The Radiophonic Workshop's Mark Ayres' synth setupLast night saw Korg’s official UK launch of the highly-anticipated ARP Odyssey reissue, at Phonica Records in the heart of Soho, London. Load of Korg hardware was demoed by a plethora of artists, climaxing with a performance and demonstration of the Odyssey by the legendary Radiophonic Workshop.
The BBC Radiophonic Workshop is famed for creating music and sound effects for TV and radio programmes starting in 1958, including the iconic Doctor Who theme tune. Now, more than 15 years after the Workshop was decommissioned by the BBC, original members Peter Howell, Roger Limb, Dick Mills, Paddy Kingsland and archivist Mark Ayres are working together again. A forthcoming album — Electricty — and a live show spanning their extraordinary 55 year career mark the rebirth of this influential experimental group of musicians.
It’s fitting, then, that they should present the ARP Odyssey, which has also been reborn. The original Odysseys — of which there were three generations built between 1972 and 1981 — have rightly earned their place in the synthesizer hall of fame for their ease of playability, portability and rich range of tonal variation.
Korg's ARP Odyssey recreationsThe new ARP Odyssey, now made by Korg, faithfully recreates the sound of the original synths, and includes all three filter versions from each original revision. It also adds a few extras that we’ve come to expect, including MIDI in, via 5-pin DIN and USB, as well as a headphone jack, and a new drive switch.
We'll be bringing you a full review in the April edition of Sound On Sound, on shelves, tablets and online March 19th.
In addition, DJ Erb N Dub put the Korg Kaoss DJ controller through its paces and UK electronic artist, DJ and producer Sharooz (Sunday Best, Ministry of Sound, Club Mod) showed off his skills and shone the spotlight on the new Korg MS20M analogue synth module, the SQ1 sequencer as well as the Electribe and Volca boxes.
For more information about any of the products above, check out Korg’s website, below.
