ARP Instruments, Inc.

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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.

1 History
2 Famous clients
3 Product highlights
4 External links

[edit] History

Alan Pearlman was an engineering student at Worcester Polytechnic Institute 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.

Although many musicians preferred the luscious sound and easy patching of the Minimoog, ARP synthesizers were far more flexible in terms of patching and capable of many more extremes of sound than the Minimoog.

[edit] Famous clients

Some notable ARP users and endorsers include:

Rick Wright of Pink Floyd
Bernhard Lloyd of Alphaville
Pete Townshend of The Who
Stevie Wonder
Herbie Hancock
David Bowie
George Duke
Chick Corea
Dave Formula of the band Magazine
Steve Hillage
Tony Banks of Genesis
Edgar Winter (on the rock classic Frankenstein)
Billy Currie of Ultravox
Jean Michel Jarre
Joe Zawinul of Weather Report (who used two ARP 2600s - one for each hand)
Danny Wolfers
4hero
Trent Reznor
D.S. Poe of MorissonPoe
Jean-Luc Ponty
Steven Spielberg used the ARP 2500 in Close Encounters of the Third Kind.

[edit] 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)
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)
1974 - ARP String Ensemble (polyphonic string voice keyboard manufactured by Solina)
1975 - ARP String Synthesizer (manufactured by Solina)
1975 - ARP Little Brother (keyboardless monophonic expander module)
1975 - ARP Omni (low-cost pre-patched analog synthesizer)
1975 - ARP Axxe (pre-patched single oscilator analog synthesizer)
1977 - ARP Omni 2 (low-cost pre-patched analog synthesizer)
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)