Moog Minimoog

Summary

Date: 1972
Type: Monophonic / Subtractive / Analogue 

The ARP Odyssey is a strong contender for most popular monosynth of the 1970s, perhaps of all time, giving the iconic Minimoog Model D a run for its money (and actually outselling it).

The highly versatile ARP Odyssey has featured on 1,000s of tracks over the years, and is still popular to this day with a re-release by Korg in 2016 (and the inevitable clone from Behringer later), as well as several software emulations now available.

This classic 37-note monosynth evolved over the duration of the 1970s:

Mk1 (2800) – White – 4023 2-pole filter
(later was made in black & gold like later versions – but otherwise the same)
Mk2 (2810-2815) – 4035 4-pole filter (possibly infringing Moog patents!) & CV/Gate connection
Mk3 (2820-2823) – 4075 filter (had much lower high frequency of only 12kHz, compared with the previous 35kHz). It also had different oscillators and the ‘proportional pitch control’ was introduced (some retrofitted to mk2)

Whichever version was used, the Odyssey has a huge and powerful sound anywhere in it’s range from the bottom octave to the top (“I still like to use the ARP Odyssey because it has the best window-shaking bottom end of any synth.” – Gary Numan). And the simplicity of use ensured it’s popularity and use by a huge number of musicians over the years.

Archetypal Track

Herbie Hancock, ‘Chameleon’ (1973)

The bassline of ‘Chameleon’ shows the Odyssey at it’s funkiest; the filtered bassline driving the groove and the vibe of Herbie Hancock’s classic. There isn’t a better example of the Odyssey doin’ it’s thang!

youtu.be/UbkqE4fpvdI

^ This will be an embedded YouTube when I figure out how to install my own version and add extensions!

Table of all ARP Odyssey Tracks

Notable tracks are highlighted rows

ARP Odyssey
Artist	Track	Year	Song Part	Notes & Reference	Media
ARP Analog Synth Jazz Band	Take The A Train	1980	‘Tap Dancer Getting Shot’	A TV spot featuring nine ARP synths, introduced by one a presenter in that ‘incredulous’ style, like they’ve never seen a piece of technology before. arpysynth.com	YouTube
Chick Corea	Space Circus	1974	Solos	Trading licks with Bill Connors. YouTube	YouTube
style background-color:#ffffcc; "Deep Purple	Space Truckin’ (Live)	1974	Solo	Jon Lord lets rip on the Odyssey during this 15 minute classic Deep Purple jam. YouTube	YouTube
Frank Zappa	Inca Roads	1974	LFO Synth Effects	This song appears on the album “One Size Fits All.” In the intro, George Duke uses an Odyssey Rev1 to create an LFO based sound effect. arpsynth.com	YouTube
Gary Numan	Cars	1979	Synth Lead	"I still like to use the ARP Odyssey because it has the best window-shaking bottom end of any synth." - Gary Numan SOS	YouTube
George Duke	Funny Funk	1974<	Bass/Synth Lead	Album: Feel ”He (Frank Zappa) told me one day, that I should play synthesizers. It was as simple as that! I finally settled on ... an ARP Odyssey. I decided to use an ARP, purely to be different from Jan Hammer, who was playing the Mini Moog, and had a head start on me in the mastery of synthesis. I was really drawn to the possibilities inherent therein. There were some things that were a drag also! Remember, at this time there were no presets or ways of saving patches. Not only that, but you were limited to one note at a time. So overdubbing, a good memory and management system became very important. The year was 1974.”	YT