Multi Ensemble 5500
Vintage String Ensemble Synthesizer.
DESCRIPTION
This is my first ever contribution for the Reaktor’s library. It might be the last, since I am not an active developer. I mostly do sound programming and compose and I’m not into DSP.
I always have been fascinated with the lush sound of the string machines from the 70s, like the ARP Omni, the Eminent Solina, the Korg Poly Ensemble, and several others (especially through a phaser) and I have never been satisfied with emulations that were not sample based. Exceptions are AlgoMusic String Synth VST and the ARPOmni2 ensemble by Mark Smart. The last sounds incredible. Equinoxe Deluxe sounds good, but for some reason it did not convince me.
Then, after I read the article “More creative use of delays” (http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/jun04/articles/synthsecrets.htm) I dared to learn Reaktor Core and explore the design of the chorus unit the old string machines like the Eminent 310 Unique organ used by Jean-Michel Jarre in several of his early albums. At first I wanted just to implement a good chorus unit based on the article above but later I did the full thing.
I did not do this ensemble from scratch; I modified several other modules (like the oscillator section of Equinoxe Deluxe and the chorus unit of Mark Smart’s ARPOmni2) and mostly the three phase chorus SE-IV from the standard library which, for me, sounds really bad.
At first I did it for myself but here it is for you to try it if you want. I tried to explain the functionality of each section of the synthesizer on the ensemble itself so be sure you have the Show Information button on. The name Multi Ensemble 5500 is a futile attempt to pick a name that sounds like an old string machine from the 70s, like the Korg Poly Ensemble 2000. :-)
Have fun!
PS: The ensemble is saved with the highest sample rate available because the strong aliasing when you play high registers. Therefore, this is CPU hungry: 8 voices 50% on a Pentium D 3.0 GHz. You can turn off sections you won’t use to save some CPU or reduce the sample rate.
Web Resources:
http://www.keyboardmuseum.org/soundsheet/soundsheet.html ==> Audio demos of the ARP Omni & Crumar Perfomer.
http://till-kopper.de/ ==> Great info resource about string machines.
http://www.marksmart.net/sounddesign/arpstrings/arpstrings.html ==> Page of Mark Smart
http://www.perkristian.net/ ==> Samples and demos (among other things) of the Eminent 310 Unique organ. Follow “The Studio” link.
http://www.pat2pdf.org/ ==> Request patent number 3833752. This is the original Eminent three phase chorus unit.
http://www.csounds.com/cook/ ==> Check the chorus section.
http://backyard.homeunix.net/~ben/docs/alt/music/csound/work/old/stringphaser.orc ==> CSound ensemble by Sean Costello. Three phase chorus unit based on the original design. Also implements phaser and reverb. I based the parameters of the chorus unit of my ensemble on this.
http://dl.analoghell.com/ ==> Great schematics and manual resources. Please donate.
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