The French Connection is here!

Magnifique! We just received the French connection controller keyboard made by Analogue Systems. You can tell it’s a British company because they spell it analogue and not analog..but I digress. The original reason we purchased it was to drive the Buchla 200E, but now that there’s an official Buchla keyboard (and I use the term keyboard VERY loosely) on its way, the Arp 2600 seemed like a better decision. The FC was commissioned by Johnny Greenwood, keyboard player and synthesist extraordinaire for Radiohead. Greenwood wanted a controller that worked like the Ondes Martinot , but was a bit more robust and had CV and gate outputs to control his Analogue Systems modular.

Here are a few observations about it and its maiden test run on the 2600:

Arp 2600 with FC controller

The first thing I noticed was that the ring where your finger goes is…well…just that, a plain old ring compared to the original Martinot’s spring loaded contraption. I found the FC’s sliding action was a lot easier to control, and when hooked up to the ARP it was way easier to get accurate pitch control. Overall it feels like a nice solid unit and it’s easily twice as addictive as the original Martenot. (Although sadly lacking in those funny-looking diffusers). Stay tuned for some samples!