ARP • Solina String Ensemble
(click to enlarge)
The Solina String Ensemble is often thought of as THE String Machine of the late 1970's disco era. It's a multi-orchestral machine with violin, viola, trumpet, horn, cello and contrabass. Instead of attack and decay there are crescendo and sustain controls (which sound more orchestral but are the same thing). Apparently this synth really makes a great string sound, but that's all really... It has gate and trigger outs from the polyphonic keyboard. Completely cased in wood (or wood-like) panels with a clean and discrete layout. It's old, it's vintage, and it's been used by Air, The Eagles, Elton John, Pink Floyd, The Cure, Joy Division, OMD, Josh Wink, STYX, Tangerine Dream, Keane, Japan, and New Order.
More famous users of this classic stringer: Rick Wright ("Dreamweaver"), Herbie Hancock, Patrick Gleeson (who was given an early prototype from Arp back in '73), David Bowie, Thomas Dolby, Geoff Downes ( w / Buggles, Yes, Asia), Rick Van Der Linden (w / Trace), Greg Mathieson, Giorgio Moroder (From here to eternity, Midnight Express soundtrack album), Mike Oldfield, Roxy Music, Sparks, Roger Powell, Todd Rundgren, Ralph Grierson, Alphaville, The Moog Cookbook, Duncan MacKay, Les Rockets, Tonto's expanding head band, Ian Underwood, David Hentschel, Suzanne Ciani, Joe Delia (Driller killer soundtrack etc) and many more....
Paul
Having said this, playing it was a weird experience.
The best thing about playing it was the honor to play such a legendary synth, this actually outweighed the sound.
you have to add the sustain and crescendo to get the best out of it...so long as you are using violin viola and cello at the same time!!!!
Good fun, but to be honest Gmedia's VSM had much greater playability....not just in function but expressiveness.