Cherry Audio Forums

I think the CA2600 is one of CA's best synths.

It sounds great !

And another +1 here for full polyphony.

With the help of a Unify-ing companion product - I often use this in poly mode.

However, having poly mode built in would be very much appreciated.

"The ARP 2600 is a modular, monophonic synthesizer that was manufactured by ARP Instruments in 1971."

While I understand the 'keeping it original' idea, I have to say that an optional poly mode would make this the perfect synth. If people don't want to use it then they can switch it off.

To be fair, if one desires polyphony and/or a 1601 sequencer, it's all there in the Arturia version of the 2600. There is also some built-in effects and a few other goodies. You just have to pay for it

Personally, I much prefer the CA experience for my 2600 needs; I find the Arturia a touch too complicated - and I had the Arturia first. The CA version just hits the spot perfectly for me and sounds amazing. A big part of that experience (for me) is working as closely as possible to the original hardware, without too much added complication.

I do believe that CA think very hard about where to extend the experience of the original hardware, with its limitations. I always wanted an ARP 2600 and I knew what I wanted to do with it, so I accept that my viewpoint is maybe a touch old-fashioned. Equally, I know what I wanted to do with the VM900 modules, for example.

As the saying goes, "Your mileage may vary"

I, too, own that "A" version one also, yet enjoy the CA one more. Yeah, A has poly, so I can reach for that as needed...

just dreaming how the CA2600 COULD sound with a poly mode. nice nice. oh well.

I realize its different since no jumper wiring modular stuff, but doesn't Cherry's ARP Quadra synthesizer basically give us a lot of 2600 type sounds in poly?

Good news for the "I want a poly CA2600" crowd. I can be done with Plugin Guru's Unify product. CA2600 in full 8 voice glory!

They include a handful of "poly-ized" presets that can be used as templates to convert any mono preset you want. You can even pan each voice like OB-Xd. They do it by running 8 instances of CA2600 and a trick midi router plugin, but since Unify threads each instance to own its own cpu core, the cpu isn't straining a bit. I'm running 4ms latency on a ten year old Xeon no problem at all doing 8 instances of CA2600, cpu barely even cranking. Even has macro presets for using single knobs for controlling ADSR, filter cutoff, mod wheel etc. for all 8 instances so it can be played like a true 8 voice.

Granted its a PIA compared to a natively poly CA2600, and unfortunately Unify costs more than CA2600. But for me, it adds so much value to all of the Cherry synths (as well as many others), and does so many other things that it was really worth it to buy it. BTW on sale until Apr 17.