The Orbitone Collection I and II

The 1972 Eminent 310 Unique was a very unusual mix of combo organ and string synthesizer in its own right but what was particularly special about it was the triple parallel analog chorus processor with 6 free running clock modulating LFOs better known as the Orbitone. It is this complex multi-path analog effect that makes the famous strings on the 310U so very special and slightly simplified technology was later used to good effect in the Solina and ARP Omni string synthesizers. It was originally developed to effectively make one rank of sawtooths become three with a high degree of movement without resorting to the very significant expense and complexity of three full divide-down chains with independent master oscillators.

Being a self-confessed boffin it suddenly occurred to Loot Audio one day that they had a fantastically rare opportunity on their hands to attempt to feed 1938 Novachord 346  through the Orbitone stages on the Eminent. After consulting the 310U’s sea of schematics for some time they determined a potentially suitable point to inject an external audio signal. To their delight, this resulted in quite simply some of the most organic synth strings they had ever heard.

All those lumps bumps and imperfections are thrown into a rich soup of analog processing and the result is truly delicious!

Analog Effects

Now armed with this monstrous analog effects processor Loot Audio got curious and fed a number of other sources through it including one instrument that is known to be a little weedy in isolation namely the little CS-01 monosynth. As well as the Novachord they sampled offerings from new patches they dialled up via the 310U Orbitone stages from the Juno-106, CS-01, Crumar Bit One and Omega 8. In addition to this some new sampled material was taken from the instruments via an analog chorus unit including a series of brass and guitar timbres.

Some of the guitar sounds were also created by passing Minimoog 7751 and the Bit One through a 1960’s Echo-Reverb featuring a tube buffered electrostatic Tel-ray “Oil Can” delay unit. A further resonator choir was made by feeding the Juno-106 through the rehoused Polymoog Formant Resonator. In addition, a combination of organ stops were sampled directly from the Eminent and a further harpsichord patch was dialled into Polymoog 203A 3211 courtesy of Will Gregory of the electronic music duo Goldfrapp.

Orbitone Collection II utilises the same proven 4-voice layering engine as the original release but operating on a brand new sample set constructed using a different combination of source instruments and techniques.

Combined Libraries

As well as the new library featuring 40 example patches and 40 layered multis, a further 40 combined layers have been created that combine patches from both libraries together to form new layered instruments and textures. The new sounds have been presented as a merged installation thus permitting the user to access and walk through patches from both libraries as one.

*Equipment Used:  1972 Eminent 310U, 1976 Minimoog, 1938 Novachord, rehoused 1978 Polymoog Formant Resonator Section, 1960’s Echo-Reverb tube “Oil Can” Delay, Polymoog 3211, Juno-106, Crumar Bit One, Studio Electronics Omega 8, CE-300 chorus, CS-01.

Features

• The Orbitone Collection I & II consisting of 607 generously long 24-bit samples
• 4-Voice Layering Engine with ability to save user patches
• 48 multi-sampled instruments acting as voices/partials in the layering engine
• 80 editable example instrument patches (in .nki format)
• 40 editable example layered multis (20 combining Orbitone II and 20 combining both libraries)