Moog Music Forum

Korg to re-issue the ARP Odyssey. That's nice...

Now, Moog Music, how about a Memorymoog re-issue ?

They beat me to it!

Damn, outflanked again!

I think it's great they are being reissued but I was never a fan of them. Wasn't impressed with the layout or sound in particular.

Nothing really crappy about ARPs, excepting the sliders to tend to break under duress (not normal use). Having owned three versions of the Oddy (white panel, black and gold, black and orange) I'm hoping they do the later black and orange version as it sounded SO much better. The worst was the white one, although people rave about "moog filter" inside, it just does not sound that great. I even asked synth head friends to talk me out of selling the older ones - but we all agreed the later ones sounded best (same for the 2600). However, the PPC control was never a good idea or popular, so it's likely the one they show - the black and gold version. If this comes in under $1000, it will be a strong product!!

BrianK wrote:Nothing really crappy about ARPs, excepting the sliders to tend to break under duress (not normal use). Having owned three versions of the Oddy (white panel, black and gold, black and orange) I'm hoping they do the later black and orange version as it sounded SO much better. The worst was the white one, although people rave about "moog filter" inside, it just does not sound that great. I even asked synth head friends to talk me out of selling the older ones - but we all agreed the later ones sounded best (same for the 2600). However, the PPC control was never a good idea or popular, so it's likely the one they show - the black and gold version. If this comes in under $1000, it will be a strong product!!

No, it's mostly not true, what you're telling here !!!

Just a few days ago I had a talk to my tech, who's fixing and upgrading vintage ones day by day, about their sound and filter working.
As for the Oddys, when I'm right, the white ones have a 12 dB filter and as he's told me the golden/black ones differ from having somtimes different filter types inside and the orange/black ones are absolutely the worst sounding. It's now just a few days ago when he upgraded an orange/black 2600 with a filter modification and the owner told him after he's sounding fantastic now. But this had been an ARP filter modification NOT that MOOG - type !
Mine 2600 is a Tonus, an older grey-one, I've had compared him now several times with my D and as they both have a Moog filter, they barely differ in sound concerning the "filter action". Absolutely Killer-Type !!!

Some months ago a guy had shown a youtube demo of two golden/black Oddys and they sounded awsome and unbeatable.
Please note that several Oddys, especially the black, probaly had been upgraded and this might be the reason why they might sound very much better.
And referring again to my tech he told those ones with the 12 dB filters, Oddys and 2600s, sound dump and ugly , but "different" . It's also possible to get them sounding after tweaking a while....

When I'm calling the Oddys "peep-mice" it's ONLY in comparison to polyphonic synths and their extraordinary playing capabilities

I'm curious at the price point. I see excellent vintage models go for about $2K. If Korg can give us a well made Odyssey with a nice sturdy body for under $1200, I might buy that. I wouldn't pay more than $1,400 at the very most. If Korg comes out with a miniaturized edition in a cheap plastic case, I won't even try it out.

I'm definitely not digging the miniaturized reissues, even the 2600. Then again, it doesn't make logical sense to make something bigger than it has to be. Full sized keyboards are much better than the tinysizers.

The nice thing about that DIY 2600 is that you can build the case for it any way you like. I might even go as far as to make my of own face plate, polished aluminum or something like that. Now - all they need to do is make the PCBs available again. I guess they ran out of them.

Cenydd Ros wrote:The nice thing about that DIY 2600 is that you can build the case for it any way you like. I might even go as far as to make my of own face plate, polished aluminum or something like that. Now - all they need to do is make the PCBs available again. I guess they ran out of them.

Once the current batch ships out there will be another round, you can keep up with the site or the thread on Muffwiggler.

megavoice wrote:Some months ago a guy had shown a youtube demo of two golden/black Oddys and they sounded awsome and unbeatable.
Please note that several Oddys, especially the black, probaly had been upgraded and this might be the reason why they might sound very much better.
And referring again to my tech he told those ones with the 12 dB filters, Oddys and 2600s, sound dump and ugly , but "different" .

From what I've heard, the problem is that you can't trust the colors of the Oddys completely. I've heard that there are a few black/gold Oddys that actually have the 4023 (12 dB) filter. I think however that the black/orange all have the 4075 filter.

I posted about this in KVR too, but the 4035 filter (used in black/gold Oddys) is based on a transistor ladder design while the 4075 (used mainly in black/orange Oddys, afaik) is based on an integrator cascade design. Also the 4075 had a design flaw/miscalculation in its design that limited the cutoff freq to 12 kHz which obviously has a impact on its sound (reference).

I don't know which filter is most desireable, perhaps a switch between the white face 4023 and black/gold 4035!

Cenydd Ros wrote:The nice thing about that DIY 2600 is that you can build the case for it any way you like. I might even go as far as to make my of own face plate, polished aluminum or something like that. Now - all they need to do is make the PCBs available again. I guess they ran out of them.

Not really since the whole thing is on one giant PC board. In my opinion, this was a massive mistake. It makes the circuit board more expensive. It makes it much harder to build and work on. And, it severely limits changing the case and/or layout. I could have been interested in building the VCO/VCF/EG sections but I don't want the whole, huge thing. Oh well

Regarding the filter discussion, I have two late ARP Axxes - orange and black with PPC.

I don't know what filter type they have, in terms of the numbers quoted above, but I'd expect they're the same as the orange and black Odyssey and 2600 which some people seem to consider the worst sounding.

Of course it depends on what you consider good or bad, but have to say the filters in these Axxes, when in self-oscillation mode, are the most beautiful I've ever played - that's to say, nicer than Moog, Korg, Roland, Doepfer or EMS filters.

Naturally it depends what sound you need at any particular time, and I certainly wouldn't consider these ARP filters the only ones I'd want. But they do have a special beauty. I recorded a `flute' piece solely with one of these ARP filters with looping and reverb.

That said, I haven't tried the ARP oscillator sound with a different filter - with the ARP filter fully open and the other filter unit CVd from the ARP, so I'm not saying these late ARP filters are the best in all situations. But there certainly is a real beauty in the late ones that I'd miss if the Korg remake doesn't emulate it. If I lost my two Axxes for any reason and the Korg didn't have that sound, I'd be looking for late ARP synths to get it again.

eXode wrote:

megavoice wrote:Some months ago a guy had shown a youtube demo of two golden/black Oddys and they sounded awsome and unbeatable.
Please note that several Oddys, especially the black, probaly had been upgraded and this might be the reason why they might sound very much better.
And referring again to my tech he told those ones with the 12 dB filters, Oddys and 2600s, sound dump and ugly , but "different" .

From what I've heard, the problem is that you can't trust the colors of the Oddys completely. I've heard that there are a few black/gold Oddys that actually have the 4023 (12 dB) filter. I think however that the black/orange all have the 4075 filter.

I posted about this in KVR too, but the 4035 filter (used in black/gold Oddys) is based on a transistor ladder design while the 4075 (used mainly in black/orange Oddys, afaik) is based on an integrator cascade design. Also the 4075 had a design flaw/miscalculation in its design that limited the cutoff freq to 12 kHz which obviously has a impact on its sound (reference).

I don't know which filter is most desireable, perhaps a switch between the white face 4023 and black/gold 4035!

Yes, my tech had recently two Oddys golden/black side by side. One of them sounded crappy. Obviously he had the 12 dB Filter inside. After upgrading both sounded the same . Very fine.
I'll ask him more about the filter business next time.

See also the page C.M.S Discrete Synthesizers. There's a lot of written about upgradings and very informative. I've tried to ask that man several things about my 2600 and have never got respond. He's too busy obviously. But nevertheless it's very unpolite not to give any answer.............

megavoice wrote:

eXode wrote:

megavoice wrote:Some months ago a guy had shown a youtube demo of two golden/black Oddys and they sounded awsome and unbeatable.
Please note that several Oddys, especially the black, probaly had been upgraded and this might be the reason why they might sound very much better.
And referring again to my tech he told those ones with the 12 dB filters, Oddys and 2600s, sound dump and ugly , but "different" .

From what I've heard, the problem is that you can't trust the colors of the Oddys completely. I've heard that there are a few black/gold Oddys that actually have the 4023 (12 dB) filter. I think however that the black/orange all have the 4075 filter.

I posted about this in KVR too, but the 4035 filter (used in black/gold Oddys) is based on a transistor ladder design while the 4075 (used mainly in black/orange Oddys, afaik) is based on an integrator cascade design. Also the 4075 had a design flaw/miscalculation in its design that limited the cutoff freq to 12 kHz which obviously has a impact on its sound (reference).

I don't know which filter is most desireable, perhaps a switch between the white face 4023 and black/gold 4035!

Yes, my tech had recently two Oddys golden/black side by side. One of them sounded crappy. Obviously he had the 12 dB Filter inside. After upgrading both sounded the same . Very fine.
I'll ask him more about the filter business next time.

See also the page C.M.S Discrete Synthesizers. There's a lot of written about upgradings and very informative. I've tried to ask that man several things about my 2600 and have never got respond. He's too busy obviously. But nevertheless it's very unpolite not to give any answer.............

Now I've spoken again to my tech and it seems to be clear now.
The white Oddys have a 12 db Filter and the golden/black ones, Mark I, 12 dB and the latter Mark II the 24 dB.
And it's wrong what I've said, right is, both sound very well regardless what filter they have.
And it's also possible to replace the 12 and put a 24 inside, but it's work

As for the 2600 you're also right, the orange/black ones have a wrong built Integrator Filter 4072. As he said for fixing there must be only replaced 4 resistors and then obviously everything's o.k.

I will agree to disagree with your tech. As I said, I owned them all at the same time. Several of us all agreed, the later ones sounded the best. I've owned a few 2600s (all grey, Tonus and Arp) and every time I hear the orange/black models, they sound stronger and healthier. So, without knowing what's inside (nor do I care too much...) the sound is the thing. And it's personal, what someone likes may truly differ from another, right?