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The Odd One | |
Article from Music Technology, January 1988 |
ARP Odyssey owner and enthusiast Gordon Reid remembers the only synthesiser that gave the Minimoog a run for its money back in the 70s - the sounds of oscillator cross-modulation and filter sweeps live on.
Every time the word Minimoog appears in an interview, an ARP Odyssey fan gains another grey hair; once considered the Minimoog's rival, the Odyssey seems to have been forgotten by modern music.
"In live performance the Odyssey allows expression even without velocity and pressure sensitivity - but in the best tradition of synth posturing you do need to use both hands."
The Odyssey's LFO is a simple 0.2-20Hz slider, and a S/H mixer. Sample and Hold voltage may be obtained from VCO1 square wave, VCO1 sawtooth, VCO2 squarewave, or the noise generator. Triggering is by LFO or keyboard, and an uncalibrated output lag can be inserted between voltage sample and output.
The largest area of panel-space is devoted to the audio mixer, filters and amplifier. The mixer is a fairly straightforward affair, mixing VCO1, VCO2, and the noise generator together. Ring modulation can be added to VCO1 and VCO2 in varying degrees if the noise generator is sacrificed. There are two filters, a low-pass VCF with VCF resonance, and a simple high-pass VCF. Both filters are infinitely variable from 16Hz-16kHz and the resonance is variable from zero to self-oscillation. The low-pass filter can be modified in no less than seven ways, of which three can be active to any degree simultaneously. These are: keyboard CV (infinitely variable) or S/H mixer or footpedal (wah-pedal synthesiser); S/H or LFO sine wave; envelope one (ADSR) or envelope two (AR). This sounds impressive even by today's standards but remember two further things: firstly, that this machine was freely available in 1975, and secondly that the parameters were infinitely variable with no quantisation into half-a-dozen or so pre-selected levels. The filters are four stage with 24dB/octave cutoff adding considerably to the "meatiness" of the sound.
The Odyssey's envelope generator is a traditional ADSR and the AR is a simple attack, sustain-whilst-the-key-is-depressed, release time generator. Both can be triggered from the keyboard (gate) or by LFO squarewave. In addition, the ADSR repeat can be switched between keyboard and auto repeat.
Interfacing on the earliest models was virtually non-existent. Later models incorporated CV In and Out connections, Gate In and Out, and Trigger In and Out. An External Audio Input was also provided on the Odyssey 2 for processing anything you could put down a standard quarter-inch jack lead.
THE ODYSSEY HAS two areas of great musical strength - the imitation and exaggeration of orchestral instruments, and the creation of effects. Impressions of brass and flutes can be obtained very easily, and with a cutting edge to the voicing that is missing from so many other keyboards. In live performance the layout allows modification of the sound harmonically or with modulation to give expression even without velocity and pressure sensitivity. However, in the best tradition of analogue synth posturing - you do need to use both hands to obtain the best from the system. The modulation facilities and envelopes are as good as any ever offered on an analogue monosynth and are surely responsible for the fact that this was the only machine ever to rival the Minimoog as a lead synthesiser. In addition, the inclusion of S/H, pitch and envelope following, variable PW and PWM gave the Odyssey spectacular sound effect creation abilities only previously associated with modular synths.
If there is a criticism it must lie in how difficult it is to obtain warm, mellow voices. It is possible with great care and delicate balancing of the filters and modulation to approach the sound of a richer synthesiser, but the results lack the characteristic warmth of the Minimoog. Impressive, perhaps, but cold, distant, and featureless by comparison. The Odyssey's voicing, despite its ascendancy in some areas, can be quite limited in others, and for this reason, perhaps, the synthesiser never quite penetrated the market as much as it really deserved.
A lesser-known quality of the Odyssey is the simplicity of its internal architecture. With no more than a screwdriver the whole machine can be disassembled down to board level. There's no digital circuitry to fall foul of, and the system can be understood with even a limited knowledge of electronics. Inevitably, this led to some people modifying their Odysseys in rather interesting ways. My personal Oddy has seen the business end of a soldering iron on many occasions: currently it has an input for a guitar (although other sources could be used) which cuts out the internal oscillators while leaving the rest of the synthesiser fully operational, and the whole range of VCF, VCA, ADSR, and AR effects can be applied to the source material. A second input allows a conventional footpedal to control the filters. You may by now have gathered that this particular Odyssey has been adapted to act as a 24dB per octave wah-pedal - with resonance. There's no accounting for taste.
SO WHY DID such a flexible and playable instrument fall into disuse? Again, I asked Godfrey for his thoughts.
"We stopped using the Odyssey in about 1982", he recalls, "although we have used it once or twice since then. Round about that time we became interested in new things, new technologies, and we produced an album that simply did not require it."
ARP then went very much the same way as their most popular synthesiser. Following the successes of the Odyssey and the much revered Solina string/brass synthesiser, and to a lesser extent the Pro-Soloist, they managed to produce a sequence of progressively less and less popular keyboards. Anyone remember the Omni, Omni2, or the Quartet (also known as the Siel Orchestra)?
A polyphonic combination of various ARP machines, the Quadra, achieved limited success around 1980, but by this time the Prophet 5 had captured the imagination of the rock world and ARP had nowhere to go. Their associations with Siel and Solina had done nothing to enhance the image of the company, and the Japanese giants moved in for the kill. I believe the last machine that they ever built was the Chroma - a hybrid analogue/digital polysynth that was researched and designed by ARP but picked up by Rhodes after their demise. The development effort broke the company and it quietly disappeared from the scene.
Fashion is an important influence in modern music and many good instruments have fallen due to the incessant clamour for new sounds and greater facilities. Nevertheless, if you're an aspiring keyboard virtuoso, and you can't quite get the lead sound you want from your DX7, DW8000, D50 or ESQ1, I recommend that you scan the free ads regularly. Odysseys occasionally appear for about £250, and if you think that's a bit much to pay to play one note at a time, go and talk to a flautist or saxophonist. You'll learn that it's not how many notes you play, it's the notes you choose and the sound that you produce that determine the reaction you get from your audience. Essentially - there's no substitute for class.
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