When we launched Oddity back in December 2001, little did we know the impact it would have in the virtual instrument arena. Nor did we dare to imagine that over 20 years later we’d be launching Oddity 3, having been told by many musicians that the December 2014 released Oddity 2 was still their go-to plug-in synthesiser. But here we are, grateful as always for the support that’s allowed us to continue to create plug-in versions of instruments that are dear to our heart and have a distinctive character.
The original GForce Oddity - 2001
At this point in the manual it’s customary for us to deliver a lecture on the history of the original instrument, explaining when it was first manufactured, all about the various revisions as well as a list of the many and varied illustrious players who helped make it famous.
However, since we released the first ever virtual Odyssey in 2001, the instrument has grown in stature to the point where, not only have others released me-too software emulations, it’s now being remade in hardware form by companies including Japanese giant, Korg. Leaving aside the apparent incongruity of a Japanese company remaking an iconic American synthesiser, this is something we’d never have envisaged back in 2001 as we slavishly maintained our beloved MkII Odyssey, pondering “Who on earth would be crazy enough to make a synth with sliders that require constant cleaning?”
It’s also strange for us to consider that while the original hardware Odyssey inspired Oddity, it’s highly possible that given the longevity and praise of Oddity, it may have inspired the remanufacture of a hardware version… or two.
GForce Oddity2 - 2014
Of course, in software, we can incorporate features that wouldn’t be cost effective or even sane to do in hardware. Polyphony is an obvious one, but so too was the patch morphing previously available on original Oddity and Oddity 2. The latter was an attempt to introduce expressive performance possibilities in the world of software, but after conducting a recent user survey, the overwhelming majority of Oddity aficionados admitted they didn’t use it. Instead, the main request was a resizable interface (something that was a mere pipe-dream back in 2001), a great set of onboard effects, polyphonic aftertouch, and modern Patch Management system.
Armed with those requests, the GForce team set to work, and the result is the Oddity 3 - software inspired by hardware, which in turn, inspired the remaking of hardware before further inspiring us us to evolve an instrument that we first brought to the world of software over 20 years ago, in line with feedback from the most important people in during those 21 years… our valued customers.
In closing though, it’s also important to give a respectful nod to ARP founder, Alan R Pearlman, someone we were fortunate enough to meet during the making of our Bright Sparks Documentary. Modest as ever, despite the fact the Odyssey was clearly influenced by the ARP 2600, when we asked about the Odyssey, Alan told us that it was mainly the design work and vision of David Friend. The same David Friend who kindly sent us the following message after the release of original Oddity back in 2001 and who consulted with Korg on their current hardware Odyssey.
*“Hi guys. My name is David Friend and I was a co-founder and president of ARP Instruments and the lead designer of the original Odyssey.
Dave Mash at Berklee College bought me a copy of your software and we had a lot of fun with it in his office today. You guys did a fantastic job of getting every detail right, including incorporating some features that we couldn’t have even dreamed of at the time (like memory).
One little known fact about the Odyssey is that there were actually two very different voltage controlled filters used in different production years. We started out with the same 24db/octave VCF that Al Pearlman had designed for the ARP 2600, but it was a little on the expensive side. Also, Bob Moog claimed that our filter design infringed on one of his patents. About a year into production, we switched to a 12 db/octave VCF that I had designed a few years prior. It changed the sound of the instrument, making it brighter and more nasal-sounding. I came to really dislike that sound, so we came up with a new and less expensive 24db/octave filter the next year. I would guess that 75% of all the Odysseys built used the 24db/oct filter.
Anyway, a few keyboard players recognized the difference and actually had both versions around. Steely Dan, for one, had both. That is, until one of them crapped out during a recording session. They took it out back and ran over it with a truck then drove a spike through it thus permanently affixing it to the wall of the Record Factory Studios in LA. They called me at 2 in the morning so I could hear them banging the spike through the instrument. Not what you want to hear, especially in the middle of the night. Anyway, until I got your box, it was the thinnest Odyssey in the world.
The very first Odysseys were white and had wood sides. There weren’t a lot of those made, maybe a few hundred.
The black one you use on the box was the mainstay production unit for two or three years. Toward the late 70s, we replaced the pitch-bending knob with three pressure sensitive pads for bending sharp, flat, and adding vibrato.
Over its lifetime, the Odyssey outsold the Minimoog by more than 2:1. The first synthesiser to be sold in retail music stores was the ARP 2600, back in 1971, I believe. I think I made the first sales call of a synthesiser manufacturer on a retail music store -- Manny’s Music on 46th St. in New York. They threw me out, but later became the biggest ARP dealer in the world.
By the way, the stability of the ARP VCOs was the result of simply brilliant analog design by Al Pearlman. He is the best analog engineer I’ve ever met. Precisely compensating for the temperature sensitive characteristics of a semiconductor junction is not easy, and Al understood it far better than any of the engineers at Moog who had horrible problems with stability.
Anyway, it certainly seemed strange when I first saw an instrument that I once had on my drawing board turning up in museums. But having one completely emulated in software is the really the ultimate! Thanks for this wonderful labor of love.”