ARP 2600 Custom Mods

video upload by Anthony Marinelli Music

"It's my pleasure to show you the custom modifications I had installed on my ARP 2600 back in around 1979. In this video I'll discuss why I believed it was necessary to drill holes into the synthesizer for what I considered to be essential features and/or improvements to the design. I say essential because I was using the instrument to perform on live feature film recording sessions and live concert events. I needed to have preset octaves, preset intervals, longer release times, separate keyboard gates and more patching capability to be more effective in those mediums. Quick sound changes we required! Remember this was at a time when synthesizers did not have the ability to recall sounds via some sort of internal memory. I had to remember all the patches myself and use the modifications to immediately morph my sound changes in real time. I also had to get pretty good at creating patches without hearing the synth and hoping that I was close when I needed to start playing. Those were some golden years to be performing electronic instruments. It was easy to mess up but it definitely taught us some skills. I hope you enjoy seeing the mods in actions and hearing some of the accompanying stories!"

0:00 - 1:28 Introduction
1:29 - 2:49 Octave Switches
2:50 - 4:26 Preset Voltages Up and Down
4:27 - 6:14 ADSR Envelope Generator 10x Length
6:15 - 8:12 AR Envelope Generator Separate Gate
8:13 - 10:15 Multiples
10:16 - 11:02 Recap