Odo Synths

I guess I am DR Fusion's biggest fan! I bought Jamstix 1 and then upgraded to 2.0, but I just can't seem to get the great natural drum sounds from Jamstix that I can from DR Fusion! For my needs DR Fusion is the best freeware drum sampler for natural sounding drums out there. I've used DR Fusion in virtually all of my music and I love the sound, and recieve many compliments on my drums tracks - so it fits my needs well. Oh sure, Jamstix and many other drum systems have so many more nice features and options, but the sounds possible with DR Fusion keep me coming back!

I don't actually think the supplied samples are all that great when taken as a whole, but with some careful selection, mixing, and tuning you CAN get there. The indiviual outputs can be a big help in processing too. For my tastes, it would be so much better if there were a couple more user sample slots in order to achieve 3 cymbals (crash, ride, pang, bell ride, etc.) and at least 2 wing toms and a floor tom. All the claps, s-drums, and such are a waste (although the second snare can be used to give greater depth to the available snare sounds in a track -as in making the second snare be a rim shot, soft snare, or EFX snare, etc.). More cymbal and tom slots would be my change request.

My main point is - this is a solid freeware meat and potatoes drum system for natural sounding drums (it can make electro type drum sounds too, but I rarely use those). I don't know why it doesn't get more praise and love for all it CAN do. I'd be lost without it. THANKS Odo/Marc!!!

There aren't any reviews for some of Odo's gems (try Purple), so I thought I would take swing at reviewing this little synth.

First of all, Seeq One isn't your standard bass synth or bass sequencer. It seems designed to create a new genre of electronic music with bizarre, rumbling bass lines. It takes a while to wrap your head around the five different internal sequencers and gates and the mayhem that they can create, but the sequencers are what lie at the heart of this VSTi. With the sequencers and effects, you can create some awesome, unique rhythmic bass sounds.

The only fault I can find is that it seems there could be a little more variety with the presets (or perhaps it should come with fewer presets). They seemed to get a little repetative and they didn't delve into gates or the different rhythms that Seeq One is capable of creating. And because this thing is pretty unique, it would be good to have a some documentation. Even better, with a tutorial, I think more people would be able to get into Seeq One.

If you are looking for a way to create unique new electronic bass lines, download Seeq One and give it a rumble.

Who can resist the charm of the SID chip? Who'd of thought twenty+ years later folks would still desire the sound of this archaic technology? Well, desire they do, and now with Odo's fantastic and amazing Uknown64, they can have those sounds, for free!

Part of the charm of the SID was hearing it syncopated and arpeggiated into layers of lowbit soundscapes, and Unknown64 knows this! The arpeggiation controls are through the roof; note rooting, octave definition, and range setting. Your oscillators have all the classic generators, as well as ADSR to define and enhance the timbre. With vibrato control, ring modulation, pitch LFO (and pitch inversion), distortion, panning, filtering (and filter inversion), plus glide triggering (and even more) you can truly get vintage SID sounds screaming out of this little plug with minimal effort. That is not to say though, that you couldn't spend hours tweaking Unknown64 just to explore it's vast sound creation ability.

I feel that Unknown64 is hands down the best SID emulation VST you can find, and it's FREE. That makes it a no-brainer for anyone looking for Sound Interface Device tracks for their song, or chiptunes in general. I'm sure even Robert Yannes himself would blush over this marvelous bitkit.

PS The GUI is genius.

No review for this very good synth which is moreover free? Well, though I'm not very good at reviews I'll try to make one.

The Unknown Synth is probably the best sounding synth from Odo, and that's not saying little. The synth has two main oscillators and two other oscillators for phase modulation. You can achieve great sounds from this. The sounds are fat and perfect for leads and pads and basses, but basically for long strong sounds.

Then there are two filters which are actually not amazing but they do the job perfectly. They have adsr envelope. But the real gem of this synth is the arpeggiator. Perfect for trance melodies, when you'll listen to the sounds you can make from this another synth will come tou your mind. It starts with V. Unknown doesn't sound as good as this other synth but almost, but that's mostly because of the onboard effects of the latter. When you pass Unknown through a good chorus or a good reverb, you'll be amazed of the results.

But it's not only good for techno or trance. It's perfect for more industrial sounds, which is what i use it for. Add to it some distortion and you'll know what I mean.

The user interface is easy on the eye and the knobs are big. It aslso reminds that other synth...

There are not many presets, and those present are just ok. This synth would deserve a good bank or more of presets by good programmers.

Value for money: well, it's free!

Stability: it has never crashed on my host, Fl Studio. Never.

Its developer is also very accessible and always eager to improve his products, and that's something one cannot fail to appreciate.

All in all, though this synth is not the best sounding free synth available, it's definitely one of the best, and it's a bit underestimated I would say. Download it, you won't regret it.

Drumsynths are always a hit or miss affair. They're either fantastic or crap. Rhythms by Odo falls into the former. This is a drumsynth you don't want to miss. The primary reason I say that is because the sound Rhythms makes is esoteric to itself. It doesn't sound like any other drumsynth I've heard yet. I'm sure this has to with the fact that it creates the sound on the fly rather than relying on samples.

The sound of each drum element is extremely configurable thanks to being truly synthesized. There are extensive knobs to tweak each individual element, and thusly the sound palette for this drumsynth's output is immense. You can have cheesy thin C64ish beats, or thick pounding 808ish punches.

The only detraction from this drumsynth is actually a weakness that results from it's strength. The configurability is fantastic, but I feel it's represented a bit haphazardly. The knob count feels overwhelming, and I feel that the interface could be a bit more streamlined and organized more efficiently. Other than that however, the GUI is gorgeous.

If you enjoy such classics as E-Phonic's Drumatic series, or even Prodyon's NADS, then this is one drumsynth you simply cannot do without. It'll be sitting on my harddrive for years to come. Thanks Odo!

Kick Me Too comes with two free versions of pretty much the same synth: "Kick Me Too version 2" and "Kick Me Too Multi version 2." The Multi version allows you to bring the bass drum type waveform down an octave. The drum synths use keys C4, D4, D#4, E4, and F4. (This is really the only information given in the documentation). kmt has 10 presets, while kmt2m contains 16 presets showing off some of the unique sounds that these synths are capable of producing. The synths emit some rather deep and loud bass drum sounds, and very unique snare, tom, and/or hat sounds. You are given individual control over the volume, panning, pitch, phase mod, decay, time, height, and so on of each of the five drum sounds. These could compliment other "arcade VSTis" very well, or be handy if you’re after a unique synthetic drum sound.

Odo's A-Pad is a very competent and getting better VSTi. Although stated as a pad synthesizer to my tastes many of the presets are a bit harsh and may fit some styles of music. This sounds bad but it's actually good because A-Pad is a easy to program synth that can make lots of things well. It's good for basses but of course it does pads well.

The timbres available with the feature set are quite useful if you know how to program traditional subtractive synths. If not, this is a nice place to start. The basic sound engine has a hard sound with a metallic quality yet with some attention to A-Pad's filters you can warm it up considerably. There's a demo song I put up from the 1.0 version at http://artistlaunch.com/elektronique called, 'Green Sky After The Storm'. It uses several instances of A-Pad, no outboard effects, just the synth.

There is a 'floaty', 'spacey' sound to A-Pad that makes any timbre style you choose appealing for ambience. While not the absolute best it is good and deserving of your time.

People are often critical of SynthEdit based VST instruments but synths like A-Pad prove you can make good sounds with it.

The interface is attractive and well thought out. If there was documentation I missed or failed to bother reading it. Although useful for different sounds A-Pad is to a degree an intentional one trick pony. As a free synth the only thing lost are a few minutes to download, set up and try it which you should consider if anything in this review sounds appealing to you.