ARP
Alan Robert Pearlman, Lewis Pollock, and David Friend co-founded ARP Instruments, Inc. in 1969. During their time in business, ARP was an American producer of electronic musical equipment. In the early 1970’s, ARP surpassed Moog to became the largest synthesizer manufacturer in the world for a short time. The company eventually folded in 1981 due to mismanagement and lack of sales.
Throughout the 1970’s, ARP produced over 20 synthesizers and keyboards. Their variety of high quality synthesizers made them a household name in the electronic music community. Their instruments went on to be used by Stevie Wonder, Herbie Hancock, Kraftwerk and many more. Their most successful retail models included the ARP Odyssey, ARP 2600, and ARP 2500.
After they closed, the rights to ARP’s 4-Voice Piano and ARP Chroma prototype were sold to CBS Musical Instruments, which was later spun off into Fender Musical Instruments Corporation. The APR Chroma then became known as the Rhodes Chroma.
In 2015, over 35 years after ARP initially closed, Korg brought back the ARP Odyssey. The revival became possible with the collaboration of David Friend, who originally cofounded ARP and developed the original design of the ARP Odyssey. ARP now exclusively sells variations of the Odyssey in both hardware and VST formats.
