ARP Instruments, Inc.

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 investment 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 chose to pick and chose between the two for specific effect, as well as many who dabbled with products produced by other manufacturers (in a similar manner to the ongoing PC versus Mac debate). 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 ARP Avatar - a synthesizer module closely resembling 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 Inc was never able to recoup the R&D costs and ended in bankruptcy.

Famous clients

Some notable ARP users and endorsers include:

*Brian Eno
*Florian Schneider of *Kraftwerk
*Linda McCartney, wife of Paul McCartney and member of Wings, who used the ARP Pro-DGX in the 1980s
*Joe Walsh
*Christine McVie
*Conny Plank producer
*Robert Görl of Deutsch Amerikanische Freundschaft (DAF)
*Rick Wright of Pink Floyd
*Dennis DeYoung of Styx
*Bernhard Lloyd of Alphaville
*Pete Townshend of The Who
*Stevie Wonder
*Herbie Hancock
*David Bowie
*Depeche Mode Most notably the ARP 2600
*George Duke
*Chick Corea
*Dave Formula of the band Magazine
*John Foxx
*Steve Hillage
*Tony Banks of Genesis
*Kerry Livgren and Steve Walsh of Kansas
*Edgar Winter (on the rock classic Frankenstein)
*Billy Currie of Ultravox
*Gary Numan
*Jean Michel Jarre
*Joe Zawinul of Weather Report (who used two ARP 2600s)
*Danny Wolfers
*4hero
*Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails
*D.S. Poe of MorissonPoe
*Jean-Luc Ponty
*Patrick Moraz of Yes
*Steven Spielberg used the ARP 2500 in Close Encounters of the Third Kind
*Aphex Twin
*Klaus Schulze
*OB LLIE
*David Morley
*Viacom were rumoured to have used the ARP Synthesiser in their corporate idents.
*Bodies Without Organs
*Eliane Radigue

Product highlights

* 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)
* 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 oscilator analog synthesizer)
* 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)

External links

* [http://www.rhodeschroma.com/?id=arp The Rise and Fall of ARP Instruments] (article from April 1983, Keyboard Magazine)
* http://www.roth-handle.nu/instruments/solina_string.html Films and pictures of the Arp Solina
* [http://www.synthmuseum.com/arp/index.html ARP Instruments at Synthmuseum.com]
* [http://www.retrosound.de/index.html Retrosound - ARP Odyssey and Solina String Ensemble pics and info]
* [http://www.mcrow.net/Vintage%20Strings.htm Solina VSTi plugin]