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Sunday, August 10th, 2025 12:47 pm

Synth Glossary

Arpeggiator:
Many synths can only play one note at a time (they are monophonic). With the arpeggiator on, if more than one note is pressed at a time, the synth will alternate between the notes. They also often have a range control that allows the user to tell the ynth to play additional octaves - so if the range is set to two octaves the synth will play the keys that are held down in the octave that they are played and then in the next octave up/down....

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Omni-2
"The ARP Omni-2 is an improved version of the popular Omni. It features all- electronic switching, single/multiple triggering and a separate bass synthesizer. The Omni-2 is actually three separate instruments in one package - 1) a highly evolved string chorus, 2) polyphonic synthesizer section and 3) separate bass synthesizer. All three sections can be played simultaneously for impressively-rich orchestral effects....The Omni-2 has controls to balance the volume of each section, selectable waveforms and chorus phaser controls. Each section has its own output so that the Omni-2 can be played in stereo or even dramatic 'triphonic.'"----[from ARP's promotional Omni-2 brochure courtesy of Kevin Lightner]

The Omni keyboards are string synthesizers with four separate voices (bass, cello, viola, violin, each independently switchable) and a bass/synthesizer section. The string section has its own variable speed LFO, and attack/release envelopes. The synthesizer section has a VCF and its own ADSR envelope. The bass/synthesizer split is set to the lower one and a half octaves. The Omni (model 2300) was ARP's best selling intstrument. Unlike the original, the Omni-2 has single triggering so that when any note is held down the VCF and VCA envelopes will not re-trigger. The original Omni had multiple triggering so that every time a key was depressed the envelopes were triggered.

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