ARP2600 - Fundamentals of Music Technology - Cyborgstudio.com

SECTION1 GENERAL CONTROLSINTRODUCTION AND BACKGROUNDThe ARP 2600 was designed and manufactured at a point in time when synthesizers had just emergedas a musical instrument (the late 1960’s), and most people had no idea how to use and program them.Because of this, the ARP company designed a synthesizer whose primary purpose was to teach peopleabout synthesizers. The ARP 2600 was manufactured from 1970 to 1980, which is a very long productionrun for a synthesizer by today’s standards. Its designers did everything they could to make it easyto understand. For instance, all of the controls are laid out so that when creating sounds, they start at theleft side of the synthesizer and move towards the right. This is the way most sounds are created, justletting the electronic signals flow from left to right. The ARP 2600 is much like an assembly line in thisway. Each part adds to or changes the sound a little bit until a finished sound emerges at the end. The2600’s designers also used white diagrams on theinstrument’s front panel to attempt to show userswhere signals were flowing within the instrument.In Figure 1-1, one can see that the ARP 2600 isactually two separate parts: A keyboard unit and acabinet unit. The keyboard must be connected tothe cabinet in order for the keyboard to function,because the keyboarddraws power fromthe cabinet. However,it is entirelypossible to use theFigure 1-1 The ARP 2600ARP 2600’s cabinetwithout the keyboard attached. It still functions perfectly well. In fact, manyof the experiments in this book do not require the keyboard.The connection to the keyboard is established with a single cord. The cord ispermanently attached to the keyboard at one end, and has a multipin plug atthe other end. This design was changed several times by ARP, and it is entirelypossible to find keyboards made for the 2600 which do not follow this design.(e.g. some earlier models have cables which can be unplugged from both ends.)Figure 1-2: The keyboard’smultipin connecting cableA model 3620 keyboard was used for purposes of this book. Notice in Figure 1-2 how many connectorsthere are on the plug which connects the keyboard, and keep this information in mind. For now, it is justnecessary to know that the keyboard receives power from the cabinet through this cable.THE BALANCE OF POWERThe ARP 2600 gets power from a household electrical outlet via a three-prong cord which plugs intothe right side of the cabinet. The pins are aligned in such a way that the cord cannot be plugged inupside down. However, the plug that connects with the AC outlet is not polarized and can be connectedin either direction.001