The Analog Strings Station (ASS) is an advanced emulation of the vintage electronic keyboards known as "String Ensemble Synthesizers " or "String Machines”, which where invented around 1970 and became a huge success with the introduction of the Eminent Solina String Ensemble. The ASS project started at NUSofting as a digital model of the Solina and was then extended to a versatile polyphonic synthesizer but still retaining the warm core sound of the vintage string synthesizers.

Differently to other string machine emulations available as virtual instruments, the ASS doesn't use samples recorded from the original hardware keyboards, NUSofting developed a native emulation of the "octave divider” circuitry that is the essential technology of the vintage polyphonic synthesizers. The ASS digital "octave divider" can reproduce the same "phase synced" sound of the original Solina, Crumar Performer and similar vintage keyboards.

The ASS digital "octave divider" in our opinion better serves the reproduction of the chords played with a real "String Synthesizers” compared to the usual sampling technology which first splits and then reassembles the sound key by key, not mentioning that the ASS only use 20 MB of your drive space.

Another essential sounding element of the "String Machines" is the so called Ensemble effect, the ASS Ensemble effect was also modeled after the original Solina circuitry and extended with more parameters and wider ranges for these, allowing the ASS user to many more sublime chorus effects suitable to the original string machine sound.

The Analog Strings Station is a must have for all musicians who recognize the power of a sound that as marked an era and still looks to the future. The sound of string machines is heard in works from artists like Vangelis, Genesis, Jean Michel Jarre, Pink Floyd, Ultravox, Air David Bowie, Kraftwerk, Goldfrapp, Beck and many more.

More and More:

The ASS allow the selection of three generated waveforms :

1. Smooth Sawthooth
2. Crisp Sawthooth
3. Vintage Square

The sound selected can be further enhanced using the Brightness control. Additionally a noise generator is featured.

The oscillators architecture generates 6 timbres simultaneously:

• Cello, Brass, Horn and Viola, all those in register 8',
• Violin, in register 4' with it's own "relative phase" control,
• Contrabass, in register 16' ("Register" refers to the relative octave, also called "rank")

The 6 timbres are easily adjusted by the mixer interface in the main panel of the synthesizer. The mixer allows level control and solo/mute of every channel.

The MIDI split controls allows to customize the keyboard point between lower and upper section. The lower section plays only Cello and Contrabass. The lower section can also be set to perform in mono legato mode using the mono/poly switch, like in the Solina keyboard, for instance.

Synth Filter:

A multimode resonant filter is featured with his own envelope and LFO modulation, the filter envelope operates in vintage "Paraphonic" mode, it's one filter for all voices but it reacts dynamically to the number and the volume of the voices played. Additionally a HP filter is featured, (Lo Cut), to improve the modulation thru the effects section. On the main panel an effective 3 band EQ is also featured.

The ARP panel:

On this panel a classic analog style Arpeggiator and a stereo "Step Gate Sequencer" is featured. The combination of these performance tools allows a great range of creative possibilities: real-time creation of complex rhythmic figures for high strings or basses.

The Effects Panel:

The Effects Panel includes five vintage analog effect processors:

• 1 - Tremolux :

The Tremolux brings back the successful tremolo effects of the ’60s plus multi-dimensional auto-pan effects. The Tremolux features LFO Rate, Depth, Mode (mono/stereo - tremolo/pan) controls. The LFO Rate can be controled by the host application using the Sync control.

• 2 - LoFi-Tron :

With the LoFi-Tron effect, you get that authentic saturation effect found in many vintage tube amplifiers with the distinctive tonal quality that only a real tube can deliver, bringing vintage sound back to life letting you take off with anything from warm overdrive to heavy distortion.

The Drive, Color and Gain controls are provided for awesome sound shaping as well as the 3 positions switch Mode which provides additional sounding from M-Tron-tape-style to heavy saturation.

• 3 - Phaser / Flanger :

Authentic vintage phase shifting and flanging effects, from rapid rotary speaker to deep jet plane effects, there is no matter what phasing-flanging effects you are looking for, the Phaser-Flanger is designed to make getting there easier!

• Phaser or Flanger switch mode
• Color switch for fine-tuning of tone effects
• HiPass and LoPass filters which allows infinite sounding possibilities
• Level control
• LFO with Rate and Depth
• Feedback (Resonance)
• Width control

• 4 - 3D Delays:

Based on the Blue Tubes Tempo Delays DL3D, the 3D Delays is a tempo-driven delay effect with a classic analog sound. Simply sync the tempo of the song, and select the note value corresponding to the desired delay time. This delay provides three separate channels. Using the Pan controls, you can pan all three delay channels to the center, or spread the channels out across the stereo field (left, center, right). Level controls set the levels for each channel individually. Also featured, LoPass and HiPass filters gives endless possibilities and vintage sounding.

• bpm Tempo sync
• All the 3 delays use individual Level and Pan controls
• Delay time selectable by notes
• Global Feedback control
• LP and HP filters

• 5 - Stereo Imager:

The Stereo Imager provides control over the width of the stereo field. This graphically striking device enables you to “visualize” the width of the stereo sound stage. Using the same technology used for the Blue Tubes Stereo Imager, the ASS Stereo Imager gives you a simple way to enlarge the spread of the global stereo width.

• Routing:

Let you select the effects order, 4 modes are available:

1. Tremolux > LoFi-Tron > Phaser/Flanger > 3D Delays > Stereo Imager
2. Phaser/Flanger > 3D Delays > Tremolux > LoFi-Tron > Stereo Imager
3. 3D Delays > LoFi-Tron > Phaser/Flanger > Tremolux > Stereo Imager
4. LoFi-Tron > Phaser/Flanger > 3D Delays > Tremolux > Stereo Imager