Pink Floyd were amongst the first, but Solinas were soon gracing the music of artists and bands as diverse as Elton John, Fleetwood Mac, the Eagles, Gentle Giant, Patrick Moraz, the Enid and Renaissance.
Small and light by the standards of the time, the Solina allowed bands to add string sounds to their arsenal without lugging around heavy and often unreliable instruments (or viola players). In 1974, Eminent extracted and extended the ensemble technology from the 310U and repackaged it in a four-octave keyboard. The 310U had little impact when it was released, but Jean Michel Jarre’s ‘Oxygene’ (1976) ensured that it would later be recognised as one of the most important keyboards of the 20th century. Then, in 1972, a similar sound was heard to emanate from Eminent’s 310 Unique home organ, which employed a single oscillator per note, but thickened up the sound using a bunch of modulated BBD chips (analogue delay lines) to create the ensemble effect. Until Ken Freeman invented string synthesis by detuning and modulating three oscillators per note to create a chorus effect, the only ways to obtain an ensemble sound had been to play a Mellotron or to book an orchestral ensemble.
Arturia have revived a classic string synth in software, and the result is the Solina V.
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