Siel Cruise Synthesiser

YouTube Uploaded by nounandnumber on Mar 18, 2011

via this auction
"This is the Siel Cruise I have for sale on eBay. It is from around 1981-1986 and is a combination of the Siel Mono and the Orchestra 2.

The video is an example of the sounds it can make, rather than me playing it, so it is more for information than entertainment.

A Siel Orchestra was the source of the lovely keyboard on The Rip by Portishead, which can be heard on the polysynth piano preset of the Cruise. It may be battered, but it is still capable of some good sounds, especially the strings which sound great.

This video will be removed upon sale of the synth. Hopefully Adrian Utley nor Sonicstate.com mind having their interview footage included, but I will remove it at their request."

Also
"I would like to know though if my comparisons to the Siel Orchestra 2 are valid. I was always under the impression that the Cruise is a Mono & Orchestra in one box, with some extras, such as the EQ, missing. Any opinions would be appreciated."

And some interesting bits from the auction (as always be sure to read the full description at the auction if you intend to bid):
"Siel were an Italian company in the eighties, and from what little information I can find about it, the Cruise appears to be a union of the Siel Mono and the Siel Orchestra II. Plenty of specific information can be found here but some of the interesting features I want to point out are: the full polyphony on the poly section, the mono and poly sections can be played in unison and there is an option for a keyboard split as well, and the outputs include a mono+poly and poly only output. The LFO on the mono section is a little unusual in that it works after a short delay (this is by design, I should add).

I have assembled a little audio slideshow of what it is capable of with a whole host of pictures of the actual synth for sale on You Tube. There should also be a list of suggestions by You Tube of the few other videos demonstrating this synth which may be worth your time...

Now for the modification. At the same time as I bought the synth I was doing a lot of circuit bending and decided to tentatively explore the possibilities on the mono section. This was a bit foolish as a) it was on something running on mains power and b) was on something I could not afford to loose (I broke a Yamaha CS01 circuit bending. It still smarts). Fortunately nothing untoward happened and the result is a simple bypass of the Rd125 resistor that gives an harmonic distortion to the monosynth with no ill effects to the rest. Again, all this can be seen and heard on the video.

What really pleased me though was discovering, in an interview with Adrian Utley from Portishead that some of my favourite sounds from Third (mainly the great arpeggio at the end of The Rip) came from a Siel Orchestra (see above) which can be heard in the piano preset of the Cruise. However the cruise does lack the Orchestra's EQ so it isn't an exact likeness, and I expect the drive in production of the synth was for 'cleaner' sounds, which does give it a richer string sound as it is it a more recent synth. Still it is nice for a relatively obscure synth to get some love, rather than the usual Moog, EMS suspects, but that is probably because I cannot afford them..."