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Demos :
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Utility Files :
String Ensemble Edition - Solina - will morph your beloved Kurzweil K2700 into an iconic instrument of the 70's.
To achieve the programming of this product i first spend some time gathering technical informations and listening to a lot of demos.... My goal was to provide to the users the unique experience of having a fully programmable Solina. The first step was to bring an array of commands / controls close to the original instrument. If you check the picture below you will see that you can select the different parts exactly like you would do on the Solina. I added a few more useful functions to bring the playability further and increasing the fun ! | ||||
Introduction :
Heard in a lot of albums, the Solina is a keyboard that was supposed to help musicians in demand of orchestral sounds on stage or studios.
Of course it sounds, far, far away from the real tones and this is exactly why it became famous !
There is something special about the overall sound of this machine. If you are old enough, i'm sure you know what i mean...
Sometimes called 'cheesy', 'poetic', 'synthetic' or 'naive', the Solina has been used by numerous famous bands like Pink Floyd, Herbie Hancock, Elton John, Jean-Michel Jarre, Stevie Wonder, Joy Division, to name a few, the list is too long !
The Solina relies on octave divider technology, allowing full polyphony. It also has a huge triple bucket brigade delay driven by 2 LFO's, 1 slow and 1 fast with phase shift for each delay line. The result is called the 'Ensemble Effect', sounding more or less like a triple chorus....
The instrument is basically divided in 2 sets of 'orchestral' instruments.
The first part on the left is dedicated to the Contrabass and Cello, and the second part is dedicated to the Viola, Violin, Trumpet (called Brass on later model) and Horn.
You can select any of them instantly, meaning you have a full orchestra at your fingertips...!
Heard in a lot of albums, the Solina is a keyboard that was supposed to help musicians in demand of orchestral sounds on stage or studios.
Of course it sounds, far, far away from the real tones and this is exactly why it became famous !
There is something special about the overall sound of this machine. If you are old enough, i'm sure you know what i mean...
Sometimes called 'cheesy', 'poetic', 'synthetic' or 'naive', the Solina has been used by numerous famous bands like Pink Floyd, Herbie Hancock, Elton John, Jean-Michel Jarre, Stevie Wonder, Joy Division, to name a few, the list is too long !
The Solina relies on octave divider technology, allowing full polyphony. It also has a huge triple bucket brigade delay driven by 2 LFO's, 1 slow and 1 fast with phase shift for each delay line. The result is called the 'Ensemble Effect', sounding more or less like a triple chorus....
The instrument is basically divided in 2 sets of 'orchestral' instruments.
The first part on the left is dedicated to the Contrabass and Cello, and the second part is dedicated to the Viola, Violin, Trumpet (called Brass on later model) and Horn.
You can select any of them instantly, meaning you have a full orchestra at your fingertips...!
Solina String Ensemble
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The Solina thru the ages : There have been several revisions of the Solina, - The MK1 had the Ensemble always ON - With the MK2, you were able to switch the Ensemble OFF - The MK3 brought a stereo output - The MK4 brought some LEDs on the switches And they all do not sound the same ! |
The Control Panel
The Wheels Section
ENSEMBLE :
Maybe one of the most important button of the instrument !
When ON, the triple BBD chorus is engaged and the classic vintage sounds of the solina kicks in...
VIBRATO :
You can add a slight amount of vibrato to your sound with this wheel.
If the Ensemble function is on, you may have to push the wheel to the max to hear the effect as there are already some modulations running...
PITCHBEND :
You can bend your sound if you want to....
Maybe one of the most important button of the instrument !
When ON, the triple BBD chorus is engaged and the classic vintage sounds of the solina kicks in...
VIBRATO :
You can add a slight amount of vibrato to your sound with this wheel.
If the Ensemble function is on, you may have to push the wheel to the max to hear the effect as there are already some modulations running...
PITCHBEND :
You can bend your sound if you want to....
Instruments & FX
The lower part :
CONTRABASS & CELLO buttons allow you to select each part individually or the two at once.
Please note that the original range of 4 octaves (C2-C6) has been implemented too !
Meaning that the Lower part is available for approximatively 1 octave and a half, going from C2 to G3.
Note : On the original instrument, this section is monophonic. On this product, it's polyphonic because we can't have monophonic and polyphonic layers in the same program. You can build this kind of settings in a multi with two parts.
The upper part :
VIOLA, VIOLIN, TRUMPET & HORN buttons allow you to select each part individually or any combinations of the 4 parts.
Upper Full Keys :
This button will select the keyrange of the upper part.
If the function is not selected, the keyrange goes from G#3 to C6, meaning you can have two separate zones on your keyboard (Lower / Upper)
If you switch ON this function, the keyrange expands to the full 4 octaves and you will have a mix of the Lower part and Upper part if you play on the Lower part.
Chorus Stereo On :
When ON, the Ensemble effect goes from mono to stereo.
Phaser :
When ON, the phaser is engaged.
For deeper programming of the phaser, you can go to the parameters page....(in program mode, just hit EDIT and scroll thru the parameters)
You will be able able to adjust parameters like resonance, speed, stereo offset, phaser colour etc...
Please note the phaser is post-chorus, meaning if you switch stereo ON on the chorus, the phaser will become stereo too.
CONTRABASS & CELLO buttons allow you to select each part individually or the two at once.
Please note that the original range of 4 octaves (C2-C6) has been implemented too !
Meaning that the Lower part is available for approximatively 1 octave and a half, going from C2 to G3.
Note : On the original instrument, this section is monophonic. On this product, it's polyphonic because we can't have monophonic and polyphonic layers in the same program. You can build this kind of settings in a multi with two parts.
The upper part :
VIOLA, VIOLIN, TRUMPET & HORN buttons allow you to select each part individually or any combinations of the 4 parts.
Upper Full Keys :
This button will select the keyrange of the upper part.
If the function is not selected, the keyrange goes from G#3 to C6, meaning you can have two separate zones on your keyboard (Lower / Upper)
If you switch ON this function, the keyrange expands to the full 4 octaves and you will have a mix of the Lower part and Upper part if you play on the Lower part.
Chorus Stereo On :
When ON, the Ensemble effect goes from mono to stereo.
Phaser :
When ON, the phaser is engaged.
For deeper programming of the phaser, you can go to the parameters page....(in program mode, just hit EDIT and scroll thru the parameters)
You will be able able to adjust parameters like resonance, speed, stereo offset, phaser colour etc...
Please note the phaser is post-chorus, meaning if you switch stereo ON on the chorus, the phaser will become stereo too.
On the K2700 version, you can control on the fly the phaser with the 4 dedicated rotaries !
Colour, speed, feedback and stereo offset can now be changed in real time.
Please note the phaser is post-chorus, meaning if you switch stereo ON on the chorus, the phaser will become stereo too.
Delay :
In the K2700 version, with the dedicated rotaries, you can adjust the delay time, feedback and level in real time...
Reverb :
Once again, the K2700 adds new controls and now you can adjust the reverb time and level with the dedicated controlers.
Colour, speed, feedback and stereo offset can now be changed in real time.
Please note the phaser is post-chorus, meaning if you switch stereo ON on the chorus, the phaser will become stereo too.
Delay :
In the K2700 version, with the dedicated rotaries, you can adjust the delay time, feedback and level in real time...
Reverb :
Once again, the K2700 adds new controls and now you can adjust the reverb time and level with the dedicated controlers.
Controls & Modifiers
Lower :
Crescendo :
This function increases the attack time of the CONTRABASS and / or CELLO
Note : There is no control of the release for the Lower part.
Volume :
Adjust the volume of the CONTRABASS and / or CELLO
Upper :
Crescendo :
This function increases the attack time of the VIOLA, VIOLIN, TRUMPET and HORN
Please note that the attack time is shorter on the TRUMPET and HORN. This is a normal behaviour !
Sustain length :
This function increases the release time of the VIOLA, VIOLIN, TRUMPET and HORN.
Filter :
Note : The Filter is post oscillators / pre Ensemble
Filter Mix :
This parameter adjusts the ratio between the dry and wet signal of the filter section.
At 0%, there is no filtering. At 100% the signal is totally processed by the filter.
You can get some interesting and unusual sounds with some partial filtering settings like vocal, nasal or resonating textures...
Filter Type :
This is a multimode filter and you can change its response.
You have 4 different modes : LPF / HPF / BPF / Notch
In conjunction with the Filter Mix parameter, a lot of timbres can be achieved. Much more than the original instrument !
Cutoff :
Set the cutoff frequency of the filter
Note : there is no keyboard tracking because it's a global filter and not a per voice filter.
Resonance :
Set the amount of resonance of the filter. It adds a peak at the cutoff frequency.
Output :
Volume :
When playing with the parts, filtering and effects, you may have to deal with some volume drops or jumps.
This function will adjust the output of the instrument.
Crescendo :
This function increases the attack time of the CONTRABASS and / or CELLO
Note : There is no control of the release for the Lower part.
Volume :
Adjust the volume of the CONTRABASS and / or CELLO
Upper :
Crescendo :
This function increases the attack time of the VIOLA, VIOLIN, TRUMPET and HORN
Please note that the attack time is shorter on the TRUMPET and HORN. This is a normal behaviour !
Sustain length :
This function increases the release time of the VIOLA, VIOLIN, TRUMPET and HORN.
Filter :
Note : The Filter is post oscillators / pre Ensemble
Filter Mix :
This parameter adjusts the ratio between the dry and wet signal of the filter section.
At 0%, there is no filtering. At 100% the signal is totally processed by the filter.
You can get some interesting and unusual sounds with some partial filtering settings like vocal, nasal or resonating textures...
Filter Type :
This is a multimode filter and you can change its response.
You have 4 different modes : LPF / HPF / BPF / Notch
In conjunction with the Filter Mix parameter, a lot of timbres can be achieved. Much more than the original instrument !
Cutoff :
Set the cutoff frequency of the filter
Note : there is no keyboard tracking because it's a global filter and not a per voice filter.
Resonance :
Set the amount of resonance of the filter. It adds a peak at the cutoff frequency.
Output :
Volume :
When playing with the parts, filtering and effects, you may have to deal with some volume drops or jumps.
This function will adjust the output of the instrument.
Going deeper in the programming with the parameters page
Now that we saw the hardware controls displayed on your K2700, let's have a look at the parameters page...
Note : You have access to this page by just hitting 'EDIT' when you are in program mode.
This page allows you to adjust all the parameters used in this product, meaning you can adjust with precision some parameters selected with the hardware controls or adjust addtionnal parameters that are not displayed on the front panel of the K2700.
Let's take an example with this first picture, showing the different parts :
Note : You have access to this page by just hitting 'EDIT' when you are in program mode.
This page allows you to adjust all the parameters used in this product, meaning you can adjust with precision some parameters selected with the hardware controls or adjust addtionnal parameters that are not displayed on the front panel of the K2700.
Let's take an example with this first picture, showing the different parts :
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If you have a look at the right column, you will see some values.
These values represent the actual setting of the parameter. In this example, the red arrow shows that the VIOLA part has a value of 127, meaning that this part is ON. The buttons on the front panel send only values of 0 or 127. If you select this value, you will be able to change it manually. If you think you need to bring down the volume of this part, you just have to enter a value from 64 to 127. Values below 64 will mute the part. |
Let's take another example, this time with some parameters that are not displayed in the front panel : The Aux FX settings
Let's take another example, this time with some parameters that are not displayed in the front panel : The Aux FX settings
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This product provides two Aux FX. As you noticed, you don't have any sliders / buttons controlling this section so you have to deal with the parameters page to set your Aux FX. If you want to adjust the delay damper of the Aux 1, you just have to move the cursor on the value 104 (check the red arrow) and modify it. Note : If you look closer at this page, you will also notice that the Ensemble effect can be adjusted ! |
BTW, you can set the amount of signal sent to the two auxiliary effects in this page : Program FX
BTW, you can set the amount of signal sent to the two auxiliary effects in this page : Program FX
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It works exactly like the previous pages, you just have to move the cursor to the send levels (check the red arrows) and enter your settings. Be careful to not change the Aux 1 & 2 chains... As i was running out of MIDI CC, i thought that it would not be a big deal for the users to adjust the auxiliary send levels manually in this page....;-) Also check in this page the insert chain with 5 blocks... |
And last, in the insert FX chain, you also have a 3 bands EQ
And last, in the insert FX chain, you also have a 3 bands EQ
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The bottom cut frequency sets the frequency where the cut amount of 18db kicks in. The presence allows you to enhance / cut the low / medium frequencies. This parameter is also controlled by the expression pedal. The treb gain enhances / cuts the medium / high frequencies. This EQ is the last block of the insert chain and is very important for the final touch of your sound.... |
Saving your settings
When you managed to get a sound you like, don't forget to hit the 'SAVE' button !
Find a new location, a cool name for your new patch and hit 'SAVE' again...
This will record to the memory of the K2700 all your settings.
Find a new location, a cool name for your new patch and hit 'SAVE' again...
This will record to the memory of the K2700 all your settings.
The final touch...
When programming this product i had to deal with the Solina's specifications and it took time and efforts to work it out...
First, in a real Solina you have the main oscillator divided in several parts, each part going thru filtering stages or not...
But because they are all coming from the same oscillator, they are always in phase.
The deep VAST synthesis was again a powerful tool. It can be surprising but the oscillators programming is done via FM !
I used a specific multiplying frequencies technic and all oscillators are perfectly in phase and clean.
Then the oscillators are sent thru filtering stages, like the original.....
Then i wanted to be able to come close the Ensemble effect. The original had a specific setting of the 3 BBDs and 2 LFOs.
The FX section of the Forte was deep enough to program a convincing 'Ensemble like' chorus section.
I used a multi-chorus with some phase shifting and phase reversing...
The Solina Ensemble is not sounding the same on all models, if you want to make some adjustements on the Ensemble effect,
check the chorus section in the third place of the insert chain.
The last thing to do was to be able to program the controllers of the K2700 to match the Solina's front panel.
Kurzweil has always been good when dealing with MIDI and controls and i managed to do what i've planned...
I hope you will find this product interesting and that you will have fun spending some time on your virtual Solina.
Maybe the sounds of this product will bring back memories for some of you !
Thanks for reading this page until the end !
And if you like this product, spread the word, not the file...
Engine development and presets programming by Barb (C) 2022
First, in a real Solina you have the main oscillator divided in several parts, each part going thru filtering stages or not...
But because they are all coming from the same oscillator, they are always in phase.
The deep VAST synthesis was again a powerful tool. It can be surprising but the oscillators programming is done via FM !
I used a specific multiplying frequencies technic and all oscillators are perfectly in phase and clean.
Then the oscillators are sent thru filtering stages, like the original.....
Then i wanted to be able to come close the Ensemble effect. The original had a specific setting of the 3 BBDs and 2 LFOs.
The FX section of the Forte was deep enough to program a convincing 'Ensemble like' chorus section.
I used a multi-chorus with some phase shifting and phase reversing...
The Solina Ensemble is not sounding the same on all models, if you want to make some adjustements on the Ensemble effect,
check the chorus section in the third place of the insert chain.
The last thing to do was to be able to program the controllers of the K2700 to match the Solina's front panel.
Kurzweil has always been good when dealing with MIDI and controls and i managed to do what i've planned...
I hope you will find this product interesting and that you will have fun spending some time on your virtual Solina.
Maybe the sounds of this product will bring back memories for some of you !
Thanks for reading this page until the end !
And if you like this product, spread the word, not the file...
Engine development and presets programming by Barb (C) 2022
