Since I have a long standing fetish for string machines and have become a bit of a trainspotter I thought this could be a fun thread.

For your delectation, some of my favourite string machines and recordings with them...

Roland VP-330 (RS-505 has the same string section, so lush, nothing else sounds quite like it)


Yamaha SS-30 (you can vary the amount of the ensemble effect with a knob, very handy to make it blend in better in the mix. SS-30 comes in at around 1 minute)


Korg PE-2000 (has a gorgeous built-in phaser used in this recording)


Logan String Orchestra through an EHX Small Stone (Compared with the String Melody 2, the String Orchestra has two more sliders with "orchestra" sounds, a buzzy kind of brassy sound, used lightly in the intro)

You cannot talk about string machines and not mention the Eminent 310!

Oxygene 1-13.

Oh yes, very nice strings on that too, but I wouldn't quite call it a string machine, it's an organ with a string section.

Bowie - Low (ARP/Solina String Machine)





Pink Floyd - Wish You Were Here (and Animals) (ARP/Solina String Machine)





Gary Wright - Dreamweaver (ARP/Solina String Machine)

If you want VP-330 strings, then RS-505 is actually more like poor man's VP-330 because while both share identical components, there's something which makes RS-505 emphasising a lot more of mid frequencies and it can sound quite nasal so if you particulary want VP-330 strings, you have to add heavy EQs to boost bass and reduce mids. However RS-505 stands out more as proper string machine with far better control settings available while in VP-330 it was more like "plus", but it's still big mystery why I can't find a single 70s/80s recording of anyone actually using it while VP-330 was used everywhere (even though VP-330 cost 1/3 more than RS-505 in 1979).

Here's my favourite use of VP-330 strings:

and Equinoxe

Joy Division: ARP Solina:





Not sure if they carried it over to New Order.

This is the best ever VP-330 appearance.

I've wondered what stringer was used in this track. it could be a poly synth but IDK. Just sounds like a stringer to me.

RS-09 on Clear? Atkins said he had one at that time.

I love the GX1 strings (e.g. Pasttime Paradise and Village Ghetto Land by Stevie) but that one does not qualify I guess... The string machine that weights a ton Makes better analogue strings than any string machine, though.

best thread ever.... carry on....

to the OP:

curious what you use for string machine sounds in your own music these days? I have a Nord Wave loaded with all their string machine samples (Chamberlin, Logan, Eminent, etc.) I've also thought about picking up the Waldorf box just because you can never have enough string machines.

I knew it sounded Roland. The strings on my JX-3P sound pretty close.

Crumar Stringman




Neil Young - Like A Hurricane

Cool thread! I just love vintage string machines....

The Elka Rhapsody 610 is also featured in this famous song ("Vienna"). It does the high string note during the verse & the pad during the instrumental section with the violin solo.

Here are a couple more Ultravox song from the earlier "Ha! Ha! Ha!" (1977) featuring Billy and his beloved Elka Rhapsody, ARP Odyssey and fiddle:




However, one of the most famous uses of this stringer has got to be in Supertramp's "The Fool's overture" aka "the string machine epic" from the '77 album "Even in the Quietest Moments":



Another fine use of its shimmering strings can be heard on Cockney Rebel's famous song "Make me smile (come up and see me)" from '75:



And we mustn't forget Vangelis' "Heaven & Hell" (1975) - where it provides the string carpets - which was later famously used as the main theme to Carl Sagan's TV-series "Cosmos":



Did I say that I love string machines :-)

The Cure's signature string sound is also the Arp Solina.

I want to know which one was used on this

We can speculate that maybe the audio from the strings section on the VP-330 passes through the vocoder circuitry even when the vocoder section is not used, and this somehow colours the sound, but I don't know this for sure, maybe someone else here can enlighten us.

And I always thought of "Even in the Quitest Moments" as a piano heavy album (maybe because of the cover), thanks for posting this vid.

My all time favourite and the one I use the most is the Logan String Orchestra (which was also sold under the Wersi brand), it simply just has the smoothest sound IMO, and the two extra sliders with orchestra sounds gives it a wider sound palette than most string machines. Moroder also used it on this track, the dips in pitch is done with the oddly named "Hawaii" button which in effect is a pitch bend, also a rather unique feature on a string machine.

Logan/Wersi String Orchestra

Very nice examples and love these stringers

This is nice one with lot of phasing from small-stone , string sound like eminent but a smalstone 75 has big impact on sound so it could be other synth

Are you sure it's a Small Stone phaser, if I was going to hazard a guess I'd say it sounds more like a Mu-Tron Bi-Phase, but I have no definite proof of that.

Could be the thing it sound a bit more flangery like the smallstone but has the same kind of flavor i think

there is a promo photo on the net of jarre after oxygene was released, and a mu-tron bi-phase is sitting on top of an eminent 310U. whether it was placed there for that photo-shoot or actually used on the album itself is another question.

Mellotron

Arp Solina

Arp Solina - The Cure "Just Like Heaven"

I always liked this clip - great keys setup
2:47 is the logan

...was referring to Alan Parsons Project - I Robot.