ARP Solus

Very easy...just turn it on, plug it in, slide the sliders and there you have it!! It will take a few hours of tweaking until you get the general idea on which sliders control which "sounds" but it is WELL WORTH YOUR TIME!!

Pure ANALOG! Mono! No effects! Nuff said! What more do you need when you dabble in this realm? A wonderful animal...every switch and slider modifies the sound to your hearts content.

What can anyone say about a working ARP? If you have one with all its guts and abilities intact, you have one of the world's most original and satisfying synthesizers! Is it a Moog...no! An Oberheim...NO! A Sequential Circiuts...not on your life? It is just a VERY affordable example of one of the worlds most wonderful synths! OK...maybe not "pristine" but a 10 never the less!

No idea...mine has always worked fine.

No idea...I dread the day I have to send it out...

I can't add much more...other than at $425 it was an absolute STEAL!! I love this instrument! I also own a Prophet 600, Studio Electronics SE1, Oberheim Matrix 1000, Emu planet Earth with a B3 expansion card, and an Alesis QS6...A WHAT!!??! Yes...until I got into analog, I thought the Alasis sounded ok...it is now sitting upright in the corner of my studio - unused and will probably remain that way because I could not sell it for more than it is worth to keep. Oh well...live and learn. If you are contemplating a Solus or any ARP...BUT IT!! You will not be disaapointed!

I bought one new in 1981. I had never owned a synth before but learned how to make the sounds i needed fast. It was easy. You didn't need to know what the names of the controls meant -- just fool with them for a couple of days would give you a great idea of how to get the sounds you wanted.

One of the most brilliant features was the fact that this synth is built into the bottom half of its own road case! Just take the top lid off, and you're ready to plug in! It had all the basic effects you need for a basic mono analogue synth (at a great price back then).

Excellent for this tyoe of synth

Gigged with it for 2 years. Only one problem -- one of the keys became stuck (discovered this an hour before a gig!) With a screwdriver and about 15 minutes of time I fixed it.

I went into radio in 1981 and sold my rig - wish I hadn't. i would love to have this little monster today

Very simple and intuitive if you're used to subtractive synthesis.

It's an old school mono synth, 2 oscillators, one envelope that is shared for the amp and filter. There's all the cv ins and outs which I don't use, foot pedal in which i haven't used either. It also has an external in that runs through the filter which is nice.
This synth has no volume contol, just a high and low output, so your mixer or amplifier does that job here.
The pitch bend is the typical arp rotary knob type. Some people complain about this, and I can understand the gripe from a player's point of view, because it's musically useless, but being a drum n' bass producer it allows me to get this board to go an octave lower for some really deep sub tones which makes it a plus for me:)
The keyboard action is of course horrible. Mine has been well loved and there are definitely some worn springs which make some interesting sounds when released.

In my opinion this Instrument is very harsh and grimy sounding with the filter opened up, deep and moody with it closed. The sounds I get from it are very brooding and dark, just how I like it. I'm used to using a waldorf Q, and compared to that (I know they're very different instruments) It sounds very alive and organic. Gotta love real analog! The portamento control is sweet for "gangsta whine" sliding pimp leads. It would sound good in a rock band if you can keep it in tune. I like tuning the second oscillator to a fifth and going nuts with the portamento, but that's just me.

I'm sure at it's age it can't be too reliable. it stays in my studio and doesn't move. I bought this synth from a friend who's had it for about 6 years and he never had a problem with it.

I definitly got a good deal on this one. If it was lost or stolen I'm sure it would be hard to replace. It has so much character, and really compliments the controlled (digital) sound of my Q. I'm getting in the habit of doing multisamples of patches i like and running them through my E-MU because it's almost impossible to produce the same patch twice.
Overall, I really like it. It's not an all arounder, but it definitly has a place within my sound that can't be replaced.

This is a straight-forward 2 oscillator synth. If you are brand new to synthesis, it could be a little daunting at first, but with a little daily study, one could overcome and learn this synth quickly. There aren't any presets, or memory, so programming must be performed solely by the user. I never had the manual, so I can't speak for it. I would still, however, like to have a copy of the manual to confirm some facts about this instrument.

2 VCO, 1 VCF (low pass filter), ring modulator, 1 LFO, 1 ADSR, pretty basic setup. But what it does have is tone - see below. My only complaint, which applies to many analog synths is the keyboard. I find myself having timing problems that I normally don't have on modern keyboard when recording. One must be very careful to release a key before playing an additional key (low-note priority involved here).

I've only heard my ARP Solus, but I can honestly say, it sounds so full and incredible. This synth outputs a very pure analog tone that can range from bright and happy to slightly bummed and emotional (with the filter closed a bit). The bass on this monster is so huge and ripping (with the addition of a little on-board analog ring modulator). In fact, I play in a Sundays-type of band (with more diverse electronic tones, of course) and have used the ARP Solus several times to play synth bass when a bass player hasn't been available. It sounds huge thru a bass rig. As far as leads, it sounds equally huge.

I've used this synth live for 3 years and only had it break once at practice. The synth was made in the early eighties and was probably due to be serviced anyway. It is way more reliable than my old Roland Juno 106 which was in and out of the shop so many times I had to sell it. I can now rely on this synth and its phat tone in a live or recording situation. Because it is an analog synth and old, I'll give it an eight, because you never know what could happen.

ARP failed back in the early eighties due to horrible management. The ARP Solus was their last product.

I haven't found many other reviews on this synth, which bums me out. If you get one, you'll know what I mean - its incredible sounding. This synth is always at the console when recording. I recently did a pop tune with 7 ARP tracks bounced-down, forming the chords. I often use a Rockman Analog Delay/Chorus with the Solus to make it sound even huger. Enjoy.

You have to know or learn the basics of synthesis to use it.

It is a classic monophonic synth, like the Micro-moog.

Lots of sliders to play with.

Two oscillators, ring modulator ADSR, etc. Lots more sliders to play with. No effects, not velocity sensitive or anything like that and only one note at a time, but the sound was awesome. Comes in a self contained case. 37 note keyboard.
Doesn't have a real usable pitchbender,(the knob provided was to sensitive) but this became almost a benefit, becuase the portamento (glisando) was so usable that you could do pitch bends and other tricks with your left hand easily.

The sound rivals the micro-moog, it is that good. Very full very analog.
There was a switch that would toggle it from ring modulator to a funky detuning kinda thingy. Along with that switch was a slider that could control the detuning thingy like I've heard on a Santana track, or make that ring modulator sweep through some wierd ass harmonics and really growl during solo's. The basic tones are square and sawtooth for each of the two oscillators. The basic tones are very full 4 pole filter analog. Of course it also had a great resonance filter with cutoff etc.

Was great for a few years until I fried an oscillator in a hot car, then the replacement oscillator would never tune correctly.

Arp has been out of business for years so parts and schematics are probably very scarce.

No Arp company, so no support.

I was a little hesitant to talk it up on the forum, becuase I may want to get one when one comes up, and since they are scarce I didn't want to drive up the price with a good review.
I might opt for a newer more versitile polysynth, but nothing has that same full big analog sound and features the way this was laid out. This things got a great sound and a great unique personality.