ARP Avatar

In the race to put out the first commercial guitar synth, ARP poured all is resources into this, and failed, thus putting ARP on the road to oblivion. These things retailed in Australia at AU$3000. I bought mine, brand new and in box circa 1983 for AU$200.

As a guitar synth, forget it. As a sound generator, it's reasonably easy once you've sat down with it for a few days. Forget the manual as it assumes the unit works as it was designed to do.

For guitar: it has a hex fuzz. You get a pick-up to attach to a spare guitar you happen to have handy. Although is useless as a sound trigger for the synth section, distorts each string individually when the hex is switched on, giving a beautiful mellow distortion (think Mike Oldfield).

For synth: without a functional trigger (mono if you can get it to work), it lacks structured notes and all you can do is twiddle with the knobs, of which there are plenty.

This is where I love it. As the $200 synth I bought it as, it's wonderful. I use it to soundsculpt and you can hear the quality ARP sounds. My rating here is based on the price I paid.

Still works after all these years but never taken outside my home studio. Had some minor fault years ago (I forget what) but was repairable. All the colour coded knobs on the sliders are brittle and started breaking and fall from day one, making it difficult to follow the pramater sequence. If anyone has the colour code plan, please send me a copy.

Sadly not applicable.

Would I replace it if stolen? No-one would steal it. I'm old school synth, my newest (and only midi) keyboard is a Jupiter 6 and I love all my knobs to be laid out before me, not some multi-function, scroll-thru touch pad rubbish. So I like my Avatar. It's use is limited and gets lost among the more practical equipment around it, but using it as my $200 intended it to be used -it shines.

it can be a pain in the...
like almost anything else from ARP it is a very moody synth,
one day it works and 3 days it doesn't.
it really takes a long time to get a simple sound.

I never talk bad about synth unless the ask for it,
This one is a real Disappointment though.
It is too complicated for getting anything done.
unreliable and basicly a waste of time.
I also sold my Arp 2600 because I don't think
that arp made synths for musician- but more for technicians.

buy an Arp Axxe with one VCO and you'll be happier -
mine still work here.
the arp was suppose to be a Guitar synth,
I found the Korg X-911 to be greatly better in all aspects.
The Avatar did not make it for a reason - it sucks.
I bought it and sold it the next month.

I give it a ZERO if I could.

what ??
they are out of buisness for a long time.

STAY AWAY FROM THIS JUNK !
or save up and buy the Octave Cat SRM !!!

This was intended as a guitar synth (and a very unsuccessful one due to poor tracking) but nowadays seen as a Mk3 Odyssey in module form. Like the Ody, it is exceptionally well specified in routings and the sound creation capabilities are about as good as they get for a 2-VCO machine, this is done via switches rather than the patchcords of the 2600 and can make the synth confusing at first, a synth-newcomer could spend ages and not get a musical sound. ARP write great manuals and the one that accompanies the Avatar is no exception, just ignore the guitar interface bits and dive in. runs great from a MIDI/CV converter without hitch.

As said earlier it is incredibly versatile and flexible, it has an onboard "fuzz box" distortion unit designed for use with the guitar pickup (on a weird 6-way connector) but there`s no reason why the synth itself can`t be fed through this for those classic distorted acid sounds and even guitary type leads. the first Mono with onboard FX!!, well the only others I`ve seen are the Prophecy and VL7. has CV/Gate and Trig ins and outs, trig isn`t needed with a Kenton converter and it tracks many octaves, I`ve trid 6-octaves without scaling problems, the VCOs are ultra stable and cover a wide range, VCO1 can even double up as a second LFO, yep the Avatar is one great mono

Typical ARP, if you know the Odyssey-3 then you know this, clean and smooth at the same time but can bite when needed, clean deep basses, haunting leads, screaming sync-sounds, excellent special FX, a real Poor-mans 2600 (especially if mounted vertically in a tolex covered case). filter input can be linked to the converter`s AUX out for more expression. great for Dance, rock, film work and anything elsy you can shake an Odyssey at.

Likely to being banged about less (even not being used due to being a crap guitar synth) an Avatar is far less likely to have been gigged to hell and more likely to have stayed in it`s box. ARP Monosynths tend to be reliable anyway, rarely used ones even more so. after the usual pot and switch cleaning expect no great difficulties.

ARP no longer exist BUT in the UK almost any vintage repairer will gladly fettle a late ARP like the Avatar. Phil Cirocco is the Stateside guru and can modularise it with panel mounted sockets to make a real mini-2600, he also services and mods ARPs too. Sliders DO snap on ARP kit and the pots aren`t available new BUT they`re the same as the OMNI and OMNI-II (a polyphonic synth-cum-string machine) which are an excellent source of sliders and other parts and have reliability problems so scrappers turn up. I`ll have to give this a 10 as ARPs, particularily post-77 ones are very very repairable should the need arise.

Mine was bought with the Guitar interface dead and I ain`t going to fix it (I`ve tried one that works with a guitar, never again!) but offers a great but larger Mk3 Ody with no keyboard that hangs nicely on the wall. I`m a big ARP Fan and have been for many years. This may have been ARPs biggest turkey in the 70s (in fact it helped crash the company) but nowadays its a great and powerful Monosynth module that`s stable, reliable and MIDIs up well....... try to get one without the guitar pickup and lead, that one item can double the cost to a collector and people know this.