VIVALDI - Summer Part 1 on SIX Arp ODYSSEYS

video upload by Richard Payne

"It's Summer! And I DO flipping love an Arp Odyssey ...

I ended up buying a couple after I sold my modular synth in 2020 and since then have been picking them up as and when I can afford them. Or when there has been a little space on a credit card for one.

I played the 3 that I rackmounted at a friends wedding a little while ago, under the guise of Richard Payne: Wedding Synthesist! I did half an hour of classical followed by the 'Here Comes The Bride' and the 'There Goes The Bride" classics. Sort of like what a church organist would do. But sounding a bit more like the Clockwork Orange soundtrack.

Anyway, it was a huge amount of fun and so when I'm not using them to make bleepy beats I've been fiddling with the classical stuff for my own amusement. Who knows, maybe the Wedding Synthesist will ride again!

So, to make these 'pieces' I downloaded a few different scores from t'interwebs and programmed the midi into Ableton. Had to compile and correct a few things and also choose my favourite handful of parts so I could cover the 24 or so instruments with my 6 Odysseys. I matched the tempo changes against a couple of recorded versions of the piece and then added a 'donk' on a spare Odyssey for good measure.

The synths are being controlled by Ableton but for the wedding gig I recorded the midi onto an old Yamaha MDF2 so I didn't have to use my laptop.

I'll get onto Part 2 next and sling it up on here ..." Update: you can find Part 2 here.