ARP Instruments
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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"Until 2000 Éliane Radigue's work was almost exclusively created on a single synthesizer, the ARP 2500 modular system and tape."--Sholem Stein |
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ARP Instruments, Inc. was an early electronic music company founded by Alan Robert Pearlman. Best known for its line of synthesizers that emerged in the early 1970s, ARP closed its doors in 1981 for financial reasons.
History
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 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."
Following 21 years of experience in electronic engineering and entrepreneurship, Pearlman founded ARP Instruments in 1969 with US$100,000 of personal funds and a matching amount from investors.
Throughout the 1970s, ARP was the main competitor to Moog Music in the field of musically useful synthesizers. 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. The ARP 2500 was featured in the famous movie Close Encounters of the Third Kind. The ARP technician sent to install the unit, Phil Dodds, was cast as the musician who plays the alien tones on the synthesizer.
The demise of ARP Instruments, Inc. was brought about by the ill-fated decision to invest a significant amount of money in the development of the ARP Avatar, a synthesizer module closely resembling the ARP Odyssey, but equipped with a guitar pickup and a pitch-to-voltage converter. Although an excellent instrument by all accounts, the Avatar failed to sell well. ARP Instruments was never able to recoup the research and development costs and ended in bankruptcy.
Product highlights
- 1969 - ARP 2002 Almost identical to the ARP 2500, except that the upper switch matrix had 10 buses instead of 20.
- 1970 - ARP 2500 (large and complex analog modular synthesizer, patched with a switch matrix, noted for its reliable tuning compared to competitors Moog and Buchla)
- 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 Little Brother (keyboardless monophonic expander module)
- 1975 - ARP Omni (polyphonic string synthesizer with rudimentary polyphonic synthesizer functions)
- 1975 - ARP Axxe (pre-patched single oscillator analog synthesizer)
- 1975 - ARP String Synthesizer (a combination of the String Ensemble and the Explorer)
- 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 Sequencer (analog music sequencer)
- 1979 - ARP Quartet (polyphonic orchestral synthesiser not manufacted by ARP - just bought in from Siel and rebadged )
- 1980 - ARP Solus (pre-patched analog monophonic synthesizer)
- 1981 - ARP Chroma (microprocessor controlled analog polyphonic synthesizer - sold to CBS/Rhodes when ARP closed)
