hello, ujiie here. the arp odyssey. sitting side by side here with what else? the big brother, right? yeah, the arp odyssey. you know, many srtists used & loved this synth. it's a true classic! but now, the folks over at korg have re-released the synth, and as teh arp odyssey nonetheless!
it's back! now that's something to get happy about! oh man... i'm having a ball playing this thing, ok? and it's really great!!! but i have this original model over here, and if you compare the two, well i think it's obvious really. this is the original.
the real thing. real thing? well, the original version from years ago. which has been resurrected in this model here. the arp odyssey. the name is the same! but it's a bit smaller overall. the keys are almost mini-keys. the body too, just a little bit smaller. but the compact size is a good thing! the arp odyssey
as you all know, was released in three models: 1st, 2nd and 3rd revisions. and the model i have here is the 3rd rev. black/orange version. uhh, the first model was the white version, the 2nd rev. was the black version, and the final revision was this one here. the black/orange version. there were limited releases of white and black models too. very nice.
but personally speaking, i quite like this one. i like the colors. they've done a great job here! and the thing is totally analog. they took a totally analog synthesizer, and built it again, but at this size. that's something else. really impressive! and as you can hear... ...it sounds great! and the filter? right? and how does the original sound?
ah well, it's old so of course there are some crackly sliders! back to this one. same. of course. hmm? i think the lows are stronger on the new one! now, about the parameters. i mean the sliders, knobs and switches. all of the things you find on the original here, have been re-created on the remake. fantastic!
the one thing that is ever so slightly different, uh can you zoom in on this right here? uh, this is the vcf section here, with frequency and resonance, typical filter, but this switch here selects the type. i, ii, and iii. what's that? well, i is the first version. ii is the 2nd revision.
iii is the 3rd. you can switch between versions! and they're different! the 1st one sounds like this. when the resonance is raised... ok? 2nd revision. 3rd revision. totally different! that they've decided to do this with the filter is just great. ok then. let's take a very close look at the arp odyssey, but first,
ummm, well, it's arp. another well-known manufacturer being moog. but, the underlying philosophy between the two is very different. let me explain in detail. first of all, there are two vcos, (voltage controlled oscillators), 1 and 2. the controls are located up here, the frequency section.
there are two. coarse & fine sliders. here as well. and the controls at the bottom add various kinds of modulation. look here, you've got sawtooth and square waveforms. but where to select between the two? follow me here, here we go, all the way over here. the audio mixer, and below, here we have one slider each for vco 1 and 2. if you raise them... ok?
let's use just one. and below the slider, the sawtooth/square selector switch! that's how to choose the waveform. so, in the mixer section is where you find the relevant switch. this is just vco 1 playing right now. this section here. which is also a bit unusual. you have the usual coarse and fine controls,
the coarse control, well usually, like on a moog you have the range listed in feet. 8' or 16' what have you, set by octave. but the control here is continuous! like this! and the fine control works similarly. this can be a real chore when it comes to tuning! so please be careful with that! let me fix this here. you'd better have a tuner handy. now because it does have two oscillators,
the leads me to a very important feature of the odyssey. ok so the thing has two oscillators, when you play one key, both oscillators sound. but when you play two keys at once, each oscillator takes care of one key played. so, this is actually a duophonic synth! this is a big feature! play just one key, you get two oscillators at once. play two keys, the oscillators split up.
this is what the arp odyssey is all about. ok then. basically, it's a duophonic synth. but a feature i quite like is this right here. the transpose switch. set to the middle... this sound. set up, it raises not one but two octaves!!! set down, two octaves down! what's so good about it? in a flash, you can get bass range. and just as fast, you can get lead range.
being able to quickly change like that is a big feature! another big feature of the odyssey, and one that works so nicely, is this right here! this. right. here. uhhh... "proportional pitch control" now, what this does, uh, is the middle pad is for modulation. i'm pushing the pad down here, ok? and depending on how hard i push, the mod will change! push lightly...
ok? push hard... the sharp and flat pads work the same way. push sharp, pitch bends up. push hard... way more than one octave! wanna bend down? push flat. this was also a feature on the original. i think the new one has a wider range though! the korg arp odyssey.
nice work with this! while we're at it, another big feature of the odyssey, oscillator 2 has a sync function. if we raise the tuning of oscillator 2, even if it's not "in tune" if you turn sync on... oscillator 2 is forced to follow the pitch of oscillator one. turn sync off.. if you detune the oscillators slightly,
it sounds lush, but turn sync back on... the two oscillators are kinda mashed together. kinda fat sounding. and for that famous sync sound? well, there's frequency modulation here. fm. frequency modulation. so you take this... but holy cow, how functional it is! you take this one on the right, and set the switch to adsr. as it's set already.
raise the slider... the adsr is over here. the decay is short... so it sounds like it does. raise it... what's happening is the pitch of osc 2 is being affected by the adsr, so it goes gunnnnn, down like that. now if you turn sync on, the uh, filter...
no, the pitch of the oscillator will change and give birth to exquisite harmonics. this!!! now that is the famous sync sound of the odyssey! this is just absolutely spectacular! this is a sound i just go head over heels for. just great! and uh, there's also pulse width, so you can uh, get that going on as well. the lfo is over here.
speed control. working fine. nice. this thing really sounds good! and what else, oh yeah! so the korg arp odyssey has one more great feature. and it is not found on the original! this. drive! on or off only. with this on though...
the sound gets a little bit of a power boost. turn it off. on. this is great! sounds so good! the drive mode there for you. not on the original, which has the power led down here, but on the korg, it's up here. and for the biggest difference, bottom line. can you zoom in on this?
this part is exactly the same. uh, the cv in/out, gate in/out, trigger in/out. of course. it's analog after all. the output jacks. 1/4 inch and xlr. external input for running sounds through the filter. footswitch and pedal. but the big difference is here!!! midi input, and there's a usb port too! this is what i'm talking about!
it can receive midi, but via usb it can transmit and receive. this is just great. so via usb you can use this keyboard and control other stuff, but for people who don't get along with these keys so well, you can plug a midi cable in and play it from another keyboard. well well well... awesome! no? the arp odyssey. quite nice! well then! the korg arp odyssey comes packed in this hard case i have here.
and it's a nice case! it's got proper foam padding, space for accessories too. very well-made! and it even has the arp logo here! now if that doesn't just make you want to run out & buy one... awesome! well? the arp odyssey. yes! it's just like the "real" thing, if not better! fantastic. and the price is reasonable!
very affordable! amazing! kudos, korg!!! right? the arp odyssey! translation & captions by:swcreativejapan.
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