ARPs For...All.....!?!?!??????

OK...dig this post over on KVR: https://www.kvraudio.com/news/alan-r-pearlman-foundation-and-the-record-co-announce-arp-2600-synthposium-event-52817

I find this to be utterly ridiculous. The Alan R. Pearlman foundation's also pushing this "ARPs for All" BS...which consists of having ARP instruments available for free use by ONE SINGLE studio rental company in Boston. But why the Foundation is giving Korg all of this credit is beyond me...after all, THEY were the company that succeeded in making the 2600 UNcool and angering the hell out of people with the "2600FS limited edition stunt" followed later by the "2600M crippleware announcement".

As much as I hatehatehateHATE giving him any credit, the one who's actually accomplishing this is...I can't believe I'm actually saying this...Uli Behringer. What sounds like "ARPs for All"? One not-exactly-a-company who got in deep with Korg for window dressing and fabrication purposes while Korg trashed Alan Pearlman's legacy with their hype and nonsense...or another led by a narcissistic jackass with some janky AF business practices BUT who gave us an affordable (AND COMPLETE!!!!) 2600 as well as the 2500 module line?

This is sort of...well, actually, REALLY weird. Korg is the...bad guys? Uli's...uhmm...on the right side of this? Seriously, I'm expecting the Earth to fall into the Sun at any moment because of the factual imbalance of all of this.

@Lugia, what was the problem with 2600FS Limited Edition and later "crippleware?"

The FS version, according to a Korg UK rep who got cornered over this issue, was not necessarily "intended" for us avg. peons to buy. They actually intended them to go to certain "influencers" and whatever was left over was slotted for retail. Two things immediately went horribly wrong, though. One of those was J-M. Jarre's mention of it around a month out from the proper release date at NAMM. The other was a wildly off-base estimation of the market interest in this 50 year old synth. So what happened was a PR catastrophe, made even worse by Korg's claims regarding the "road case" (cheap and flimsy...hardly something you'd want as a "premium" for your "limited edition" 2600), the constantly shifting numbers of the "limited" run, odd issues regarding unit QC, and a general inability by Korg to provide any retailers with ANY information that might clarify what in the hell was going on. So it's not just users who got honked off at Korg over this, you had their main retailers gnashing their teeth as well.

As for the "crippleware" issue, that has to do with the 3620's submodule complement. The FS uses a 3620 replica, so no problem there. And Uli's 2600 has those submodules down in the lower left corner of the front panel. But the Korg 2600M omits these in deference to just a basic MIDI I/O, which would be good if the 2600M's controls could be addressed in sysex...but they're not. Now, Korg wants to sell these for $1800, minus the 3620 circuits. Uli charges $650, WITH the 3620 submodules. Sounds like crippleware to me!

The FS version, according to a Korg UK rep who got cornered over this issue, was not necessarily "intended" for us avg. peons to buy. They actually intended them to go to certain "influencers" and whatever was left over was slotted for retail. Two things immediately went horribly wrong...
-- Lugia

Thanks for the explanation, makes sense.

What a waste!... I had briefly followed that Korg Arp release when I saw it come up in Sweetwater, but as the pre-orders immediately filled and I didn't have $ to put to it anyway, I thought "oh well, later or never." It really stinks they didn't just do a great job and make enough units to meet a reasonable chunk of market demand.

I agree...but I think what we saw with the 2600FS followed by the 2600M was indicative of something not exactly right with Korg. Consider: some time before the 2600 fiasco, one of Korg's lead designers (the one responsible for the Volca designs) bailed on his employer and went over to...yup...Uli and his Tribe. I've also heard of some other shuffling of personnel over there, and given the usual loyalty shown by employees to established companies like Korg over in Japan, hearing about anyone jumping ship to go to another firm is VERY unusual, indeed.

I also feel a LOT LESS jinky about my B.2600 now, too. In the email exchange with Dina Pearlman, she mentioned that "...the (ARP) Foundation is not about promoting any brand, but it is bringing awareness that other companies are still making 2600s among other instruments." And yes, she cited Behringer as one of those companies...so apparently, they're 100% down with Uli's reissue. They did mention that they'd not had any direct interaction with Behringer, but also noted that they'd be glad to have them on board with the Foundation as well. As far as I'm concerned, that brings any concerns about Uli and IP theft by his firm to a halt regarding the B.2600 AND the 2500 modules as well. The ARP Foundation is apparently down with any and ALL efforts to keep Alan R.'s contributions to electronic music alive, so if they're good with this, I'm good with it as well, and we probably ought to snag these synths in the end as they really, really, REALLY are the true "rev.5" as they appear to be.

Hi Lugia,

Thanks a lot for the tons of information, very interesting! You mentioned the 2500 modules from B., those I just discovered that they exist :-) Are those any good?

Regarding the ARP 2600 Synthposium, beside your remarks, I can't say the planned date was very carefully chosen on one of the Superbooth days...

Do you have already the B. 2600 Grey Meanie? If yes, are you able to confirm that there seems to be issues with the B. 2600 that the triggers aren't fully open at the Eurorack 10 V triggers/EGs? I just arrived back this evening from Berlin (Germany), Superbooth and I heard there that the B. 2600 needs a 14 V trigger to be fully open... Do you have any experience with this? If this is correct, I feel this is pretty disappointing :-( From the source I received this information I actually fully trust and believe this person, it's just so ridiculous that I almost can't believe this to be true :-)

A workaround seems that you can use MIDI but that's something I actually would like to avoid. I would liked to have a possible future B. 2600 (I am looking/considering for the Blue Marvin) integrated into my Eurorack system.

Any info regarding this matter, please do let me know and thank you very much in advance for that. Kind regards, Garfield.

ARP 2600 VCA sections have been annoying synthesists since 1971. Typically, they need a good voltage WHACK to fully open, and that's been a thing forever. The two ways around that are to either open the VCA slightly, then start applying an EG per taste via the "LIN" input...or to use the VCA control input marked "EXPL". When the 2600's VCA gets an exponential envelope, then you get the right sort of result. It's not really a Behringer issue, unless you consider copying the original design TOO exactly to be an issue.

However, since it IS a known issue that's been "modded around" in past versions, a good synth tech should be able to apply the same mod to Uli's version. And there's other potential mods in there, although B. gave us a few of them (like VCO sync). But unfortunately, the 2600 is rather infamous for DC on its outputs, which is probably why the original ARP spec had that tough-to-open VCA to prevent DC from going out all the time when the VCA is outputting audio, but at the same time having it also capable of level control over CVs and modulation, which requires a DC-coupled VCA.

Yet another reason why the 2600 is perhaps THE teaching synth of all time. How many other patchables do you know that offer that flexibility + an opportunity to learn why you use exponential responses for audio and linear for modulation? 50 years on, and the 2600 STILL can strut its stuff!

It's not really a Behringer issue, unless you consider copying the original design TOO exactly to be an issue.

isn't that one of the main gripes about the behringer eurorack modules though in general - along with them being generally poorish quality in terms of panel furniture - cardboard knob inserts that fall off easily etc

It's not really a Behringer issue, unless you consider copying the original design TOO exactly to be an issue.
-- Lugia

Hi Lugia,

Thank you very much for your extensive reply and the provided information! :-) Regarding Behringer... well... if I am not mistaken they did with some of the copy/paste stuff they did some improvements, can't remember which device that was, so why not with the B.2600? ;-) But yeah, that might have been a bit too complicated to just solve like that and then definitely the price wouldn't be any more the same.

Okay, I will try what you mentioned with the envelope input once I am getting the 2600 Blue Marvin.

Regarding the number of patch inputs/outputs on the 2600, well till just the Superbooth I wouldn't be able to answer that question. However if you have some ridiculous amount of money left over (5000+ bucks I think it was) then you could consider the TINRS - Fenix IV modular synthesizer with, if I remember well, well over 300 patch inputs/outputs; that would be "a slightly bit more" than the 2600 ;-)

Stupid question perhaps but why not skipping the B. 2600 VCA and put it through an Eurorack VCA? Of course that's not as comfy as using the entire 2600 and it's kind of irritating to take all the 2600 outputs to an Eurorack VCA but would that solve the issue? Most probably there will be a bit of a lost of typical 2600 sound to it as well...

I am planning to use, on your advice, anyway the Lehle 7013 DC Filter in conjunction with the B. 2600 to avoid any DC signals going to my mixer and/or monitors; if I would not make use of an external Eurorack VCA (instead of the B. 2600's VCA).

As always, thanks a lot for your input/feedback/help and kind regards, Garfield.

Jim: Oddly, the build quality on the B.2600 is actually pretty decent. They even went the extra step of venting the metal case to get the temp-sensitive components to settle down easier. Fact is, though...the original's hardware was kind of "meh" anyway. You got left with two rather cumbersome lids to store, Tolex that wasn't always glued down properly, slider caps that seemed to want to hide along with the missing socks from your dryer, etc. And of course, that VCF swap, and the odd heat/cool issues that would affect tuning, drift, etc. But you can still field-recalibrate it if needed...and the service manual should be essentially identical to the original, which you can find HERE: https://www.vintagesynthparts.com/service-manual/ Just make sure to have a multimeter and o-scope handy.

Garfield: Yep, the Lehle filter is a perfect "fix" for the 2600's DC-coupled VCA. Like I said, this behavior is 1:1 with the original in all of its revisions. However, sometimes you can get the VCA to provide a useful subsonic "thump", and this works really nicely when programming percussive sounds, so being able to take the DC filter out of line is important. But again, note the reply to Jim above re: the service manual. The 2600 is easy enough to recalibrate, and recalibrating the ARP 2600 was something A LOT of synthesists would do to dial in the fine details of the sounds they were shooting for. I even got tasked with recalibrating MTSU's ARP several times when I was more or less "in charge" of all of the audio implementations in the School of Music, and it's NOT something super-involved and difficult. But if you want to tweak the VCA's behavior in general, the original service manual by ARP is just fine as a reference.

Hi Lugia,

Great website! Thanks a lot for that service manual. Kind regards, Garfield.