Strings and orchestral sounds, which synth is the best?

[bittersound]

Hiya, newbie here...

I want to get hold of a keyboard (not soft synth, I want to particularly gig with a standalone synth, no racks) that is great for string sounds and orchestral sounds. Piano sounds a bonus.

Budget? £100 to £1000

Any recommendations out there?

Cheers,
David

[Syn303]

Buy a Roland XP-50/60 Workstation/Synthesizer and fill it with the following expansion boards:

SR-JV80-02 - Orchestral Strings I
SR-JV80-03 - Piano
SR-JV80-16 - Orchestral Strings II

and a choice of either:
SR-JV80-01 - Pop
SR-JV80-04 - Vintage Synth

This will come to less than £1000

[pflosi]

for analog synths, i get pretty neat strings out of my P6 (ensemble effect!) and i love those my A6 can produce. A P6 can be found for way less than 1000£, an A6 could be difficult to find...

[bittersound]

thanks guys!

[balma]

Uy! the Roland XP series, sucks a big time, well, that just my opinion. I just wonder if those expansions you mentioned, are the same that the XV rack series can use.

Some XV racks (there are multiple models) are simple superb on strings sounds. They have been used a lot on filmscoring for that purpuse.

For beatiful, lush strings, nothing like KURZWEIL. The K2600's strings and ensembles sound so, so beatiful, can break your heart......

For these kind of sounds, is good to look on workstations, that deals with multiple samples for a single patch. I mean, some synths like the Yamaha EX5, have not just sampled the C2 note for an string, but a whole set of 16 notes for each sample. C1. F1, G1, C2, F2, G2... etc, just to create a decent string sound spreaded over the keyboard. BTW, strings on the EX5 are great.

... and why not, the Motif have great string sounds.

[rhino]

Go right ahead and laugh, you young whipper-snappers...
try out an Alesis QS-8 (or QS-7). Old-school ROMplers...no fireworks or earthquakes. BUT rather nice sounds, fair 4-plex FX, AND 16-way layers AND 16-way splits. Set up a split with base/piano+ep+strings (on a slider)/brass (octives on vel. switch),sax solo (with vib on at)/choir/and a few sound effects at the top of the 88 keys. If you can set up your playing right, you can get 5, 6, or more parts at once on the same keyboard. Most of these go for about 400-500 US$.

[Steve Jones]

Kurzweil K2000 or K2500 with the orchestral ROM block.

[Stab Frenzy]

Another big vote for a Kurzweil here.

[ItsMeOnly]

Can anyone post example? Cause I couldn't find anything that would "break my heart" in there?

Trinity had nice lush, very full, strings, though (0/1W isn't that bad, either)...

[Escobar]

Shouldn't this thread be in 'Buyer's Guide'?

[braincandy]

Yet another Kurzweil vote here. I used my K2VXs for all of my orchestral sounds when I had it. The Roland XP/JV series was ok for that stuff, too, but I always chose the Kurz over the XPs I used. It sounded less "compressed".

You may also want to check out a used Fantom X6, as it sounds better than the XP-series for orchestral stuff (I used to own a Juno-G).

[john909kid]

Demos of the Roland Orchestral 1 and 2 boards here:
Roland Orchestral 1
Roland Orchestral 2

[balma]

Can anyone post example? Cause I couldn't find anything that would "break my heart" in there?

Trinity had nice lush, very full, strings, though (0/1W isn't that bad, either)...

For making good string sounds, you need nice controllers to try to emulate string sound variations when performing.

Kurzweil PC3, or 2600, have strings that were sampled at very high detailed level, they have a deep control after touch features and others related with key sensitivity, tremolos, etc. This label is very good when talking about emulating real instruments.

I saw one guy "hotel lobby player" with a K2600 making some orchestal arrangements, so nice when a virtuous keyboard player gets the best of these synths, very amusing.

You should try a youtube "kurzweil strings" search. lots of demos there....

[Umbe78]

Can anyone help me too?
I have a JV1010 and I wish I replace it with some of more professional/real (piano/rhodes/strings) ...
Advices?

[harness]

I have a Kurzweil PC361 and its stunning, sounds straight up belong on a movie score. Strings, pads, pianos, EPs, and orchestral type stuff blow Motif away. Motif XS is still nice, but Kurzweil in on another league.

A used K2000 or K2500 which still sound very nice, can be had for under a grand and expandable ROM options are still being sold in most places. Motif ES are going for a fair price. There is also the Tritons and Fantoms