Volca Kick & ARP Odyssey desktop module

https://www.residentadvisor.net/news.aspx?id=36219
 
 

  Quote

Korg has revealed the Volca Kick and ARP Odyssey Module.
 
The Volca Kick is a one-voice synthesiser designed to produce low-pitched percussion and basses. It's sound source is an analogue, self-oscillating filter modelled on the company's MS20 circuit, which is then shaped by Pitch/Octave, Bend and Time parameters. The signal path continues with a pulse generator, before hitting a VCA with Attack and Decay settings, an analogue drive circuit and finally a 12db/oct low-pass filter labelled Tone. Like other Volcas, the new model can link multiple sequences into chains extending up to 256 steps and features Motion Sequence and Touch FX functionality.
 
The ARP Odyssey Module is a desktop version of Korg's remake of the original ARP Odyssey, which was built in 1972. It contains the same feature set as the keyboard version but with a smaller size more conducive to compact studio setups. It will be available in a choice of white or black.

 

[youtubehd]rgs7p17ElOY[/youtubehd]

 

Korg will release the Volca Kick and ARP Odyssey Module in October, 2016 for $159.99 and $599.99 respectively.

 

Odyssey Video from Korg's site:
 
[youtubehd]rwkWgiy1LJo[/youtubehd]

Dunno how to embed Soundcloud but here's some samples; https://soundcloud.com/arpsynth/sets

Those are good looking modules.

meh at the kick thing, modules look alright

The kick was about the only part of the Volca Beats that sounded any good so I can imagine it'd be a decent thing to pick up for £100 or so.  But then again if it still has the same shitty noisy output of the other Volca's then maybe not.

I kinda liked the kick thing. The arp actually has VCO's from the look of it so that's pretty snazzy.

Depending on price, these would be good additions. Worst thing to happen is that I buy them for cheap, lose interest or sample the hell out of them, then Craigslist them.

I kinda want the kick. It's really the only thing I'd want to use on an analog drum machine so it appeals to me. I can imagine it'd make quite a racket coupled with nanoloop. Speaking of which I think nanoloop mono would cover most of the territory of the volca kick so I'll wait until that arrives first :D

Also re: noisy output. I never had a problem with that when I had the volca keys. They're not exactly pro-level machines..

  On 9/1/2016 at 3:45 PM, modey said:

Also re: noisy output. I never had a problem with that when I had the volca keys. They're not exactly pro-level machines..

No you are quite right, but I still thought it was more than ideal, even for the price etc.  After a while it just annoyed me, but that might be my OCD speaking 

  On 9/1/2016 at 3:45 PM, modey said:

I kinda want the kick. It's really the only thing I'd want to use on an analog drum machine so it appeals to me. I can imagine it'd make quite a racket coupled with nanoloop. Speaking of which I think nanoloop mono would cover most of the territory of the volca kick so I'll wait until that arrives first :D

 

Also re: noisy output. I never had a problem with that when I had the volca keys. They're not exactly pro-level machines..

i know this is kind of riffing off of exactly what you just said, but the kick has grabbed my attention for similar reasons. 

Korg's been on meth in recent years.

Assuming this and the Behringer are actually good, it looks like this might be the year that the big manufacturers finally realize their strongest niche is using economies of scale and mass fabrication to produce solid, conservative, bread and butter synths and at prices smaller companies can't afford, which theoretically should free up the smaller companies and individuals to focus on what they do best, which is innovation, placebo-level attention to detail, and filling small, esoteric niches.  It's the way the synth market should have been for the last decade. 

The Synth world might finally get its Fender.

A friend of mine inherited an Odyssey a couple years ago and eventually sold it two weeks before I realized I could have raised the money to buy it from him in installments.  I'll be honest, if the sound is there that Korg looks better in some ways (mostly form factor).

According to the VSE forums, the price was officially announced:

$599

With everything being assembled by robots and most of the R&D already done 40 years ago, there's no reason why $599 shouldn't be enough for a company the size of Korg to put out a very respectable synth for that price.

Pardon that grammatical trainwreck up there.

not sure if it warrants it's own thread but they are also bringing out a new version of the microkorg:

hard to believe that thing (mks) only has 64 user writable slots. it's 2016 and memory is absurdly cheap. elektron machines give you hundreds of slots. what gives?

  On 9/1/2016 at 8:30 PM, juiceciuj said:

hard to believe that thing (mks) only has 64 user writable slots. it's 2016 and memory is absurdly cheap. elektron machines give you hundreds of slots. what gives?

hmmm... 'limitations stimulate creativity' kind of philosophy? considerable limitation would be not buying the synth and music would just floooow ...oh, and i could make myself deaf for some extra limits 

That kick looks like what the Volca Beats should have been.

  On 9/2/2016 at 3:37 AM, Mesh Gear Fox said:

good posts rsp :)

 

Stopped clock etc. etc.

The kick was the best part of the Volca Beats. Would prefer a Beats v2 with pattern chaining and a decent snare... 

The Arp modules look very sexy but I've never liked their sound. The MS20 module sounds a lot better. 

  On 9/2/2016 at 10:48 AM, beathaven said:

The kick was the best part of the Volca Beats. Would prefer a Beats v2 with pattern chaining and a decent snare... 

 

The Arp modules look very sexy but I've never liked their sound. The MS20 module sounds a lot better. 

The snare is halfway decent if you do that capacitor mod.  I didn't have as big a ceramic disc capacitor handy as the one in the well known video about the mod and it does seem to matter, mine is like 2/3 the sound of that video and 1/3 the old sound, but it's still an improvement.  Of course now the PCM and hi hats are way too quiet relative to the snare and kick but it's still more useful than stock.

I feel like the whole thing is voiced for the internal speaker rather than recording, actually.  Before doing mods I tried it with the speaker a few times Just to see what it sounded like and the balance between all of the different voices (with all the levels full) was actually pretty spot on, and the stock snare sounded a lot more interesting.

I was at a little local show a few months ago and someone was using one stock with no effects, and somehow or other she'd gotten it to sound really good, maybe it just needs to be blasted though a 3 way PA system to perform to its fullest.

Oh man, I am totally selling my Dark Energy MK1 for that desktop Arp. I have always loved the arp sound. Stoked.

  On 9/2/2016 at 4:16 PM, RSP said:

 

  On 9/2/2016 at 10:48 AM, beathaven said:

The kick was the best part of the Volca Beats. Would prefer a Beats v2 with pattern chaining and a decent snare... 

 

The Arp modules look very sexy but I've never liked their sound. The MS20 module sounds a lot better. 

 

I feel like the whole thing is voiced for the internal speaker rather than recording, actually.  Before doing mods I tried it with the speaker a few times Just to see what it sounded like and the balance between all of the different voices (with all the levels full) was actually pretty spot on, and the stock snare sounded a lot more interesting.

That would make a lot of sense if they thought the internal speaker was a primary selling point to the volca's marketing strategy. The burnt-sounding snare does sound better on that shitty speaker than the snappy one. That might qualify for a reason why Korg chose to make that manufacturing decision to not include the capacitor by what their press statement claimed in one of the articles about about the snare mod.

Damn.

Might well grab one of these with part of the extra $900-ish I'm making this month and wait to see how the Behringer stacks up in real world use before I take a risk on it, there's always tax returns for that if it's good.

Though I really do need a passable analog poly more than I need another monosynth.  Not a day goes by I don't miss the old Poly61 and practice space with Junos just lying around (because they were so cheap one of my bandmates just picked them up whenever for a while; stopped when they started to push $500 becuase it was way too much for a Juno 60). And I'm not even very old yet.

those arps are so sexy...      $599, totally all over that.  

Wish there was a rev.2 version, I'm probably in the minority but that's my favorite look of the Odysseys. Those little ARPy faders like the REV 1 but with a classic 70s-ugly scheme.