Korg Bringing Back Full-Size ARP Odyssey & Making It In The USA

2017 NAMM Show: Korg today announced the ARP Odyssey FS – a limited-edition, 1:1 recreation of the legend, assembled in the USA, where the ARP story began over 40 years ago.

Here’s the official intro video:

The full-sized Korg ARP Odyssey FS will feature a standard keyboard, a completely analog signal path and will be available in all three historic variants (white, black/gold and black/orange) – each with all three classic filters included:

ARP Odyssey FS White

ARP Odyssey FS Black/Gold

ARP Odyssey FS Black/Orange

ARP co-founder David Friend

The Korg ARP Odyssey FS will be assembled in New York, USA by a small number of experienced workers, under the supervision of ARP co-founder David Friend.

Here’s what Friend has to say about the new full-size KARP Odyssey:

“When I look at the front panel of the ARP Odyssey FS, it reminds me of all the thinking and decisions that went into the design.

The ARP Odyssey was our first synthesizer without patch cords, so that meant that there had to be a limited number of ways that oscillators, filters, and so forth, could be connected. We tried to pick the connections that we felt would be the most useful.

There’s always a trade-off between flexibility and ease-of-use. With patch cords, of course, you could connect anything to anything. But patch cords were too cumbersome to use on stage. So we decided to get rid of them entirely, creating the first ARP aimed entirely at stage use.

The ARP logo with the treble clef sign was designed by my wife, Margaret Shepherd, who went on to become a famous calligrapher and designer (she has written about 20 books on the subject). She also did the lettering on the panel using PressType, long before you could do layouts on a computer.

When I look at the panel, I can almost envision the complete schematic diagram of everything inside. Based on the authentic sound of the KORG unit, it’s clear that very close attention was paid to the engineering that went into the original ARP Odyssey.”

The keyboard will be shipped worldwide following its assembly in New York, USA.

Pricing and Availability

The Korg ARP Odyssey FS will be available in stores in February 2017, priced at US $1,599.99. See the Korg site for more info.

45 thoughts on “Korg Bringing Back Full-Size ARP Odyssey & Making It In The USA”

  3. I want to hear the full story on this first. How do the electronics differ from the small karp? Are the circuit boards also “1:1” with the original? And of course – how does it sound compared to the real deal?

    2. Heard that the issues with Mini me’s has been corrected in the Full Size…problem with the Mini’s, If you created a short sharp envelope patch, and switch the ADSR LFO REPEAT on, what you should get when playing the keyboard is an initial trigger of the ADSR followed by repeats from the LFO – you should end up with a cleanly triggering psudo-step sequencer effect when playing melodies. The MINI had issues with this that could not be corrected by a patch, hope this has finally been corrected. Looks like this might have been centered around the wiring addition of Midi?

    1. No he hasn’t, but a pretty good chance he will, now we’re not going to war with Russia.
      Building synths is so much more productive than war.
      Clearly Trump knows that and he’s starting with ARP.
      Maybe Gibson will be left alone to make guitars without govt interference as well.
      Lets here it for Trump and his climate change skeptics.
      Trump and ARP with full sized keys will make USA great again.

      2. America wants war all the time, if the economy drops even lower be sure the new dictator of that country will drop another 27.000+ bombs out of the sky (as the so called nobel price for peace president did in 2016). If that would happen in America itself I would worry less but we all know America always fights his battles illegally in other countries.

  5. this should have been done from the start, everyone had been saying it, but better late than never I guess.
    I feel sorry for owners of an original, theirs will depreciate quite a bit. Then again, an aged Minimoog sounds different to the reissue as well.

  6. Don’t feel sorry for owners of the original. They will from now on be owners of the real original real analogue synth and not just a real analogue synth. Huuuuuuge difference that people will be willing to pay thousands of $$$’s for to experience. And it will be worth it, because they say so 🙂

  7. For this price would really have thought they would have added digital pots and MIDI patch save/loading. What’s inside may not justify the price and an US$800 markup for just the larger keys. Of-course, don’t like it or the price,then don’t buy it. But well / just saying..but then it’s not about the sound anymore but more nostalgia or selling it later on for a gain. For sure, there are enough people who will pull their wallet immediately to get it for one of the reasons. I could easily do as well, but somehow it does not make sense. Guess now just get the module and wish others much happiness staring at their $1000 key-bed hoing for a future memory odessey module.

    1. So people have been crying out for a full size arp, now you got it but people still complain, typical. I guess if you want digital pots and memory then its not an arp you want and theres plenty of those around

      1. The mini key version was 11or 1200 on release and dropped to 800 in the past year.

        Also….you know the whole synth is full size right? So everything on it has to be made bigger…the pcbs, the sliders, the case, the suitcase thing……

      2. First, still people here reverting to personal attacking with “you” and not allowing others view. Sad. Second, Sub37 for example is 1500 as well with this functionality. There is no reason it could not be done. Then it’s “Assembled in USA”, the part are NOT MADE in USA. Assembly overhead does not have to cost much extra and most brands outsource to 3rd party companies that have economies of scale to handle that and there are many of those that can do that at a competitive level.

    2. You can’t add MIDI patch saving and loading without changing the original circuits significantly. These instruments are not tribute instruments that are painted to look like the original and kind of sound like it, they are reproductions based on the original instrument design and parts as close as they could get it within the limits of parts availability.

      The $800 more isn’t just for a larger keyboard. It’s because manufacturing in the US costs more. Workers in China get paid as little as a dollar a day, and have no benefits. That is not legal in the US to pay that, therefore it costs more. Those that don’t want to pay for Made in USA have a choice to buy an instrument that works just the same for less, and is made overseas. Both instruments will be available. No one will be forced at gunpoint to buy these domestically made instruments.

  10. awsome but a missed opportunity not to add a midi out and some midi controller data out for sliders this time. And the arpeggio of the new Oddysey rack woulda been nice to see here also. i dont think thats unreasonable considering the price rise. Hey presets are a lott to ask but at least slider CC woulda made some kinda patch recall possible.

  12. completely misses the mark somehow. Too late, too expensive. Imagine how much the bigger brother of the Minilogue will cost when it comes out. And it will come out

      1. pretty sure keith emerson didn’t care
        (but yeah he was probably kind of singular and i’m not sure if he did live repatching)

        1. Yeah, he didn’t patch anything.

          Tangerine Dream did, but they probably had bigger issues getting the 15 synths on stage to play nice together more than changing a patch cord.

  15. Real surprised there making this in the U.S. as the current strength of the dollar will make this a hard item to export. Maybe Korg are banking on the “Trump” factor driving down the dollar? ;P

    1. possible. the u.s.$ isn’t gonna stay ‘strong’ for that much longer, it can’t. at some point the u.s. has to do the sensible thing and depreciate in order to stay competitive. that’s what east asia (and to some extent the € zone) have been doing for years. also the next inflation has been artificially suppressed way too long so that’s coming our way soon, too. think of trump and his proposed actions (e.g. taking huge amounts of new debt just to keep the economy and our broken financial system going, sinking interest rates even further in the process) as the catalyst for major $ depreciation, not even speaking of any unforeseeable events…
      major CHANGE is definitely coming.

  18. So for $1000 less you can get the exact same synth in a slightly smaller case, with or without keys? Count me as someone who had no problem with the small ones keys, the module is even cooler. Save your money, the big one is hard to lug around, hard to fit on a desk or rack, always has to be on top tier.

  23. The ring mod needs to be spot on for the FS model to sell IMO. Otherwise, why not buy a used original? Costs almost as much. In any case, I’m glad I went for the desktop, the price was just right IMO

  24. This is just a test from Korg if full size sells so well as mini size… And after this test no full size keys will come even more because the most people have a cool keyboard and noch so much space…

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