ARP 2600 :

The ARP 2600 was produced in early 1971 and is known as the “Blue Marvin”.The ARP 2600 is a semi-modular analog subtractive audio synthesizer, designed by Alan R. Pearlman with Dennis Colin, and manufactured by his company, ARP Instruments, Inc. as the follow-on version of the ARP 2500. The ARP 2600 was semi-modular with a fixed selection of basic synthesizer components internally pre-wired. The ARP 2600 was thus ideal for musicians new to synthesis, due to its ability to be operated either with or without patch cords.

ARP 2600 :

The ARP 2600 is an analog beast capable of producing some amazing sounds. Its basic architecture consists of a totally analog signal path with three oscillators, one 24 dB/oct filter, one ADSR envelope, one VCA and one mixer section. Additional features include an envelope follower, ring modulator, noise generator, LFO with sample and hold, built-in spring reverb and a pre-amplifier with stereo speakers. Truly a model of analog subtractive synthesis, the ARP 2600 has plenty of switches and sliders to satisfy all your creative sonic needs. If you have a keen understanding of how the different synth modules operate, with some creative patching and routing you can construct some truly expressive and musical analog sounds. Or you can forego patching the signal and rely entirely on the ARP 2600’s standard internal pre-wiring which routes the signal through a traditional synthesizer signal path.

Arp 2600 History:

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. There were two main camps — 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 ARP 2500 was featured in the hit movie Close Encounters of the Third Kind; 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 5-note sequence on the huge synthesizer in an attempt to communicate with the alien mothership.

ARP 2600 Versions:

Three basic versions of the ARP 2600 were built during ARP’s lifetime. The first, nicked named the “Blue Marvin”, was enclosed in a light blue/grey metal case with a keyboard that mated to the synthesizer. Later ARP 2600s were built with the synthesizer and keyboard in vinyl covered wood cases connected by a removable cable, allowing for a more flexible setup. Finally, in order to fit in with the black/orange theme of ARP’s other synthesizers, the ARP 2600s were manufactured with orange labels over a black aluminum panel. The mid-production grey 2600 models featured many changes among themselves. Changes in circuitry and panel lettering provided at least three different grey panel models.

ARP 2600 Specifications:

• Polyphony: Monophonic
• Synthesis:   Analog Subtractive
• Date Produced:  1971 – 1980
• Filters: 24db lowpass
• Keyboard: 49 Key
• Effects :  Spring Reverb