John Bowen introduces the Solaris hardware synth

decimator · Post by **decimator** » Sat Mar 31, 2007 12:34 am

Some more pics : http://www.xoommedia.de/gal16/

I really love the trademarked " valis blue " model !

astroman · Post by **astroman** » Sun Apr 01, 2007 3:08 am

this is a Porsche Synth - you should know how to drive
then it will be heaven...

cheers, Tom

johnbowen · Post by **johnbowen** » Sun Apr 01, 2007 3:35 am

Hi Planet Z'ers!

Ah, nice photos! I remember that day seeing this photographer busily taking so many pictures, and I asked him to capture one of the team, to have it for posterity.

There you see, from left to right - Holger Drenkelfort, Juergen Kindermann, Antti Huovilainen, and myself. From this small group, I hope you feel you can expect some great things!!

I met several of the Z Community at the show, and had a long visit with astroman, who is incredibly knowledgeable about many things, as we all are aware by his postings here. Several new developers also dropped by, and there were some interesting proposals made regarding how to implement my stated wish to have expandable 3rd party options for the Solaris. We shall see what is realistic and what is not, but I'm even more excited about things than I was before!

As for the synth itself - lots and lots of interest in the Solaris, and especially the guys who are sound designers (like me) who went crazy over all the possibilities with audio rate modulation and full flexibility.

The short story is, we hope to be in production by August, and shipping some time by October. I can't say exactly how much it will cost yet, but there will have to be a limited first run of probably 100 units, and I'm thinking about making an arrangement where I can take a $500 deposit to reserve a unit, with color and side panel options as you prefer, so we can plan ahead.

More info as it develops, and thanks again for all the nice messages and great support from this community - it's really appreciated!

regards,
john b.

decimator · Post by **decimator** » Sun Apr 01, 2007 5:41 am

Here's the Solaris only gallery from my previous post ( 12 pics @ roughly 150 kb each ) http://f25.parsimony.net/forum62809/messages/510.htm

Glad over the well deserved interest and third party magnet effect !

johnbowen · Post by **johnbowen** » Sun Apr 01, 2007 7:03 am

Here's a podcast interview that was done - you can hear a little of the Solaris, which I play about halfway into the broadcast (unfortunately the sounds clip quite a bit, and I didn't have very many set up to play either!).

http://www.delamar.de/musikmesse-2007-p ... ohn-bowen/

There's also a bit of detail about some of the oscillator section - but I thought he was going to go back after the talking and record some video to go along with it.

Anyway, I hope you enjoy the interview...

john b.

hifiboom · Post by **hifiboom** » Sun Apr 01, 2007 7:30 am

I enjoyed that interview....

thanks John....

I like the way you handled one of the last question....
"how would a non-pro handle that instrument..." or something like that....

"Well, I don`t know..."

thats really funny in its way.
It surely is a complex beast.

decimator · Post by **decimator** » Sun Apr 01, 2007 9:39 am

Solaris harbours a wide range of synthesis types and a bazillion of modulations capabilities, it's many synths in one for a start then when you start combining and modulating it begins to be Solaris

johnbowen · Post by **johnbowen** » Mon Apr 02, 2007 12:07 am

A request to any current Solaris plug-in owners:

The above mentioned interview, which has some pretty distorted sound examples, has also this link to a Comments page:

https://www2.blogger.com/comment.g?blog ... 8488806979

There is a post about some of the older MP3 files out there of the Solaris plug-in, and so on, and I'm hoping some of you wouldn't mind posting your own comments about your current experiences with the plug-in sound and usage. Obviously, these will be slightly biased , since all Creamware card owners are pretty passionate about the system, but it would be nice to have some support over on some of these 'non-planet z' forums until I can get real audio examples of the hardware up (which won't be for some time).

For Messe, I only had 2 osc types and 1 filter type running, and was trying to do a few presets around 4am the morning of the first day, and things just snowballed from there. Many of the signature sounds I couldn't approach because of time and functional limitations, but this is the chance you take when showing a prototype.

Also, here's a link to all articles posted on matrixsynth.com:

http://matrixsynth.blogspot.com/search/ ... h%20Design

Again, thanks to all here for your great enthusiasm!!!

regards,
john b

synthetic88 · Post by **synthetic88** » Fri Apr 06, 2007 9:50 am

This announcement has me more excited than I've been for any other synth in years. The last digital synth that grabbed my interest this way was the Wavestation, another Bowen production I believe.

Perhaps Planet Z can add a Solaris forum to discuss the development of this synth?

johnbowen · Post by **johnbowen** » Fri Apr 06, 2007 11:16 am

Hi,

I will actually have a forum for the Solaris set up on my Website at www.johnbowen.com. I don't know if it's completely appropriate to discuss here, although there is the obvious relationship to the Creamware version of the plug-in. Unfortunately I don't have the Forum area up and running yet, but hope to have it soon.

cheers,
john b.

synthetic88 · Post by **synthetic88** » Fri Apr 06, 2007 1:29 pm

Ah, yes. I see the "community" tab now.

Any chance that the synth will grow a joystick for vector panning?

johnbowen · Post by **johnbowen** » Fri Apr 06, 2007 1:35 pm

Yes, the synth is supposed to have either an X/Y touchpad or a joystick over on the left, above the wheels. We were unable to get the proper part for the protos in time for the show, but I did make it known throughout my demos that there would at least be a (non-spring loaded) joystick on it.

Of course, because how else could you properly use the Vector section?!

johnbowen · Post by **johnbowen** » Mon Apr 09, 2007 11:14 am

So, you want 2 freely assignable joysticks?

also, I'm guessing by OSC you mean this OpenSound Control?
http://www.cnmat.berkeley.edu/OpenSoundControl/

petal · Post by **petal** » Mon Apr 09, 2007 12:42 pm

yes OSC (Open Sound Control) would be very interesting indeed. But I guess it's still too early to not have Midi as well.

next to nothing · Post by **next to nothing** » Mon Apr 09, 2007 12:50 pm

johnbowen wrote:So, you want 2 freely assignable joysticks?

i think i saw that somewhere earlier...

http://www.mixexperience.com/popup_image.php/pID/1457

(probably one assignable, but heck, two of those blue-ringed ones would fit the bill i guess) if they where placed so that yo ucan use two of our fingertips on the same hand (pinky and middle finger) while resting your hand comfortably, NOT colliding with the wheels. then you could slide your hand down to manipulate pitch/mod wheels.

PS. didnt the ReMote 25 have joysticks where you could switch between spring action/non spring action with a click of a button? havent tried this, but seems like a sweet idea.

astroman · Post by **astroman** » Mon Apr 09, 2007 1:39 pm

indeed, a spring at the bottom center of the stick tightened by an electro-magnet should do the trick... or those rudder action parts in ship and plane models...

cheers, Tom

husker · Post by **husker** » Mon Apr 09, 2007 3:10 pm

How about a full force feedback joystick

fight the filter!

dawman · Post by **dawman** » Mon Apr 09, 2007 3:20 pm

I Have To Change The Subject,
I just had my first hour w/ QWave and hereby declare that John Bowen is the God Of Modern Synthesis. He claims he doesn't have an engineering degree, well maybe that's why his creations make keyboardists elated.

This Synth Is Incredible,

Thank You Mr. Bowen,

johnbowen · Post by **johnbowen** » Tue Apr 10, 2007 9:35 am

Hi All,

I'd like to take this opportunity to invite all interested parties over to my new Community Forums:
http://forums.johnbowen.com/

I hope to establish the same kind of passion and enthusiasm there as I have seen here, although that is a very tall order! I will continue to frequent Planet Z as well, but I felt it was more appropriate to move the specific discussions regarding the Solaris over to my own forum, especially since there will be many new potential users who are not familiar with Planet Z or my Creamware history.

Also to that end, I'd like to invite current Zarg Music customers to come and post any feedback on your experiences with my synths, as well as what you'd like to see released in the future as hardware, etc.

Thanks again to all the fantastic customers I've had the priviledge to serve!

Sincerely,
John Bowen

dawman · Post by **dawman** » Tue Apr 10, 2007 3:32 pm

Awesome,
I feel as though it should be seperate from this forum, as not everyone is into synthesizers, but those of us who are, are true Bowen zealots.

Thank You,