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Korg developing ARP Odyssey

Faithful recreation of 1970s analogue synth to be released September

Korg's ARP Odyssey recreation, set for release September 2014Korg have announced that they are developing a faithful recreation of the legendary 1970s analogue synthesizer, the ARP Odyssey, for release later in 2014. 

The ARP Odyssey was released in 1972 by ARP Instruments, Inc. and quickly became famous for its unique rich sound and innovative performance controls. 

It was a staple for many recording and performing musicians worldwide and was used on countless hit records over many years. The Odyssey was one of the highlights of the ARP company and became a long-selling product. With slight updates and improvements it was sold through to 1981. 

Our go-to synth expert, Gordon Reid explains why he loves his in this gem from the archives (http://sosm.ag/dec97-arp)...

Korg have also brought in David Friend as the chief advisor on the Odyssey project. David Friend established ARP Instruments, Inc. along with Alan Robert Pearlman and is a past president of ARP Instruments, Inc. He was also the lead designer of the original Odyssey in addition to designing or co-designing many other products. After ARP, Friend became a successful technology entrepreneur. In 2010, he was named Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year in the Emerging Technology category for the New England Region, he has been a lecturer at MIT's Sloan School of Management and is now Chairman & CEO of Carbonite, Inc. He has been a trustee of the New England Conservatory and Berklee College of Music. 

In the last few years, Korg has released several top selling analogue synthesizers such as the Monotron series, the Monotribe, the Volca series and the hugely successful MS-20 mini, a faithful fully-analogue recreation of the 1978 MS-20. 

Second-hand ARP Odysseys will often sell for around the £1500 mark, so hopefully the new version will be more affordable. Given Korg's recent form in the analogue synthesis market, and the input of David Friend, this has a lot of potential to be another big product for the Japanese firm. The ARP Odyssey is currently scheduled for release in September 2014 and we will, of course, bring you a full review as soon as we can get one.

http://www.korg.com/us/news/2014/0217/

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