ARP ODYSSEi 4+

Best iOS Synth by a mile in 2021

It took me forever to buy this, and I’m honestly shocked to say it is easily the most powerful synth I have in my collection, including the Model 15. Sorry Moog. You would never know what a beast this is just by looking at it.

The modulation and effects options on this really make it astonishingly flexible, particularly the sequencer. This thing can do it all, and can control nearly any parameter. You can combine and break the modulation pathways with just as much freedom as with a modular. Smartest design ever.

The synth itself sounds absolutely amazing, and the fact that you can choose a universal tuning setting (mine will be forever set to the beautifully unstable analog setting) is such a plus. There’s a great collection of filters and effects, and if you really analyze the presets you will quickly see you can do pretty much anything you want with it.

I do wish it had midi learn within the app. I was able to program the cc numbers into my launchkey 61, so it is fine, but that was rather tedious. Absolutely worth doing though.

So this is a genuine fully fledged virtual analog instrument that I wish I bought years ago. If I could only have one, this would be it. This could be my only drum machine too. Don’t miss out on it any longer.

Simply Amazing

I bought this synth many years ago when it first launched and I wasn’t into synths very much yet. Fast forward 5 years and I have bought over 15 synths from vintage analog to new hybrid. This version of the Odyssey keeps up with the best of my real life synths. Not only does it sound great, but also has multi-voice polyphony, incredibly real sounding filters, and effects modules that further make this synth one of the most versatile I’ve ever used. Running my iPad’s output into my audio interface and an analog outboard sweetener makes this synth indispensable for creative noodling to recording. I’m glad I pulled the trigger on this so long ago, because this synth is easily one of my favorite virtual synths ever made.

Developer Response ,

Hello, Chris.wav.
We're glad to hear you enjoy the Odyssey and other synths.
We hope to keep supporting you in your music journey with our apps and devices.
All the best,
KORG App Team

Excellent, but problematic

I have just purchased ODYSSEi, and for the most part, really like it. It's more like a true analog synth, with respect to programming, than most of my other iOS synth apps. This doesn't make it one of my favorite apps, but in terms of workflow, it's pretty analog. I am not hugely enamored with most of the stock sounds, but in a matter of a few minutes, I was able to tweak a few to my liking. What I find odd is that in hardware, Korg is truly one of my favorites, but I find this to be far from true in the iOS Korg app world. Inside of Gadget, ODYSSEi runs under a different name, and appears to underwhelm, severely. First of all, user edits in ODYSSEi don't show up when it's opened up in Gadget, which makes it almost useless for me, with respect to Gadget. Secondly, almost all the arps don't work when the app is opened up in Gadget. What a bummer, Korg!