ARP • Pro/DGX
The Pro/DGX is a thirty preset monophonic analog synth based on the Pro-Soloist of the 1970's. The main difference is that the Pro/DGX had electronic switching (touch buttons) between its preset sounds whereas the older Pro-Soloist had circuit-based switching (rocker switches). It has 30 preset sounds to choose from, including Flute, Bassoon, Brass, Fuzz Guitar etc. Other features included pitch, portamento, vibrato, growl and wow effects. The keyboard has 37 keys with aftertouch sensitivity for volume, brilliance, vibrato, wow, growl, and even bend effects (all at once if you desire!). A few basic filter, envelope and LFO controls allow some tweaking of the preset sounds, however there is no memory to store your settings.
The Pro/DGX sounds slightly different than the Pro-Soloist however. The presets are virtually the same, but the Pro/DGX implemented a new filter design which some say sounds worse than the one used in the Pro-Soloist. Both synths refer to their single filter control (the filter cutoff) as "Brilliance". A few additional control sliders are available for the Volume, Portamento Time and Aftertouch Amount. Later on during its production, the Pro/DGX was released with the "Orange" look of later Arp synths (pictured above). It has been used by Tangerine Dream and Keane.
I have had the chance to do a 1 on 1 and to me they sounded the same, except from the Pro DGX being slightly more cleaner, less noisy.
The MK2 Pro DGX is on its own and cannot be compared to the MK1 Allthough it does not sound as good as say the MK1 it still has character and cannot be dismissed as a bad sounding machine, great for doing scores for TV commercials due to its classic preset layout and snappy character. Funny sound.