GMEDIA Music / GForce Software have announced Virtual String Machine a new, er, virtual string machine plug-in instrument for Windows and Mac OS X containing a wealth of sounds from a small mountain of classic and rare string machines. These range from the first commercial string ensembles (Eminent 310 & Freeman String Symphonizer) through to the highly lauded Solina, Elka Rhapsody, Logan String Melody, Korg PE2000 and many more.

String Synth History (from GMEDIA):
The modern, polyphonic string synthesizer was invented in 1970 by Ken Freeman, a British keyboard player and engineer who discovered that if you layered a note with another detuned and slightly modulated version of itself, a pleasant 'chorused' sound resulted.

Even though Ken's invention wasn't the first instrument of this genre to be commercially released (That honor fell to the Eminent organ company with their 310 Unique organ) there's little doubt that Ken's vision contributed immeasurably to electronic music over the next few decades in the guise of over 100 different models by a huge variety of manufacturers.

The Virtual String Machine
The VSM is a simple but highly powerful Virtual String Machine which captures many of the sounds from this genre of instruments, containing a wealth of sounds from a small mountain of classic and rare string machines. These range from the first commercial string ensembles (Eminent 310 & Freeman String Symphonizer) through to the highly lauded Solina, Elka Rhapsody, Logan String Melody, Korg PE2000 and many more.

With the sheer amount of instruments captured within the VSM it's simplicity itself to recreate all those golden string machine tones from yesteryear. However, with the VSM's comprehensive, yet intuitive feature-set, plus a two-layer option it's now possible to create your own hybrid instruments taking these sublime vintage tones into hitherto unchartered territory.

Features:

• The sounds from 17 classic and rare string machines.
• Over 2.5Gb of data.
• 66 individual sample sets.
• 49 notes, each individually sampled and looped.
• Dual Layer & Split Keyboard capability.
• Vintage style Ensemble & Phaser effects.
• Filter section with Lowpass, Bandpass & Highpass modes.
• Two Envelope Generators.
• Pitch LFO.
• Dynamic control including filter aftertouch.
• 500+ Patch library.

Full Instrument list
ARP Omni, ARP Quartet, Crumar Multiman, Elka Rhapsody, Eminent 310, Freeman String Symphonizer, Junost 21, Korg PE-2000, Logan String Melody, Oberheim OB-8, Oberheim Xpander, Moog Opus 3, Polymoog, Roland RS202, Solina, Yamaha SK-15, Yamaha SS-30.

VSM is expected to be released in March 2007 for Windows and Mac OS X Universal Binary in VST, Audio Units and RTAS formats with an MSRP of $149.99. Plenty of audio demos are already available.