ARTURIA – ARP 2600 V – USER MANUAL
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5
THE BASICS OF SUBTRACTIVE SYNTHESIS
Of all forms of sound synthesis, subtractive synthesis is one of the oldest and still
certainly one of the most employed today. It is this method that was
developed toward the end of the 60’s on analog synthesizers like the ARP,
Oberheim, Yamaha, Buchla, Sequential Circuits (Prophet series), Roland, Korg
(MS and PS series), Bob Moog’s creation and many others. This concept of
synthesis is still used on most current digital synthesizers, complementing sample
reading or wave tables, which progressively replaced the analog oscillators of
the first synthesizers in the 80’s. The ARP2600, or even your own ARP2600 V are
among the best illustrations of the enormous possibilities of subtractive
synthesis.
5.1
The three main elements
5.1.1
The oscillator or VCO
The oscillator (Voltage Controlled Oscillator) is the starting module (with the
noise module which is often classed among the oscillators) for the creation of
a sound on an analog system.
It will generate the initial sound signal. We can think of the oscillator like a violin
string that once stroked or plucked, vibrates to create its sound.
The oscillator settings on the ARP2600 V
