Solina String Ensemble connected to Slim Phatty

The Moog Forum Little Phatty & Slim Phatty Forum
1

I have recently acquired a Slim Phatty and love it. I also have a Solina String Ensemble that I have had since the late 70’s. I am trying to hook the output of the Solina into the audio input of the S.P., but I get no sound. Am I doing something wrong or is the Solina just not compatible with the L.P? There is an “out 1” and an “out 2” on the back of the Solina, but I do not know if there is any difference between them. I have my keyboard setup built into the shell of an old upright piano, so it is a little awkward to get at the back of the Solina to see if it makes any difference. Any help you can give me on this would be very much appreciated. Thanks.

2

Welcome to the group.

In order to hear the audio in (from your Solina), the gate has to be on. The gate is on while a key is pressed (or while receiving midi notes). Press a key and you should hear the Solina. To hear only the Solina, turn the level of both Oscillators to 0.

To hear the Solina without having to press a key, insert a dummy TS plug into the Gate Jack, this will turn on the gate. That’s how all the Moogs work.

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.. and set the amplitude envelope SUSTAIN at 10 and the DECAY below 5 :slight_smile:

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Thanks for the replies. I figured it must be something simple. It is working now. Thanks again.
Tim

5

It would be good to have either dynamic control of Filter Cutoff Envelope for the full effect:

  • envelope follower
  • via a mod wheel that may be within reach
  • footpedal (if you are good at that sort of thing, many proper organ players are good at manipulating swell pedals)

The Opus 3 has the lowpass with rudimentary envelope control including a VCA ramp up (via delay) from LFO and it’s a great effect when for the Organ section or Brass section. By default, the Strings are not wired into the filter but I bet more control Cutoff frequency would sound really nice.

String machines don’t necessarily have a sharp attack that allow amplitude tracking to do much in regard to linear Cutoff control but if you have a way to get a gate signal out of your Solina, you could leverage the Phatty envelopes quite easily.