See the full review with samples on khoral's Cafe 80.snip:
"The VSM is a sample-based software synthesizer from Gforce Software, recreating those beloved old-fashioned string machines from the 70’s and early 80’s (pictured below, the Eminent 310, which famously provided the atmospheric strings of Oxygène and Equinoxe).
It is sample-based, in that the VSM don’t emulate these instruments from scratch, but starts with recordings, which you can then retune, pan and modify with filters (lowpass, highpass and bandpass) and LFO."
Also be sure to check out the demos section on the official Gforce site.
List of users from the Gforce site for the archives:
"Essential String Machine
* Jean Michel Jarre: Oxygene (Eminent 310 [pictured]), Equinoxe (Elka Rhapsody)
* Duran Duran: Rio (Crumar Multiman)
* John Foxx: Metamatic (Elka Rhapsody)
* Beck: Midnight Vultures (Opus 3)
* Morrisey: You are the Quarry (Opus 3)
* Jeff Wayne: War Of The Worlds (Freeman String Symphonizer)
* David Bowie: Sound & Vision (ARP Omni)
* Roy Ayres: My Life in the Sunshine (Solina)
* Herbie Hancock: Chameleon (Solina)
* Steve Hackett: Spectral Mornings (Logan String Melody), Voyage of the Acolyte (Elka Rhapsody)
* Genesis: Lamb Lies Down on Broadway album (Elka Rhapsody layered with Mellotron®)
* Air: Moon Safari album (Solina)
* Ultravox: Vienna (Elka Rhapsody & Yamaha SS-30), Artificial Life - (Elka Rhapsody)
* Lonnie Liston Smith: Expansions (Solina)
* Gary Wright: Dreamweaver (Solina)
* Goldfrapp: Number One (Roland RS505)
* Vangelis: Heaven & Hell (Elka Rhapsody)
* Joy Division: Love Will Tear Us Apart (ARP Omni)
* New Order: Blue Monday (ARP Omni)
* The Cure: In Between Days (Solina)
* Pink Floyd: Shine On You Crazy Diamond (Solina)
* Kraftwerk: Trans Europe Express (ARP Omni)"
Hmm - they've listed several wrong synths with their users.
ReplyDeleteDuran Duran didn't use a Multiman, but a Performer. Kraftwerk certainly didn't use an ARP Omni on T.E.E. and the strings on Blue Monday are from a Prophet-5.
WTF GForce? Get it right.
Oh - forgot the Bowie one. It was a Solina, not an Omni on S+V.
ReplyDeleteThe Eminent pictured is the theatre version which is technically like the normal 310. But the rhythm section was added. and the housing is more old fashioned styles. And it was introduced some years after the original 310. Jarre only used the original version for his "Oxygene in your living room" tour last year.
ReplyDeleteAnd Jarre did used the Eminent 310 on Equinoxe two!
For example the bass and the sequence like beginning of Equinoxe Part one is an Eminent 310, a Small Stone and a tape echo.
I got an Eminent 310 theatre here to prove this. So Gforce was not very accurate informed on this one.
keep on playing these vintage string machines
Till Kopper
Contrary to what steamy vicks said, I have heard that Kraftwerk did use an ARP Omni I on T.E.E.
ReplyDeleteYou can hear it, along with the orchestron, playing the ascending chords throughout the title track.
I don't have any real proof of this but I'm pretty sure that's an Omni or Polymoog, though I don't think they had the latter until
recording The Man Machine.
Also, the strings on Blue Monday are from the Arp Quadra, not the
Prophet.
Micke
The theatre version, all right
ReplyDeleteThanks for the info, I'll correct that!