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ARP Instruments

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Template:Short description Template:Use mdy dates {{#invoke:Infobox|infobox}}Template:Template otherTemplate:Main other{{#invoke:Check for clobbered parameters|check|nested=1|template=Infobox company|cat=Template:Main other|name; company_name|logo; company_logo|logo_alt; alt|trade_name; trading_name|former_names; former_name|type; company_type|predecessors; predecessor|successors; successor|foundation; founded|founders; founder|defunct; dissolved|hq_location; location|hq_location_city; location_city|hq_location_country; location_country|num_locations; locations|areas_served; area_served|net_income; profit|net_income_year; profit_year|owners; owner |homepage; website }}{{#invoke:Check for unknown parameters|check|unknown=Template:Main other|preview=Page using Template:Infobox company with unknown parameter "_VALUE_" | ignoreblank=y | alt | area_served | areas_served | assets | assets_year | aum | brands | company_logo | company_name | company_type | defunct | dissolved | divisions | embed | equity | equity_year | fate | footnotes | former_name | former_names | foundation | founded | founder | founders | genre | homepage | hq_location | hq_location_city | hq_location_country | incorporated | image | image_alt | image_caption | image_size | image_upright | income_year | industry | ISIN | key_people | location | location_city | location_country | locations | logo | logo_alt | logo_caption | logo_class | logo_size | logo_upright | members | members_year | module | name | native_name | native_name_lang | net_income | net_income_year | num_employees | num_employees_year | num_locations | num_locations_year | operating_income | owner | owners | parent | predecessor | predecessors | production | production_year | products | profit | profit_year | rating | ratio | revenue | revenue_year | romanized_name | services | subsid | successor | successors | traded_as | trade_name | trading_name | type | website| qid | fetchwikidata | suppressfields | noicon | nocat | demo | categories }}

ARP Instruments, Inc. was a Lexington, Massachusetts<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> manufacturer of electronic musical instruments, founded by Alan Robert Pearlman<ref> Template:Cite magazine </ref>Template:Efn in 1969. It created a popular and commercially successful range of synthesizers throughout the 1970s before declaring bankruptcy in 1981. The company earned a reputation for producing excellent sounding, innovative instruments and was granted several patents for the technology it developed.

HistoryEdit

BackgroundEdit

Alan Pearlman was an engineering student at Worcester Polytechnic Institute, Massachusetts in 1948 when he foresaw the coming age of electronic music and synthesizers. He later wrote "The electronic instrument's value is chiefly as a novelty. With greater attention on the part of the engineer to the needs of the musician, the day may not be too remote when the electronic instrument may take its place ... as a versatile, powerful, and expressive instrument."Template:Sfn

BeginningsEdit

File:ARP2500 - National Music Centre (2017-08-18 11.48.04 by Mack Male @ Flickr 38265398126) edit1.jpg
ARP 2500

Following 21 years of experience in electronic engineering and entrepreneurship, Pearlman founded the company in 1969 with $100,000 of personal funds and a matching amount from investors, with fellow engineering graduate David Friend on board from the beginning as the co-founder of the company.<ref name=korg>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> The company derived its name from Pearlman's initials, and existed briefly as the ARP Instrument Division of Tonus, Inc.<ref name=nmc>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name=ARPSynthPatents>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Their first instrument, the ARP 2500, was released the following year.Template:Sfn It was marketed for use in academic contexts as "The concert grand of synthesizers."<ref>ARP 2500 Brochure. Accessed March 24, 2025. https://www.timstinchcombe.co.uk</ref>

SuccessEdit

File:Arp2600bluemarvin.jpg
ARP 2600

The ARP 2600 began production in 1971. As an engineer, Pearlman had little understanding of the music industry or its potential audience. He felt the best market for synthesizers would be music departments at schools and universities, and designed the instrument to be easy to use for this reason.Template:Sfn David Friend and musician Roger Powell toured the US demonstrating the 2600 to various musicians and dealers, and it quickly became a popular instrument.Template:Sfn The first significant user of the 2600 was Edgar Winter, who connected the keyboard controller of the 2600 to the main unit via a long extension cord, allowing him to wear the synth around his neck like a keytar. Stevie Wonder was an early adopter of the 2600, who had the control panel instructions labelled in Braille.Template:Sfn

File:Odyssey1.jpg
Odyssey (rev.1)

Throughout the 1970s, ARP was the main competitor to Moog Music and eventually surpassed Moog to become the world's leading manufacturer of electronic musical instruments.Template:Sfn Performers found that ARP synthesizers were better at staying in tune than Moogs owing to superior oscillator design. The 2500 used a matrix-signal switching system instead of patch cords on a Moog, which led to some performers complaining about crosstalk between signal paths. The 2600 on the other hand, used hardwired ("normaled") signal paths that could be modified with switch settings, or completely overridden using patch cords. Template:Sfn

There were two main camps among synthesizer musicians—the Minimoog players and the ARP Odyssey/ARP 2600 players—with most proponents dedicated to their choice, although some players decided to pick and choose between the two for specific effect, as well as many who dabbled with products produced by other manufacturers. Notably, the 2500 was featured in the hit movie Close Encounters of the Third Kind;<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> ARP's Vice President of Engineering, Phillip Dodds, was sent to install the unit on the movie set and was subsequently cast as Jean Claude, the musician who played the now famous five-note sequence on the huge synthesizer in an attempt to communicate with the alien mothership.Template:Sfn

File:ARP Quadra.jpg
Quadra

The Odyssey was released in 1972. It was designed as a cut-down version of the 2600 for touring musicians, competing with the Minimoog, and contained a three-octave keyboard. Later versions featured a pressure-pad operated pitch control system.Template:Sfn

The best selling ARP synthesizer was the Omni, released in 1975. It was a fully polyphonic keyboard that used top-octave divide-down oscillators that had been used on electronic organs, and competed with the Polymoog.Template:Sfn In 1977, the company peaked financially with $7 million sales.Template:Sfn The Quadra was released the following year, and contained a number of synthesizer modules combined and controlled by a microprocessor.Template:Sfn

DeclineEdit

File:ARP Avatar (top & front).jpg
Avatar (top & front)

The demise of ARP Instruments stemmed from financial difficulties following development of the ARP Avatar,Template:Sfn a synthesizer module virtually identical to the ARP Odyssey without a keyboard and intended to be played by a solid body electric guitar via a specially-mounted hexaphonic guitar pickup whose signals were then processed through discrete pitch-to-voltage converters.<ref name="VailM">Template:Cite book</ref>

Although an excellent, groundbreaking instrument by all accounts, the Avatar failed to sell well. ARP Instruments was never able to recoup the research and development costs associated with the Avatar projectTemplate:Sfn and after several more attempts to produce successful instruments such as the ARP Quadra, ARP 16-Voice & 4-Voice Pianos, and the ARP Solus, the company finally declared bankruptcy in May 1981.Template:Sfn

File:Chroma Polaris + Fender Rhodes MK1 (front).jpg
Chroma Polaris (descendant of Chroma)

During the liquidation process, the company's assets and the rights to the manufacture of the 4-Voice Piano and also the prototype ARP Chroma—the company's most sophisticated instrument design to date—were sold to CBS Musical Instruments for $350,000.Template:Sfn The project was completed at CBS R&D, and the renamed Rhodes Chroma was produced from 1982 to late 1983. The instrument has a flexible voice architecture, 16-note polyphony, weighted, wooden keyboard action with 256 velocity levels, a single slider parameter editing system (subsequently implemented on the Yamaha DX7); and the inclusion of a proprietary digital interface system that predated MIDI.Template:Sfn It was controlled internally by an Intel 80186 microprocessor.Template:Sfn

AftermathEdit

File:Rhodes Chroma, Expander, Apple IIe computer (lowres), National Music Centre.jpg
Rhodes Chroma, Expander, and Apple IIe

In 2015, almost three and a half decades after it closed its doors, the company's second flagship instrument, the ARP Odyssey, was brought back into production by Korg, working in collaboration with David Friend, Alan Pearlman's co-founder at ARP.<ref name=korg/>

ProductsEdit

  • 1970: ARP 2500 analog modular synthesizer, patched with a switch matrix, noted for its reliable tuning compared to competitors Moog and Buchla<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
  • 1970: ARP Soloist (small, portable, monophonic preset, aftertouch sensitive synthesizer)
  • 1971: ARP 2600 (smaller, more portable analog semi-modular synthesizer, pre-patched and patchable with cables)
  • 1972: ARP Odyssey (pre-patched analog duophonic synthesizer, a truly portable performance instrument, a competitor of the Minimoog)
  • 1972: ARP Pro Soloist (small, portable, monophonic preset, aftertouch sensitive synthesizer—updated version of Soloist)
  • 1974: ARP String Ensemble (polyphonic string voice keyboard manufactured by Solina)
  • 1974: ARP Explorer (small, portable, monophonic preset, programmable sounds)
  • 1975: ARP Omni (polyphonic string synthesizer with rudimentary polyphonic synthesizer functions)
  • 1975: ARP Little Brother (keyboardless monophonic expander module)<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

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  • 1975: ARP Axxe (pre-patched single oscillator analog synthesizer)
  • 1975: ARP String Synthesizer (a combination of the String Ensemble and the Explorer)
  • 1976: ˝ARP Sequencer (desktop analog music sequencer)<ref name=MusicTrades_May1976p31>
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  • 1977: ARP Pro/DGX (small, portable, monophonic preset, aftertouch sensitive synthesizer—updated version of Pro Soloist)
  • 1977: ARP Omni 2 (polyphonic string synthesizer with rudimentary polyphonic synthesizer functions—updated version of Omni)
  • 1977: ARP Avatar (an Odyssey module fitted with a guitar pitch controller)
  • 1978: ARP Quadra (4 microprocessor-controlled analog synthesizers in one)
  • 1979: ARP Quartet (polyphonic orchestral synthesizer not manufactured by ARP—just bought in from Siel and rebadged)
  • 1979: ARP 16-Voice Electronic Piano<ref>
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|CitationClass=web }} </ref> (model 3363) / ARP 4-Voice Electronic Piano (model 3553)

  • ARP Pro DGX.jpg

    Pro/DGX

  • ARP Soloist.jpg

    Soloist

  • ARP Omni Mk2.jpg

    Omni (rev.2)

  • ARP Omni Mk1.jpg

    Omni (rev.1)

  • ARP Solus.jpg

    Solus

  • ARP Axxe.jpg

    Axxe

  • ARP Explorer front.jpg

    Explorer I

  • Solina String Synthesizer (right).jpg

    String Synthesizer

  • ARP Solina String Ensemble.jpg

    String Ensemble

Notable usersEdit

Some notable ARP users and endorsers include:

(in alphabetically order of group or family name)

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  • David Bowie is listed as using an "arp" in the album Low.<ref name="Low">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

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  • The BBC Radiophonic Workshop's Peter Howell used an ARP ODYSSEY II for the lead sound to update the Doctor Who TV theme in the early 1980s.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

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|CitationClass=web }}</ref> On Madman Across the Water, Honky Château, and Don't Shoot Me I'm Only the Piano Player, ARP performances are credited to Diana Lewis, David Hentschel, and Ken Scott, respectively.

|CitationClass=web }}</ref> The band also used an ARP Omni 1 on various albums and live performances.<ref name="kraftwerkfaq.hu"/>

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  • Todd Terje uses an ARP Odyssey, an ARP Sequencer and an ARP 2600 in most of his productions. He used the 2600 exclusively for his It's The Arps EP from 2012, which contains his biggest hit to date, Inspector Norse.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

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NotesEdit

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ReferencesEdit

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External linksEdit

Template:Sister project

Template:Electrophones Template:ARP Instruments

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