39 thoughts on “Korg ARP Odyssey Module Hands-On Demo”

1. Is the trigger necessary or is CV and gate sufficient for control.

2. we made the module so you can have it without a keyboard. now let me show you how it sounds with a keyboard 😉

3. Good! Now the keyboard version is cheaper too – but is it worth extra 200?

   1. To be honest it would be nice if some of this stuff was $299, and I think it could be made for that price. Actually I am sure, and if anyone wants, I can be hired as a consultant, I do have the skills. Not shilling here, no one is going to respond to this. Just saying.

      1. probably Behringer has something in the works for you.

         1. It’s not microtonal and doesn’t support MTS microtuning unless running in monophonic mode, so it’s not as good. Monophonic gear is trivial to microtune. Polyphonic gear not so much without MTS support. Thus the Deep Mind reduces to a monophonic instrument for anything at all close to serious and not child like music. At this point the Odyssey is a better value. For those of us who do real music and not the fake european 12 tone equal temperament garbage, suitable only for tiny children who are also sadly ignorant.

            1. I’m not sure this Odyssey is up for your odyssey

               1. Friend, I do not have an Odyssey, I have a 2600 which I use regularly using my own retuning devices. It is over 40 years old and even with my tender care will not last forever. Thus an Odyssey for basic patches would make sense. You brought up the Deep Mind, however it is completely unsuitable because it can not be retuned in real time to arbitrary scales.

                  1. No i meant that Behringer was talking about coming out with an Odyssey as well. https://www.synthtopia.com/content/2014/12/23/behringer-teases-500-arp-odyssey-clone/

            2. Rabid Bat can clone an odyssey for $300! Rabid Bat can only write sophisticated music if it is microtonal! Rabid Bat can shoot lasers from his eyes and survive in the vaccuum of space!

               I love this guy I hope he posts more, I was getting bored reading people only complaing about mini keys 😉

               1. Matt my friend, mini keys do not bother me. My greatest preference is not the modern piano key spacing of 6.5″ per octave or the modern harpsichord spacing of 6.25″ per octave but rather something closer to 6.18″ spacing per octave. This is what is most comfortable to me and what I build my custom keyboards to. Mini spacing is a touch smaller, but is usable and not objectionable in my own opinion, and perhaps that of others. I am large man with “big hands” unlike Trump and wide spacings yet still I somehow preference the wider range above the more loosey goosey octave spacing.

                  Matt, when you build pipe organs, clavichords, harpsichords, pianofortes, and custom synthesizers from scratch as I do, what octave spacing do you personally prefer?

                  1. I tend to prefer my octave spacing to be served medium-rare with a dash of minced garlic.

                  2. Admin: Personal attack deleted.

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                     1. I always read Scratch was a shitty thing to build synths from. Also lousy in food.

                  3. Any links to your work available?

            3. “For those of us who do real music and not the fake european 12 tone equal temperament garbage, suitable only for tiny children who are also sadly ignorant.”

               Are you serious?

               1. I do real music with a theremin.

                  I get to play all the frequencies and all your scales are like a box of crayola crayons to me.

                  If you need temperament, take happy pill.

                  I suspect that a VC ribbon controller would make this workable.

                  Then again, all thereminsts are quite mad.

                  Which is why mine is WELL TEMPERED.

                  Not that the instrument gives any help in that matter. Real musicians don’t need help, especially if they are MAD.

                  1. Well – you can always modify an instrument to be controlled with what ever way you want to.
                     Being snobish only makes what ever you do worse.
                     People play instruments – it is about playing not pretending!

            4. 12 tone equal temperament tuning AND microtonal tuning systems are for violent infants that have been poisoned by Western Imperialism. Any instrument that does not support Quantum Tuning is completely useless to me and the rest of mankind. Real music is made with intervals so small that they might not even exist, and instruments that do not allow me to do this are basically war crimes.

               1. At last, people are beginning to understand the truth!

            5. Best Synthtopia comment ever

4. Hmm so a hardware Odyssey for $600 huh? That’s awesome on its own. I think people would have paid 2-3 times that amount 10 years ago. Yet a Minimoog is $3500. Crazy how things change or don’t. Not sure what they cost back in the day, they just always seemed to be in the same range (though very different).

   1. Yeah but the korg is not sourcing NOS parts and has miniaturized it, even if it where made to the same standard as the minimoog, vintage odysseys go for around 1-1.5k and a minimoog in decent shape can be up to 6k, so the price ratio is similar considering korg is making these things in mass production in big factories and moog is making them all by hand. Nothing wrong with that, it makes it available to more people and it’s better than any vst but it doesn’t mean that the minimoog isn’t on a whole other level build and sound quality. I mean by anyone’s standard 3.5k for a real handmade minimoog should be thought of as a bargain.

      1. You’re right, but personally I don’t consider the Minimoog to be higher sound quality. I would admit that it’s a more traditionally musical instrument than the Odyssey. It’s certainly a better build quality and it makes sense that they’re more expensive in that regard. I guess it’s a question of how you rate creative tools. I like the Odyssey more because of its sound and features, but i don’t know if could say it’s better. I’m not sure why i consider them in the same league, but when i was growing up it seemed like you either had one or the other and they were both serious synths. I never owned a Minimoog because they were always too expensive for me, but i’ve owned a Prodigy for a long time, and though i love it dearly, I could never imagine paying a few thousand more dollars for basically another oscillator and a flip up panel.

         1. Yes, you’re right. The Odyssey was really a direct competitor to the Minimoog back in the day. I just bought a Karp Odyssey and I couldn’t be happier about it. When I was in the shop, I had the opportunity to play both the Minimoog and the Odyssey basically right next to each other. The Moog is a gorgeous thing of beauty and sounds amazing of course but the Odyssey had just as much punch, power and harmonic joy in it. It’s a different sound but no less powerful.

      2. Not ot be too trolly (I promise, I’m a nice guy and not a weirdo), but I seriously doubt Moog is “sourcing NOS parts.” The vast majority of parts would be crap 5% tolerance resistors and old caps (not sure how those age if unused; they’re the first thing to crap out in an old circuit). There are very few “special” parts in a Mini, and even those are still relatively available. More importantly, NONE of the parts would sound “better” if they were sitting on a shelf for 40 years (though I’m sure there’s some knucklehead in magical internet world that would love to argue the point). Even the knobs are still available – my synthesizers.com modular has tons of them. Old synths aren’t like old guitars, they don’t age into sounding nice.

         The Mini reissue is nice, and I suspect the sound is indistinguishable from a vintage one. It’s also hand made, and uses through-hole PCB construction that’s more expensive to do than modern SMT construction (as used on the KARPOdysseys), but there’s no evidence that through-hole has any tangible effect on sound. My point is, it’d be easy to make a new Mini for $1000 using SMT construction at a state-of-the-art factory in Asia. I don’t think Moog could make them in the US by hand for cheap, but they’re still clearing a hefty profit margin.

5. I wonder if they’ll soon release an XL version too. For the purists. Full size of course! and more MIDI features. I like the desktop module version, looks very clean. The Odyssey is such a distinctive but wildly variable monosynth, I think it still makes a great addition to any setup, even with so many other options out there right now. You could probably buy a synth with more features for the money but people should try one of these out, preferably over a weekend if you can borrow one. Ok paid promo done. wheres my synth?

6. Moog has changed too. I bought and now own a Moog for 600 dollars. It’s blood do things have changed and the Arp Oddessy is now a distinct reality. But now first to buy a soundcraft mixer and then the musical stuff!

7. I miss Rich

8. Nice, but there’s much competation in and below that price range. I’d say the minilogue is one very serious competitor.

   1. Good thing Korg sells both of them…

9. Just on that last comment: I’ve sold my Minilogue, it didn’t feel like the sound was in any way distinctive or particularly interesting. The Arp filter however is a different ball game.

   1. I have heard the same criticism levelled at the Bass Station 2, I wouldn’t necessarily agree and I think the character of anything is how you program it. Glad I kept my BS2 and ai’d NEVER part with it either.

10. ja, The module does not come with the suit – uh, synth-case. So $200 is for keys + a case, that’s nice, but ofcourse rather wished this module been priced lower 🙂 Still hope for a version with CC (and sysex) though for an extra $200. that would mean a complete redesign but not rocket science.

11. Admin: Personal attack deleted.

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12. This is good news. Now, please, the 2600. Don’t make me buy a second hand TTSH. Not. Sure. I .Can. Hold. Out. Much. Longer.

    1. Two odysseys and an MS20 seems to be a bit more synth than the 2600 and probably cheaper.. Which I loved dearly.

       With a sequencer the clock diver is rather moot. I sued to get a four note sequence out of it -sort of.

13. I love my Karp Oddy.

    For some reason the version 1 12dB filter is my favorite one on it.

    There is just so much sonic territory in these that other synths don’t even approach.

    Really hard to describe, but anyone that has used one for a day will agree how unique they are.

    I am seriously considering getting a module to add to my keyboard version to double it’s capabilities. Of course, that would guarantee Korg announces a 2600 a month later…

    1. I like your line of thoughts, so PLEASE, buy a module