ARP Axxe

It's not easy to use. It gives great sounds but it is totally unpredictable. But in some way that is what it makes such a great machine!

It is a monophonic synth. Nothing more and nothing less. I do not use the keyboeard much.

The sounds are awesome. You'll get sounds that you can't compare to any well known analog synth, for example a minimoog. It's unique; dark noisy and crispy sounds. Very well suited for space music effects or noisy tracks. I also use it for drones and ambient stuff. Because it sounds so damn dark!

I don't know if this machine will live forever. But my first impression is that it is built well. I got it repaired (key rubbers exchanged, sliders cleaned, filter modified etc.) because it was in very bad shape when I got it. Now it sounds a new.

I use it a lot in combination as an basic sound generator with other gear I own like Frostwave Alienator and kaoss pad. Just plug it in and it works.

The schematic printed on the top pannel is a little misleading, esp if, like me, this is your first analog synth.

Very stable oscilators. I played out live on mine for about 3 years, and only had to tune it once a night. Compared to my mini moog, its rock solid as far as holding its realive pitch. The PPC is nice. I found it easy to get vibrato and bends. I even got good and toggling the PPC between its three mode while playing bass lines. Also has three CV outs that, used with a MIDI to CV converter, can be a powerful tool coupled with a sequencer and another tone generator.

The tones that come out of this bad boy are second-to-none. I have yet to hear any non-analog piece that compares. Run throught my QSC usa 850, a carvin 4x10 and an ev 18, I would turn the res and cutoff all the way down, and use the sine wave to rattle entire buildings. The filters are good too, a little crisper than moog filters.

My key contacts would routinely break off. The problem was that the key still generates tone, but its always the last note played before the bad key. They're easily fixed if you're not shy about it opening up. I used to thread guitar b strings throught the board and they seemed to be fine (until they broke again).

N/A

Great vintage piece for live and the studio. Cabage Cases in Columbus Ohio built me a flight case for it and I was off and running.

None of the above questions apply, if you can read them. This synth is marvelously simple to use; theres only one row of sliders and its pretty self explanatory.

Using the pulse width modulation you can get some amazingly fat sounds, particularly bass. But my absolute favorite feature would have to be the keyboard-controlled filter. yes. you can set the keyboard to control the filter. what does this mean? it means tuned white noise (good for percussion and industrial FX). it means turning up resonance all the way and using the cutoff frequency knob to tune the extra frequency to create duophonic chords or dischords. great for organ and chimes sounds. not realistic sound, mind you. but fantastic. if youve heard Hardcore Devo Vol. 1, you may have some idea what i'm talking about. i've also gotten beautiful strings and decent brassy sounds. another odd and often annoying feature is that when attack time is all the way down, the note is begun with a huge percussive pop. this is great for percussion, but can be annoying when you want a short, concise blip of a note. you can mix the square and sine LFO pitch modulation. you can control the pitch and the pulse width with the envelope generator. the possibilities never seem to end. my other big complaint is that you can only transpose two octaves at a time, and the keyboard is very small, which sucks if you go up and down a lot.

in addition to the abovementioned sounds (tuned noise, industrial noise, strings, bass, brass, chimes, etc) this synth is fantastic for making horrible noises. i hate to reference Devo again but the song Smart Patrol/ Mr. DNA comes to mind. if youd like to score and provide sound effects to a classically styled sci-fi movie, this is the machine for you. and of course, this is also great for your traditional analog leads.

Its been absolutely fantastic for my New Wave/ Post Rock band Volvox. i would not recommend it, however, for ambient music or techno.

this machine is old, and its analog. tuning is a big problem. however, it does always work to some extent, which cant be said about some of my other machines.

you can find some neat mods on the internet, other than that, you're on your own.

this is perhaps the most cost effective synth ever. this belongs in the lower ranks of the great analog monosynths (for those who dont know, this is the little brother of the odyssey, descended from the 2600, descended from the 2500, ARP's first synth). if you have the money, you should probably pay about twice as much for the odyssey. but if you want to save some money and retain your rep as an analog elitist (GIVE ME MOOG OR ARP OR EMS OR BUCHLA OR EML OR OBERHEIM... OR GIVE ME DEATH) this is the synth for you.

Verry well layed out. Just grab a slider and GO!

wel it's a basic mono with the basic features. Nothing exotic but all you need is there

Well this thing just sound's fantastic! I had the filter modded (has mush more reach now), the Atack(in adsr) was made faster and some adjustment's where made to the vca. It sounded good befor but now it's mush opener and has a nicer base

Well when i bought this synth it was out of tune and i couldn't get it right. So i had someone (arp-expert) look at it. He changed 2 litle resistors and now the scaling is perfect. Seems like this was pretty niormal at the time it was made! I can't say if it will stay in tune couse i've only had it for a month(but it wil keep it for sure)

Non existing but i found the perfect repareman not far from where i live.

I love it! I have a korg x-911 that will give me more bas sound's but the axxe is better at all the rest (after the mod even the filter sound's better than the korg(there is an ms-20 filter in the X-911) filter

In comparison to modern (circa 2003) synths with polyphony, sampled sounds and hundreds of presets, it's more difficult to use. No presets, which means you have to custom-set each sound, and these sliders can be mighty finicky. Still, there is a wonderfuly satisfying sense of experimentation and triumph when the myriad of sliders find a great sound.

Again, when compared to today's synth, it's like a kazoo, but WAY more expressive. No MIDI, one oscillator, no built-in effects, except for the infamous PPC (Proportional Pitch Controller) - which I happen to love. These three white little (1" x 1.25") rectangular rubber pads (flatten note, add vibrato, sharpen note) are wonderfully intuitive and quite unique. Many players hate them - not me.

FAT monophonic analog - pure ARP. Although this synth will never deliver realiztic instrument sounds (a semi-realistic flute sound is the best I've ever gotten), the heart-and-soul of this instrument is in pure electronica. The VCF and resonance controls deliver a variety of fat synth sounds. The ADSR controls control the envelope nicely. The only reason that this category doesn't get a 10 is that the PPC is not adjustable.

So far, so good. Parts are rare and it's dependability may be questionable, since it's over 20 years old and it's been who-knows-where. I'd never travel/gig with this little guy. It's sits in my music room on my synth rack (under a towel when not in action) and it will stay there.

ARP bit the dust in 1981. There are some good resources out there online regarding ARP history and instruments.

Considering the above ratings, you'd think that this instrument isn't all that impressive. Next to a circa 2003 Yamaha or Roland synth, it's not...but it's not supposed to be. This is a monophonic ARP Axxe made in the late 70s (early 80s) - this is the "mark II" model with black/orange graphics and the PPCs (I didn't like the original black/gold models). Plus, it's a ball to play and makes some VERY impressive sounds. I also own a circa 1990 Yamaha Clavinova (CLP-560) digital piano with weighted keys, as well as a circa 1992 Roland JV-30 synth, so my key setup is now complete.

The first synth I ever bought in the summer of 1981 was an ARP Axxe just like the one I recently found on eBay, so there's a bit of sentimental attachment to this model. I hope I never get rid of this ARP...if I do, I'll kick myself for a long time.

Monophonic vintage synth. Very basic design with multi-colored sliders to control the various functions. Well laid out and easy to use.

It doesn't have ANY modern features.

Sounds great. It works well as a lead keyboard in specific applications.

It's more a part of a collection than an operation keyboard, but, yes I'd use it on a gig.

Doesn't exist. However, the only problem that I've ever had with it was the keyboard action. The keyboard bushings had petrified over the years. Having recently rebuilt my Sequential Circuits Pro-1, I noticed that the J-wire style keyboard was nearly identical, and acquired new bushings from Wine Country Sequential. After replacing these, it's preforming like brand new!

Not the greatest mono synth, but a nice little addition to my growing collection of vintage analog stuff.

Very easy to use. The controls are routed to sliders across the face, they are color-coded, and logical. It's so simple (one oscillator), it's easy to play as soon as you start.

Monophonic, 1 oscillator, pitchbend, random voltage, all the standard analog goodies. Has that nice look with the wooden bookends, and metal chassis. CV in/out. Fun to hook up CV to Paia Theremin. Theremin can control filters, which is way cool. Theremin can also control pitch of axxe. Also, it has a line-in that can be modulated thru Axxe filters! Fun with microphone (if it's pre-amped).

Very rich sounding for one oscillator! Has a great random S/H for those R2D2 efffects. Real '70s. I play mine thru an EH Memory Man, and it sounds gorgeous. It has a nice portamento to boot. Once in tune, it hardly ever goes out.

It's close to 30 years old (ouch!). When I bought it, the keyboard would not transpose notes higher than the last E. All keys after E would still play E. I lived with it for quite a long time. One day I decided to fix it, and it litarally took 9 seconds to diagnose the problem and fix it for good.

Arp who?

This is my favorite keyboard. Well, that and my Hammond. I'd be very angry if it were stolen. In the voting booth, I'd vote for it.

Couldn't be more logically buildt up, with the sliders giving a good overview. I never had a manual, you won't need one.

Nice keys. CV/Gate works fine with most other analogs I've tried. It's capable of ALOT of sounds, though only one at a time... which is sad in some ways but charming in other...

The most beautiful synth I've ever played! Maybe not as funny or flexible as Roland SH-2 or MonoPoly (which I own too), but very beautiful and capable of doing some "acoustic" things.

Two keys broke down (inside) after dropping it on the floor (stay away from doing that...!) but I could easily open it and repair it, which was a mechanical damage. Don't know about circuits, though it's basically nothing inside!!!

yeh right!

Using this little guy with a few Moogerfoogers and the synths mentioned above and loops/delays makes it the perfect synth for melodic ambient stuff as well as tweeking house-like sounds, or theremin scarymoviesounds, or whatever, so far! If you can get one, get one!

Very easy to use if you like to grab a slider and find a sound.
If you like to scroll through presets and LCD screens you're out of luck.
I like using it live with some analog echo it sounds great but you need to be familiar with it so you can get the right sounds since there are no presets.

Monophonic and the action is pretty good. Since it has CV inputs you can retrofit it to MIDI for under $100. It has an external audio input so you can feed the high out back into it and fatten 'er up- not that you really need to. If you modulate the pulsewith with the LFO right you can get as fat a sound as you'll need for most applications be it bass or leads or whatever. The VCO is very stable mine drops out of tune very rarely. A lot of people don't like the PPC pads which are little rubber pads you push on to pitch bend. Mine work fine and I don't mind them. The sliders are nice and chunky unlike the O.'s 'tic tacks' for that reason alone I like the Axxe better. Also has VC pedal input for wha wha effects.

Well it has that ARP sound for sure. Overdrives very easily. If you like MJ Cole or Wookie it has that garage bass sound pegged. Exactly. Also great for D&B and funky house. Or retro jazzfunk- listen to Herbie Hancock's Chamelion for ex. I like using the sliders for tricky 'crossfader' stuff- with knobs you'd bust your wrists. Very expressive. I don't know why anyone would call it tinny, I guess they don't know how to use an old school synth. It's easily as fat as a lot of two oscillator VCO synths and a lot fatter and warmer than say a Nord or any other Virtual Analog synth.

Bulletproof.

ARP's 24 hour support line is second to none in the industry. As far as I know all their models are still under warranty and on their website you can download BIOS upgrades to update the main OS for you Axxe which you can dump in via the built in firewire or SCSI port.
Sorry...

it's my 3rd analog. I paid a bit more for it than most do it had been completely serviced.
I wouldn't trade it for anything due to its simplicity and playability.

Very simple to use,especially when a sound engineer sets it up for you.
I never had to worry about setting it up.The presets sound brilliant,I
didnt need the manual,and i think it is a bit old to of have had a patch
editor!

Mine had a 32 note polyphony,and the action of the keys is fluid.All
of the built in effects,could be altered by knob,and I am not sure
about its expansion capabilities.I used mine on works such as the
Reflex and The Wild Boys,the dawn of the midi era.It worked well,with
an off-board sequencer

Some instruments are realistic to the real sound,but my producer
Colin Thurston,and myself tried to find new sounds.It worked well for
our New Romantic style.Some nice built in arpeggiators came with it to.

Very very reliable.I have had mine since 1983 and it is still working
well,despite dropping on a hard concrete floor,about fifteen years ago.
I probably wouldnt use it in a concert now though.

I never had to

I love everything about the Arp Axxe.A real ground breaking keyboard
synthesiser.I started on Wasps in 1978,and now I look back and realise what an
instrument the Arp Axxe really was for me.