i am looking for help making a strings patch similar to that used by per in many opeth songs.i am using a fantom s, thanks for any help.

A link to a YouTube clip or an audio excerpt here would be very helpful.

the sound towards the begining is what im mainly after. im new to synths and any programing help would be awesome.

It doesn't sound at all like strings to me.... more like a choir and then a sound effect that may be very well created on a guitar synthesizer... I'm afraid there are no stock fantom sounds that can recreate that Opeth choir / vox but you're welcome to check the Sound Sharing Uberthread, I've posted some user patches over there (and you might find some of the vox/ choir sounds useful). There are plenty of other users' patches and since most of them are more experienced than me at creating patches there's no reason to avoid that thread.... If you're not happy with those sounds you might want to get a SRX 03 or SRX 06 for choir sounds. (by the way, can anyone confirm that M+F choir waveforms from 03 and 06 are identical? I only have 03 at the moment)
Regarding the synth / sound effect that comes after - Artemiy is your best bet :)