The Audio Playground Synthesizer Museum

ARP

ODYSSEY 2800 SYNTHESIZER

White Faced Odyssey model 2800

 

If you're looking for a synthesizer I with a fine balance of price, function, sound versatilityand
roadworthy construction, the Arp Odyssey is sure to be your choice. It's a two-oscillator synthesizer
with a patented duophonic key-· board, and it's played by some of the world's most respected keyboard
artists: George Duke, Herbie Hancock, Chick Corea and thousands of other professionals making names
for themselves right now.

The Odyssey can elearonically create an enormous variety of sounds in live performance, with nearly 70
parameters of sound under your direct command. Stunning solo lines, heavy bass effects, screaming
phase-sync guitar solos, wind, gongs, chimes, bombs, sirens, and automatic sample/hold rhythms
represent iust a few of the weapons in the Odyssey's audio arsenal.

You can also create virtually all traditional instrument sounds, including strings, brass, percussion,
woodwinds, incredibly realistic alto saxophones and lilting flutes. No patch cords are required.
All sounds are created on the Odyssey's control panel, which has been human engineered with
logically-arranged, color-coded block diagrams, sliden and switches that make playing the Odyssey
fast and easy. The Odyssey is just as much at home in the studio as it is on stage.

Arp's advanced circuitry gives you rock-stable accuracy for professional quality recording, and the
systems interface jacks on the back" panel allow you to expand the Odyssey by interconnecting it
with other Arps. Electric piano, guitar and voice can also be processed through the Odyssey's filter
and control circuits by using the external audio input on the back panel.

The Odyssey is also equipped with Proportional Pitch Control (PPC), Arp's latest contribution to
more expressive synthesizer performance. This triple-pad, pressure-sensitive controller lets you bend
notes sharp and flat, and add vibrato, all without moving a single slider or switch. In live performance,
PPC lets you introduce expressive nuances into a melody, and it gives you more physical control over
the synthesizer than ever before.

A complete and detailed owner's manual accompanies the Odyssey. A 213-page textbook based on the
Odyssey, Learning Music With Synthesizers, is now the most popular classroom guide to electronic music.
The Odyssey Patch Book, also available from your Arp dealer, contains 75 control panel diagrarns contributed
by professional musicians, musical engineers and Arp's own product specialists.

In today's music, you hear the Arp Odyssey more than any other synthesizer made. The fact that the Odyssey is
the overwhelming choice of the world's leading professional musicians says more than anything else about the
musical flexibility and reliability of this classic design.

 

Controls

 

1. VCO 1: Creates "raw" pitch. Sawtooth (brassy), square (hollow) and pulse waves (reedy) available.
Pitch control sliders create variable vibrato and trill depth or sample/hold (random pitch sequence) and
envelope control. Pulse width controls are used to create nasal, chorus or saxophone sounds.

2. VCO 2: Similar to VCO 1. Has pedal input to control pitch for pedal-activated preset intervals.
Phase-sync switch slaves VCO 2 to VCO 1 for dramatic emphasis of harmonic scales. Good for
creating screaming guitar-like solos.

3. LFO: Used to control VCOs, VCF to create vibrato, trill, tremolo, and repeated effects. Variable rate.

4. VCF: Changes timbre by adding, subtracting or emphasizing harmonics. Various coritrollers control
VCF: pedal, for pedal controlled wah-wah; ADSR; sample/hold, for funky rhythmical effects; LFO,
tremolo; and keyboard.

5. HPF: Removes all low harmonics (bass) from sound. Useful for. creating "thin" textures.

6. ADSR, AR: These are envelope generators that control every aspect of articulation. Useful for creation
of articulations ranging from percussive to lethargic.

7. S/H: Controls VCOs 1 and 2 or VCF for random, computer-like sound or funky rhythmical effects.

8. Ring Modulator: Essential in the creation of gongs, chimes or special ethereal effects.

9. Noise Generator: Used to create sounds of wind, surf, steam, bombs, trains.

10. Portamento: Works between any two keys depressed. Creates automatic glissando or sliding sound
between notes. Variable speed.

11. Transpose: Shifts VCO pitch up 2 octaves above normal or down 2 ocraves below normal.

12. PPC: Includes three separate "live" rubber pads that respond to finger pressure (pitch bend up,
vibrato, pitch bend down). Vibrato rate is controlled by LFO speed.

The List Price in 1980 for the Odyssey was $1700 US.

The ultimate musical trip! Designed by musicians, for musicians. the Odyssey offers the features performing artists requested in a live performance. portable synthesizer. Whatever your field-rock, pop, jazz, or avant-garde electronic composition-the ARP Odyssey is unequaled for flexibility and features at an amazmg price. With its ease of operation and high reliability, the ARP Odyssey can produce an enormous variety of sounds in live performance No patchcords are required all settings are made quickly and easily using the Odyssey s slider controls and patch switches. Schools wishing to incorporate electronic music programs into their curricula will also find the Odyssey an excellent nucleus for an electronic music studio. And, of course, the famous ARP filters and oscillators give you rock stable accuracy for professional quality recordmg .

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