Battle of the "String Ensembles"

[musicman1ovation.net]

You've either got to be packin' years or into vintage keyboards big time for this, but I'd like to hear some comments on what you folks think was the best "String Ensemble" (or string machine) of the mid seventies.

 

ARP was the company that actually coined the name "String Ensemble", but Roland, Univox, Elka and others had them, too. It was those keyboards that did nothing but strings; mainly ensembles. I'm not even sure all of them would even do solo strings, but that tended to sound putrid. However, the "String Ensemble" sound showed up on more than a half decade of hits. The most famous was the ARP, but when musicians went to the store to buy a string machine, they were generally confronted with a choice, and that's where differences from subtle to broad made the choice very interesting. These machines were similar in price, with no more than one or two hundred dollars difference at most. I understand that one or two hundred bucks was more back then, but still it could be very close, and for many people the choice was about sound and not finances.

 

I heard the ARP, Roland, Elka & Univox. I think there was one more, but I'm not certain which. None sounded identical. For me, the ARP was best at playing whole chords, but not up to some others in one note melodies. When I say one note, I mean the sound of twenty-five violins playing one note. I remember really digging Gino Vanelli's strings and trumpet sounds. When I heard them in concert, I discovered that they had about EIGHT MaxiKorgs onstage, and that many of their orchestral sounds were actually coming from the 1-2 voice MaxiKorg. They had some sort of Farfisa, too (not organ), so it probably figured in there, too, but albums like Storm at Sunup leaned heavily on the MaxiKorg, which could do some great emulations if handled right and with the right effects. I couldn't play eight MaxiKorgs http://www.musicplayer.com/ubb/biggrin.gif so I finally went with the Univox "Stringman" for strings and got the MaxiKorg for horns (storms, analog synth, etc.). The Stringman was a little noisy at times; at it worst sounding like the sound was under water. I mean there must have been 100 phase shifters and choruses going crazy under the hood... all analog. But the Stringman could nail those high Arco bee-beep string jabs in Elton's "Philadelphia Freedom", and long single lines were absolutely beautiful! I found that if I wanted a chord of string voices, it worked better to play no more than two notes at once (although it had total polyphony - all notes at once like an organ). When recording I'd overdub. Live, I'd push it back into a reverberant wash, and that helped... also rolling off the highs a little. The Stringman has a nice EQ section.

 

Go ahead - be a sage or show your age - what was you favorite string machine? Any of you still got one? Any of you still use it? I still have it, but it needs a trip to the doctor. They get dirty contacts - all of them. I tried sampling it with my S900 early on, but there was no beating that loop. The phase/chorus effects are so utterly random that there is no possible loop sound with the real string machines. You could hold notes forever, and although they might not have nailed the emulation, the effect was string players with tired arms! http://www.musicplayer.com/ubb/biggrin.gif

[marc_dup2]

You can download a nice self-made Solina String sample in krz-format on my homepage

http://www.geocities.com/mhalbrue/

 

Greetings

 

------------------

Marc

[tonebender]

Could the Farfisa you saw have been a "Farfisa Syntorchestra"?

[musicman1ovation.net]

Marc

 

thanks for the link to the Solinas string ensemble sample for Kurzweil. I don't have a Kurzweil sample player yet (likely to be on its way), but I went ahead and downloaded so I'd be ready! http://www.musicplayer.com/ubb/smile.gif

 

tonebender

 

It's quite possible the Farfisa I saw as a part of Gino Vanelli's live stage setup was a "Farfisa Syntorchestra". Not sure. I do know that every free hand (including Gino's at one point, even though he spent most of the time up front singing) seemed to be coaxing great Gino sounds from the MaxiKorg. However, the one fellow with the Farfisa seemed to always have at least one hand there. I was lucky enough to hear Gino's band twice; once in my very favorite Dallas venue... the Macfarlin Auditorium at SMU, where I also saw Pat Metheny & Lyle Mays do "As Falls Wichita So Falls Wichita Falls" (WOW!!), and the Crusaders, who had Randy Crawford's beautiful voice opening for them, and also doing the Crusaders' only big hit with true lyrics and lead vocal, Street Life. That auditorium makes pop/pop-jazz groups SHINE. I also saw Gino opening

for Stevie Wonder at Reunion Arena, which is a typical large format sports arena rock concert venue. It's exciting and all, but for sound and intimacy of a driving, but not TOO load band, you just can't beat Macfarlin.