This is a great rundown on the history and functions of the ARP Odyssey. I've got the KARP Odyssey and I love it, mini keys and all. It's my portable analogue ATM as it wasn't getting as much use in the studio as it should but when I do use it I am always amazed at what sounds I can get out of it compared to my Moog Sub37 or my Yamaha CS10. It's a definite keeper. Thanks for doing this video and keeping it up for almost 10 years. It still inspires me to find sounds every time I watch. Respect

Watching this or more appropriately listening to it is mesmerizing. I am very sorry to say I know absolutely nothing about music, but time again while the various effects are explained and demonstrated I suddenly found myself hearing small pieces of well known songs. Not samples so much as techniques or sounds that well known artists have used time and again. I suddenly realized this and other similar machines are where so much of modern music came from and why! Just amazing!!!

This was totally brilliant! I feel like a 15 year old again lusting after synthesizers seeing this in depth demonstration of the instrument and the little tune at the end showing it all in full action was just the perfect icing on the cake! I bought your Oddity plug like 14 years ago or so, but just now rediscovering it and looking forward to upgrade to the latest version! :)

I was so pumped when I got mine, I invited my buddies over to jam and they just shrugged their shoulders and said "Are we making Nintendo music?" haha

I was always blown away by matching my oddy's settings with the plugin and then pressing the key. Amazing accuracy!

The MiniMoog was really designed from an audio engineer's point of view, not really intended for live performance, in fact, Moog was surprised that it went onstage. What had happened was that Dick Hyman, Walter Carlos and Keith Emerson, used modular Moogs and put the name on the map. When the mini came out, the players figured this was a way to get a "piece of a star". It also set Moog on the path that if followed as a producer of musical synthesizers. The Odessey, starteing with the Minimoog already a fait accompli could concentrate on being more stage ready and use more readily readable sliders

1:45 in Mark Vail's 1992 book "Vintage Synthesizers" there is an interview with a couple of people who used to work at ARP. They clearly state that they tried to do something else than what Moog did. So the sliders and the touch sensitive buttons was a deliberate choise.

I tried the Arp but went with the Minimoog-I’ve been forever grateful for that decision because after decades of playing in the nicotine-fogs of club after club, I never had to replace a pot (except in those damn Tapco mic mixers). I think sliders generally fail because their slide rails are so open to the environment-anyone remember going into a studio-esp in the 70s or 80s-and noticing the pile of replacement main channel sliders in a corner somewhere? So, yeah, sliders were great when fading tracks in/out and quick fast tweaks during live mixing, but on an instrument like a synth, they spelled trouble.

Don't forget The Residents ! Hardy Fox played one in the studio until the early '80's or so... awesome sound !

Excellent mini documentry there... loved the tune at the end too, right up my street :-) Cheers guys.

cooolest mono synth on earth!

These videos are fantastic! Thank you for these. I am so entertained.

Australian band « Severed Heads » used the ARP Odyssey. Especially for its ring modulator.

Great little piece at the end, loved it!

Excellent demo. He also did one for the korg version, which he gave it a glorious THUMBS UP!!

Fantastic documentary-style & informative video!! thanks so much for making this--now I know more how those early rock groups got their fantastic & mysterious sounds recorded on their songs. It would be fun to have one of these early synths just to experiment with.

Great review and great synth kept thinking of George Duke playing Inca Roads on one, fun ditty at the end, great bass.

this Video is really good for deeper understanding. what a great idea to discribe the Hardware original. thanks for your work!

So, guys KORG IS REMAKING IT!

Bloody hell.... really funtastic! Thanx for this demonstration!

Magnifique synthétiseur and very cool song at end. Thanks

Another great one! Absolutely love the demo at the of this video!

awesome video. i bought Odin the Odyssey2810 in 1976, the AllOdysseyOrchestral jam @ the end reminded me of several different patches long since lost. . . . .thanks!

best part nice demo kraft werk at the end

nice music in the end

Wow! One of the best!

Ace vid.

Great video

Great video! Thanks

I got one over 30 years and replaced it by a Voyager.According to the tone and filter quality the Minimoog is by far superior, in terms of versatility, experimental possibilities and tuning stability the Odyssey is in front. In the end I was frustrated by the sliders that refused to work properly and by the thin oscillators compared to those of the Moog.

Superb.

Amazing sounding synth the sliders are beautifully designed to enable dust and other crap to get in there and stop them from working. if it was a conscious decision just to be different from moog I recon it was a silly one. my mate has an odyssey and a few of the sliders are so gummed up you are afraid they will break because of the force needed to move them i much prefer the knob design

That's what I call the synth sound! I wish I could afford one... Btw, I want the polyphonic version of Oddity.

I still find that the Odyssey kicks the pants off the Minimoog! (And I love my Minimoog)! But the Odyssey is just different and quirky enough to turn it into just as "major" a player as the world's Rick Wakeman's were rambling on about the Moog. It has more unusual characteristics than the Moog, even though the ARP's filters share some of the similar design as the Moog's (and, we've ALL heard the stories about the lawsuits). I don't quite know what it is, but the sound of the Odyssey has more parameters than what you can typically "milk" out of a Mini. Does anyone else concur? I'd be curious to know.

Ive got one...the original series had a pitch knob on the left ( which was a hell of a lot better and responded faster ) as opposed to the pads .

nice!

I wouldn't say the oscillators are thin (I've a Mark III 2823 and a Model D from '74), but you do have to take care of the sliders, absolutely NO spraying contact cleaner into them etc...

Please release more Reason Rack Synths!

i tried its newer edtition at some store that i came to visit, where i bought my Virus ti2, the controls were very cheap and keyboard - horrible but the sound... that was something

I much preferred the Pitch Bend Knob on the original 'Whiteface' but I did like the idea of injecting Modulation to both Oscillators with a single pressure sensitive pad. I contacted ARP about getting only that but it was all or nothing at the time because the PPC or Proportional Pitch Control tapped into the Pitch Bend circuitry and took its place. I never understood that because the ARP 3620 Keyboard for the 2600 had a Pitch Bend Knob, the Up or Down Two Octaves Transpose switch and a slider for Vibrato. Why couldn't they have just incorporated something like that for the Odyssey? Of course I wanted to take it one step further and add a Three Position Micro Toggle switch. Left would be Oscillator Modulation, Right would be Filter Modulation and Center would be both.

"TURN THAT SHIT DOWN!!!" Yeah right! 5:28 - 5:47: Since I purchased my Axxe MkII (and a selection of patch overlays) in 2000, I believed that the gain slider was intended for external audio sources where the keyboard wasn't being played.

People say that Chick Corea used a Arp, but on which album does it appear ?? To my knowledge its never been listed on any of his recordings ??

And Wings

Try going to Creamware then if you want a polyphonic Odyssey->Prodyssey

Can anyone identify the drummachine used in the outro bit?

Its a lot smaller then i thought it would be.

Is this narrated by Simon Caan?

When did you start to hate drone music and love communism, Mr. Spiers?! Most useless slider indeed! Every synth should have the capability to drooooooooooooooonnnnnneeeeee... :)