Sampling string machines
Sampling string machines — more accurately, sampling paraphonic instruments on polyphonic samplers — introduces several noticeable differences compared to directly using the original string machine:
- Being fully polyphonic, each note gets its own separate ADSR envelope generator for its amplitude
- As any BBD chorusing is sampled rather than recreated, each note's chorusing will be out of sync with all the others, as if they're individually chorused rather than cohesively chorused as a whole
- The sampler may well allow higher velocity notes to be louder and brighter, and even have a faster attack, although this should be avoidable with the right settings
Such a program therefore ends up sounding richer and more complex than the original machine it's aiming to recreate.
A pessimistic view is that these inaccuracies are dead giveaways that you're not using the real thing.
An optimistic view is that these improvements make for an interesting sound in its own right, that not even someone with the original machine can recreate. After all, paraphony was originally a cost-cutting compromise, not an ideal to aim for.
A completist view is to keep the string machine as well as sampling it, and to use each version as is called for in the music.
Paraphonic synthesisers: RS-101 | RS-202 | Sampling string machines | Solina String Ensemble | String Ensemble | VC340 | VP-330
Sampling: A cappella | Breakbeat | DJ battle tool | Multisampling | Personal sample library | Pingpong loop | Program (sampler) | Sample CD | Sampling string machines
Tools affect art: Sampling string machines
