Xaoc Devices Odessa | Full guide and patch ideas for additive synthesis

[@Ellende]

It’s a been a favorite of us since it came out. Although fully digital it often produces very 70’s Kraftwerk or Michael Rother type of sound.

[@ThMntnst]

Ha, I did know that I heard the Odessa in your musicl output. Some things just stick out (nicely!) - great music btw.

[@digital_crickets]

This is one of those videos that got me patching in the first 10 minutes, and then I missed the rest while exploring... Now I'll have to watch it again!

[@TomChurchill]

Haha, always a good sign - happy to have inspired you! :)

[@nickolasyounker]

Best Odessa video out there! Solid work again Tom! 👏👏👏👏👏

[@TomChurchill]

Thanks man!

[@mcolville]

I have an Odessa, I used it for drones and love it, but I knew there was a lot more to it. This video not only convinced me to go dive back in, but also grab some Leibniz modules. Thanks Tom!

[@TomChurchill]

Excellent! Enjoy :)

[@akuro2685]

Odessa is so underrated. You can get such a wide variety of sounds out of it; so many sounds that I could never even come close to with other voices.

[@chonbaquer]

xaoc is doing utterly interesting things in eurorack. i adore their approach

[@thesoundsmith]

Wow! What a unit. Just looking at the knobs and I/O, I wish I had known about this when I was doing synth works. Even monophonic I'd have had two. Eurorack IS alive and well. How delicious. Make a great noise, people!

[@real_anxst]

Brilliant video as usual. Absolutely love seeing someone else enjoying the Odessa as much as I do, especially using it for weird percussive sounds, one of my fave things! Odessa is still my favourite voice I own.

[@TomChurchill]

Thanks! Yeah, it really shines as a percussive voice, which is something I hadn't really tried much before researching this video. Now I want to try pairing it with Traffic to make a mini percussion kit!

[@russ254]

what a tour de force video (i don’t even own this module) - consciousness-expanding, thanks Tom

[@XiXora]

Perfect explanation of this module here. I actually understood it. So glad you had that example of using the Leibniz bus (in a musical way) at the end too.

[@MonotrailTechTalk]

Hmmm, tasty. Such a lovely oscillator :) And good job!

[@TomChurchill]

Cheers! Glad I finally found the time to make this one, it was a lot of fun going deep into Odessa for the patches...

[@gumbochamp]

Favourite oscillator ever. Always giving me something new. Glad to see it getting some love ❤️

[@electrummodularmusic]

Great video, as ever! Also loved the rainbow pride color scheme at 21:13!

[@AndyVonal]

Brilliant demonstration of the abilities of this module... another to add to my ever growing shopping list! Thanks Tom!

[@TomChurchill]

You're very welcome, glad you enjoyed it! :)

[@turbotambourine]

Woah! Well done with that walkthrough! I’ve always looked at Odessa’s panel to be puzzled by it. This was amazing. Sounds so good! Thank you!

[@devinobrien3201]

wow. great vid. so much I didn't know about this unit.

[@allhandsmusic]

I was very excited to see this come up in my feed! Doing deep research on what my next VCO should be, and this is very high on my list. Great stuff! There just wasn't enough on Odessa out there.

[@TomChurchill]

Cheers, hope it helps with the research!

[@jaygregory8219]

Great patches!! And thanks for the great breakdown of the module! I've had it on my radar for a long time, you really show its range a beauty here. I especially loved the simple sequencing and paraphonic chords patches!

[@TomChurchill]

Cheers, glad you enjoyed it!

[@Probbie]

Holy flip, that thing sounds so good! 👌

[@bammersify]

Thanks Tom! Odessa masterclass.

[@DavidLilja]

First of all, thank you for making a demo with melodies and pleasing sounds! There are too few of those videos and I’ve been thinking about doing that type of content myself. Secondly, the sound itself and melody for the opening of the video is absolutely amazing! Thanks for a great walkthrough. Now I really want an Odessa.

[@HANGINGOUTWITHAUDIOPHILES]

first time here. This is an excellent guide. What a wonderful tone generator in the right hands :)

[@TomChurchill]

Thanks Jamie! Big big fan of the podcast so that means a lot. (And you've just reminded me I've been meaning to join the Patreon for months now - done!) Hope you enjoy the vids :)

[@HANGINGOUTWITHAUDIOPHILES]

You’re a gent. If you had a patreon id be following you right back!

[@LeoPerantoni]

Moskwa is one of my favorite looking eurorack modules. Everything about it is so sexy. I kinda want one just because of the looks haha

[@TomChurchill]

I agree - and the Xaoc stuff looks even sexier all lined up together. One of the few brands I'd really like to collect the whole set! ;)

[@Lightbath]

Wow, what a great exploration of Odessa!

[@Lightbath]

Also, those paraphonic chords with Erfurt twinkles is 💪

[@TomChurchill]

Cheers! Big fan of your stuff so that means a lot 🙏

[@gesslr]

I keep coming back to this video…just bought an Odessa and Hel yesterday. 🙂

[@RobertCharlesMann]

Well, I have to say you have some wonderful patches and draw something special out of the Odessa. I had one for over a year and produced a couple tracks with it, but unhappily I ended up selling it simply because I couldn't removed the fundamental from the incredibly great sounds achieved with this great additive VCO. It drove me nuts in the end. I did the trick of adding the out-of-phase fundamental to remove it but it never quite fully worked and it was a hassle as well. I may try again due to your enthusiasm because additive synthesis is very dear to me. Great vid. Don't stop.

[@TomChurchill]

Thanks! Yeah, I have to admit I've never really felt a burning need to remove the fundamental from my own patches, but I do see a lot of people complaining about it so maybe I should!? :) Glad you enjoyed the patches!

[@gesslr]

Hi. I'm new to XAOC Devices. I just took delivery on a Zadar the other day. I am planning to purchase an Odessa and Mosckwa in the next few months...The last patch example (sequencing paraphonic chords -beautiful!!!) sent me running to research Lipsk and Erfurt and that entire product line of Xaoc. Amazing stuff. Wonderful videos. Thank you for introducing me to these tools.

[@TomChurchill]

Thanks - enjoy the Xaoc journey! 😀

[@MikkelGrumBovin]

Youre such a wonderfull musician,-

[@RickDrift]

The Moskwa front and center is asthetically pleasing.

[@saren6538]

this is fab, had it when it came out and sold it, watching this ...regret is setting in rapidly

[@PandaPotPies]

Absolute masterclass

[@weave_of_k]

i have probably watched this video 25 times over the course of 2 days. I have not heard any tones I liked from the Odessa on YT until I ran into your video. Very lovely sounds.

Thanks a lot, brilliant walkthrough!

[@CO5MA]

Now i want one 😂 Great video, thanks!

[@Fluidstructure]

Great showcase! Love my Odessa!

[@SynthDad]

Top stuff Tom - thanks for making this. Going to rack up my Odessa and new Moskwa2 for a spin

[@TomChurchill]

Nice one, that's a dream team right there! Enjoy the Moskwa :)

[@nickilling]

Yeah, this is the one I've been waiting for :)

[@SloLFO]

Very informative and helpful. I’ve struggled with this module, your descriptions make sense of it all. Thank you!

[@TomChurchill]

You're welcome, glad it was helpful! :)

[@DataBroth]

I've been wanting one of these for some time

[@KLI333-9]

Thank you for this great video Tom! Would love to hear more jams with it, especially with those amazing percussions! Best

[@drumnotdrum9262]

The price was off putting! But you’ll get over that one really quickly! I love this vco, the range of sounds is incredible and as you note, sweet spots are everywhere! Cool video……ta.

[@Hellseeker1]

@26:44 Streets of Rage baby give it to me, ahh soo good!

[@stuartbennett4301]

As if it wasn’t cool enough I just got around to switching it to square wave. Errmagheerrdd!

[@Ikon_Sound]

very nice Tom!

[@ZenMountain]

Amazing video. Thank you!

[@Lo_Cisco]

Buy the Odessa last week☺️

[@precarious333music]

Excellent demo. Some really beautiful sounds there, especially the last patch.

[@mutantmanfred]

Good video as always, great explained!

[@eggyben]

mate your videos are great

[@Aedhon]

Great video thanks, I have and love Odessa but I admit I've been mostly going by ear and this will definitely help me make better use of it. I do like using a stereo filter after Odessa to tame the harsher sounds and play with stereo field a bit. cheers, Marco

[@TomChurchill]

Yeah, I’ve been pretty close to getting Xagrzeb to pair with it as a filter - I’ve tended to just use Tilt to control the spectrum but a stereo filter could definitely warm things up a bit and open up some more options!

[@Aedhon]

@@TomChurchill btw maybe I missed it but I would be interested in a video that shows how you use modular for making music, e.g. how you integrate with a daw workflow if any. Cheers :)

[@mattd2129]

awesome vid

[@ThMntnst]

Quite Cortini'esque feeling in the intro. Not really seeing myself getting the Odessa, I'm still always interested in what it can (and can't) do.

[@jonathanyoung6397]

I’ve probably watched this five or six times now, what a wonderful and inspiring tutorial on this quite tricky oscillator. Any chance of a follow up Tom? I know you’ve got more patches in you 😊 Also, I have an Oxi One sequencer which allows you to sequence the Odessa polyphonically (paraphonically?) and it’s amazing as a partner to Odessa and Hel

[@RoarMcRipHelmet]

While the Hel expander as you say doen't have VCA's, you can regulate the number of paraphonic voices in use if you have some extra logic modules and make it so that "silent" voices are replaced with +10V which in many cases will be far above what's audible, especially if you feed Odessa into an LPF with a high cutoff.

[@TomChurchill]

Ah, great idea! Will have to give that a try - cheers :)

[@joystickcan]

its been a long i wish this one...next osc for shure

[@motoboy6666]

Loved this and regreting selling mine 😢

[@BlackMan614]

Thanks so much for doing this!!! A little mis/understood?? More than a little. I bought one based on your other video (later got the Hel) and it seems to have a sweet spot for musical uses but too easy to get atonal. Thanks for the detailed explanation of using HEL. I could not get anything useful w/o using pitch/cv on the odessa. I tried your idea (last video) of multiple sequences (patterns) going into HEL and now that I see how you tuned Blinds, I see what HEL is doing (quantizing the CV) and you really need to tune the input CV. I'm going to have to re-watch your paraphonic patch... I that is what I'm failing at. Xaoc should give you an Odessa, considering your videos are the only ones which actually explain it properly.

[@TomChurchill]

Cheers, I'm glad it was helpful! :)

[@BlackMan614]

@@TomChurchill One question... the patch in the intro. I don't see any explanation of it in the video. I assume its a sequence coming out of Pam's and not being familiar w/ Erfurt - I assume you are using it as a clock divider(?) to generate gate into HEL? Whatever it is, its cool as f@ck. All I find in the Erfurt manual is "generate gate patterns animating the spectrum of Odessa harmonic banks"... so you can use gates into HEL?

[@TomChurchill]

@@BlackMan614 the intro patch is basically a remake of something I did in my Erfurt video. Check out the patch at around 21 minutes for a full breakdown of that: kzbin.info/www/bejne/qqa7eJ-Jfdusi8U And you’re right, I’m basically using Erfurt to generate a pattern of gates, taking four of those gates through attenuators to set each to a different voltage, then feeding those into Hel to create different combinations of pitches.

[@datsim_music]

Absolutely superb video! Please could you recommend some alternative modules to blinds (preferably with knobs or sliders) I could use to send to the Hel inputs in order to set the note pitches?

[@TomChurchill]

Thanks! There are lots of options for generating voltage offsets. Off the top of my head, there’s WMD 4TTEN, Noise Engineering Lapsus Os, Intellijel Quadratt… or for even more channels there’s Erogenous Tones LEVIT8, Antumbra ATN8 and Michigan Synth Works F8R. I’m sure there are plenty more - it’s pretty common for attenuverters to have 5V or 10V normalled to the controls so you can use them to produce fixed voltages. Hope that helps!

[@datsim_music]

@@TomChurchill Amazing - these suggestions are massively helpful, thank you. Might go for the Quadratt for it's simplicity and 1u'ness!

[@sub-jec-tiv]

Great video! It’s makin me go hmmmmm

[@banksideleopards2791]

Thanks for this great video. I noticed you not often plug the Fundamental output, why that?

[@banksideleopards2791]

I'm playing since recently the Odessa with the Panharmonium and I can achieve to very interesting sounds #Fx...

[@TomChurchill]

Thanks! The fundamental is always present in the odd and even outputs so I didn’t really need to use the fundamental output in these patches. I think it’s useful for syncing or FMing other oscillators but to be honest I don’t often find much use for it.

[@samuelcameron9353]

Thanks very much. Two things I can not see being made clear here. 1. Six cv ins do not have an attenuator so you definitely need to go through those first if using these or it will just modulate too much. 2. I could not find the obvious case of playing a paraphonic chord from poly cv input from a keyboard ..for example on a nifty keys you would put cv out 1 in the root and cv 2 in 2 and cv 3 in 3 on the Hel in 3 voice mode As its only paraphjonic you would put the gates into a single envelope to vca combination, This does raise a problem though as the hel input is quantised unlike the cv on the unit (and has a narrower range) and they (XAOC) say it does not like already quantised voltages which seems to suggest you can not actually play polyphonically properly from a keyboard as opposed to just making single finger chords ???.

[@TomChurchill]

I haven’t tried it with a polyphonic keyboard so can’t really speak to that, but I’ve been using it with Harmonaig recently and it seems OK with those quantised voltages being sent into Hel. I don’t use the main v/oct input in that situation; I just mult the root output of Harmonaig to Hel inputs 1 and 2, and patch the 3rd, 5th and 7th outputs from Harmonaig to Hel inputs 3-5.

[@megamankicksyourass]

Was just looking into this module. Great sounding patches

[@0ldman0tis]

great vid! Does HEL hook up to Odessa behind the panel? Trying to figure out the signal flow with your patch at 28:00

[@TomChurchill]

Thanks! Yep, the Hel expander connects to Odessa via a ribbon cable at the back 👍

[@lostsensemusic]

love this module. I don't have it but I want to buy it. the sounds are so good. I think it is good for ambient, is it?

[@lostsensemusic]

great video btw!

[@TomChurchill]

Thanks! Yeah, I think it's a great module for ambient stuff - lots of modulation possibilities and offers some really unique sounds. I did another patch breakdown video a few months back with more of an ambient patch, you might find it interesting: kzbin.info/www/bejne/eV6Zn5J7brx8nLM

[@KorhanErel]

Quantized by Hell 😈

[@mastermachetier5594]

I’m torn between this , a DPO, or a spectraphon 😂

[@TomChurchill]

You know the answer, right? All three! Just kidding, but I am very tempted by the other two as well, particularly Spectraphon...

[@mastermachetier5594]

@@TomChurchill you definitely make a good case for the Odessa. I love it for those chord stabs

[@ImmortalIdeas]

👍

[@ImmortalIdeas]

I dig it!!

[@allhandsmusic]

Hey Tom, I just picked up an Odessa, and I noticed that partials 9 through 11 can't be turned on individually, but rather come on together as a clump of three. I checked again in your video to see if you have the same thing happening, and it looks like you do, which I believe I can see and hear it happen at around 7:18. I really like the sound of the partials turning on one at a time, but it doesn't seem like that works for the range of the knob. Can you confirm this behavior? And if so, how much does it bother you?

[@TomChurchill]

Hmm, just checked mine and you're right, that does happen. I tried using external CV too, in case it was something to do with the pot on the unit, but yeah, it behaves the same way. Have to admit I've never really noticed it before - I tend to modulate the spectral tilt more than the partials - so to be honest it doesn't bother me too much. Things get indistinguishable pretty quickly after the 8th harmonic anyway. You might want to drop Xaoc an email to double-check if it's a known issue or if there's any kind of fix?

[@allhandsmusic]

I like modulating the partials because I love the sound of each turning on and off. And well... that's kind of your fault! It was a selling point for me hearing it happen in this very video. I just sent an email to Xaoc, so I'm curious how they might respond. In any case, I'm still loving Odessa, and I'm keeping it regardless.

[@MrDaigoRiki]

What does it mean by Digital VCO? It’s DCO

[@pe00000001]

Are you implying the input is numeric, not a voltage? Look at the front panel.

[@TomChurchill]

The oscillator is digital but its pitch (and other parameters) are voltage controlled, hence VCO

[@snorrevonflake]

43 minutes of confirmation that this is not for me. Almost bought one a couple of times.

[@earthman_]

Why digital? It’s an analog synth 🤔

[@TomChurchill]

It’s really not. The 2,560 sine wave partials are generated digitally. It can be controlled by analogue CV of course but the sound engine is 100% digital.

[@earthman_]

@@TomChurchill ok…i confused the Odessa with the Sofa ☺️

[@TomChurchill]

@@earthman_ easily done, they do look quite similar! :)

[@marizuokereke7347]

It's a voltage controlled synth. Good luck in fitting 2560 analogue sine wave vco's into a Eurorack case.