good synth for string sounds

[Alexi]

hey there,

this might sound ridicolous but i am searching for a synth that offers good string sounds.......any opinions out there?...........up to 1000 dollars.....



cheers

[Bryan Talbot]

Keyboard or rackmount?

[Alexi]

......keyboard would be prefered

[Mario-C.]

synthetic or realistic ?

[jchas]

For realistic sounds I would go with either a Roland SE-1 or Kurzweil PC2r.
The Se-1 is rackmount only, an older unit, and can be found for around $150. It is capable of very realistic string parts if you are willing to learn a new style of keyboard playing for each patch in order to really get at the nuances.
The PC2r is also a rackmount (available as PC2 and PC2x keyboards but not for under $1000) can be found used for about $800. When equipped with the Orchestral Rom, which most of them have built in, it can give you some very true-to-life string parts as well - not to mention a lot of other great rompler sounds.

For the synth-strings I would look for a Arp String Ensemble (Solina) or Korg Lambda which are both great analog string machines. The Arp will go about $600 and is most notable for just about any synth-string recorded in the 70's. The Lambda, if you can find one, will go for around $400. While not nearly as popular as the Arp, it can sound convinsingly similar and has a few additional onboard sounds that can be layered with the string for great effect.

[DirkB]

A used Korg Trinity might be a nice option for strings, nice pad sounds too.

Greetings,
Dirk

[Alexi]

does anybody like the alesis ion..........i havent heard the unit but the price seems right....

[Albert]

The best keyboard strings-in-a-box I know of is the Roland XV or Fantom series with the SRX-04 Symphonique Strings expansion board. Any Roland XV or Fantom keyboard or module that has SRX slots will work with the SRX-04.

I've used all the other units mentioned in this thread so far and none come close to the SRX-04 board for realistic strings. Most Roland synths will also have other string samples as part of the factory patch/sample set, and you can also get expansion boards that have the vintage synth string sounds like mellotron, JP, etc.

As far as modules, a Roland XV-2020, XV-5050, or XV-5080 will get you the sounds you need at or under your price point, depending on which you buy. The XV-88 keyboard will also take SRX expansion boards (have to buy used), and with an expansion board that will probably come to right around $1,000 or so.

The PCR2 is outdated these days, the samples in the orchestral ROM are old and small. The Trinity would be good for pads and pop strings, but not realistic stuff.

The only other option I could suggest is to pick up a couple Akai S5000 samplers, fill them up with RAM (256meg each), and then load the Kirk Hunter Virtuoso string library into them. That would be great for realistic strings.

http://www.kirkhunterstudios.com/vsstrings.html

[allencollins]

Originally Posted by Alexi

hey there,

this might sound ridicolous but i am searching for a synth that offers good string sounds.......any opinions out there?...........up to 1000 dollars.....



cheers

personally I think the best string sounds (besides real) are usually on sample cd's
so in other words buy a sampler or use your computer to trigger sample cd's

[kurt]

Maybe not what you are looking for but listen once to this.

http://www.synful.com/index.htm

[dagg]

I would agree, Roland 5050 strings (with symphonic expansion) behave excellently on a modern mix. Another very good tool is Vienna Symphonic library (software)

[shapemod]

Oberheim Xpander(SixVoices, no keyboard)
Oberheim Matrix 12 (12 Voices)
Killer analogue Strinx!

[massimo]

I believe the Access Virus - a "virtual analog" synth - can do very good string pads, and much more. Better than a Nord Modular, and worse than an Oberheim Xpander, in my experience for this kind of application. Maybe one used would be in your price range
Best regards
Massimo

[chris-melchior]

<<
this might sound ridicolous but i am searching for a synth that offers good string sounds.......any opinions out there?...........up to 1000 dollars.....
>>

Why not use REAL strings? It can be cost-effective these days.

For example . . .

http://www.chris-melchior.com/strings.htm

No sample every comes close to real strings.


Chris

[mikesilence]

What about JD-800?? Sound 7 of the second bank of the presets is still a very nice and "fits-nearly-everywhere"-pad. For real strings, take a Kurzweil...

Greetz,

Mike

[Enchilada]

Here's a little snippet of the sort of sound I've been getting with soundfonts, I think it sounds just fine:
http://csusap.csu.edu.au/~krosulli/string_quartet.mp3

That's mostly dry. A little reverb and delay but no EQ.

[chris-melchior]

<<
For real strings, take a Kurzweil...
>>

If that was in reply to my post about real strings (the post above) then I meant REAL . . . played by a live human violinist, NOT synthesised or sampled :)


Chris
http://www.chris-melchior.com/strings.htm

[lawrence_o]

How about getting a used AKAI S6000 and buy the Denny Jaeger violin collection sample CD? More real than any keyboard you'll ever find... I do have the Korg trinity, I do have the Korg O3R/W which is I like better than the trinity for strings, I have the Roland JV2080 filled with expansions, etc. But when you want it to be realistic, the sample CDs are just the best!

An S5000 or 6000 goes around 500USD. I'm sure you'll find someone who can "lend" you a copy of the Denny Jaeger or other violins CD for your "testing" purposes.

Kind regards
Lawrence

[StudioKing]

I like the Kurzwiel K2600 With Orchestral Board Fitted, quite realistic, but if you can use something like VSL i think its much closer to the real thing.

[octatonic]

I used the Roland M-V1 VIntage SYnth module a lot for quick synth strings.
For more realistic options eithe the Miroslav Vitous library or K2000.