Korg to release ARP Odyssey

[Alex E]

Why are people so butthurt about mini keys?

I know it's not an ideal solution but they're re releasing the Odyssey for christ sake.

[commodorejohn]

How mini are the mini keys anyway? I mean the ms20 mini. Does anyone have huge complaints against them?
I have still not come into contact with the new ms20 mini yet so wouldn't know. Although AG did say on his vids that it wasn't a huge deal and thats coming from a person who thinks certain ways of doing things are a big deal.

It really seems to depend entirely on personal preference and/or whether you have big hands. I personally don't have any trouble with it (in fact, it's kinda nice to be able to easily cover a wider range - on full-size keys, anything over an octave interval is stretching it for me,) but I've heard a few people complaining about it...who knows. As far as I'm concerned, if it keeps the price down I have no problem with it.

Ugly little synth. Have no sense of it - does is sound good?

Any well known examples of this instrument you can point to?

Here's a nice all-Odyssey multitracked demo of the third-revision Odyssey with the ARP 4075 filter. This is a MkI Odyssey with the 12dB/oct. filter. And this is a MkII with the Moog-patent-infringing 4035 filter. Wonder which filters the repro will include...?

Finally, this is all very curious. Why do you think Korg are doing this; and why have the announced it now in particular?

Obviously they're doing this because they've had great success with new analog products. Why the Odyssey in particular, I'm not sure - possibly because it was the second most popular early all-in-one monosynth, after the Minimoog. As for why announce it now? Easy - because after Roland's yawping about how VA Is The Future, Korg gets to come along and tell all the bummed-out analog junkies who were hoping that this would finally be the year Roland got back into analog "oh hey, guys, guess what, we're still doing this analog thing!" and decisively answer the naysayers who were claiming that the MS-20 Mini was only an anniversary thing and we wouldn't see any further development by Korg...

[meatballfulton]

Why are people so butthurt about mini keys?

It's a technique/muscle memory thing. Like handing a guitarist a ukelele. You have to relearn your technique to play smaller sized keys.

I'd rather have a MIDI module than use either minikeys or 25 note keyboards, just a preference that's shared by many.

[Bitexion]

Ugly little synth. Have no sense of it - does is sound good?

I'm a Vangelis fan and know he used one in the '70s - is that the instrument used for lead sounds on Alpha and Pulstar on his album Albedo 0.39?

Any well known examples of this instrument you can point to?

Finally, this is all very curious. Why do you think Korg are doing this; and why have the announced it now in particular?


Kevin.

Pretty much every band in the 70 and 80s who didn't have a minimoog had an Odyssey, cos the ARPs were a bit cheaper. So that would be countless of bands.
The musician community was also kind of split in between ARP's "sliders only" interface and Moog's "knobs only" interface.

Midge Ure of Ultravox used it heavily for leads, you can hear it in almost every UV song.

[shaft9000]

this is great news, by any measure

just use another Cv keyboard if the one it comes with is too small. it's going to be inexpensive, anyways. it would just cost 50-80% more if repro'ed at full scale.

perhaps they'll do the full-scale version in a kit like ms-20? that would be sweet!

Korg is freaking killing it lately

[meatballfulton]

To put bitexion's comment above in perspective, the only people buying Roland, Korg and Yamaha monosynths in the 70s were those who couldn't afford a Moog or ARP.

[Kenneth]

The keys on the prototype look just like the ones on the MS-20 mini. Also the switches and sliders look huge in relation to the keys. Looks like an Odyssey mini to me. I certainly don't mind a smaller footprint. I've owned plenty of mini-keys sized synthesizers in the past and it doesn't bother me one bit. The ones Korg has been using on the MS-20 aren't even that small.

[Kidney05]

Surely at some point they should stop remanufacturing pre existing synths and design a really great new analogue?

Rereleases and new releases aren't mutually exclusive, you know. But yeah, it would be nice to see them come up with a fun new synth or two to go along with all the retro love.

Don't the Volcas and Monotribe count? Think of it this way-- there's a couple teams working at Korg now. There's the young guy who's been doing the Volcas and Monotribe, and then the older gents who did the MS-20 Mini, the kit, and now I'm guessing this one, too. The Volca guy hasn't gone away, that I can tell-- expect the next level of Volca sooner rather than later, since the Volcas have been finished for a year.

[monolith]

This is so cool. Smaller keys don't bother me at all!

[analoglsd]

This looks sweet!
Personally, I'm glad that it's a bit smaller, but also hope that the keys are at least bigger than the ones on the MS-20mini.

In November, I was contacted by a member of Korg USA, in NY, about renting my Arp Odyssey for a week in January, but they were looking for an early MKII, and mine is a later MKII, so it didn't work out.
When we were discussing it, he led me to believe that they were going to use it to sample it for use in a Motif type synth, and asked me not to mention it.
Well, I guess the cat's out of the bag now, but I would never have guessed that this is what they were working on.

[Tchammosaur]

Please excuse me while I take the rest of the day off due to intense seizures.

[syntheticsolutions]

this is great news, by any measure

just use another Cv keyboard if the one it comes with is too small.

As a regular gigging musician, taking a separate keyboard out is completely unrealistic. I understand how some people can just see past the mini keys but I simply can not tolerate them. Full size keys keep my fluency tight across many boards when jumping from one to the next. I also see no reason other that a small price increase to compromise on size and inherant quality.

I suppose some people just don't like minature instruments, just as others don't mind them. I do love the guitar/ukulele reference

[rob_lee]

Anyone wanting bigger keys then here you go

[shaft9000]

As a regular gigging musician, taking a separate keyboard out is completely unrealistic.

yeah.
all those guys in the 70s and 80s with their multiple keyboards onstage were being completely unrealistic.
i see your point totally

[commodorejohn]

Don't the Volcas and Monotribe count? Think of it this way-- there's a couple teams working at Korg now. There's the young guy who's been doing the Volcas and Monotribe, and then the older gents who did the MS-20 Mini, the kit, and now I'm guessing this one, too. The Volca guy hasn't gone away, that I can tell-- expect the next level of Volca sooner rather than later, since the Volcas have been finished for a year.

Yeah, that too - and if you want to get right down to it, as much as the MS-20 Mini was a higher-profile item, in terms of Korg's total modern-analog output, the new new (Monotron, Monotribe, Volcas) outweighs the old new.