These Sifam caps work for me, fwiw. I suppose some might come off if you shipped the synth, or turned it upside down and shook it hard.
Thonk sells ‘em:
Black Hard Touch Slider - Sifam Plastic Cap
They have other colors too. I use a mix of black and white caps.
I tried the same ones (well, in grey actually), but they would barely hold in my case. A tight grip and you would detach them. I thought it wasn’t worth it.
I had bought some for other gear and tried those before buying the lot for this.
Looks pretty cool though.
I bought 70 caps from a seller on Etsy for under £30, and happy with the look and feel of them. They snap right on and don’t fall off.
I’m caving in for the grey one - question: regarding patch cables, how many would you recommend starting with, what lengths are necessary? I guess one or two plug-in cables as well (to double a connection). It’s all new to me.
Assuming there are none in the box, right?
I would recommend 30-45 cm.
I’m mainly using a couple of red, yellow and cyan stackcables, around ten in total. Obviously not the cheapest option.
There were none included.
Edit: actually, if you go for stackcables, go for cyan and yellow. Since prices are the same, the red ones could be limiting unnecessarily… They can’t make all possible connections. … So: 40-50 cm.
Got it. Sorry they didn’t work for you. I can see how if you grip them tightly enough and pull up as you move the slider, the caps could come off in your hand… I tend to nudge sliders more than grab them, or hold onto them just enough for control. Different strokes….
Yeah, too wobbly for my taste.
Same same… what have I become!?
The prospective owner of a fine synth
The 19” extra unit is a great idea. There are a few modules that would be ideal to pair with the 2600. Stuff like a few extra VCA’s would make a lot of sense
I recommend you buy used cables over on Modwiggler. Just make a general, WTB post about cables. That’s how I a massed my door breaking collection for an affordable price.
Or you can go to Modular Addict. They have a pretty good collection. I bought a grip of really long ones from them.
Thonk if you’re on the other side of the ocean.
Thanks, I’m covered rn.
I was the one asking for advice. Thanks. I ordered a few with my Bare from Thomas already, and will take it from there. In any case, I need to go slow with patching and learn.
6 one footers, three to four 1 1/2-2 footers is a good start, more than enough. 1-2 stackers.
My Gray Meanie was delivered today.
The grey finish looks great in the daylight; it’s darker than it appeared to me in various photos and darker than my grey Analog Four MkII. I wonder how it will be at night when I typically spend the time on music. There’s a part of me that wonders whether I will end up swapping it for the “regular” black-and-orange version, because a big part of this purchase are my 40-year-long fantasies about the artists and producers from my record collection who used the ARP 2600, and about the black-and-orange colour scheme from the later ARP 2600s.
This synth is big and solid and well-built and unfamiliar. It’s the second biggest item in my music area, bigger than my mixer. It’s strange using sliders and strange to be back with a control-per-function analogue monosynth (although I do have a 0-Coast that fits that category): I thought I had jettisoned those back in the twentieth century when I sold off my Synthi AKS and Pro-One. It also feels weird for me to buy new rather than second-hand.
But my initial impressions of the sound are favourable. I had a quick run through with it droning, then playing it from a MIDI keyboard, and then controlled by a MIDI sequencer and a Wogglebug, and the synth sounds great. It felt natural to wire it up with my small set of eurorack modules. The normalized patch points and slider controls make a lot of sense. I will reserve judgement on the spring reverb until I start recording it. I’m wondering how well it will stay tuned given that tuning using the sliders feels like it might be a nuisance.
I’m surprised that the manual doesn’t recommend using the Behringer SynthTribe application for updating the firmware and setting PB range and key priority values.
I’m not sure exactly how I’m going to end up mounting it. The logical way is to rackmount it vertically but I can see that being a literal pain for long patching sessions. For the moment it has taken over the table-top spot where my Analog Four normally sits, but it will end up being sequenced by the Cirklon.
Thanks for the detailed (as always) update Peter. I’m slightly jealous as I really like the look of the Meanie and I keep toying with the idea of getting one to pair with the Marvin. Regarding the tuning… it’s a bit of a pain not having selectable octaves but there’s enough leeway on the fine tune to get things in. I’ve not found that drift is an issue, at least on my unit. I find the difference between the filter modes is pretty subtle until you turn up the resonance
I want a full size ARP 2600 but I am not paying 10k for the full size Korg one.
Thanks Peter for sharing your impressions. Mine should arrive soon, it may take a little for me to grasp as I never patched cables and this is a complex beast.
About tuning drift, isn’t the unique selling point of ARP design oscillators that don’t drift with temperature etc…?
I assume Behringer used the same design. But I’m only assuming.
I have mine at approx. 30 degrees and raised a little so it’s quite nice to use while standing up:
The case is technically on its back, as it’s supposed to be mounted vertically but I found that it’s much more comfortable to use like this.
Nice case! Is it custom made? Also, it looks like it is not fit with the rack ears, right?
I’m thinking an angle like that is what I’d like as well. I can’t deal with vertical for sure. Horizontal can do but I like angled.
