Korg ARP 2600 Reissue

The Lounge Other Gear
#1

So i don’t have a picture yet, but there is no doubt anywhere that Korg is announcing their reissue of the 2600 in a few days on January 10th. It’s the full thing, and has a sequencer in it, and will ship in February. The cost is 3200 UK pounds.

You can see a little discussion of it here on Sonic Talk 603, and the Jean-Michel Jarre announcement back in mid-December.

It’s an awesome synth, and is both old and will never be old. It’s the first synth i ever played and that memory is etched in my mind. Let the discussion begin.

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#2

Was anyone impressed with the sound of the other Karp re-issues?

Wasn’t blown away by the demos. That would be only concern.

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#3

That certainly is an issue – Jean-Michel mentions it is passing in the video link above.

From what i recall, the side-by-side comparison videos done of the Odyssey, one of the versions of the Odyssey anyways, mostly said it was spot-on.

There is some range of difference though that is still good enough – particularly with a synth like the 2600 with all it’s range of control. But good question.

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#4

The Karp module sounds HUGE and really fantastic. You need to use one in real life. You won’t be disappointed.

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#5

I look forward to see how it compares with a TTSH. I put my blood sweat and tears into it. So hopefully i can sell it and buy the KARP or be happy that i put all that effort in. I hope it has LED slide pots lmao. Also if you can change between the lawsuit filter and the updated version. I have to change out a card in the TTSH to do that. If they updated that with a switch that’d be amazing. I also put vintage parts in mine so it’ll be interesting to see how it compares in that regard. Next i hope they include oscillator sync in it , potentially expand on the wave forms , so you can have each waveform on-all oscillators (however limitations etc blah blah). Next up it should have quick enough gates to work with eurorack properly.If it had a delay as well as the spring verb , that’d be amazing. The only things i would like for improvements is potentially built in MIDI and external CV.

I hope for that price due to mass production they include the 1601 sequencer or the keyboard. It seems like a boutique price. Who knows? Will it be limited to a 1000?

/rant

But basically i hope it’ll be as fantastic as the MS20M was. It had all the bells and whistles.

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#6

I think a question left, at least one of the questions left, is about the sequencer. Ty mentions it in the video above. The 2600 i played back in the 70’s had none, except what you made yourself. ARP had a sequencer at the time that was a separate thing though it would work with the 2600. So we’ll have to wait a few days to get the detail on what Korg is doing with the sequencer in the reissue.

It will be voltage output no doubt so how you use it is up to you.

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#7

I was going to build a kit version this year (1601) , but i may wait and see how it stacks up vs that . I had no idea it wasn’t originally intended for the 2600. It seems born for it!

#8
Nostalgia

I used a 2600 back in college, and we rigged a single channel sequencer with a DEC PDP-8 computer that we programmed ourselves, and a large Digital to Analog box, used for physics experiments. This was in the Physics department – i don’t think it would have been permitted in the Music department.

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#9

That is class!

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#10

Didn’t the original use a plug size that was slightly larger than the 1/4 jack – i seem to remember something about that. I would guess this will be with the 1/4 jack – although i suppose the 3.5 mm might make sense too if you put the 2600 along with your Eurorack stuff. Still some details to fill in after the formal announcement.

ADDED: I’d also guess they’d add that modern 1980’s thing MIDI. Really interesting if they didn’t it wouldn’t be that hard to have it eternal too.
USB MIDI???

ADDED a day later: I was mis-remembering the jack size, i knew they were oddball – they were just a little larger than 1/8 inch – as is pointed out down thread. Thanks thomaso!

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#11

I’d love to partake but £3500 is just too extreme for my tastes. I’d baulk at that sort of money for an original. Ouch…

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#12

The original used Tini-jax. A little bit different in size than the 3.5mm jacks.

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#13

my Clone has MIDI , and i am a hobby builder , i used a midi2CV board and wired it in. I am sure they will include it last time! Preferably via usb!

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#14

plus all the maintenance/repairs :open_mouth:

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#15

(Confusedly scouring over the various patch cables I’ve used to patch between my 2600 and synths with 3.5mm jacks). Was this always the case? I’ve interconnected both 2600s I’ve owned (two different models) with other gear that used 3.5mm jacks.

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#16

Ugh. Yeah. Tell me about it.

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#17

Tempted to sell if the new KARP lives up to it? You also could literally buy 2 TTSH potentially for how much it’d sell for!

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#18

I do all my own so that wouldn’t be so big a deal for me. But yeah, the point stands

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#19

Yep , I would have paid 2500 to 3000 US even if the Behringer would have been available at the same time for way less. Can’t spend 6000 can$ but I’m sure this is going to be a very nice reissue from KORG.

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#20

DIYers unite! :smiley:

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