By ToddBradley
On 17th December 2003
Version: 1.3.2
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ToddBradley
0 of 1 people found
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I downloaded Cheeze Station on a lark, but I've fallen in love with it. It doesn't do much, but I like what it does and have never had any stability problems with it. I'm now using it in more and more of my band's live songs, ranging from backing strings to lead synth solos. I always get the feeling that the sounds are very "full" - not tinny or thing at all.
My drummer says it's perfectly named because it sounds so cheesy, but I think it gives our material a unique sound and I'm not afraid to sound cheesy. I just noticed that the Big Tick website is accepting donations, since this is free software, so I think I'll go drop a few bucks in the kitty. |
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By brok landers
On 26th September 2003
Version: 1.3.2
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brok landers
2 of 3 people found
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first of all i have to say that i own a solina and a crumar multiman, wich are both stringmachines of the 70es, so i had an comparsion.
its a nice little synth wich uses almost no cpu power.
it can do some nice, oldstyle pads.
but thats about it.
its absolutely NEVER even half wa close to a real stringmachine like the solina or the vp 330.
its not done with putting a fast, cheap chorus after a cheap oscillator, not to mention the phaser or the reverb, if you want to call it so.
the reason is simple :
the chorus effect in the solina (or any other stringmachine of the seventies) is polyphonic and not done like a normal chorus.
strongly simplified its realized by feeding each oscillator back to its input, phase shifted with a slight fast modulation on it.
because the real stringmachines were fully polyphonic (means every key has its own oscillator) there are never phase problems when you play octaves or partials together.
listen to jean michelle jarres equionox or oxygen.
he fed the machines sometimes into a vintage phaser ...
this is how a real stringmachine sounds ... or listen to the strings of the old vangelis recordings, youŽll know what i mean then.
all in all a nice vsti, especially when you realize the price ;=), but since they compare it to the old stringmachines they lost it in these terms.
brok landers |
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Last edited by brok landers on 28th September 2003
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By metalsvinet
On 4th July 2003
Version: latest
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metalsvinet
0 of 1 people found
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cheeze machine is smooth sounding and easy to use. the sound is not versatile at all, but that's a good thing. i'd rather have a small collection of simple instruments each with a strong character of its own than a programming monster with a hundred buttons and no soul
one trick ponies shouldn't score high on features, but this one gets extra points for having a stand-alone version included
in short, a classic! |
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Last edited by metalsvinet on 4th July 2003
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By Magpel
On 9th June 2003
Version: ?
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I can't believe I've never taken a minute to review this little bit of freebie perfection, so there you have it. I don't write anything that could be described as electronic music stylistically, but I'm amazed how much I find myself using this thing for its quirky and character-ful sound. I'm sure its sound can be created on other synths and fx, but why bother? The Cheeze Machine has total vibe and a surpisingly lush, musically useful output.
In a recent project, I layered it with Dan Dean's solo strings for Giga. Shorten the envelope A and R so it can keep up with a fairly eventful string arrangement. Wow, what a neat, phasey depth it added. The point of this, I guess, is that it's not for pads only. It can track lines as well, and sound pretty good, even though it doesn't have distinctive "attack characterstics" in its own right.
It layers beautifully, it mixes well. It's just a little piece of pure happiness, really.
It's right up there at the top of my freebie list (Well come on; Crystal's kinda blown it for everyone else, hasn't it?) |
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By declan
On 8th June 2003
Version: latest
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I love the Cheese Machine, it does have that '80's analogue-synth string sounds, but it actually sounds better to me than my old Korg Poly-6 that I was desperate to get back.
The reviews I've read seem accurate to me, the only thing I have to add is that a lot of what is best about this synth is it's warmth and depth. The only criticism I'd have is that it's strengths are it's weaknesses: it's hard to coax a bright, sharp sound out of it. I've found myself using other far more CPU intensive alternatives to punch up the sound in places.
I don't know if this is kosher or not, (so k-v-r) delete me at will) but the new synth-edit creation Sympho combined with the Cheese Machine is really surprising. You get some "real" sounding string effects even if you're not going for it.
By itself the Cheese Machine still delivers more than it promises. |
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