MATRIXSYNTH: Yamaha SS30


Sunday, March 08, 2009

Yamaha SS30


via this auction

Note this is the one in this video.
"Control section running from left to right pitch/ detune - The outer pot adjusts the overall tuning and the inner pot detunes the voices against the pitch which can produce a wonderful thickening effect ( some sources describe this synth as a duphonic/ multiphonic ,others describe it as a 4 voice polyphonic. I have a feeling it is a 4 voice polyphonic but the 4 voices are split between cello (two tones) and violin (2 tones) . It then uses divide down chips enabling all keys to be played at once)
Orchestra -Depth ( Speed 1/2 ,cello ,violin ) A great ensemble effect with 2 different effect types (speed) and the ability to separate the effect between cello and violin ( so you can have ,for example cello effect and violins dry )
Vibrato ,Delay/Depth- Very nice vibrato effect.
Sustain, Cello /Violin - sustain 1 control each for cello and violin giving again the ability to have separate amount of sustain for cello and violin sections . Very short to very long .
Keyboard split 0/1/2/3 .0 setting is no split and just the violin sound over the whole range. 1 gives a split with the lowest octave for cellos the rest strings. 2 setting gives 1 and a half octaves to the cello . 3 gives 2 octaves to the cello. The splits are indicated by a white dot above the note on the control panel
Cello ,Volume, attack/slow ,cello1/cello2 - control section for cellos giving control over attack fast/slow. Choice of 2 cello sounds.
Violin Attack/Slow, Viola/violin1/Violin2 /Volume - Same as cello control section though the volume is at the far right.
Brilliance Cello/Violin Very usable low pass filter for cello and violin. "
Update via stevenorgate in the comments: ""some sources describe this synth as a duphonic/ multiphonic ,others describe it as a 4 voice polyphonic. I have a feeling it is a 4 voice polyphonic but the 4 voices are split between cello (two tones) and violin (2 tones) . It then uses divide down chips enabling all keys to be played at once)"

Nearly. It has two master oscillators which are both dived down to give you the full set of notes, twice.

You need two waveforms to get a stringy effect so the same note outputs of the dividers are mixed.

When you press a key you're switching in a mix of two divided down oscillators.

The detune affects both oscillators but not equally hence you can detune one against the other and get to the good old thick sound but more importantly set the PWM type character you need for strings.

The outputs of these mixed waveforms are sent to either the Violin, Viola, or Cello mixers. In some cases the outputs can be sent to either one or the other mixer as set by the split selector switch.

The cello, viola or violin character is set by filters after each mixer. Violin 1 & 2 just are different (1st order) filters fed from the mixer, so when you switch them in you're just mixing and matching different filtered outputs of the same thing. the same goes for Cello 1 & 2.

So far it's just a paraphonic organ but with two tones per key. However the SS30 rules over other string synths because it has an AR envelope generator per key. When you set a long attack each time you press a key it starts a new attack just for that key. same with Release.

There's no VCF per key but that's what we have Polymoogs and, err, GX1's for."

2 comments:

  1. "some sources describe this synth as a duphonic/ multiphonic ,others describe it as a 4 voice polyphonic. I have a feeling it is a 4 voice polyphonic but the 4 voices are split between cello (two tones) and violin (2 tones) . It then uses divide down chips enabling all keys to be played at once)"

    Nearly. It has two master oscillators which are both dived down to give you the full set of notes, twice.

    You need two waveforms to get a stringy effect so the same note outputs of the dividers are mixed.

    When you press a key you're switching in a mix of two divided down oscillators.

    The detune affects both oscillators but not equally hence you can detune one against the other and get to the good old thick sound but more importantly set the PWM type character you need for strings.

    The outputs of these mixed waveforms are sent to either the Violin, Viola, or Cello mixers. In some cases the outputs can be sent to either one or the other mixer as set by the split selector switch.

    The cello, viola or violin character is set by filters after each mixer. Violin 1 & 2 just are different (1st order) filters fed from the mixer, so when you switch them in you're just mixing and matching different filtered outputs of the same thing. the same goes for Cello 1 & 2.

    So far it's just a paraphonic organ but with two tones per key. However the SS30 rules over other string synths because it has an AR envelope generator per key. When you set a long attack each time you press a key it starts a new attack just for that key. same with Release.

    There's no VCF per key but that's what we have Polymoogs and, err, GX1's for.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Para mi gusto, suena mejor que el Solina, ya que tiene un sonido bien càlido, tiene un chorus ajustable,y la posibilidad de desafinar los osciladores, la funciòn de split es bien ùtil, y aunque no es stereo se le puede acoplar un pedal de phaser o delay lo cual le dà una amplitud increìble, Ademas està construido como un tanque, Y es de madera!!

    ReplyDelete

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