String Machines, Old and New

Sacred Synthesis

String Machines, Old and New
« on: January 29, 2019, 08:33:19 AM »
String synthesizers had their day, and have recently made something of a come back.  Way back when, I owned an Elka Rhapsody 490, and a friend of mine had an ARP Omni.  It's hard to describe the attraction, because most of the recordings online use a camera mic, and therefore, sound horrendous.  But once you've been bitten, it's hard to remove the venom.  There's just something about that tremulous nasal little tone, run through a ton of reverb and maybe a phaser.

It would be useful to post here any and all related information, together with recordings.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dE6br0Myxvs
« Last Edit: January 29, 2019, 08:55:45 AM by Sacred Synthesis »

Re: String Machines, Old and New
« Reply #1 on: February 02, 2019, 03:35:57 AM »

Sacred Synthesis

Re: String Machines, Old and New
« Reply #2 on: February 02, 2019, 03:32:41 PM »

Sacred Synthesis

Re: String Machines, Old and New
« Reply #3 on: February 02, 2019, 03:33:22 PM »
A comparison of some old classics:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=smEMTPd2VgY

Re: String Machines, Old and New
« Reply #4 on: February 02, 2019, 03:46:54 PM »
Here's a very old string machine: https://www.classicfm.com/music-news/leonardo-da-vinci-viola-organista/

They made them quite a bit better back then.

Haha! It's quite a project. I found the hypothetical question of the pianist/builder quite interesting: What would have happened if this had become more widespread? – I guess building the first unit right before the Thirty Years' War didn't help.

Re: String Machines, Old and New
« Reply #5 on: February 02, 2019, 03:56:31 PM »
A comparison of some old classics:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=smEMTPd2VgY

I think I like the Lambda and the RS-09 best – in that exact order because the Lambda sounds more unique to my ears. The rest almost sounds too cliché to me depending on how strong the ensemble effect is pronounced. Although it's probably easier to fit a Solina and particularly an RS-505 into a mix, at least if you're playing with a classic band.

Sacred Synthesis

Re: String Machines, Old and New
« Reply #6 on: February 02, 2019, 04:08:43 PM »
I consistently liked the Roland RS-05 for its warmth and bottom end.  The Waldorf sounded terrible.

megamarkd

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Re: String Machines, Old and New
« Reply #7 on: February 02, 2019, 05:20:28 PM »
I consistently liked the Roland RS-05 for its warmth and bottom end.  The Waldorf sounded terrible.

Dare say the digital nature of the synth lets it's down.  I not disappointed with mine, but it does make me pine for a "real" string synth.

Razmo

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Re: String Machines, Old and New
« Reply #8 on: February 06, 2019, 08:11:18 AM »
Well, to me, the king is still an Eminent 310 Unique, paired with at Smallstone phaser from the 70s... That is what Jarre used... The eminent even had a built in spring reverb and analogue ensemble chorus.... And the ensemble chorus is exactly what creates this peculiar stringer sound... The raw tone going into this ensemble fx is basically just a sawtooth, but in general you could throw other simple waveforms into it and get that tone just with a different flavor... Thus the real stringer magic for me is not the tone generators, but rather the effects they use... Ensemble, phaser and spring reverb... Find an effect processor that could get those three right, and you could make a stringer synth out of any synth.
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