30 thoughts on “Korg Arp Odyssey Audio Demo”

1. This demo is about as exciting as a 7-Up commercial.

   1. Because 7up commercials are famed for their astonishing boredom, or thats the most random thing you could think of?

      1. Yes and yes.

2. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AXmc7DG4uu8&sp

3. Who doesn’t love the campaign where they printed Make 7 on the front of T shirts and Up Yours on the back….those were the coolest shirts to have in middle school.

4. Want one of these so bad, but just can’t justify another monosynth.. For now..

5. That is a great sounding synth. those oscillators really snarl like the later 2601s, and the filter us all ARP!

6. sounds okay, i hope the price will drop a little in a year or so and head toward the korg ms20mini pricing of around £400..i’ll pick one up then

   1. tell you what. why dont you wait for the price to drop towards volca eh?

7. Someday soon, Behringer will announce their 1:1 full-size Odyssey clone with 3 filter revisions, patch memories and a true-bypass DSP effects section with a US price of $500.

   At which point, Korg either chops the price, creates an Odyssey II, or bundles it with some serious bonus items.

   Sure, this may only happen in an alternate dimension, so shipping might make it about as expensive as Korg’s Arp Odyssey. So it’s Metal Minikeys with the Arp Logo versus Plastic Panel with Patch Storage and a built-in delay.

8. I think it sounds cheap, dead and thin, maybe just a bad demo, but I just don’t get it. Minibrute costs £299 at the moment and I think it sounds a lot better. A keyboard for hipsters and historians/collectors maybe- there are many better sounding modern analogs for the money….

   1. Guess you don’t understand the benefits of having multiple oscillators or multiple filter designs, both of which are huge.

      Do you think knowing your gear is a ‘hipster’ thing?

      1. The Brute was neat, with its waveform mixer, pseudo-multi sawtooth, and high-speed digital LFO.

         But the MiniBrute is still a single oscillator synth, and the strange warbling 12db filter only has self-oscillation over a portion of the cutoff range.

         Saying that the Odyssey sounds “thin” – when it has a fully-resonant Moog filter and 2 drifty offsettable VCOs is really weird. It’s the dictionary definition of phat.

      2. Well….I also have several other analogs including prophet 8 rack, analog4 and pulse2 (3 osc for a fraction oh he cost), I have a micro brute feeding in to my audio in on the mini to give 2 osc for 500 quid (and a velocity and afternoon keyboard) I still think people are buying it for the way it looks and historical interest –

   2. yeah, this demo is not a great sound quality for whatever reason, it sounds much better than this…

   3. I dont know how you can think a minibrute sounds better than this. This is a sonic legend of real charactor and expression. Long after the minibrute is forgotten people will seek out then Odyssesy for its power and versatility

9. I think any synth coming out with out patch memories s pretty much useless.
   I make techno records and work on tracks over long periods I need to recall sounds v quickly as my time is precious and time for making music these days is a luxury.
   The fetishism of early machines is one thing , their re modelling and manufacturing , with out the benefits of patch memories is comical.
   The Aira system 1 synth for me is of no interest as it as 8 patch memories. I started off on a Jen sx1000in the 80’s, I now have 11 synths and four of those are analogues with memories.
   I was in a music shop recently with some guy behind the counter trying to tell me how only having a few memories helps you get more out of the machine (!) It was comical hearing the guy dressing up the synths failings . I know a lot of synths inside out , if a machine makes good sounds you want to store them (?) If you play live for example or if you make demo tracks that need approval before they go to final recording .
   The the new Ms20 looked great but without memories really no use for gigging situations.
   There are synth manufacturers in the UK who don’t even answer emails about wether they intend to put patch memories on their machines? is it a taboo subject? Like ‘Polyphony and Moog’?

   1. Well argued. But I personally dislike patch storage on certain synths, and this would definitely include the Odyssey. An analog mono with extensive 1:1 control is better without it, in my opinion. If you need total recall as a professional, you’ve already got tons of options.

      Quickly scrolling through presets as you tap middle C on some digital keyboard is one of the most boring, creativity-killing activities. Once I start doing it on a synth, I start thinking of selling it. I know there are live performers and professionals who need it. Maybe you do. Maybe the Odyssey isn’t your synth. Or maybe Behringer will deliver memory on their Odyssey clone.

      1. I can’t get to upset about the pros and cons of machines , but cause of the nuances in sound detail ,for me patch memories are vital.Nuances in sound is where our ears and minds are caught, to be able to capture that by patch memories is fundamental to me.
         I remember early days when cause of modulation possibilities , you tried to get that patch back ( I remember paper templates !!) if you where a small amount out you just couldn’t get the sound that blew you away . I remember thinking wouldn’t this be a great synth if you could store memories .
         I have patches that I have had for years and they hold that corner of the synth’s sound creation possibility , so I can go back to it and explore that area of the synths soundscape.. I have been getting familiar with my DSI Tetra and using for example a poly string intro , and then changing patches straight into a bass . I do not see a down side to memories and imagine a VCs3 with them……………wow. (soft synth people this discussion is about hardware so please don’t tell me about your software synths!)

   2. I’ve had a Mark 3 since 1995, and I can say it becomes muscle memory. There are downfalls to patch storage I think. You end up with knobs and switches that don’t correspond to the sound that you’ve pulled up, so it can be confusing to figure out how to change it back to what you want. When you have no patch memory, the sliders are telling you everything about the sound that’s coming out. It helps you learn the synth better. It takes me no more than 5 minutes to get the sound I’m hearing in my head on an Odyssey.

   3. Asking for patch memories on a vintage synth rerelease ignores Three things:

      You’d have to replace all the posts and switches with encoders, which significantly changed a synth’s design;

      Encoders would infuriate purists, because encoders always are limited to a number of steps, vs infinite control; and

      Synthesist a that know their stuff can dial in the sound they want on an analog mono synth very quickly.

      1. You could implement patch storage with a high res, interpolated digital control/encoder system. (Like the Novation Bass Station II, no stepping on that filter knob.)

         You could also do it by digitally scanning the analog voltage of the potentiometers, and then feeding those values to the analog circuit. (Like the Juno 60, new Moogs, etc – those are not encoders.)

         But the question is: Is patch memory something everyone wants? I actively don’t want memory.

         1. Exactly – as soon as you add patch memory, you introduce the usability issue of your settings being visually divorced from what you hear.

            For some people and uses, patch memory is a must- have. But for other people and uses, patch memory is a liability.

         2. This was all argued back in the 70s and 80s. Analog synthesis is so basic, it is very easy to recall patches from your brain.

   4. Ha, you must not be much of a warrior if you cannot repeat patches.

   5. Its always QUALITY OVER QUANTITY FOR ME. You can have a modern day synth with 2000 presets and only a handful of them are any good. So I dont buy this argument about patch storage. I recently bought a Yamaha reface CS. People have been complaining that it has no patch memories.

      But its got a great, great sound. And only 17 sliders that make a sound. You have to link it to an iphone or ipad if you want fast recall of your sounds. But I dont even bother with that. Im not playing live. I use it to lay tracks OLDSCHOOL one track at a time with a hardware sequencer.

      And it makes you work harder to get great sounds. And I simply write the settings down when I come up with a great USEABLE sound. Which is often with this dope little synth.

      So patch memories are not the issue. The issue is creating quality MEMORABLE sounds and recording the data on paper with a photo or on the app.

      Nobody that hears your music will give a damn about how you saved the sound. ONLY WHAT THE SOUNDS DO FOR THEM. And I would rather take an hour to save a sound that makes people go wow. Than a second to save some generic run of the mill sound that is forgotten as soon as its heard.

      Try to understand that people. We live in an age where people have lost sight of whats REALLY IMPORTANT…

10. And those new affordable Behringer controller have motorized sliders, so maybe, a patch memory ARP clone with motorized sliders – pull up a patch and the sliders snap into place ready for engagement.

    1. Motorized would be wild, but would make for a far more expensive build and a higher street price. Servos on faders is more of a mixer thing.

       More likely they’ll just put a digital scanner in between the analog slider and the circuit, or have encoders as sliders, with typical MIDI resolution.

       Patch Memory on a classic mono design is something I don’t actually want or need. The most exciting parts of the Behringer rumors are the built-in effects, full scale, and the price.

11. The alternate paint job Oddys are coming out at the end of May.

    Wonder how many people have been holding out for them?

12. Price is down to $799!
    I love Korg, They are trying really hard to listen to the market, and create products accordingly, Everyone online was screaming about how they want analog, now there is plenty of analog, but nobody gives a flying efff, The Arp was touted as one of the best analogs ever, used ones going for $5,000. They recreated it, and already are discounting it. Webs are full of people who don’t represent the market, just gear heads that don’t make music, don’t play music, just talkers.