I saw one of these in Sam Ash when I was a kid. Seeing made me think there was a whole line of instruments each with different orchestral sections like brass and winds.
As a synth enthousiast and Dutchman this makes me feel proud. Another cool synth from The Netherlands is the Synton Syrinx. In my life I have only seen one!
I was able to borrow a Freeman from a keyboard player I knew back in the early 80s. As a prog fan I got hours of enjoyment out of it. It really was an important stepping stone from the Mellotron to late 70s poly-synths like the Polymoog and GX-1.
I've owned the M-Tron Pro software for a few years and loved it. I've stumbled upon your RU-vid channel and feel like I've found a veritable gold mine. Your videos are incredible; well made, informative, entertaining and fascinating. So many vintage instruments!!
When this came to the States in '74. I said "f only this had come out about a dozen years ago" in 1962, the height of the use of the string ensemble in rock and roll by among others Phil Spector with the Drifters, Shirelles, Gene B McDaniels, Roy Orbison and even Bobby Vee. I could have had a field day
When I first heard Jean Michel Jarre's "Oxegene " way back in the early 80s I always wondered what that beautiful sound was, and again on "Equinox ", it took the Internet to finally find out!! what a beautiful sound💖 Jarre used the "Small Stone" Phaser on all his tracks that involved the Eminent
This was the sound that made me decide to get into sound synthesis back in the early 80's. This is what i fell in love with and what was considered to be the holy grail of spacious sounds back than. And all that just because of a flanger / very short modulated delay effect put on top of very dull saw tooth and pulse waves.
Dave's got to be lauded for makong some of the most watchable (and listenable) vintage synth videos on RU-vid, so a round of 👏 is due (real, mixed in with some well filtered white noise & reverb with a smidgeon of delay) . On an artistic note, my first 'pure sound' (sans the usual reverb and small stone) listening experience of this instrument, was on 'Come up and See Me (make me smile)' . You hear it from towards the end of the middle 8, right through to the end of the song. It's played beautifully, so full credit goes to Duncan Mackay on that front. It makes that song extra special for me.
I owned an eminent 310 that I bought 2ndhand and restored for 125 pounds. Besides giving me a herniated disc I had fun with it with my small stone. Sold it though, the thing weighs a ton. happy to see this software replaces these heavy monsters.
Nice interesting history and demo. It was also used by Uriah Heep. Ken Hensley used it for the wonderful string sound on the song Illusion from Innocent Victim. I want one! lol
Often the cheapest way of getting a string synthesizer is to buy an old home organ from the early 1980s. Yamaha, Elka, and Technics had some pretty good string simulations. But they are of course only for home use due to the weight and bulkyness....
Love it! Ever since I heard it on Dream Weaver, it had an eddect on me and had to get one. I ordered a used one in 1996 from a place in Memphis. I was very excited to get it. When I got it in, I plugged it in, and the crescendo didnt work! I have taken it to everywhere since, even Switched On in Austin, and no one can fix it. Sad.
at 7:00 a crucial piece of advice: chords or octaves on the lower register with Contra Bass or Cello selected will require careful playing, or else the monophonic nature of those 2 will give weird jumpy notes....I guess why a lot of famous users only selected the upper instruments for their pad sounds. a solution is to play those chords and remember to quickly lift the upper bass note first
Depends. I'd say significantly more difficult and laborious than later predominantly micro controller based instruments. Kenton has several kits listed on their website (either "ARP" or "Eminent" versions).
According to online sources, Tony got the strings on songs like "All in a Mouse's Night" from a Roland RS-202, not the Solina or Freeman. However, I'm pretty sure Peter Bardens of Camel was using one of these for their mid-70s classics like "Lunar Sea." I'm surprised Gary Wright's "Dream Weaver" didn't even get a mention in this vid.
