The Orchestra is a 4-part orchestral synthesizer from the classic Italian synth company, Siel (later bought by ARP and relabeled the Quartet). The Orchestra has 4 presets: Brass, Strings, Organ and Piano. The 4 tone color families can be played individually or two can be simultaneously played. They are also individually tweakable. Selected presets will light up LEDs to show you which sliders and buttons can be used to modify the sounds. The synth itself is very limited, there's no external control, no pitch/mod wheel and few edit parameters. However it sounds very good and it is, after all, a classic analog synth.

The Brass section creates Trumpet and Trombone sounds with independent attack and sustain controls. The String section creates Cello and Violin sounds with independent attack and sustain controls. The Organ section is 2-voice and has a Celeste sound available as well. The Piano section offers two types, traditional or Hony Tonk. The ARP Quartet, which is completely identical to the Orchestra has been used by 808 State and Massive Attack for some of its great string sounds.

The Orchestra 2 was a more flexible version that followed the original and was released in 1983. It still had 4 preset sounds but offered many more sliders and edit parameters. The Brass section received a better filter with cutoff and resonance sliders. The Strings section added Mute and Percussion sounds to the mix. The Reed or organ section offered an Accordion and Musette sound in addition to the traditional church organ sound. And the Piano section added a clavichord sound to its mix. Other sections include a 5-band graphic EQ, simple LFO, Octave Transposition and the Animator section, a flange-type effect for "animating' your sounds!

Rax

July 18, 2011 @ 1:52 pm

I love this synth. Have it for many years and will never get rid of it. Found it at the garbage on the street, and it worked perfect still... Especially the strings and the organs are VERY good. It has an Italian flavor to the sound, hard to describe why. Cheesy, and very 70's sound in my opinion, even though it's made in the 80's. Did wild improvisations with it on stage. The eq makes it especially interesting.

raphael

July 3, 2011 @ 5:31 am

I have prepared special chart/setup on paper (for print - pdf A4 format, two sounds per chart) for those who have Siel Orchestra 2! You can write your favourite sound/patch on this chart!!! You can download it here:

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/12715964/Vintagesynth/Siel%20Orchestra%202%20-%20Pr eset%20list.pdf

It is free for all Siel Orchestra 2 owners.

Raphael

May 29, 2011 @ 5:55 am

I own the original Siel Orchestra 2, great sounding synth! I use it with my DAW, specially with some effects (reverbs, delays). It sounds very warm, has natural and pure analog sound. If you love to make your own analog sounds/presets, this instrument is for You.

Roelf Staal

January 29, 2011 @ 5:45 pm

The Orchestra 2 sounds analog. Truly warm strings can be created as well as special, melodic 'vintage' sounds. Its limitations also bring out the strengh of 'less'.
The EQ filtering is an important part of its overall character. Well worth investigating!

chrisrnps

October 2, 2009 @ 4:51 pm

The Siel Orchestra is also on a couple songs on the "3" album by Portishead.

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