Micro Stringer

Micro Stringer from Dome Music Technologies is a self-contained polyphonic instrument based on the same technology as the Stringer Seventy Six Paraphonic Construction Kit. It has everything you need to create a wide variety of string machine sounds using only one module.

The Poly Inputs section provides you with Poly Input Jacks for Pitch and Gate signals. If cables are not connected to these inputs, then they are ‘normalled’ to the Poly Pitch and Poly Gate signals on Voltage Modular’s Poly Sources Panel.

Micro Stringer is equipped with an onboard Chorus / Ensemble generator, derived from the Solaris Ensemble Generator design:

• In the “Ens” (Ensemble) position, it applies a full tri-chorus ensemble effect, based on the Eminent / ARP Solina circuit. The Ensemble effect is dense and ‘shimmery’ in nature.
• In the “Chr” (Chorus) position, it applies a single-channel chorus effect, as used on many Italian string machine designs of the 1970s. The Chorus effect is more defined and ‘shiny’ in nature.
• In the “Off” position, no chorus effect is applied. The raw sound of the sawtooth oscillators is heard at the output.

The octave selector switch allows you to change the basic ‘footage’ of Micro Stringer from 32’ (low) to 8’ (high). The octave range can be further extended +/- one octave by using the Semitone Knob (see following section). This gives you a five-octave range in total, from 64’ (very low) up to 4’ (very high). Pitch modulation is available with a CV attenuator.

Micro Stringer has an independent volume envelope generator for each voice. This avoids the abrupt ‘voice stealing’ behaviour of some older string machine designs.

Two envelope modes are available for selection using the Sustain Switch:

• When switched to the right (default mode), the envelopes behave in sustaining Attack-Sustain-Release (ASR) mode. Notes fade in to full volume at the Attack rate and remain there for as long as they are held. Once released, the note fades back to zero at the Decay rate.
• When switched to the left, the envelopes behave in percussive Attack-Release (AR) mode. Notes fade in to full volume at the Attack rate. As soon as notes reach full volume, they fade back to zero at the Decay rate.

Attack and Decay times both range from 0.0 seconds (7 o’clock), through 1.0 seconds (12 o’clock) and up to a maximum of 20.0 seconds (5 o’clock).