The ARP Soloist, introduced in the early 1970s, is a monophonic synthesizer designed to sit atop an electronic organ. Much like the Roland SH-1000 and SH-2000, the Soloist featured preset sound selection switches located under the keyboard. This design made it intuitive for organists and keyboard players to integrate synthesizer sounds into their performances seamlessly. The ARP Soloist is often overshadowed by its successor, the ARP Pro Soloist introduced in 1972, but it remains significant as one of ARP's early attempts to make synthesizers more accessible to the general musician market.
The ARP Soloist was designed with ease of use in mind, targeting home organists and casual musicians who wanted to add synthesized sounds to their repertoire without the complexity of more advanced synthesizers. It provided a range of preset sounds that could be quickly selected and played, making it a practical addition to any electronic organ setup.
In contrast to the flexible modular design of the 2500, the Soloist had no patch panels or cables. A set of toggle switches allowed the performer to quickly choose one of 18 preset monophonic patches that were not modifiable. This lack of programmability was compensated by giving the performer control over the voice expression, adding growl, wow, brilliance" portamento, pitch bend, and/or vibrato to the timbre. A pressure-sensitive keyboard allowed players to use aftertouch to control all of these effects. (Source: Wikipedia)
