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Why didn't they do it like this in the first place ???

Posted: Thu Aug 23, 2007 2:49 pm
by ulrichte
I'm currently modding my Prodyssey, by adding a keyboard.
Actually it's finished, it's perfectly working. I only have to put some nice woodside and do the paint job on the keyboard's panel.

What I did:
- change the sliders caps to match colorful original Arp Odyssey caps
- added a 25 keyboard with aftertouch (originally a E-mu Xboard 25).
- Unit has now its dedicated volume slider.
- The three led switchs under pitch and mod wheels correspond to: Octave - / Latch / Octave +
- The three little pots next to volume sliders correspond to: pitch bend range / aftertouch to filter range / aftertouch to pitch range.
- The 2 switchs next to the pots correspond to: env retrigger / last note mode

I'll post pictures of final result but so far here is what it looks like:
Image


Image

Posted: Thu Aug 23, 2007 2:51 pm
by hifiboom
yeah thats awesome !

great looking. :)

Re: Why didn't they do it like this in the first place ???

Posted: Thu Aug 23, 2007 10:59 pm
by Anna Lüse
ulrichte wrote:Why didn't they do it like this in the first place ???
You will find the answer in the idea of MIDI.

Posted: Fri Aug 24, 2007 3:31 am
by gregae
Very nice!

Was wondering about the short two-octave range on the keyboard, though. Seems like it might be a bit restricting for polyphonic playing.

Excellent workmanship!

Posted: Fri Aug 24, 2007 9:57 am
by Mr Arkadin
gregae wrote: Was wondering about the short two-octave range on the keyboard, though. Seems like it might be a bit restricting for polyphonic playing.
Polyphonic? On an Odyssey? Heresy i say :P

Cute job though - great way for trying out ideas, using MIDI later if you need to.

Posted: Sun Aug 26, 2007 7:55 am
by pac
I'm selling my Prodyssey at the moment, it's still in original condition :wink:
http://cgi.ebay.de/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vie ... :IT&ih=016

Posted: Sun Aug 26, 2007 11:27 am
by hubird
great job man :-)

Posted: Mon Aug 27, 2007 1:04 am
by slammah2012
It is about 1 octave short of my ARP AXXE, but looks almost identical with the colour caps

I would like to mount 2 prodyssey units into an old 5 octave kbd....

Posted: Mon Aug 27, 2007 7:35 am
by ulrichte
thanx for the replies. Glad (some of) you like it.
BTW the Prodyssey has not been modified at all. I didn't opened the box, it's still under warranty. I just removed the caps and side panels, that's all.
As for the 2 octave, well it can be limitating but I don't play polyphonic chords a la JM Jarre so the 2 octaves with octave transpose buttons is ok in my case.

Posted: Mon Aug 27, 2007 1:23 pm
by astroman
no poly-chords is even more well-done... :D
a very nice prototype - if you're happy with the performance it's even worth to exchange the wooden elements to more solid ones of the same walnut(?) as on the ASB.
Probably a bit tricky to get that stuff, but it would add just that perfect final touch

congrats, Tom

oh, I just noticed it's not tricky at all... IKEA bathroom furnitures of the Molnar series are made of massive walnut... :D

Posted: Tue Sep 04, 2007 7:25 am
by semtek
That's insane.

Would you consider doing another mod like this?

If so how much would you charge?

Posted: Wed Sep 05, 2007 5:46 am
by ulrichte
Actually, yeah I thought of doing another one.
What I'd probably do is sell this one finished and start another one because I don't know how much I could charge if I was to do someone else's.
E-mu keyboard costs around 100 euros, electronic parts and caps probably 50, and casing, srews and things I forgot about 100(Schaeffer did the keyboard panel. Not as cheap as if done by myself but a nice and solid aluminum panel).
So, there's already more than 200 euros just for the material.
Then there are some long hours of work. It would of course be easier the second time, because I have the prototype.
I guess then that I would sell the finished one for a fixed price and start another one instead. I have to find another one though, second hand.
I could of course do all the casing and send it to you and you would just need to put the Prodyssey into place (because as I said, I didn't mod the prodyssey at all, it's just screwed there).

Posted: Sat Sep 08, 2007 7:57 am
by ulrichte
Here is the finished version
Image

Image

Posted: Sat Sep 08, 2007 9:47 am
by hifiboom
very nice :D

great engineering skills

Posted: Sun Sep 09, 2007 3:39 pm
by steven2948
Very Nice ! Maybe you could make a 3.5 octave version similar to the minimax keyboard mod as per the link:-

http://members.optusnet.com.au/~steve_m ... index.html

Posted: Mon Sep 10, 2007 4:37 am
by ulrichte
I could have done it yeah but I wanted to keep it smallest possible, this is for live purpose mainly. And also, I just it more as a lead/FX synth that pad/chord.
Furthermore with octave +/- button it's easy to flip through octave.
And finally I can still plug a masterkeyboard in the midi in.

Posted: Mon Sep 10, 2007 4:45 am
by bill3107
damn, you are just amazing ... congrats !!!!!! Prodyssey is one of my soniccore favorites :D .... Your customized version is beatiful...

Jo

Posted: Mon Sep 10, 2007 8:05 pm
by radar23
Hi nice work great idea.

Can I ask? Where did you purchace the coloured slider caps from? I would like to put them on my Prodyssey, since I have noticed the standard caps ware out the printed lines on the ASB surface.

Cheers

Radar

Posted: Tue Sep 11, 2007 12:29 am
by ulrichte
I bought them at mouser.com
These are switch caps, but by twisting them they fit nicely on the sliders.

http://www.mouser.com/catalog/628/1339.pdf

Posted: Thu Sep 13, 2007 1:09 am
by Le Bone
Very, very, very nice. well done.

I have put my prodyssey and PRO-12 into a L shaped wooden console thing but it does not look as gorgeous as this. Great thinking on putting switches/sliders etc for the hidden performance options. Really adds value to to it. Just needs the orange paint job on the original decals!