Strings Dream Synthesizer

Summary
A good source of 1970s era swirly, spacey string machine textures. The sounds are classic and smooth. Pros: Classic sounds. Rich ensemble and phasing effects. Cons: Weak reverb. Limited feature set. No preset management.
Scores
Features:	Weak
User Interface:	Fair
Sound:	Good
Value:	Weak
Overall:	Fair
TestTone
Reviewed on:	August 2, 2009
Reviewed with:	Live 7 LE -
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Strings Dream Synthesizer Review

The orchestra is undoubtedly one of the greatest inventions in the history of music. The sound is incredible, but it's hard to carry an orchestra with you to a gig. So back in the 1970s, Freeman, Eminent, Arp, Roland, Crumar, Korg, and many others brought to market "String Machines" to recreate the symphonic string section sound more portably.

In these days before sampling and physical modeling, string machines used organ-like "divide down" oscillators, detuning, and ensemble effects to create a thick polyphonic sound. The instruments didn't quite sound like a real symphony, but they sounded good in their own way and they quickly became an iconic sound of the period. String machines have been used on classic tracks by Jean Michel Jarre, David Bowie, Herbie Hancock, Genesis, Vangelis, Pink Floyd, Kraftwerk, and many more.

NUSofting returns us to this classic era with their Strings Dream Synthesizer instrument plugin. The instrument is designed in the style of the famous Eminent Solina String Ensemble, sold from 1974 through 1981 by Arp. Instead of creating an exact replica, though, NUSofting mimics the Solina's synthesis approach then tweaks it to add a few features from other string machines and analog synthesizers of the day. The resulting plugin creates lush string machine textures straight out of the 1970s.

Creating the base sound

Strings Dream Synthesizer oscillator settings

Six sliders control the volume level for two monophonic and
four polyphonic oscillators with one of three waveforms.

Synthesis begins with controls for six oscillators. Like the Solina, the plugin's internal tone controls give each oscillator a character roughly matching its label. "Brass" is bright, "Violin" and "Viola" less so, "Horn" is darker, and "C.Bass" and "Cello" are darker still. "C.Bass" (Contra Bass) is pitched down an octave and "Violin" is pitched up an octave.

The Solina only provided push-buttons to enable and disable the individual oscillators. NUSofting adds a volume slider for each one to give much more control.

All six oscillators play an harmonically-rich sawtooth-like wave similar to that in the Solina. To broaden the sonic pallette, NUSofting includes a "Wave" switch that adds classic sawtooth and square wave choices for the upper four oscillators. The lower two oscillators always use the sawtooth-like wave.

As in the Solina, the upper four oscillators are polyphonic and span the entire keyboard. The lower two are monophonic and only play below a keyboard split point set by a menu to one of C1, A1, C2, A2, C3, A3, C4, and A4.

Filters, tuning, & phase

Three knobs adjust low- and high-pass filters
and overall tuning. The "Phase" knob shifts the
phase of the "Violin" oscillator's waveform.

The original Solina String Ensemble had no filters. The rare Solina String Synthesizer, though, merged the string machine with Arp's Explorer mono synth and enabled the string machine's audio to run through the Explorer's low-pass filter. NUSofting's plugin doesn't emulate this ungainly hybrid, but it does include filters to shape the string machine's sound. The "Bright" knob varies the cutoff frequency for a low-pass filter while the "HPF" knob varies a high-pass filter. Both filters only affect the upper four oscillators.

In my testing with version 1.0 of the plugin, the low-pass filter was certainly useful but the high-pass filter had only the subtlest of effects. There may be a bug here.

Additional knobs adjust tuning up or down by a semitone and shift the phase for the "Violin" oscillator. Shifting the oscillator's phase creates comb filtering when it's mixed with the other oscillators and subtly alters the oscillator's timbre. The Solina didn't have this feature, but it's a nice addition.

Volume envelope

Strings Dream Synthesizer envelope settings

Six sliders set the ADSR envelope, adjust velocity sensitivity,
and set the master volume . The "ADSR Mode" switch flips
between a full ADSR per note and a "paraphonic" mode that
shares the same envelope for all notes.

The Solina used a simple attack-release volume envelope without velocity sensitivity. NUSofting's plugin extends this into a full velocity-sensitive ADSR envelope.

The envelope has two "modes", but to explain them let's step back into the 1970s a moment. The earliest string machines used organ-like circuitry to create polyphonic sound. Polyphonic envelope circuitry, however, was expensive and complex, so these early string machines had only one envelope shared across all playing notes. This "paraphonic" structure meant that when a first note started, the envelope triggered, but when later notes were played they continued to play through the same envelope, in progress. They did not retrigger the shared envelope until the envelope had gone through all of its stages.

Now back to NUSofting's plugin and the "ADSR Mode" switch. Flip it up and you get a standard polyphonic ADSR envelope triggered independently for each note. But flip it down and you get this single-envelope "paraphonic" effect from the original string machines.

While I applaud the attention to detail, I am not a fan of this feature. In "paraphonic" mode, pressing a first note triggers the sound, as expected. Releasing the note begins the envelope release. Pressing another note before the release is done plays the previous note's pitch, not the new note. Only when the release finishes does the plugin switch to the pitch of the second note. This may be accurate, but it is difficult to use. Fortunately, none of the plugin's presets use this feature and it is easily avoided by leaving the mode switch in its up position.

Adding effects

The classic sound of a string machine has more to do with its effects than its oscillators. With all of the effects turned off, string machines and this plugin create a thin organ-ish sound. But turn on the effects and magic happens.

The Solina had a built-in ensemble effect, but the instrument was also widely used with an outboard phaser and reverb to create its iconic sound. NUSofting's plugin includes all three effects, controlled by three banks of knobs.

Ensemble effect

Strings Dream Synthesizer ensemble settings

The ensemble (chorus) effect thickens the sound,
adds movement, and creates a wide stereo image.

The Solina's ensemble effect used two delay lines modulated by two LFOs running at different speeds. The sum of the two delays was mixed with the dry sound to create a thick chorus. NUSofting's plugin mimics this design.

Two LFO knobs adjust the amplitude of slow (about 1 Hz) and fast (about 6Hz) LFOs modulating two delays. The "Width" knob adjusts the base delay time and the "Dry Level" knob sets the volume of the dry sound mixed in to the ensemble output. The "Stereo" knob throws the LFOs out of phase for left and right stereo outputs to create a wide stereo image.

Phaser effect

Strings Dream Synthesizer phaser settings

The phaser effect adds swirl to the sound.

The plugin's phaser effect includes the usual controls for the speed and depth of an LFO modulating a multi-stage all-pass filter delay with feedback.

The effect adds a nice retro psychadelic swirl, but the upper settings for the "Stages" knob create so much filtering that the swirl is lost. Knob mid-point settings worked the best.

Reverb effect

Strings Dream Synthesizer reverb settings

The reverb effect adds some space.

The plugin's last effect is a synthetic reverb with typical controls for the virtual room size and wet/dry mix. A low-pass filter muffles the reverb's reflections and a "Spring" knob adjusts the character of the reverb.

The reverb effect is not the plugin's strongest feature. While it smooths things out a bit, I'd leave it turned off and instead rely on better reverbs available in most DAWs.

Getting good results

The first preset, "First All On", gets right to the point of the plugin. It enables all of the oscillators and all three effects to create a lush swirly string machine sound. It sounds great. It's also a good starting point for creating your own presets.

Other stand-out presets include "Washed Strings", "Full Strings", and "Leadsih Caravan".

Conclusions

Let's score the plugin.

Features: weak: The plugin has more features than the Solina and the additions are good choices. However, it's been nearly 40 years since the Solina came out and today we expect more from our instruments. Competing string machine plugins include a wider selection of waveforms, oscillator coarse and fine tuning, oscillator panning, an LFO for vibrato, LFO tempo sync, multi-mode filters, a filter envelope, and more detailed control over the effects. Without these features, NUSofting's plugin is limited in the range of string machine sounds it can reproduce.
User interface: fair: The interface works as expected, everything is well labeled, and the control layout makes sense.

Sound: good: The plugin does a nice job at creating classic Solina-like string sounds. The built-in reverb is a bit weak, though.
Value: weak: Given its limited feature set, the plugin feels overpriced. Quite a few free or inexpensive plugins can create similar sounds.
Overall: fair: NUSofting's Strings Dream Synthesizer creates lots of spacey, swirly textures like those I remember fondly from the 1970s. It is fun to play and easy to use.

Alternatives

Bick Tick's Cheeze Machine takes a similar approach to NUSofting's plugin, but it uses a single oscillator and offers fewer controls over ensemble, phasing, and reverb effects. However, it's free.

Musicrow's Vintage Strings MkIII is about the same price as NUSofting's plugin. It has two oscillators, a simpler envelope, and no phaser.

GForce's Virtual String Machine is more expensive, but it adds oscillator detuning and panning, a multimode filter and envelope, a pitch LFO for vibrato, and sampled waveforms for a wide variety of vintage string machine gear.

Apple's ES E is included with Logic. Compared to NUSofting's plugin, it has a single oscillator, a simpler volume envelope, and no phaser or reverb.

While all of these plugins are designed to create string machine sounds, nearly any subtractive synthesis plugin and a few DAW effects can do almost the same thing. Start with a synth plugin playing a sawtooth wave on two or more oscillators. Detune them and use separate LFOs to modulate their pitch a bit. Adjust the filter and envelope to taste. In your DAW, add your favorite multi-voice chorus and a phaser.

Strings Dream Synthesizer

from NUSofting

Summary

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Scores

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