synth that sounds like this ?....

http://youtu.be/bacxgzseUvo

That sounds pretty good to me!

Other demos sounds excellent too (see below) !! More and more impressed as I learn (and indeed, I do recognise the sound from past tracks I would not have known it featured on - the sound is quite distinctive, but strong and with character). The oscillators and filter are solid. Korg may just be onto something here (but again - can they recreate that actual sound?)! :


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-RdPftsB ... acxgzseUvo


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9OwSNz7lLLo

because you found the worst video you could, it also sounds like this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3p_xAToFzck

Now now ! All things being subjective & all that, i don't like Elton John's music much but the synth sounds good.

[SanderXpander]

Jim:
You think it sounds as meaty as a Mini? Really? Remember, at the time, those were your choices. Comparatively, it was thin and reedy, as I stated. Read the other posts from my contemporaries. Same statements. The Mini was richer, more sonorous.

I had an Arp 2600. Yes, it sounded better. It was also far better for the music I was playing at the time.

In the time since, it might be better loved, but in the day, it was not the first synth of choice, except for the duophony I mentioned above.

..Joe

I haven't owned either but I thought they were essentially the same (depending on revision/version) apart from the 2600s routing options (audio in, spring reverb, etc).

Also, some Odysseys actually have a 4035 based Moog filter. It has two oscillators vs three on the Mini, true, but in 99 percent of patches you have to sacrifice the Mini's third one to LFO duties anyway. The Odyssey also has sync and PWM over the Mini.

[jimknopf]

Exactly: ARP 2600 and Odyssey share the same sonic character, and the Oddy essentially is nothing but a hardwired and functionally reduced, but still very powerful subset of the 2600 with about the same basic sound.

The Minimoog definitely sounds warmer, and it can sound thicker due to it's third osc, though that was rather used as LFO by most of the keyboarders most of the time.

But the Mini does NOT generally sound more punchy and fat, it just sounds punchy and fat in a less agressive way than the Oddy does. I repeat that the Oddy definitely is able to sound rich and not thin. And it was technically advanced over the Mini in more than one way, amoung others offering lush PWM sounds which the Mini then missed - other than the modern Voyager. That alone definitely was a big step beyond "thin".

So I keep on disagreeing completely that it was a thin sounding, second rated Moog alternative, especially not the whiteface ARP with the 24db filter from the 2600. It was a first class alternative, where only personal taste and functonality decided a buy. The different ARP synths had 40%(!) of the mid 70s synth market in the US! They weren't inferior by any possible standard.

That's not just my personal view. To cite SOS:
"With oscillator sync and a ring modulator, ARP's twin oscillators put the Minimoog's three to shame. Furthermore, with a tuning drift of less than 1/30 of a semitone (in sharp contrast to other synthesizers of the era) the ARP oscillators were extremely stable. A well-maintained Odyssey, once set up, would remain just about perfectly pitched in all conditions, from sweaty bars to sub-zero outdoor stages. This was a godsend for the gigging musician.

In addition, the Odyssey combined more sound-shaping features than any other non-patchable synth of its era. It had extensive pitch-modulation capabilities, a very flexible sample & hold, single and multiple triggering, noise generation, two filters, and two envelope generators. It also incorporated an innovative keyboard-scanning system that assigned the oscillators to the highest and lowest keys played, making it the world's first duophonic synthesizer. But it was the model 2800's superb 24dB/octave filter (the 4012) that was its crowning glory. This had a frequency response extending to nearly 35kHz, and it is this that now makes 'white-face' Odysseys the darlings of synth collectors."

As I said, if I could only have one analog synth, I would still choose a Moog, because its warm yet punchy sound is still my favorite. But the Oddy offers a great and absolutely stunning sonic quality of another kind besides that, and I would be more than happy to get an unused one in 2014.

[jimknopf]

I'm with Jim, even though that German top 12 is really weird (Octave CAT, really?) :p

Just to put that in proportion: the CAT was nothing but an (today less well known) very well done (even slightly enhanced) Oddy imitation. So in fact we have three Arps on the first four places of the German list for analog mono favorites:
1. ARP 2600
2. Minimoog
3. ARP Oddy clone
4. ARP Oddy
5. Sequential Pro One
6. Roland SH-5
7. Oberheim SEM
etc. ...

[el_hombre]

Still pumped about this news...