The Freeman String Symphonizer was a 5 octave synthesizer

Synthesizer

A synthesizer is an electronic instrument capable of producing sounds by generating electrical signals of different frequencies. These electrical signals are played through a loudspeaker or set of headphones...

 of the mid 1970s. It was manufactured by the Chicago Musical Instrument Co. and was also known as the Cordovox CSS. Its sound was similar to that of the Arp String Ensemble

ARP String Ensemble

The ARP String Ensemble, also known as the Solina String Ensemble, is a fully polyphonic multi-orchestral ARP Instruments, Inc. synthesizer with a 49-key keyboard, produced by Solina from 1974 to 1981. The sounds it incorporates are violin, viola, trumpet, horn, cello and contrabass. The keyboard...

 - cool glassy sounding strings. It had multiple oscillators (one TOS and two master/divider) per key, so it had no restrictions on how many notes could be played at once, unlike most synthesizers at the time, which were often monophonic.

The Freeman had a built in spring reverb which gave the synthesizer a deeper sound. One could chose 'cello' (16'), and 'violin' (8') tones. There was a 'touch' (delayed) vibrato setting, and a 'glide' switch on the foot volume pedal (found also on many Lowery home organs), which dropped the pitch one-half step. It was a heavy machine - about 70 lbs - and was rather durable except for the removable keyboard cover which LOOKED like it hinged up, but rather pulled straight out... resulting in many cracked lid assemblies.

It was used by The Who

The Who

The Who are an English rock band formed in 1964 by Roger Daltrey , Pete Townshend , John Entwistle and Keith Moon . They became known for energetic live performances which often included instrument destruction...

, Jan Hammer

Jan Hammer

Jan Hammer is a composer, pianist and keyboardist. He first gained his most visible audience while playing keyboards with the Mahavishnu Orchestra in the early 1970s, as well as his film scores for television and film including "Miami Vice Theme" and "Crockett's Theme", from the popular 1980s...

, Chick Corea

Chick Corea

Armando Anthony "Chick" Corea is an American jazz pianist, keyboardist, and composer.Many of his compositions are considered jazz standards. As a member of Miles Davis' band in the 1960s, he participated in the birth of the electric jazz fusion movement. In the 1970s he formed Return to Forever...

, Elton John

Elton John

Sir Elton Hercules John, CBE, Hon DMus is an English rock singer-songwriter, composer, pianist and occasional actor...

, and Peter Sinfield

Peter Sinfield

Peter John Sinfield is an English poet, lyricist and artist, most famously known as the lyricist and co-founding member of early incarnations of King Crimson, whose debut album In the Court of the Crimson King has been regarded as one of the most influential progressive rock albums ever...

.

Recently, it has been emulated in software by GForce, with their Virtual String Machine software.