Korg is bringing back the ARP Odyssey synth

[David Polich]

It's true, Korg is bringing back the hardware ARP Odyssey synthesizer. Scheduled for release
this September. No word on retail price, but I imagine it will be around $1300.

http://www.synthtopia.com/content/2014/ ... p-odyssey/

[magicd]

I learned the basics of synthesis on the Odyssey.

No pitch bend wheel or mod wheel though!

Dave

[stubbsonic]

Saw that over on Synthtopia. It blew up with 168 comments by the 2nd day. Folks are quite excited and have positive things to say about Korg.

I do think Korg is making some pretty smart choices in terms of reading the current culture.

[cuttime]

Here is a terrific article on ARP instruments. I actually met Alan R. Perlman when I was a kid in H.S when he was setting up a distributorship in some local music stores.

[rickorick]

I'm waiting to see if they bring back the 2600

[Prime Mover]

I'm gathering one of the main chips used in the 2600 isn't made any more, all the Odyssey components are currently still being manufactured for use in other things. Don't quote me on it, and I don't know which part, though.

[Babz]

I learned the basics of synthesis on the Odyssey.

No pitch bend wheel or mod wheel though!

Dave

Me too, Dave. The first one I tried had the pitch bend knob, then I got one of the later models that had the PPC (Proportional Pitch Control), which had 3 little rubber pads for pitch bend and modulation. That was one of my favorite features. Unfortunately, The Oddity (GForcesoftware's faithful recreation) is based on the earlier model; I keep hoping they'll add the PPC in an update.

Back then synthesizers were not the kids toy of today, but a futuristic spaceship accessible to the nerdy few. You sounded like Mr. Spock if you could use terms like "Low Frequency Oscillator". I'll never forget the feeling of just moving sliders and seeing what happened. Oh, the zen master revelations of the ADSR! With those four magic sliders anything was possible!

Babz

[magicd]

I'm gathering one of the main chips used in the 2600 isn't made any more, all the Odyssey components are currently still being manufactured for use in other things. Don't quote me on it, and I don't know which part, though.

I'd be interested to know if any "chips" were used in the 2600.

I was in a band in 1980 that was playing in Buffalo. The keyboard player made a pilgrimage to the Moog factory. For a souvenir he bought a pendant that had the chip that was used to make the Polymoog, which I think was one of the first polyphonic synthesizers.

I'll bet if you opened up 2600 you'd find it was made from old toaster parts. Analog toasters of course.

A friend of mine has a Putney VCS3 that he bought new from Mannys in 1969. It's a museum piece and worth a lot of money. Like most British electronics it's made from bits of old shoe leather and radio parts nicked from a shot-down Spitfire.

Dave

[Prime Mover]

I'd be interested to know if any "chips" were used in the 2600.

Actually, Dave, it looks like they were:


(replica)

The filter submodules in the 2600 were, at least, "chip-like": micro-boards encased in epoxy. Maybe not exactly modern CPU wafers, but I wouldn't hesitate to call them chips. I don't pretend to be an expert in the area of analog synth hardware engineering, though, and my terminology might not be totally kosher. Probably "chip" is reserved for miniaturized silicon logic gate units (CPUs & GPUs), but to me if it looks like a little electronic square cookie, I'll probably be tempted to call it one anyway.

Anyway, from the little reading I've been doing recently, it seems ARP had its own fabrication facility and a number of components were not simply taken from existing things on the market. I believe that the Odyssey was made cheaper by using mostly off-the-shelf components, which is why Korg could fairly easily put it back into production, but not the 2600.

[Michael Canavan]

On the 2600, well there's this anyway. For those who have the patience.

http://thehumancomparator.net

[magicd]

I'd be interested to know if any "chips" were used in the 2600.

Actually, Dave, it looks like they were:


(replica)

Most cool!

That's obviously not a microchip. Microchips started to come into widespread use in synths in the 80s. Part of the problem with musical gear made after the beginning of the 80s is a lot of it used custom programmed microchips that are no longer made.

The ARP part reminds me of an interview I read with Bob Moog many years ago. He said that his team pried apart a filter module from a competing synth that was epoxy-ed together. Apparently the competing synth had copied the Moog patented filter and tried to hide it in their custom component. I doubt that competitor was ARP. More likely ARP was doing the same thing of hiding their own design and components in a customized block.

Probably hand made too. Great stuff!

Dave

[Prime Mover]

Actually, it was ARP. The first edition 2600 basically used the MiniMoog ladder filter. Bob gave them a cease and desist notice (never sued them but threatened to) and ARP finally complied, developing their own filters for the 2nd and 3rd editions. And the first chip was cemented with epoxy... yes... they claimed it was for a "hands off" experience for their customers, but it was likely to hide from the fact that they had deliberately copied Moog. Low-and-behold, the newer version of the filter was not covered in epoxy.

[magicd]

Actually, it was ARP. The first edition 2600 basically used the MiniMoog ladder filter. Bob gave them a cease and desist notice (never sued them but threatened to) and ARP finally complied, developing their own filters for the 2nd and 3rd editions. And the first chip was cemented with epoxy... yes... they claimed it was for a "hands off" experience for their customers, but it was likely to hide from the fact that they had deliberately copied Moog. Low-and-behold, the newer version of the filter was not covered in epoxy.

Oh dear;-)

Gotta get me one of them "lawsuit ARPs"

Dave

[Tritonemusic]

Oh dear;-)

Gotta get me one of them "lawsuit ARPs"

Dave

Hahaha! As an Ibanez fanatic, that is a great joke.