I recently picked up a Yamaha SK20 for very little money, and I am surprised with the sound of this machine. It’s an organ/string machine/paraphonic synth. The string machine sounds great on its own, but when you combine it with the organ and synth sections it quickly turns into a dreamy soundscape generator. The synth section also has a quirky charm to it. I have not encountered many synths that sound like this one, though the filter does remind me of my CS-15.
Anyways, this has really opened my eyes/ears up to the world of these combo keyboards. They seem to be a forgotten breed of keyboard instrument, one whose heyday generally spans the same period of time as the music that this label is primarily concerned with. They also seem relatively cheap these days.
Does anyone here have a favorite? Any insight to share on these machines?
about a year and a half ago i bought a russan string synth Elektronika EM-25 and i love it’s sound, it’s an additive synth, it has got strings, organ and wind sections and you can mix two sections at the time. it’s very broody and dark synth but it showed to be quite unreliable.
my bandmate got an elka rhapsdy for super cheap. very nice, super lush. i usually just use the roland rs-09, though, which is hard to beat for portability, and the strings have a charmingly bright, wholly synthetic quality.
my fav string machine is the korg lambda, though, totally majestic and surprisingly versatile..
good to know the yamaha sk series is actually good! i’ve casually kept an eye out for cheap ones for the last couple years…
I have an SK20. It’s forgotten classic, isn’t it?
Small modulation possibilities, but sounds great. 3 sections mixed and detuned are magical.
It behaves weird sometimes - lacks keyboard scaling, so be prepared for volume bursts when resonance is high. There’s another weakness… don’t look for slow lfo.
Fiberglass cases for Rhapsody are cool.
What about Korg Delta? Quite strange machine. There’s something metallic about its sound. And synth section tends to be suprisigly agressive.
Roland RS-202 sounds pretty good and they turn up here and there for cheap. (RS-101 is the same but with, I think, just one chorus setting.)
VP-330 strings sound great but not a lot of variety there and generally $$$.
Something like an ESQ-1 should do nice strings if an appropriate chorus is slapped on it. Anybody have a favorite stomp box for string ensemble style chorus?
@david - nathan showed me a great rack mounted fx unit that was designed precisely to emulate string-ensemble fx. it sounded awesome. can’t remember the name of it right now, i’ll find out.
Yes, I’d like to hear about it. Switching the RS-202 ensemble off entirely makes it clear how much it adds.
The RS-101 and RS-202 have a very characteristic sound, really wheezy or something. I think I hear it opening some Weimar Gesang tracks.
They are also nice because each key has it’s own envelope rather than being ‘paraphonic’ like VP-330 which can be a little strange at times (although sometimes it is nice to gradually ‘latch’ a cluster of increasingly inharmonic notes by playing legato and then suddenly switch to a clear chord by releasing the previously held keys… sometimes I can pull that off effectively but not always!)
RS-09 features in a lot of 17/faith era cure videos, is that the sound of ‘the funeral party’?
teachu2die - I beleive you were talking about the JH Triple Chorus:
futility - I have an ESQ-1 and it does indeed make some nice string sounds. It can make a very nice Numan-ish Polymoog string sound. A chorus definitely helps, but the 3 independent LFO’s in that synth can make for a lot of motion as well.
Ah, I should have known it was J.Haible’s chorus! I wonder if he still has PCBs…
@PeterM, funny you should mention the SX-240, I’ve been using that for strings at live shows rather than haul out something completely ancient. The chorus is nice on that one too and I definitely prefer the SSM filter to the CEMs in most polys of that era. SX-240 is a very underrated machine.
hi guys, first post…i like it here
we use the moog opus3 for strings (and organs and bass) and some old crappy bontempi organ which has cheesy string section in it.
moog is a great machine, ours is semi functional, but filter and it’s envelope work ok, i can make pretty decent effects with it as well as strings
