| I worked as a technician at ARP Instruments in (around) 79 & 80. I was
there when the Bank of Boston helped close the doors forever. During
that last couple of years, the big engineering project was the
development of a synth that could send/recieve patch data to an
Apple II, had weighted keys, a single data entry slider and digital
programability. This synth was (and still is) called a Chroma.
After ARP Instruments closed up they had to sell stuff to pay the bills
(my paycheck included). Fender (CBS) purchased the engineering & rights
to the Chroma, EP4 & EP16. Even though the EP4 & EP16 were already in
production for almost a year, Fender could never make them work
properly. They eventualy hired some former ARP engineers and technicians
to finish the Chroma even though it was 90% developed when they
purchased it. Fender had already dropped the EP line and decided to
concentrate on the Chroma.
It's kinda sad to think about what ARP synths would be nowadays when I
think of all the neat stuff they were working on then. Stuff that was
in development then that is a reality now.
There was a synth called a Quadra. Actually 3 synths in one with
keyboard splits and data dump to cassette. A year later Roland came out
with an almost identical synth. I think it was called a Jupiter or Juno
or something...but that's another story.
kpb
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Fender might have been a contender if CBS hadn't chosen to dump the
company. The first things to go were the Rhodes/Chroma lines, then the
PA gear.
Fender is much stronger now than they were when CBS sold them off, but
as we all know, they don't make synths anymore.
Brian
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