Played a Freeman String Symphonizer

[The Real MC]

This store had one for sale (Sound Source, Rochester NY).

 

According to the A-Z Encyclopedia, it is the first string machine ever, first produced in 1966. Ken Freeman used to make a living in britian as a session musician with this machine and made a production run of these. Not many of them made it to the states. Has a badge on the rear that says CORDOVOX and CHICAGO MUSIC INDUSTRIES, they imported it from Britian like ARP imported the String Ensemble from Holland. Includes original volume pedal AND stand. The store is asking $99 for the package.

 

Very similar sound to ARP String Ensemble. It does only one thing - that 1970s string sound - but does it very well. No cello, bass, horn, or any other sound. 61 note Pratt-Read keyboard vs 49 note on ARP. Also has reverb controls (tank was missing though), sustainor (release), keyboard balance, animation (vibrato depth), and bass and treble controls that the ARP is missing. Switches enable low/high pitches (one octave apart), ensemble FX, and touch vibrato.

 

A peek under the hood revealed an interesting system. It is not a TOS with divider chips like the ARP, each note is a TOS system (C, B, Bb, etc) like the combo organs. The interesting thing is it has TWO ranks of these. The A-Z says that the ensemble/vibrato is generated by applying different LFO waveforms to each rank for true vibrato. This gives a little more authenticity to the sound than the ARP. The B notes were out of tune but can be touched up with the tuning coil.

 

From the datecodes on the ICs it is a 1974 manufacture.

 

Thought I'd pass it along incase anyone was looking for one. I'm sure Outkaster and Tucktronix will be checking it out.

[mate_stubb]

I always thought these sounded great - better than the ARPs. They are super heavy though.

[mikael488]

A-Z is wrong, prototype #1 was actually built in 1969, not 1966. The most famous one was however prototype #2** which appeared in 1970. None of those went into production.

 

The commercially built version of the Freeman string synthesizer was actually manufactured in the US by Lowrey (at that time owned by Norlin Inc.) and was based on Ken Freeman's 3rd prototype (early '72), which itself was a cut-down version of prototype #2 (i.e. it had two master oscillators instead of three) and didn't sound quite as good as its predecessor.

 

 

Freeman String-symphonizer (1974)

 

 

** prototype #2 had three master oscillators that could be detuned against one another and three sets of dividers. It also featured three modulation oscillators (one for each master oscillator).

[mikael488]

BTW, Freeman's prototype #2 can be heard on Pete Sinfield's album "Still" (rec. in late 1972) PFM's "Photos Of Ghosts" (1973, English language version of the album "Per un Amico") as well as on Jeff Wayne's "War Of The World" (rec. from 1976 through spring 1978).

[alexibm]

Links to mp3 ?

[Pawnz]

 

I always thought these sounded great - better than the ARPs. They are super heavy though.

 

+1

 

I saw a band where the keyboard player had one of these things stacked on top of his CP-70, and he blew it through a Leslie on slow speed, with the bottom rotor off (I think). It sounded fantastic!

[mikael488]

 

Links to mp3 ?

 

 

Some of the tunes on this site feature the Freeman string-symphonizer (the commercially released version built by Lowrey/Norlin):

http://www.phootoons.com/phootunes/index.html

 

Wanna hear more? then I recommend you to have a listen to Jan Hammer's solo album "The First Seven Days" (1975). The Freeman string-symphonizer is all over that album.

Mr. Hammer used a rebuilt model that incorporated a resonant filter network designed by Bob Moog.

[mikael488]

Another good example of the Freeman String-symphonizer can be heard in the intro to the song "Lunar Sea" by Camel (off the 1976 album "Moonmadness").

 

Peter Barden (Camel's keyboardist) switched to a Roland RS-202 string-keyboard for their next album "Rain Dances" though.

[synthvince]

That's the strings on Thomas Dolby's "One Of Our Submarines"

off his Golden Age Of Wireless album, bass by Moog Source,

played by his bassist Matthew Seligman on the studio recording.

 

dig those Simmons drum sounds.

 

-Vince

[synthvince]

 

Another good example of the Freeman String-symphonizer can be heard in the intro to the song "Lunar Sea" by Camel (off the 1976 album "Moonmadness").

 

 

Excellent album! & a great track. I love old Camel.

 

Any idea what's doing the phase shifting effect on

the strings is it Mu-Tron Bi-Phase pedal or?

 

-Vince

[mikael488]

 

That's the strings on Thomas Dolby's "One Of Our Submarines" off his Golden Age Of Wireless album, bass by Moog Source, played by his bassist Matthew Seligman on the studio recording. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8_1au_N_Hfc dig those Simmons drum sounds. -Vince

 

 

Do you mean the Roland RS-202?

 

Afaik, most of the polyphonic parts on that album came from the Jup-4.

He double-tracked it with slight pitch shifts for the ominous strings on "Science" for example.

 

As for the Moog Source, it was only used on "submarines" as well as on "Science" (these tracks were recorded separately from the others), the rest of the bass sounds on the album are from his Micromoog and PPG 340/380 system (eg on "Windpower").

 

I think he also used a Solina string ensemble on some of the tracks but I may be wrong about that. I know for sure that he owned one of those for years though.