Vintage Synth Explorer

Yamaha • SS30

This fully wood-cased beast is a classic String-Synth of the seventies from Yamaha. It is "multi-phonic" as it uses a divide-down, electric organ type of architechture for its tone generation. There are two tones for each note so it's probably fair to say it's dual-oscillator, and it can create some really lush timbres. It's richer sounding than the ARP Solina String Synth. It has an individual VCA envelope for each key. The four-octave keyboard is not velocity sensitive, and the synth offers just a few controls above the keyboard for choosing preset sounds, and modest tweaking (no filters, LFOs, etc). It has been used by Utravox & Midge Ure.

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Paul Brown

Posted 57 days ago

Beautifuly odd looking and rich, lush sounding.
A 'no gimmicks' classic! Promises strings and hell does it deliver!!

synthisist

Posted 169 days ago

Is this possibly one of the best string synths of all time?
Looks fantastic in wood! Sounds great!

Mezzo

Posted 204 days ago

I would love to purchase one. The detune function as well as the orchestra (ensemble) function add to the thickness. Eg for each key. Just missing a VCF. A little external chorusing and it crushes the Omni. Plus its a Yamaha so short of dropping it off a building these should hold up.

Micke

Posted 291 days ago

The SS-30 has also been used by Rick Wakeman, Tomita, ABBA, Loverboy, Images In Vogue, Simple Minds, Hideki Matsutake (Logic system) , Visage and Magazine.

planetplayer

Posted 312 days ago

It sounds as good as it looks. I tried it early 1980's.

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