Korg updates its Legacy Collection with a new Arp Odyssey emulation

[Stefken]

I wonder a bit since there are almost tons of videos when such synths are released. Still nothing to see about the plug-in version of Odyssey.

Yes, i"m also puzzled about the total lack of demo or videos. Absolutely nothing to be found.

[Weasel-Boy]

I have a theory regarding the huge CPU hit many of the Odyssey’s presets are presenting. My guess is that the programmers did their work on the stand-alone version, initially starting with the voice count set at 16, regardless of whether the patch called for it or not. That and the suspicion that the voice allocation routines were not optimized in the code when the plug-in was released. I say this because they may not have noticed the CPU hit if they were programming in this manner. Just a guess. EvilDragon notes multiple core optimization as a possible issue. I agree, that too, needs to be looked into.

I went through dozens of the presets to discover that reducing voice count on a good deal of them dramatically improved CPU usage without compromising the sound of the preset. I would suggest dropping the voice count when you encounter one of the overloading presets, to see if it improves CPU usage vs the sound of the preset for the particular song you’re working with. It’s worth a shot.

Some other thoughts:

Being a v1.0 release, I believe this is par for the course. One of the nagging things I found is the manner in which fine tuning a parameter is implemented. It is very difficult to hit an exact number quickly. An exact value can be achieved, but the process is hampered by mouse behavior when (at least over here, on a Mac) Command is held to permit fine tuning. This is particularly troublesome when setting an oscillator’s coarse frequency.

You may have noticed that setting an oscillator’s coarse frequency doesn’t quantize to exact note steps as you near an exact 1/12th step (00, 01, 02…etc) interval, so, fine tuning has to come into play to set an exact interval value. That’s where the process gets iffy and it really needs to be addressed. Personally, I’d prefer if the course tuner would quantize as it approaches each 1/12th step and let the fine tuner take care of the fine tuning.

I really enjoy the Arpeggiator’s feature set, with one reservation. The 16 slider programming section could really use a “click/hold/swipe” function to permit a quick sweep across the array to set a drawn curve of the sliders in one go. With a mod key, the swipe could be constrained. It’d really speed up programming the thing. Other than that, it's a pretty fun feature to play with.

[Harry_HH]

I have a theory regarding the huge CPU hit many of the Odyssey’s presets are presenting. My guess is that the programmers did their work on the stand-alone version, initially starting with the voice count set at 16, regardless of whether the patch called for it or not. That and the suspicion that the voice allocation routines were not optimized in the code when the plug-in was released. I say this because they may not have noticed the CPU hit if they were programming in this manner. Just a guess. EvilDragon notes multiple core optimization as a possible issue. I agree, that too, needs to be looked into.

I went through dozens of the presets to discover that reducing voice count on a good deal of them dramatically improved CPU usage without compromising the sound of the preset. I would suggest dropping the voice count when you encounter one of the overloading presets, to see if it improves CPU usage vs the sound of the preset for the particular song you’re working with. It’s worth a shot.

Some other thoughts:

Being a v1.0 release, I believe this is par for the course. One of the nagging things I found is the manner in which fine tuning a parameter is implemented. It is very difficult to hit an exact number quickly. An exact value can be achieved, but the process is hampered by mouse behavior when (at least over here, on a Mac) Command is held to permit fine tuning. This is particularly troublesome when setting an oscillator’s coarse frequency.

You may have noticed that setting an oscillator’s coarse frequency doesn’t quantize to exact note steps as you near an exact 1/12th step (00, 01, 02…etc) interval, so, fine tuning has to come into play to set an exact interval value. That’s where the process gets iffy and it really needs to be addressed. Personally, I’d prefer if the course tuner would quantize as it approaches each 1/12th step and let the fine tuner take care of the fine tuning.

I really enjoy the Arpeggiator’s feature set, with one reservation. The 16 slider programming section could really use a “click/hold/swipe” function to permit a quick sweep across the array to set a drawn curve of the sliders in one go. With a mod key, the swipe could be constrained. It’d really speed up programming the thing. Other than that, it's a pretty fun feature to play with.

The fact that the first version of the installers did not work with Windows DAW installation, supports your theory. In any case, there must be something terrible wrong how the plugin uses the resources under the (Win/Live) DAW.
I agree your point concering the need for different arpeggiator slider adjusting. Both swiping and ready-made patterns (which could be imported/exported) would be welcome. But you may noticed that the mouse right click over the sliders makes possible to randomize the sliders - this is better than noting.

The plugin sounds great, has rather clever interface - but is a bit pain in the neck at the same time.

[EvilDragon]

I wish we could disable the virtual keyboard in Odyssey. Takes so much space, and when the top (FX/arp) part is displayed, even 1200p of my monitor aren't enough.

[virtualpt]

Sorry to ask again but i didn´t find an answer here and Korg won´t help me out with a demo yet.
Anyone used this on a macbook pro and Logic Pro X?
I mean 70 dollar is not bad for a fine working synths which sounds so good but expensive for a demo.
I wonder a bit since there are almost tons of videos when such synths are released. Still nothing to see about the plug-in version of Odyssey.

I am using on 2011 MBP 2Ghz i7, Logic 10.3.2 & am loving it. Yes there are some presets that are major CPU hogs, but they are generally those with high polyphony. I'm not looking for an Odyssey to be polyphonic. If I really want to use one of those presets, I'll bounce or freeze the track. I find that I have to do that for a lot of things lately, if I want good quality emulations, but it just reminds me of the old days, pre DAW, where everything was recorded to tape & then mixed. At some point I will upgrade my MBP, but I love the freedom of working on a laptop & the new MBPs aren't that much higher specced, so will wait a while.

Back to the Odyssey - it sounds wonderful & is great fun to play with. I would say just buy it, I don't think you will be disappointed & if you are (which I doubt once you play with it), get a refund from Korg. HTH

[HiEnergy]

I upgraded from KLC to their new KC with Odyssey. I read before that the new version requires Internet for activation, so I got myself a GSM/UMTS SIM device for temporarily connecting to the Internet. Activation worked smoothly, the new plug-ins worked... until I removed the temporary Internet connection. After that the activation dialogue popped up every time I tried to instantiate one of those plug-ins.
I restored the old KLC from a backup, filed a support case with Korg and consider those 50 USD wasted.
Warning: Do not buy this when your only means of getting an Internet connection is a temporary one.

[Cinebient]

Sorry to ask again but i didn´t find an answer here and Korg won´t help me out with a demo yet.
Anyone used this on a macbook pro and Logic Pro X?
I mean 70 dollar is not bad for a fine working synths which sounds so good but expensive for a demo.
I wonder a bit since there are almost tons of videos when such synths are released. Still nothing to see about the plug-in version of Odyssey.

I am using on 2011 MBP 2Ghz i7, Logic 10.3.2 & am loving it. Yes there are some presets that are major CPU hogs, but they are generally those with high polyphony. I'm not looking for an Odyssey to be polyphonic. If I really want to use one of those presets, I'll bounce or freeze the track. I find that I have to do that for a lot of things lately, if I want good quality emulations, but it just reminds me of the old days, pre DAW, where everything was recorded to tape & then mixed. At some point I will upgrade my MBP, but I love the freedom of working on a laptop & the new MBPs aren't that much higher specced, so will wait a while.

Back to the Odyssey - it sounds wonderful & is great fun to play with. I would say just buy it, I don't think you will be disappointed & if you are (which I doubt once you play with it), get a refund from Korg. HTH

Thank you very much.
So my machine would maybe perform a bit better since i have the 2Ghz i7 from late 2013.
I have no problem at all if these are cpu hogs as long as they tried to optimize the shit out of it.
Like i said, it would maybe don´t care if i had not the iOS version.
But here is the exact same quality sound engine (but with 8 voices only) and i can run between 5-10 on my lame iPhone 6S plus at 128 sample buffer.
So i would expect at least the same amount on my macbook at 16 voices.
But it seems that is not the case.
If i can use just 1-2 instances and even not all presets i better just record it via my iPhone into Logic. Or are we really at a point where mobile devices are more powerful for real performance?
I hope not. I even consider an iPad just for synth usage since there are a few good synths which are on par with this in sound as well there are even more complex (Zeeon f.e.) and i also can run several instances on my freaking phone.
But then i also can run 5-8 Repro-5. So it might be just this plug-in.

[bill45]

RME UFX+ over here.

But that has nothing to do with PDC, really.

I Understand that it has nothing to do with PDC.The interface drivers do have something
To do with plugin CPU load.I'm using Cubase 9.5,win 7.and a focusrite Scarlette 6i6.
The odyssey is eating my Xeon 5670 for breakfast,at 1024 buffers.I didn't mean to hijack the PDC discussion.

[Weasel-Boy]

EvilDragon said:
"I wish we could disable the virtual keyboard in Odyssey. Takes so much space, and when the top (FX/arp) part is displayed, even 1200p of my monitor aren't enough."

Ha! You said it. It took me a while when I first started playing with it before I realized the Effects and Arppegiator were off screen at the top. Yes, an improved set of view icons would be welcomed.

I wouldn't mind a set of model-type selections sitting in the menubar either.

[Cinebient]

EvilDragon said:
"I wish we could disable the virtual keyboard in Odyssey. Takes so much space, and when the top (FX/arp) part is displayed, even 1200p of my monitor aren't enough."

Ha! You said it. It took me a while when I first started playing with it before I realized the Effects and Arppegiator were off screen at the top. Yes, an improved set of view icons would be welcomed.

I wouldn't mind a set of model-type selections sitting in the menubar either.

That seems also a thing they ported from iOS. But can you at least use the virtual keyboard to make note slides in mono/legato mode? That could be useful for me at least sometimes.
Also is that right that there isn´t the XY pads. These are awesome and i could use them (even not both at the same time) on my mac. Otherwise it is even stripped down. Nah, Korg. Not good!

[bill45]

Just a small report, which continues the reports of CPU-hog nature of Odyssey. especially of some presets.

I just installed the Legacy upgrade Odyssey (BTW, the authorization does not function in the normal way with the Win 10/Firefox, anyway, I noticed that even the Korg has noticed that, because there´s a note in their help that "shut down Windows if the authorization doesn´t reply, I had to try 5 times before it worked).

Anyway, I´ve tested about 30 presets and most of the edit settings. The lowest CPU hit is 20-30 %, the highest 112 % (!), average maybe 50 %. About one third of the tested presets are more or less useless. Its obvious, that Korg has to re-write some parts of the program.

But Odyessey sounds basicly very good, interesting piece, e.g. the feature of setting the Arp modulation parameters.

My desktop is i7 7700K CPU 4,2 GHz, 4 core, 16 RAM, Win 10, Live 9.7. Laptop I have not tested.

Harry,what interface and buffer settings are you using?

[Harry_HH]

UA-25-EX
Buffer size 640 samples
Input latency 17,3 ms
Output latency 31,0 ms

I may change the buffer size depending always the setup, the plugins I use (e.g. Melodyne plugin needs a large buffer), for the mic recording setup the latency smaller,
but the above is moderate in the box settings, which allow to run plugins with a safe margin, usually.

[bill45]

I have a theory regarding the huge CPU hit many of the Odyssey’s presets are presenting. My guess is that the programmers did their work on the stand-alone version, initially starting with the voice count set at 16, regardless of whether the patch called for it or not. That and the suspicion that the voice allocation routines were not optimized in the code when the plug-in was released. I say this because they may not have noticed the CPU hit if they were programming in this manner. Just a guess. EvilDragon notes multiple core optimization as a possible issue. I agree, that too, needs to be looked into.

I went through dozens of the presets to discover that reducing voice count on a good deal of them dramatically improved CPU usage without compromising the sound of the preset. I would suggest dropping the voice count when you encounter one of the overloading presets, to see if it improves CPU usage vs the sound of the preset for the particular song you’re working with. It’s worth a shot.

Some other thoughts:

Being a v1.0 release, I believe this is par for the course. One of the nagging things I found is the manner in which fine tuning a parameter is implemented. It is very difficult to hit an exact number quickly. An exact value can be achieved, but the process is hampered by mouse behavior when (at least over here, on a Mac) Command is held to permit fine tuning. This is particularly troublesome when setting an oscillator’s coarse frequency.

You may have noticed that setting an oscillator’s coarse frequency doesn’t quantize to exact note steps as you near an exact 1/12th step (00, 01, 02…etc) interval, so, fine tuning has to come into play to set an exact interval value. That’s where the process gets iffy and it really needs to be addressed. Personally, I’d prefer if the course tuner would quantize as it approaches each 1/12th step and let the fine tuner take care of the fine tuning.

I really enjoy the Arpeggiator’s feature set, with one reservation. The 16 slider programming section could really use a “click/hold/swipe” function to permit a quick sweep across the array to set a drawn curve of the sliders in one go. With a mod key, the swipe could be constrained. It’d really speed up programming the thing. Other than that, it's a pretty fun feature to play with.

Dropping the voice count Helped thanks.

[Aloysius]

I wonder a bit since there are almost tons of videos when such synths are released. Still nothing to see about the plug-in version of Odyssey.

Yes, i"m also puzzled about the total lack of demo or videos. Absolutely nothing to be found.

May have been a deadline to meet (Christmas and New Year). Get product out. Get money in. Refine later.

[BONES]

Something that I don't think anyone has mentioned is that the new Collection is strictly 64 bit only, which is very limiting for me, I'm afraid. I was quite keen to upgrade but that's enough to stop me because I still use my 32 bit SE synths very heavily and Orion is an either/or proposition for 32/64 bit.

The other thing that puts me off is the lack of demo versions to try before I buy, especially in the context of high CPU use mentioned here.