ARP 2500 Synthesizer

Cantos’ ARP 2500 was the instrument used to communicate with the aliens in the motion picture Close Encounters of the Third Kind.

The ARP 2500, built from 1970 through the mid-’70s, was ARP's first big synthesizer. A monophonic analog modular synthesizer equipped with a set of matrix switches to connect modules in addition to the more common patch cords.  The 2500 was not commercially successful, selling approximately 100 units of which about only 50 remain in the world.

Cantos acquired this very rare instrument, probably the last 2500 ever made, in 2008 from a private collector in Los Angeles who bought it from Lucasfilm.

Pop Culture Reference

Other than its most famous appearance in Close Encounters, the ARP 2500 has been used by musicians like Meat Beat Manifesto, The Who, David Bowie, Skinny Puppy, Jean Michel Jarre, and Vince Clarke. In the classical world, electronic composer Elaine Radique has worked almost exclusively with the 2500.