<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<rss version="2.0"
	xmlns:content="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/content/"
	xmlns:wfw="http://wellformedweb.org/CommentAPI/"
	xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/"
	xmlns:atom="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom"
	xmlns:sy="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/syndication/"
	xmlns:slash="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/slash/"
	>

<channel>
	<title>EMUSIC-L &#187; speculation</title>
	<atom:link href="http://www.ibiblio.org/emusic-l/category/speculation/feed/" rel="self" type="application/rss+xml" />
	<link>http://www.ibiblio.org/emusic-l</link>
	<description>electronic music and other vaguely-related topics</description>
	<lastBuildDate>Tue, 13 Oct 2009 21:24:01 +0000</lastBuildDate>
	<generator>http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4</generator>
	<language>en</language>
	<sy:updatePeriod>hourly</sy:updatePeriod>
	<sy:updateFrequency>1</sy:updateFrequency>
			<item>
		<title>The ARP 2600 manual</title>
		<link>http://www.ibiblio.org/emusic-l/2008/01/19/the-arp-2600-manual/</link>
		<comments>http://www.ibiblio.org/emusic-l/2008/01/19/the-arp-2600-manual/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sat, 19 Jan 2008 09:10:05 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[gear]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[resources]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[software]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[speculation]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.ibiblio.org/emusic-l/?p=76</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Quite some time back, I found a scanned copy of the ARP 2600 User&#8217;s manual. I&#8217;ve always had a soft spot for the 2600, though I could never quite afford one; it&#8217;s always seemed like a great balance as far as analog synths go.In a recent fit of &#8220;my disk is too full&#8221;, I unzipped [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><img src="http://ibiblio.org/emusic-l/arp2600blue.jpg" alt="blue-face Arp 2600" />Quite some time back, I found a scanned copy of the ARP 2600 User&#8217;s manual. I&#8217;ve always had a soft spot for the 2600, though I could never quite afford one; it&#8217;s always seemed like a great balance as far as analog synths go.In a recent fit of &#8220;my disk is too full&#8221;, I unzipped the file of scans and started reading. It&#8217;s really a very good introduction to the machine and how it works; I&#8217;ve actually started feeling like if I had one in front of me, that I&#8217;d be able to use it effectively.<span id="more-76"></span>An idle thought crossed my mind that it would be amusing to figure out how much an equivalent synth (from analog modules) would cost to put together nowadays; Richard Wentk was kind enough to point out that theÂ <a href="http://www.macbethstudiosystems.com/" title="Macbeth synthesizers">Macbeth M5N</a>Â is pretty much a modern 2600. Quite a drool-worthy box, but still quite pricey at about $6k &#8211; although that&#8217;s roughly $1200 in 1970 dollars; I seem to vaguely recall from the time that the originals sold new for about twice that, so hey, prices have gone down. Up. Sideways.One-scan-per-page was getting hard to read, so I started transcribing it (copying the illustrations inline). At the same time, inspired by the really lovely design choices in this synth, I decided to poke around and see what emulations of the 2600 were out there &#8211; I had remembered seeing them before, but I wasn&#8217;t in an analog place at the time. I found two:Â <a href="http://www.arturia.com/en/arp/arp2600v.php" title="ARP 2600V">Arturia&#8217;s Arp 2600V</a>, andÂ <a href="http://www.wayoutware.com/products.html" title="TimewARP 2600">WayOutWare&#8217;s TimewARP 2600</a>. Perusing the docs (which are really quite good for both products), I found out that the TimewARP 2600 manual is a pretty faithful version of sections 4 and 5 &#8211; the real meat &#8211; of the manual (it&#8217;s even written by the original author!), so my transcription has halted for the moment. I did find it interesting that just the act of transcribing did a lot to put the concepts into my head, even though I wasn&#8217;t particularly studying them.I&#8217;ve played with both some now,Â and I&#8217;m liking the TimewARP 2600 better than the Arturia one: it seems to run better for me, and doesn&#8217;t make weird user interface decisions (I was convinced for quite some time that the Arturia guys had never heard of a scroll bar, until I was told that there&#8217;s a +/- control at the top of the window that expands and contracts it. Note to anyone contemplating their own softsynth: <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic">never</span>Â just make up your own UI conventions. It makes long-time users of Macs <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic">really irritable</span>).Â It <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic">feels</span>Â like a 2600, so much so that I remembered vividly the hour or so I was lucky enough to spend with one when I was fifteen, making silly noises. And it&#8217;s certainly cheaper than a real 2600 at less than $200.I had this dream the other night, of a custom MIDI controller that mapped real physical sliders to every slider on the face of the 2600 emulator, and which would look just like a real 2600. Definitely a pipe dream, but hey, those are the best kind.</p>
]]></content:encoded>
			<wfw:commentRss>http://www.ibiblio.org/emusic-l/2008/01/19/the-arp-2600-manual/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
		</item>
	</channel>
</rss>
