Credit where credit is due for this old VST.

In the early 2000's there weren't many emulations of string ensemble synthesizers that were popular in the late 70's. Of course you could throw some modulation effects on a basic rampwave patch if you wanted to, but it was nice having a free string ensemble ready to go, with some clear attention to detail spent on having such particular voicing and modulation resemble that of the vintage machines it is emulating.

There may not be much use for it now; the sound has held up about as well as any other VST from 2002 - but this quirky little synth brought me much entertainment in an age when there simply weren't many VSTs around, especially of this type, and especially for free. I'll still use it from time to time, with an oversampler that breathes a little bit of life back into it.

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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.Read more

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 just not done by putting a fast, cheap chorus after a cheap oscillator, not to mention the phaser or the reverb, if you want to call it so.
listen to jean michelle jarres equionox or oxygene.
he often fed the machines into a vintage phaser ...
this is how a real stringmachine (well, one of the best, the eminent 310u) sounds ... or listen to the strings of the old vangelis recordings, you´ll understand the important difference.

all in all a nice vsti, considering the price ;=), but since they compare it to the old stringmachines they lost it in these terms. it simply has nothing to do with a real stringmachine, which is sad, as there`s none in the vsti world that matches the sound and behave of a real stringmachine ...

brok landersRead more

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!Read more

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?)Read more