John Bowen Solaris Modular Comparisons via Elhardt

Below are some notes on the John Bowen Synth Design Solaris posted on the AH email list by Kenneth Elhardt, reposted here with Elhardt's blessing. One thing that can be argued as standing out the most on the Solaris is it's ability to freely rearrange various components of the synth engine. Typically synths have a basic signal path that goes something like this: oscillator --> mixer --> filter --> output, with various modifiers for each section. Not so with the Solaris. The Solaris is a bit closer to a modular. The beauty of a modular is that you typically have each component of the sound creation process as a separate module with input and output jacks that can be arranged however you like. You connect the various inputs and outputs of modules with patch cords. Apparently the same concept applies to the Solaris, minus the cords of course.

via Elhardt (be sure to read my note on the Oscillators and Rotors further below):

"Since John Bowen reads my posts on AH, I'll have to give you a positive biased rundown. :-) Almost every possible thing you can think of can act as a mod source to just about anything else, including external audio inputs (there are 4 of them) and virtually any component in the synth. So you could mix two Supersaw waves, run them through a filter and use that to modulate an Osc. Virtually everything can become an audio input to anything else, so you could take that above example and run it through a ring modulator. It has 4 simultaneously available filters (each with its own VCA) and mixers, each with a choice of what you want going into them, meaning you can configure them anyway you want without limits, just like a modular synth. There are lots of filter types. 4 lag processors are provided that you can use to smooth out any signal which I'm currently using to provide analog drift to the Osc's, though analog drift may be a future feature. I used the included envelope follower with a Mic to get an expressive Mic controlled trumpet sound. Because of the number of VCOs, filters, VCAs, LFOs and EGs, sounds that required a bi-timbral synth can be done on a single Solaris voice.

I'm also liking the way the OS and patches are all stored on a Compact Flash card. This means no more limits as to how many presets you have available to you. If you have 2000 sounds, then they're all there on the synth. It also makes it easy to back up patches on computer and easy to upgrade the OS because [there's] no more need to connect Midi to a computer, pull up a sequencer, and send streams to data back and and forth. I'd like to see more companies use this method.

-Elhardt"


With that in mind, one thing I thought worth pointing out here is that the Solaris has four oscillators, and each oscillator can have a completely different type of sound source including standard analog modeled waveforms, Prophet VS waveforms, Waldorf and PPG wavetables, samples and more. Via the specs page:

"Four (4) oscillators. Each can be of the following types:

MultiMode (standard waveshapes, combinations, plus saw stack)
WaveTable (wavetables 1-64 from the Waldorf Microwave synthesizers) [1 - 30 are PPG]
Sample playback (.raw format)
CEM VCO chip model (like those used in the later Rev. 3.x versions of the Prophet 5)
All of the waveforms used in the Prophet VS
(temperature stable) model of the oscillator used in the MiniMoog."

There is also a new form of synthesis called Rotors "Two (2) rotors which are special sound sources, implemented as a looping wavesequence of four (4) assignable inputs, played successively." In short think of a sequencer you can assign to trigger any sound source which you can speed up to the point it oscillates and produces sound. You can watch John Bowen give an example of it at the PNW SynthFest starting at 9:28 in this video (the link should take you to the 9:28 mark). You can also find some audio demos on the Solaris samples page starting with sample #5.

As for other components / "modules" on the Solaris, you can find the complete (massive) spec list on http://www.johnbowen.com/.

Now take all that and think of how you can apply it in a flexible modular fashion.

One synth the Solaris frequently gets compared to in interface is the Oberheim Matrix-12. The Matrix-12 has a reputation for being highly modular in editing as well. It might be worth doing some digging to see which is more flexible.

Be sure to also check out Elhardt's first audio demo of the Solaris here.