D3
ARP Rhodes Chroma
Year of manufacture
1982
Production period
2(1982 – 83)
Polyphony
16
Oscillators
2(by Voice)
Waveforms
2+3(Variable Saw, Variable Pulse + PWM + White & Pink Noise)
Modulation
2(1 LFO + VCO B)
Filters
2(per Voice) (Low-/high-/band-pass/notch -12 & -24 dB/octave)
Keys
64
Features
11(Arpeggiator, Glide, Ringmodulation, Crossmodulation, Filter FM, Osc Sync, Velocity, Aftertouch, Pitch-, Mod-Lever, Semi-Modular)
Sound-Memory
50
ARP Rhodes Chroma
Even tho the Chroma was born out of ARP’s downfall and misfortune, it advanced to become one of the best and most successful polyphonic synthesizers. When ARP went bankrupt in 1981, the Chroma was yet to be released. The company was then taken over by CBS Musical Instruments (Fender), Distributor of the Fender Rhodes.Â
Around 3000 units of the Chroma and a few hundred Expanders were sold, making the Chroma well distributed, but not necessarily desirable (at the time). The fantastic sounding instrument was indeed very hard to program, by choosing and editing parameters via one singular assignable slider.Â
The Chroma’s architecture was based on 16 synthesizer ‘channels’, each consisting of one VCO, waveshaper, filter and amp, enabling 16-voice polyphony. The synth-voices could be paired up, reducing polyphony to 8 voices, but doubling each voice and fattening up the sound.