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Simple Media String Thing - Free

Simple Media String Thing is a free plucked string instrument based on Karplus Strong algorithm with advanced controls and filtering to create a more natural tone.

Free Download (Zip Archive, 1 Mb):

String Thing - Free
String Thing features:

controls over plucking
variable bandwidth filter
modulation (MIDI CC)
various controls for tonal quality
reasonable CPU load.

Instructions: To install simply unzip and copy the dll to your VSTI plugins folder.

Controls for this synth are as follows:

Master - controls the overall volume level
Width - controls the amount of the stereo field covered by the tone
Pan - controls the placing of the tone in the stereo field
Speed - how fast/slow the string is ‘excited’, low values are similar to strumming while high values are like picking or plucking - please note this is a subtle effect
Damp - this controls how quickly the string will be stopped - higher values equal greater damping
Slide - a subtle portamento control to imitate sliding into notes - higher values are good for country music
Filter - the filter consists of 1 high pass and 1 low pass filter chained in series, the high pass filter’s cutoff being set lower than the low pass filter’s - Q is resonance, bandwidth is the difference between the high pass and low pass cutoff and keytrack is the amount of the note’s frequency that is sent to the cutoff of each filter - the filter can dramatically alter the tonal quality of the string even create picked electric guitar tones
Modulation - sets the LFO rate (frequency) and level (depth) - the LFO has no effect on the output unless a modulation wheel or aftertouch is used - String Thing needs to be set to use MIDI CC for this to work
String & Body - the effect of these controls can be very subtle so please experiment with them to get your desired sound
Tone1 and Tone2 - these control a combination of analogue oscilators that are used to provide the initial impulse for the physical model
Character - this mixes the output of tone 1 and tone 2
Warmth - this controls the amount and type of noise introduced into the initial impulse
Thickness - the initial impulse consists of several tones combined including two pulse waves and white/pink noise - this control detunes the two pulse waves against one another - the effect rather than being a chorus or beating effect is a ‘thickening’ of the overall sound
Velocity - controls the amount that key velocity affects volume level, speed and various tonal characteristics.

Tips

String Thing is best suited to folk and world music
tuning will begin to run flat at higher frequencies so play within a couple of octaves of middle C if you wish to stay in tune - I hope to be able to fix this at a later time
for more realistic and natural play, always set the velocity setting quite high and always set up MIDI CC
with mid to high damping String Thing is very good for strummed guitar, but remember that this needs patience to produce convincing results
don’t play rapid repeat strikes or trills as there are no note stop/string groupings, to prevent the same note sounding out more than once.

More info: http://www.simple-media.co.uk