I took delivery of an Odyssey yesterday. Yes, an ARP Odyssey, by the company that used to be the chief rival of the original Moog Music. It’s nice to have a little Ying to go with a very Moogy Yang.
There’s the LP wondering “what did I do to deserve this interloper?”
Anyway, the Oddy sounds great - there’s a great transparency and directness to the tone. It does have a few quirks - predictable given that this synth will turn 40 in only a couple of years. The second “C” doesn’t seem to want to hold a steady pitch when depressed, the sliders are a bit sticky and occasionally scratchy, and there seems to be this weird “clicking” sound faint in the background that’s present even when no sound is being played (and no, it’s not linked to the LFO… it pulses at the same rate regardless of the LFO rate).
So if anybody knows a good, reputable tech in the Toronto area, drop me a line.
Playing an Odyssey is an odd (no pun intended) experience compared to a Moog. It has a very different controls and interfacing (no pitch or mod wheels, sliders instead of knobs, different layout and architecture, etc.). When I play a Moog I sort of sit back and concentrate on the keyboard and making an occasional adjustment to a knob. On the Oddy, I find myself leaning over it, almost resting on the machine, making constant tweaks to the sounds.
It’s as though an LP is an instrument, whereas the Oddy is equipment. This is not a bad thing, I hasten to add. I think it says something that the pitch bend control is just a knob with a very, very large centre detent dead zone. Simple, direct, easily comprehended. And it works. I’m actually a bit of a convert after years of using wheels, joysticks, and paddles.
When playing the Oddy one certainly gets confirmation of the fact that Alan Pearlman spent time working on the Apollo program; everything has that circuit diagram flow-chart graphic written on it, and the whole vibe says “Synths: a serious business”. Magic.
To answer Voltor, the glass-like items are actually acrylic shells around some Harmon-Kardon speakers (Sound Sticks, I believe they’re called). My wife calls them “Chris’s dildos”.
hey i may have a guy who can repair your arp, try calling 416 469 2966, his name is john. he’s pretty much the only guy that i know in toronto who repairs analog synths.
Since the Ody has everything already patched, it’s not as steep a learning curve as the 2600. It is also missing stuff like the inverters, preamp, clock, lag, reverb etc. that adds to the complexity of the 2600 (though that one has stuff prepatched, too).
Chris, in the patch you have right now, the AR sliders are at zero. If you move them up, does that make your thumping noise go away?
I found the learning curve to be quite shallow, fortunately. The S&H section isn’t the most intuitive, but a one-page perusal of the manual sorted me out. It helps that I cut my teeth on a Modcan modular system many years back.
It isn’t so much a thumping noise as it is a click, and it’s not key on/off dependent, but rather occurs at roughly once every three or four seconds. Curiously it disappeared today, but there’s still the bum “C” note that only seems to be a problem if playing legato.
Sounds like the key wires need to be cleaned with some DeOxit. Let her run for a few days and the click will either go away or get worse. If it goes away, cool. If it gets worse, you stand a good chance of finding the weak component.
There was a real good book out years ago called “Learning music with synthesizers” by Friend, Pearlman, Piggoti. It was well written and used the Ody as the synth for all tutorials. Full of good patch sheets. I have a copy, still refer to it every now and then. (I used the book when I got my 1st 2600 to figure out how to use that beasty.)
