ARP synth owners, let's hear ya!

[Odyssian]

ARP synths.... The 70's alternative to Moogs. A nice and capable line of synths, and they sound wicked!

 

Here's your chance to chime in by listing any ARP synths that you own.

 

How do you use it (bass synth, lead, or...)?

 

How long have you had it?

 

Feel free to tell us any likes, dislikes, or ???

 

=======

 

As you can tell by my handle, I'm an Odyssey owner. One of my favorite sounds from the Ody is the osc sync effects. I've had my white Ody for about 6 years, and used to have access to one in the 70s. Although I love using it for Osc sync leads, it's really fun to get "lost" in the many FM and ring mod effects.

[marino]

Originally posted by Odyssian:

ARP synths.... The 70's alternative to Moogs. A nice and capable line of synths, and they sound wicked!

Right! I don't know if this qualifies, but I was a long-time owner and lover of the Chroma, the last ARP synth later built by Rhodes/CBS. I had the chance to play with the 2600 several times; I only briefly played Odisseys, but they sound very good of course. When I was a kid, I was a fan of prog/sperimental group Area, and the Odissey was their main synth. Plus it was used by Chick Corea and Herbie Hancock, and that was enough recommentation to me.

 

In fact, when I bought the Chroma, I was salivating at the thought to have a poly, programmable 2600. Of course, it was both less and more than that - just a different instrument, just like the Memorymoog is not exactly 6 Minis in a box.

 

I'm told that the very first production of 2600s had the Moog ladder filter, but I'm not sure if I've ever played one of those. The Moog people made them stop using their patented filter very soon. I'd be curious to hear one: ARP oscs with a Moog filter! Wow...

 

The first thing I thought when I saw an ARP was, 'how can you bend pitch with that... thing'. But Zawinul used that weird slider to make all those martian glides, so it couldn't be so bad.

 

The sound: Very personal. 'Wicked' is really the right word to describe it! Particularly when you use the ring mod. The spring reverb on the 2600 was also a considerable part of its sound. With three oscs and modular patchability, the 2600 could sound huge in its very own way. Actually, I find it a bit odd that a synth with such a 'strange' sound was a main contender - only the VCS3 has a craziest sound quality. But those were the seventies...

 

The Odissey, when compared to the 2600, had a slightly thinner, more 'acidic' sound - but perhaps, also more agile and immediate. And of course, it was a lot cheaper and more portable!

 

Side note: When you've played a Mini and a 2600, you'll find really difficult to go back to two-oscillators-per-voice-synths. Oh well.

 

So at what type of sound was the ARP best suited? To me, sound that were otherworldy, but still melodic. Liquid, but with guts. Slightly hollow and reedy, sometimes even with a double-reed quality. One of the main users of the 2600 was, of course, Joe Zawinul, on historical albums like 'Misterious Traveller' and 'Tale Spinnin'; and of course, he was an early user of the Chroma. That fact, and having played the Chroma in the store, made me salivate over it, till I was finally able to buy one with money from a tour.

I programmed it for days, nights, weeks, and months. The programming interface was horrible. (Want to save on knobs? Look at the Matrix-12 panel. Only six knobs, but very easy to grasp)

But the sound was incredible. Thick but sweet. You could FM the oscs and the filters. You had ring mod, fiters in series or parallel, dual channels on the fly, and it was 8-way multitimbral. In 1981! And the design was from two years before that!

 

So did the Chroma sound like a 2600? No. The sound quality was quite similar, but it lacked a bit of that punch and quickness. After a while, I was able to point a finger on one of the reasons: The Chroma envelopes were too slow. They were early digital envelopes, IIRC, so the technology simply didn't allow the necessary speed. The Chroma main processor (two, actually: One was just for keyboard scanning) was taxed to death, and sometimes when asked to do very complex things, it just choke. Chromas were very unstable.

 

But even if it wasn't a poly 2600, the Chroma had a sound that turned people's heads. When you used FM or ring mod, it could make sounds that we would associate with digital synths - but with enormous analog guts. You could never mistake the Chroma for a digital machine!

Unfortunately, as I bought more digital synths, I found that the Chroma's thick sound didn't combine very well with them. Maybe it's only me, but I found that it ate too much sonic space, giving a sort of unstability to mixes. So I started using it less and less, and finally I sold it... I miss it.

 

Today, I see that on the used market, 2600s are sold for ridicucously high prices, while Chromas go rather cheap (except in Europe, of course... ). Maybe it has to do with the instrument's complexity and poor reliability, but I still think it's a shame. It's a wonderful synth.

 

OK so I regurgitated some memories, you provoked me! And I managed not to talk about the Odissey at all. Oh well.

[Odyssian]

Thanks for the cool post Marino! This is exactly the kind of discussion I was hoping to provoke.

 

It's funny, the Chroma and 2600 are two synths that I've never had the pleasure to play, but I've always been extremely interested in them. I once missed buying a 2600 in the local paper for $150! Arggh!!! That depressed me for months! I kind of felt like this --->

 

 

Anyone else have any ARP experiences to share? It can be any ARP synth... Axxe, Solina, whatever.

[Mark Zeger]

I have a circa '77 Odyssey. Black face, gold graphics, multicolor slider caps, pitch bend knob. It was in an Anvil case (with an ARP logo) for probably 10+ years until I had it cleaned and serviced last year. It's in great shape. Only cosmetic flaw: carpet tape residue on the bottom. I had strips of 2" foam under the ARP so it wouldn't rock or scratch the rounded top of my Rhodes MkI. In a box somewhere in my basement, I probably still have "Instant Odyssey", a bunch of front panel overlays that showed you where to put the sliders for a particular sound.

 

I don't use it to record because I'm still reaquainting myself with it, especially pitch bend technique. I sort of grip the side of the case, and roll the knob with the inside edge of the thumb. I'm SO glad I never had it retrofitted with the PPC controls!

 

It's nice for bass sounds that are edgy or have a little bounce. It produces a good, hollow, flute-like lead sound. Long ago, I even used it for single line, slow attack/long release string sounds.

[Odyssian]

Hi Mark, about the tape residue.. there's this product called "Goo Gone" that should be able to take it off quite easily. It's cheap too.

 

That's cool that you have the Odyssey patch overlays. I've never seen any of those before, other than pics on the net.

[Yamis]

You can also put a very small amount of gasoline on a rag and it will remove any glue or tar. Just be careful. A very small amount is all you need.

[Synthguy]

I've tried to play every synth I was within eyeshot of, and got to spend a day with an Odyssey. It's a very expressive synth, with a fantastic panel loaded with accessible parameters, and something of a modulation matrix. I was able to get some very complicated sounds with it, and the more I played it, the more I wanted to get one with a midi/cv patch bay. As the others say, the Arps have a lighter, slightly buzzier sound great for leads, basses or an alternative to the meatier Moog. I suppose I'll satisfy myself with an Alesis Ion, or perhaps the forthcoming Dave Smith polyphonic Evolver... PolEvolver? But someday I'd love to get one of these analog landmarks, especially if I could be lucky enough to get an intact Chroma.

[RABid]

The Odyssey is the instrument I always wanted and never bought. If I could find one in good shape at a decent price I would grab it.

 

I was a Rhodes Chroma owner for many years. When I was a full time musician in the early 80s my rig consisted of a Rhodes Chroma, MemoryMoog, Moog Source and a drum machine. After playing a MiniMoog for years and turning into a speed demon, the Chroma forced me to slow down and really play each note. Sure, I could have played the leads on the MemoryMoog and Moog Source, but they did not have the life and stage presence that some of the Chroma patches had.

 

So how did I end up with a Rhodes Chroma? As I said before, I always wanted an Arp Odyssey. No music store close to me carried Arp so I never got to try one. When Keyboard Magazine did a review of the Rhodes Chroma I read it with amazement. The huge list of modulation routings gave me visions of a polyphonic modular with programmable patch memory. Some of the greats such as Herbie Hancock was using the Chroma and I wanted one bad. No one in driving distance had one, so on blind faith I ordered on from Sam Ash and had it shipped from New York to Kentucky.

 

I was not disappointed. While some of the pads were good and I managed to program a decent piano sound, it was the lead patches that blew me away. This thing literally screamed for attention on stage. This was the first and only keyboard I have owned that made me feel that I could be as expressive on leads as a guitarist or saxophonist. The levers were comfortable and well programmed. They could produce a feedback effect and one patch that came with the Chroma did a great job of faking a low, slowly building rumble. I ended up covering a lot of lead guitar parts. While the band was doing a Kentucky/Ohio/Indiana circuit the Chroma drew a lot of attention from musicians in other bands. When doing the club scene you frequently visit the clubs down the street when on break to check out the other bands. When those bands would stop in the check us out they always came on stage during our break and asked me what I was using. Most had heard of the Chroma but never seen one in person. At a time when people were starting to use DX7s and Junos this thing was a sonic monster. Toss in auto-tune, patch layering and a thousand tricks such as the ability to reverse the keyboard and this was the one synthesizer I would never part with. Other people talk about the problems and instability of the Chroma. I never had any problems. It was the MemoryMoog that drove me crazy with the tuning drift. The Moog Source suffered from the common problem of electronic dementia. Sometimes it would start playing on its own. But the Chroma was a rock. One thing the Chroma could not do was withstand fire. I started playing with a band that practiced in a music store. One night the dentist office next door caught fire and took out the entire building, including my keyboard setup. Some day I plan to replace the Chroma, if I can ever find one in good shape and within driving range. I still have not found anything quite like it.

 

Robert

[Ski 1642606170]

Odyssey MkII

Odyssey MkIII

"Little Brother" expander

 

As stated, the osc sync features on the Ody are great. Another favorite feature of mine is the very flexible S/H, especially the S/H variable "Output Lag", which is essentially a smooth "glide" from one S/H voltage to the next.

[Odyssian]

Originally posted by Rabid:

One night the dentist office next door caught fire and took out the entire building, including my keyboard setup. Some day I plan to replace the Chroma,

Oh man! I'll bet that still haunts you.. Sorry to hear that happened. Did insurance cover your gear?

[Prague]

Does my ugly little brother Arp Quartet count? My very first keyboard because no one else would buy a string machine. I cornered the market for a while. I liked the Arp strings better than most of the others available.

 

It still works, too. I do remember liking the mellow-Cello strings mixed with the dark Brass sound.

 

The keys also triggered unlike today. All notes retrigger when the sustain is on, as long as you lift all keys first.

[Odyssian]

Sure it counts.. Actually, what's it like? It is anything like a Solina in sound? Is there a chorus effect on it?

[Mark Zeger]

I thought about getting an ARP Quartet when they came out. I couldn't afford an Omni. It was a choice between the Quartet, the Crumar Orchestrator, and the string/brass synth I chose: Korg ES-50. Maybe it was all that rosewood veneer that won me over.

[Prague]

Originally posted by Odyssian:

Sure it counts.. Actually, what's it like? It is anything like a Solina in sound? Is there a chorus effect on it?

I'm not sure of the Solina sound. The strings, to me, were the smoothest of the string machines. The Cello has a darker sound, while Violin is an octave higher and is brighter. They can be mixed together or individually. Attack and Release are the controls.

 

The Brass I never used individually. I did use the lower sound (trombone?) at full volume to give an Oberheim-ish power-chord sound. Brass, when mixed with the strings, did sound pretty nice.

 

Pianos and Organ kinda sucked, but could be used for the occassional frill.

 

It's a mono instrument with no effects.

[orangefunk]

You might be interested in this

 

http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/1997_articles/dec97/arpodyssey.html?session=9644d43ee8e507e58ad521c23877e7c8

 

notice what they rate the Quartet!!!!!

[S_Gould]

I've got an Odyssy II with a fairly interesting history. It came in a yellow anvil case stenciled "Rare Earth Fragile". The serial # is 002. It lived in Jerry Corbetta's garage for many years. I traded him a TX7 module for it about 10 years ago.

I have more details, but I don't wanna bore you.

 

Scott

[Odyssian]

Wow! No boredom here, please do go on. Oh, and the Odyssey serial number is 002, even though it's a second revision? That's weird, I know of a white Odyssey that was serial number 005. I guess they restarted serial numbers with each rev...

[Prague]

Originally posted by orangefunk:

You might be interested in this

 

notice what they rate the Quartet!!!!!

My 98 lb. Quartet always got sand kicked in his face! Those big modulars and 2600's always got the chicks. Well, he never tried being one of them, but did find his own stretch of beach and was able to fill a niche those guys never could. Plus, he never had to do Techno!

[RABid]

Originally posted by Odyssian:

Originally posted by Rabid:

One night the dentist office next door caught fire and took out the entire building, including my keyboard setup. Some day I plan to replace the Chroma,

Oh man! I'll bet that still haunts you.. Sorry to hear that happened. Did insurance cover your gear?

Home owner's insurance almost covered payments on my rig.

 

I forgot about my first electronic instrument, an Arp Omni II. Not only did I use it to cover string and horn sounds, it had to cover piano parts at the time. No, it did not respond to velocity. Just think of it as going through 100 percent compression. It did OK on standard rock. I had to compensate lack of velocity by holding accented chords just a big longer than soft chords. Instead of hard and soft I had sustain and staccato. But it had nice strings.

 

Robert

[marino]

Originally posted by S_Gould:

I've got an Odyssy II with a fairly interesting history.

I traded him a TX7 module for it about 10 years ago.

 

Scott

Ooooohhh, what a lucky man he was!!!

[dementia13]

It might be OT or even heretical to mention software emulations on a hardware thread, but I just dl'ed a demo of the "Oddity" plug-in, and...wow. In the day, I'd only had the chance to play on Moogs, but I really love the edge of this synth. I suspect that if I had a Mini and an Odyssey, I might find myself turning more to the ARP. I don't think a real Odyssey is in my future, so I might get this plug-in. After this Koln Concert CD, of course.

[Pat Azzarello]

My first synth was an Oddysey (Mark II if I remember correctly - black face before PPC). It was the right price at the time and the Moogs were so much more expensive than a 17-year olds budget would allow.

 

Someone once said that the Oddysey had a feminine vibe to it, where the Mini was masculine. I have to agree, and I definitely here that ARP timbre a lot when I'm "imagineering" tunes, though that sound usually moves by the wayside by the time I actually get into producing it (probably because I don't have anything quite like it in my limited arsenal... uh... gunrack ). I tried the Oddity, but I'm not convinced that it could give me the same vibe, or at least the vibe I was looking for.

 

Oh yeah, and Peter Robinson's BrandX Oddysey work (i.e., Masques) was amazing. I prefer BrandX with Peter over Robin Lumley.

[rod76]

Man i love those Arps

 

But can anyone tell me why ARP and Sequential Circuits had to buy off some SIEL synths and tag their logo on it??

 

I never owned an ARP or SCI but did have a SIEL Cruise for a while

[RABid]

Originally posted by HCMF:

...But can anyone tell me why ARP and Sequential Circuits had to buy off some SIEL synths and tag their logo on it??

...

It is my understanding that this was string machines and not synths that were made my Siel. Hey, it was a good move for Arp, so why not?

 

Robert

[F7sound -]

I've got a "white" Odyssey - yep the original one. It's in need of a little work, however, because of lack of use.

 

In the past, I created some pretty brutal noises with it. I'll have it up and running again soon.

 

Michael Oster

F7 Sound and Vision

[dave-G]

I've got an old white Odyssey, formerly owned by the Tape Beatles, and in need of a little help, but modified with 1/4" inputs all over the thing..

 

I "grew up" on an old 2600, which used to reside in the electronic music studio at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston... ... endless fun

 

Hey Michael, we really should meet up one of these days.

 

-dave

[F7sound -]

Originally posted by dave-G:

....

 

Hey Michael, we really should meet up one of these days.

 

-dave

Dave,

 

Give me a call. Phone # is on my web site :-)

 

Michael Oster

F7 Sound and Vision

[SinisterMinister]

I owned a 2600 for a brief period about 1983. I bought it after trading in a Sequential Circuits Pro-1 and some cash.

 

The ARP synth I wanted (in addition to the Odyssey) was the Quadra. If you've ever heard "Brown Street" on Weather Report's live album "8:30", you'll know why I was sweet on the Quadra. Advertised as "4 synths-in-1" it definitely had a signature sound easily recognized from all of the other ARPs.

[mate stubb]

Originally posted by Rabid:

While the band was doing a Kentucky/Ohio/Indiana circuit the Chroma drew a lot of attention from musicians in other bands. When doing the club scene you frequently visit the clubs down the street when on break to check out the other bands. When those bands would stop in the check us out they always came on stage during our break and asked me what I was using. Most had heard of the Chroma but never seen one in person.

 

Hey Rabid!

 

I was living in Cincinnati in the early 80's playing in a 60's band down on Second Street at Flanagan's all the time. My rig was a Korg CX-3, a Chroma AND a Chroma Expander. The Korg and Expander were stolen later but I managed to replace it, and still have my Chroma + Expander rig today.

 

What an awesome synth! I'd put it in the same league as a CS-80 for sheer musicality and playability.

 

Moe

 

Robert