Sometimes the best ideas are the least complex. Nearly eight years ago Gforce were well on the money with their M-Tron plug-in, an honest recreation of the mighty Mellotron whose simplicity and immediate appeal hit the nail bang on the head with no fuss and no nonsense. Once again, GForce aim their hammer with unerring accuracy in realising Virtual String Machine, a plug-in virtual instrument that was virtually screaming out to be created. Yes, the string machine is back with a vengeance — only this time without the chipped veneers, the torn Tolex coverings or the aroma of contact adhesive and chipboard.

VSM comes crammed with 17 of the most iconic machines from the past 40 years, as well as a few surprises — and, best of all, there's not a single oxidised key contact in earshot! Considered the ultimate in 'cheese' until recently, string machines are now recognised not only as a valuable part of our keyboard heritage, but as frequently great-sounding instruments. One can only wonder how Camel might have sounded without an RS202, or Jean Michel Jarre without an Eminent 310, or the Enid without a Solina. There is so much timeless music whose character was shaped, or even defined, by a string machine of some sort.

VSM's meticulously sampled collection of classic and sometimes hyper-rare vintage string synths is contained within a custom player whose feature set is highly sympathetic to the string machine genre. While Gforce could have added a whole raft of synthesis excesses, they have opted instead for a commendably restrained blend of simplicity and flexibility. At the same time, they have mercifully freed some machines from the constraints of their original design, (see the 'On String Synths Generally' Box), extending their functions and allowing them luxuries found on more sophisticated instruments.

VSM has a dual-layer structure, whereby up to two string synths can be loaded into the Upper ('A') and/or Lower ('B') areas. Essentially, VSM behaves like two independent basic polysynths running in parallel, although of course you can simply load just one instrument into a single layer and ignore the second layer if you wish. Each layer can be edited independently of the other; in between and to the right of the red and green loading fields are three buttons: 'A', 'B' and 'Link'. Click on 'A', and all the 'independent' controls glow red (for Layer A.) Subsequent edits apply only to Layer A....