via this Reverb listing
"It's a monster! ..yes, it's digital.. but, when you hear a 96kHz synth.. you quickly realize.. if there IS to be a digital synth.. then 96k is where it should be.. at that frame rate.. it's not 'steppy' and a lot smoother than the 'others', IMO. I'm the only owner of this 'lonely heart'. Bought it new, back when Awave was in a tiny arcade next to South Yarra station. It was the only synth that's ever 'tricked' me.. I thought it was analog 'something'. It just sounded too 'pure'.. so, I had to have it.. unfortunately, I haven't used it as much as it deserves.This Solaris has resided in my smoke free studio since it was purchased new. Never toured, original PSU and manual (not that the manual is much use to anyone anymore.. that is.. with the advent of the newly developed V2 OS). For those that don't know, John was instrumental working alongside the late great Dr Robert Moog, in fact, he was there, in the early 70s, working alongside Dr Bob on the original MiniMoog.. fast forward a few years.. and there he was working alongside the late great Dave Smith @ Sequential Circuits. John worked on the Prophet 5, the VS and the Sequential Sampler, the Prophet 2000.
This was shortly before Yamaha acquired Sequential and retrenched the staff, yep.. that old chestnut.. and John went on to work at Korg where he was behind the WaveStation (basically he took his knowledge of the Korg VS and threw it into the WaveStation, as some might already be aware of). So, with all that history under his belt.. when it was time for John, whom I refer to as 'synth god', John started development on the Solaris.The Solaris is the culmination of all his passed work and synth experience, despite the panel often likened to the Oberheim Matrix 12, John had implemented Filters, Wave shapes, Step Sequencers, and not to forget 'Wave Sequencing' that've appeared in all his passed projects on those aforementioned classic synths, that he worked closely on with 'other' synth gods such as Dave Smith and Dr Bob Moog.
So, you could say.. the Solaris is what a 21st century synth-classic 'ought' to be. And, ultimately, that's why I wanted it, but.. I'm afraid, as good as it is.. it's more synth than I've ever needed...x10! It would be much more suited towards professional sound designers than someone who messes around with Samplers more often that not. Therefore, I'll let it go to another enthusiast.. other esteemed 'registered' owners in the Solaris forum are Hans Zimmer, Harry Gregson-Williams, JJ Abrams, Jean-Michel Jarre, Matt Johnson, Ty Unwin to name a few.
In a nutshell, if had a paragraph to sum it up.. it's like a Matrix-12 integrated with a WaveStation and then there's CEM, SSM, Moog and Prophet 5 'mimicked' filters and oscillator shapes... basically, loads of features and 'flavors' from every 'beast synth' before it.
Main features:
10 Voice Polyphony
4 Oscillators
4 Filters
6 Envelope Generators
4 LFO's (+1 for Vibrato)
16 Step Sequencer
Arpeggiator
8 analog outputs (4 stereo)
Digital (ADAT) Output
MIDI over DIN & USB
15 kg / 33 Lbs
Comes with the original Australian 240v external PSU"
