ARP String Sounds

I love the sound of the old ARP string machines like the Omni 2 and the Quadra. It is advantageous to be able to imitate the same sound on modern equipment or software which is more reliable, programmable, and MIDI capable.

By listening to the signal on different parts of the chorus board from an Omni 2, I was able to figure out how to get a convincing imitation of the ARP string chorus. The chorus has three separate delays modulated at different amplitudes and frequencies. The three delay outputs get mixed and output with NO DRY SIGNAL at all.

To create an ARP chorus on other equipment or software, you must have a flexible enough architecture to create this structure:

              +---------+
              |sine/tri |         
              | LFO 1   |
              +----+----+
                   V
              +---------+                            +---+
       +----->| Delay 1 +----->(loopable 69K wav)--->|   |
       |      +---------+                            |   |
       |                                             |   |
       |      +---------+                            |   |
       |      |sine/tri |                            |   |
       |      | LFO 2   |                            | M |
       |      +----+----+                            |   |
       |           V                                 | I |
       |      +---------+                            |   |
Input -+----->| Delay 2 +----->(loopable 121K wav)-->| X +--> Output
       |      +---------+                            |   |   (38K mp3)
       |                                             | E |
       |      +---------+                            |   |
       |      |sine/tri |                            | R |
       |      | LFO 3   |                            |   |
       |      +----+----+                            |   |
       |           V                                 |   |
       |      +---------+                            |   |
       +----->| Delay 3 +----->(loopable 194K wav)-->|   |
              +---------+                            +---+

Tuning the individual delay speeds and amplitudes by ear is much easier than trying to listen to all three mixed. Tune the LFO speeds and depths so that the individual delay outputs sound like the above WAV files I recorded from the Nord Modular. The WAV files are loopable so you can download and loop them inside an audio playback program to hear a longer tone. When you mix the tuned delay outputs together....Styx city!!

Nord Modular ARP Patches

I created a few Nord Modular patches using this trick. Here is what they sound like:

Nord ARP Omni	(170K mp3)
Nord ARP Strings	(362K mp3)

Here are the actual Nord Modular patch files: (3K ZIP)

Reaktor ARP Ensembles

This is what my Reaktor ARP impersonations sound like:

Reaktor ARP Omni 2	(131K mp3)
Reaktor ARP Quadra	(117K mp3)

Mike Novak revised and updated my Quadra impersonation:

Novak ARP Quadra

(116K mp3)

These ZIP files contains the all of the above Reaktor ensembles:

For Version 3	(40K ZIP)
For Version 4	(56K ZIP)

Hugo Portillo has incorporated my ARP string chorus macro into his very nice Multi Ensemble 5500 v1.1 and Solina-V String Ensemble v1.0 Reaktor ensembles.