As far back as the 1960s, it wasn't at all uncommon for keyboardists to run their outputs through effects, either guitar pedals or studio rackmount gear. That's why ODC 2800 comes with a set of five built-in Effects.
You can easily tweak each one to taste, bypass it, finely control its interaction with the synthesizer's audio path, and even modulate the entire chain with its own Effects Modulator.
First we're going to start at the bottom. Under each effect is a set of controls that are always accessible, even in Keyboard View. These are the controls most likely to be needed quickly while playing.
FX On/Off- Bypasses the entire Effects chain
Level- Adjusts the level of the entire Effects chain
Stereo- widens the stereo image of the sound after the Effects
Next, each of the five Effects has the following controls:
On/Off
Solo (bypasses all other Effects)
Modulation Amount (from the Effect Modulator)
Wet/Dry Mix
When we open the Effects View, we are presented with detailed controls for the five Effects, which we'll go through in order. But first, as we look to the left:
Sometimes it's handy, or just plain cool, to have a way to mess with effects parameters without having to use up modulation sources from elsewhere. The Effect Modulator does just that for the Effects chain.
The Effect Modulator is essentially an independent LFO that can apply modulation to any or all of the Effects, one parameter per Effect.
Speed- The LFO cycle rate, either 0.01 Hz to 20 Hz, or 1/64th triplet to 8 beats when the Sync button is activated. The LED above the Speed knob flashes at the set rate, with its intensity changing based on the selected Waveform.
Waveform- Chooses between ramp, sawtooth, triangle, sine, square, and random.
Delay- How long it takes for the Modulation to take effect, ramping up from zero when a note is first played. It ranges from 0.0 ms to 5000 ms (5 seconds). Note that if you play legato, the Delay doesn't reset.
Mod Wheel- Assigns the Mod Wheel to control how much of the Effect Modulator signal is passed to the Effects. When this button is on, all of the Effects have zero modulation, and using the wheel brings modulation in until it reaches the amount set on the Mod slider.
Because who doesn't like a little extra gnarl on their leads or basses?
The Distortion has four different modes:
Tube (emulating an overdriven guitar amp)
Fuzz (emulating a Germanium fuzz box circuit)
Sat (tape saturation)
EQ (the equalizer on its own)
The first three modes have controls for Drive and Level, and all four modes have ±15 dB gain for Bass, Middle, and Treble, with a sweepable Mid Band frequency.
In Tube, Fuzz, and Sat modes, Drive is the modulatable parameter. In EQ mode, Mid Band is modulatable.
One very popular (and very expensive!) effect from the same era as the Odyssey was the Mu-Tron Biphase, a dual phase shifter with a glorious sound. Here, have one for free. No, really, it's on us.
The two phase shifters are almost identical in their function sets and parameter ranges. Each one has controls for:
Speed- phaser rate, from 0.01 Hz to 8 Hz, or 8 beats to 1/64th triplet when the Sync switch in the lower left corner is On
A switch lets you choose between synchronizing both Speeds to Phaser 1, or letting the two free run independently.
Depth- Amount of the phaser effect
Stages- How many allpass filters are active in each phaser circuit. Each pair of stages creates one sweepable frequency notch, so fewer stages result in a gentler phasing, while more stages produce more aggressive phasing.
Phaser 1 can choose between 4 and 8 stages (2 or 4 notches)
Phaser 2 can choose between 6 and 12 stages (3 or 6 notches)
Resonance- This adds resonance to give a sharper and more hollow sound.
There's also a Mix knob to balance the two phasers; this can be controlled by the Effect Modulator.
These are two of the most popular effects making use of very short time delays, modulated by an LFO. Flanging mixes a dry signal with one delayed by (in this case) between 1.0 and 13 ms, creating a comb filter effect. Chorusing uses time delays in the 30 ms neighborhood to thicken a sound and simulate the sound of multiple sources rather than just one.
Flanger controls include:
Flanger Speed- LFO sweep rate, from 0.01 Hz to 8 Hz, or 8 beats to 1/64th triplet when the Sync switch in the lower left corner is On
Depth- Amount of the flanger effect
Delay- The basic delay time that's modulated by the LFO, ranging from 1.0 to 13 ms. The smaller the Delay, the higher-frequency the notches will sound.
Resonance- Turning this up creates the whooshing "jet" flanger sound.
Chorus controls include:
Chorus Speed- LFO sweep rate, from 0.01 Hz to 8 Hz, or 8 beats to 1/64th triplet when Sync is On
Depth- Amount of the chorus effect
Waveform- The LFO waveform will drastically change the sound of the chorus effect. Choices include sine, triangle, sawtooth, and ramp.
The Mix knob controls the blend of the flanger and chorus; this can be controlled by the Effect Modulator.
Stompbox delay pedals and tape echo boxes were and are popular additions to keyboard rigs, so having one here is pretty much a given, right?
The Echo offers a choice of three modes:
Digital- A clean digital delay that would have set you back a lot of money in the 1970s
Tape- A rich tape-loop delay sound with plenty of saturation and no mangled tapes
Ping Pong- A classic effect where echo taps alternate between left and right channels.
Controls include:
Delay Time- Adjustable from 1.0 ms to 2000 ms (2 seconds), or 8 beats to 1/64th triplet when the Sync switch in the lower left corner is On. This can be controlled by the Effect Modulator.
Feedback- How much of the delayed signal is fed back to the input for repeating echoes. Ranges from 0% (single slapback echo) to 100% (echoes that never die away). For certain settings of Feedback and Delay Time, the Tape mode can produce runaway echoes and "bathtub reverb" effects.
Spread- Stereo width of the delay signal.
Damp- High-frequency damping, to make echoes more soft and bassy than the dry signal.
Mod Rate and Mod Depth- Controls for modulating the Delay Time for everything from mild chorusing to heavy pitch glitching. Mod Rate has a range of 0.2 Hz to 20 Hz and does not follow the Sync switch.
Now here's an effect that wasn't available for any reasonable amount of money in the 1970s, and certainly wouldn't fit into a stompbox! In the 1970s, the only small and reasonably portable reverbs were the spring tanks in guitar amps and tape echoes like the RE-201 Space Echo. If you wanted a plate reverb, you had to go to a studio that had one built into a wall, and if you wanted room or hall ambience, you found a room or a hall. Digital reverbs were obscenely expensive, huge, delicate boxes only suitable for studio racks, and you couldn't hope for a nice huge outer-space ambience without one.
Well, guess what? Yep. This Reverb lets you choose between Room, Hall, Plate, Spring, and Galactic. (What's a "Galactic" reverb? Try it and see, young padawan.)
The Reverb has common controls for all five of its modes. They are:
Decay- The "size" of the space, which can be controlled with the Effect Modulator
Highpass and Lowpass- filters on the reverb input to limit high ringiness and low mud. Each has a cutoff frequency range of 20 Hz to 20 kHz.
Predelay- The time before the onset of reverb, from 0.0 ms to 150 ms. Longer Predelays give the impression of larger spaces. Note that the Spring doesn't have a Predelay setting.