Cheeze Machine

This is a small, focused and unassuming virtual synth with one purpose only: cheesy string pads!

It's a lot of fun to play with and harkens back to the string machines of the 70's made famous by folks such as Jean Michel Jarre (among many others). The string sounds are not intended to be of "orchestral" quality or nature, but more a simulation of the unique timbres of early era synthesizer simulated strings. The sound quality is excellent and it's very easy to program.

Though the raw oscillators are pretty fixed, you have enough control over the chorus, phaser and reverb to create a good variety of swirly pad sounds. I did have a few issues with changing the settings live, even locking up my host (Orion PRO) a couple of times, but this only seemed to happen when making big changes in the number of voices or in the chorus.

Bottom line: It sounds good and it's free, so there's no reason not to have it in your VST folder, unless you simply dislike this kind of sound. Though I wouldn't necessarily call it a one-trick-pony, it's certainly designed for a certain style of sound and is by no means an all rounder.