Arp Solina
At first glance it looks fake. The cheap veneered chip board box all scratched up and covered with dings and gouges showing through to the mealy looking glued wood chips beneath. Then there are the garishly colored knobs and buttons - egad that color only existed in the early 1970s. I think crayola banned it in 78 and then by 1980 there was an ammendment to the constitution forbidding it's use on anything.
However the homely little thing does kinda grow on you in an ugly duckling sort of way.
Then at some point you have to pick it up
HOLY JEBUS it's FREAKIN HEAVY!!!! OUCH OUCH OUCH! I won't be standing up straight anytime soon
The magic happens after the first time you begin playing it. You tentatively start with a few keys here and there. Then you begin to use it's full polyphony and start laying in the progressively more complicated chords. Next thing you know - like an alien abduction story, several hours have passed that you cannot recall....
It's not an X-File. It is the majestic sound of
an Arp Solina String Ensemble. Once you hear it you could care less if the entire instrument was that horrid shade of orange on the knobs.
49 keys with full polyphony.
22 keys of monophonic bass.
4 main preset sounds
2 bass presets
and an ensemble effect that you wouldn't believe...
Don't take it from me, listen for yourself! (these are played from my Akai sampler - I took the samples myself)
(if you are prompted for a password attempting to access that mp3 let me know and I'll fix it.)
The Solina is a string synth. All it does is stringish sounding stuff, period.
Normally that wouldn't be much to write home about but this sucker is beguiling and entrancing unlike a digital sample playback unit with real string sounds. Inside the ugly faux wood and encased in a welded tube-steel frame resembling the Queensborough Bridge is some of the most madman-brilliant circuit design I have ever seen. There is nothing resembling the usual circuits found in an analog synthesizer. To think that it was made in 1974 you wonder if the people behind it had formerly worked at Area 51. Their unorthodox collection of transistors and wires is responsible for making the Solina a true musical instrument.
A 9th chair should be added to every orchestra's violin section for this awesome machine.
