Brought to book

For me, googling the SS-30 is can sometimes feel a bit like googling yourself. In fact, sometimes it comes to the same thing, as I found with the Amazona.de article! But what I mean is it can feel a bit desperate. A bit needy. A bit sad. But it often pays off.

Today I felt the need to google 'Yamaha String Synthesiser' and this post on Matrixsynth from 2014 popped up. It's mostly unremarkable. Another eBay auction, which is no longer available to view.

The nice thing about Matrixsynth is that it stores the photos and any interesting text.

 In this case, the text is rather interesting...

If you want classic analog strings, this is what the Yamaha SS-30 excels at. All this machine does is make superlative string sounds - there's no Brass or Organ settings here. If you won't take my word for it, just look at the following Youtube link of Ultravox's 1982 Monument tour where two Yamaha SS-30s were used by Billy Currie and Midge Ure. [video here] This synth is all over the first 3 post-Foxx albums - Vienna , Rage in Eden and Quartet. Opening chords on The Voice , Reap the Wild Wind, Vienna,Hymn Also used a lot by John Foxx on Metamatic

This synth totally blows away the Moog Opus 3 , Korg Delta , Roland RS-09 , RS-202 and it's only competitor is the Roland RS-505 Many people looking at this auction will also have Peter Forrest's excellent A to Z of analog synths book and I would urge you to read his review of the SS-30:-

"played in a realistic manner,sounds very good. Even without the Orchestra modulation on, it sounds very good. And through a classy hall room reverb setting it sounds very, very good. It just goes to show that it's better to do one thing well,than three things to a so-so standard" 

I think this was a little dig at the Moog Opus and Korg Delta and some of Yamaha's own SK range. The real beauty of this machine is the phasey string sounds which come from Detuning the oscillators and swithching on the ensemble mode. The Decay is fully variable and the whole thing is built like a tank and weighs a ton..

A-Z Analogue of Synthesizers

As well as the general enthusiasm for the SS-30, Ultravox referencing and trashing of the alternatives, what's nice is that there is a quote from A-Z Analogue Synthesizers, a book (well, two books) I've always meant to track down. It's not clear if that is the whole entry or just an excerpt though. 

Let's analyse the statements Forrest makes. 

"played in a realistic manner, sounds very good."

This reminds me of what Billy Currie was saying in the GE-Force media interview. As a string player, he was impressed by the realism possible.

"Even without the Orchestra modulation on, it sounds very good"

I guess that means in relation to other stringers which might be very dull without the chorus effects.

"And through a classy hall room reverb setting it sounds very, very good"

The first thing I need to do when the SS-30M is finished is to get a classy hall reverb!

"It just goes to show that it's better to do one thing well, than three things to a so-so standard"

Well, of course. Having got the SS-30 by accident and decided to create the SS-30M because of it's poor mechanics it was not necessarily the case that I chose well in starting this project. But as time's gone on I can say that I've become more convinced that this is a worthwhile effort.

 Keyfax

Whilst (unsuccessfully) searching for copies of A-Z (N-Z) I stumbled across another book about synthesizers, Keyfax. There were five editions and an omnibus.  I found a list of synths covered in part 2 but despite including all the SK and CS Yamaha's the SS-30 seems to have been missed out.  I need to keep digging on this one but secondhand prices are not cheap...

Foxx?

One last thought. The statement that John Foxx used the SS-30 on is Metamatic album is not something I can corroborate. I might have to have another listen though.