Xaoc Devices Odessa: full guide and fresh patch ideas using additive synthesis

video upload by Tom Churchill

"Odessa, by Xaoc Devices, is one of my favourite modular sound sources. At the time of recording, it’s been available for well over three years, but as far as I can see it’s still pretty much the only Eurorack voice of its type - a one-knob-per-function, five-voice paraphonic, digital additive oscillator - and I think it’s often still a bit misunderstood.

So I thought now might be a good time to take a fresh look at Odessa and see how it stacks up in 2023. If you’re an owner who hasn’t used it for a while, I hope it inspires you to dig in again, and either way, I hope you just enjoy some of the sounds and maybe learn a bit about additive synthesis in the process.

Note: I’ve done a few videos in collaboration with Xaoc Devices recently, but this isn’t one of them. I bought Odessa with my own hard-earned cash last year, so it’s not sponsored - I’m making this purely as a fanboy and I have no other agenda.

Chapters:
00:00 Introduction
02:05 Patch previews
03:33 Odessa 101
16:20 Simple sequencing
19:00 Mixing modulation
21:13 Dirtied-up techno loops
24:38 Deep house chord stabs
29:00 Synthetic percussion effects
32:09 Animating Harmonic Factor
36:42 Through-zero FM tones
39:01 Sequencing paraphonic chords"