Eminent Solina String Ensemble

via this auction
"The String Ensemble is an example of excellent Dutch craftsmanship. The wooden casing certainly looks good and is very sturdy. The console with sliders and instrument selection buttons is made of metal. The four octave keyboard is fine and has this typical 'spring crack' when you depress the keys. The contact springs are located under the keys, so they don't get covered with dust easily. In fact, the contacts are built that well that I have not noticed any cracking or sound degradation due to corrosion.

The unit can be opened by taking out three screws at the back, lifting the lid some two centimetres and sliding it backwards.

The buttons and sliders on the panel are the following: power on/off, tuning up/down, contrabass, cello, volume bass, crescendo, sustain length, master volume, viola, violin, brass, horn and modulation.

The contrabass and cello selectors can be used to turn on a 16' or 8' monophonic bass, which is triggered by the lowest of the keys one presses. The bass runs from C0 to G1 and stops there. The bass volume can be adjusted to match the volume of the upper registers by the 'volume bass' slider.

The crescendo and sustain sliders can be used to alter the attack and decay rates of the viola and violin registers and also have some minor effect on the other registers.

The viola and violin are the core string sounds of the unit. Brass and horn are also very nice and soft sounds which may be blended with the viola and violin sounds to create subtle sound differences.

The modulation button can be used to turn off the built-in chorus effect. I think nobody will do this, for the chorus of the ensemble is what makes this machine sound so very wonderful!"