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I transcribed the Vako Orchestron VIOLIN disc parts from Kraftwerk’s “Franz Schubert” and put together a little demo / cover version. I cheated and used samples instead of learning the parts and playing them live on a real Orchestron, but hey, life’s too short. You can get my Orchestron samples here.
I put this together in Cubase. The synth sequence is played by Retrologue. I didn’t spend too much time dialing in the sound just right, but it’s close enough.
The other thing I didn’t take the time to do is emulate the dynamics of Kraftwerk’s original Orchestron performance. I’m assuming this was Ralf just improvising, most likely with a foot pedal to control volume, because there’s lots of dynamic volume stuff happening that isn’t possible by just playing an Orchestron straight. It would have taken a lot of time to re-create all these dynamics, so I didn’t.
I also decided to omit the “Endless Endless” coda.
The disc image you see is our own remastered version of the original Orchestron Violin disc. These are also periodically available, if you happen to have an Orchestron to play one in.