Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★ 4/5 Stars
The first thing to say about Guitar Odyssey is that it isn’t about creating conventional guitar sounds, but rather about creating entirely new sounds that use guitar recordings as the initial sound source. Hosted by the latest version of the free Kontakt Player or Kontakt v6.6.1 onwards, the instrument comes with over 7GB of samples and 200 categorised presets. The Odyssey engine allows for the layering of four sounds with individual envelope control or amplitude and filter, though there’s also a master envelope control option.
The presets show off an impressive range of soundscapes, pads and aggressive leads as well as some inspiring short melodic sequences, cinematic textures and drones, so if scoring for picture is your thing, there’s a lot of potential here. Ambient music composers will also find a lot to love, though composers of more conventional pop music may find some of the offerings a little too esoteric.
The way Guitar Odyssey is set out allows for sounds to be sculpted in a number of different ways, depending on how deeply you want to get into editing. Loading a preset and then changing the samples in the various layers is a good starting point, and from there it is easy to do basic editing such as adjusting envelope and filter settings. The comprehensive range of effects also provides plenty of scope for sound design; these are very easy to manage, with the relevant controls for each effect visible when you click on the relevant FX block. Should you wish to venture deeper, the Movement and Modulation pages offer a huge amount of scope, as does the application of granular processing. This is an instrument that rewards experimentation.
There’s a huge breadth of cinematic potential here — when it comes to guitar sounds we’re definitely not in Kansas anymore.
Exploring the presets reveals dreamy pads, ominous drones, melodic patterns and shimmering soundscapes but no twanging guitars. The core samples are the result of heavily processed guitar recordings, the end result rivalling anything that can be generated by pure synthesis and arguably more organic‑sounding for that. Many of the sounds incorporate a palpable sense of movement, which gives them a very organic feel, ably demonstrated by preset four, Abandoned Toyshop. There’s a huge breadth of cinematic potential here — when it comes to guitar sounds we’re definitely not in Kansas anymore.
£160
$199