VIVALDI - Autumn Part 1 (excerpt) on SIX (5) Korg Arp Odysseys

video upload by Richard Payne

"Was programming in the MIDI notes for Part 3 of Summer (it’s coming …) when I got sidetracked by this lovely bit of Autumn.

Vivaldi’s accompanying sonnet describes this moment as “the drunkards have fallen asleep” which, 10 days into my sobriety I’m enjoying a lot. Vicariously.

One of my favourite things on the Odyssey is the ability to have the White Noise from the S&H section modulating the Filter. Giving it a sort of grainy, crackly sound. I do this a lot and you can hear it on Odyssey #1 and #4 at the very start, each playing single notes panned slightly left and right.

There’s some Reverb from UAD’s Lexicon 224 but other than that, absolutely no other processing or EQ.

Oh, as I mentioned before, Odyssey #3 got damaged on the boat to Australia from the UK and while it's waiting to be repaired is being (well) represented here by a colour photocopy, sellotaped onto some cardboard."

You can find additional VIVALDI performances by Richard Payne here.

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.

VIVALDI - Summer Part 2 on SIX Arp ODYSSEYS

video upload by Richard Payne

Part 1 here

"Summer Part 2 (side B?) is great. Lovely melody. Nice and slow. There's a musical term for that tempo. Al Dente I think.

Added a little more filth from the Odysseys here. There's a nice fuzzy / crackly sound you can get from sending white noise from the sample & hold section to the filter. I chucked some of that on and a bit more white noise on the noisey bits.

As before. I grabbed hold of the score, whittled it down into 6 tracks for the Odysseys and programmed the MIDI into Ableton. Well, 5 tracks really. The Odyssey FS on it's side is doing the Doof.

Ableton is spitting out MIDI to the six Odysseys here over USB and I'm fidgeting around with them and recording the audio back into Ableton. I added a bit of Reverb and EQ from Ableton and there you have it. Filmed on my iPhone.

Boom! So Part 3 is up next and that's a flippin' doozie! Giddyup!!"