Korg Arp Odyssey vs MS20 Mini

[mdannyg]

I'm surprised I haven't seen this shootout on here yet, anyone else trying to decide between these two?

I've never played either, or their older counterparts. One thing i'm wondering about is how snappy/fast their envelopes are. I sold my Oberheim SEM partly for that reason.

Another mono i've been considering is a Moog Slim PHatty...

[tomorrowstops]

Haven't played an Odyssey (new or old), but I have tons of experience on the MS20 (new and old). I also haven't played an SEM, so I can't directly compare anything. In my opinion, the only really sluggish envelope response experience I had was with a stock Prophet 600, which I notice you have in your signature. The most responsive I've played is probably the Juno 6 and any Moog (Old School, Minimoog, MG-1, etc) I've touched.

The MS20 is fairly responsive, but doesn't have great range at each stage, especially the difference between 0 and say, 2.

I hope this is not as confusing as I feel I am making it!

[mdannyg]

Yeah, I think I got spoiled by the envelope on my Juno 6, which was only the second synth i bought.

[monolith]

Yeah, I think I got spoiled by the envelope on my Juno 6

Me too, which is why I personally found the Ms20's envelopes a little slow. I've got an old 2813 Odyssey and the envelopes aren't quite Juno/sh-2/Minimoog/sh-101 speed, but are definitely faster than the Ms-20 IMO.

[tomorrowstops]

Kinda what I was thinking, monolith.

The Odyssey is one of the only vintage synths I've yet to put my paws on. Not sure which will happen first - messing with an original or breaking down and just grabbing the new one.

Oh, the problems we have!

mdannyg - outside of the envelope thing - I'd consider owning both just for the sonic differences. The (original) Arp and Korg characters are very different! I'm sure the new stuff follows suit.

[mdannyg]

i ended up getting a bass station 2 of all things. i've only played it for about 15 minutes so far, but i love it. the envelopes are great, and it seems like everything ive ever wanted in a mono.

[staccato]

yeah, I have both MS20 mini, and Korg Odyssey. in my humble, the two have their unique set of attributes. the bass sounds on the mini are much more powerful due to the HPF which the Odyssey does not have. so when you set the resonance up a little on the mini's HPF, (or a lot), the bass is boosted substantially.

[CliftonSantiago]

I set out to buy the Korg Odyssey, on the basis of hype, tried it out in the shop and found the programming layout very not intuitive, and the sound pleasingly retro but a little tame and polite. The MS-20 mini however was also in-store and I ended up buying it then and there. It is a wonderfully aggressive synth which sounds surprisingly modern, despite its age. Matter of taste, I suppose.

That said, it's a bit limited feature-wise (despite the patch bay), I may yet get the souped-up MS20 tabletop edition, which adds Osc Sync, PWM, a switchable filter circuit and more modulation possibilities.