Gorgeous side panels, custom made by Jean-Pascal. You can reach Jean-Pascal at jppouyet at hotmail.com if you have any questions.
If you have ever been interested in picking up a John Bowen Solaris, now might be the time. They are taking orders for 2018 and it's looking like this will be the final run.
What do the following entertainment industry veterans all have in common?
•J.J. Abrams (Alias, Lost, Star Trek, Star Wars 7&9)
•Harry Gregson-Williams (The Martian, all Shrek films, Wolverine)
•Dave Porter (Breaking Bad, The Blacklist)
•Ty Unwin (UK composer for BBC, ITV, TLC and Discovery)
•Matt Johnson (The The)
They all purchased a Solaris! Don’t be left out - get yours ordered today before the last production round is sold out!"
"Here is a quick demo of the 100 custom sounds I programmed for John Bowen's amazing synthesizer, the Solaris. It's a fascinating system, a brilliant design with astounding sonics (although YouTube audio won't represent the full audio quality.)
I was finding so many people were doing 80s analog-synth type sounds (which are common elsewhere already) so I wanted to show a wider range of the possibilities it offers. I still don't understand all of what the Solaris can do - I'm still learning it - so there is more to come for sure. There are NO samples used, just pure synthesis modes. Enjoy!
** Thanks to Curt Anderson for the camerawork and Todd Lampe for editing..."
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Update: For the month of April, John Bowen Synth Design is offering a $500 discount on the Solaris. You can find details here.
Update: this one is currently for sale on Reverb here. Pics captured here.
"A bit of a meander through this fascinating and wild analog poly / organ.
As you can see, it’s in excellent cosmetic condition. Sliders all slide fairly smoothly. A proper power cable was professionally installed, as the one it came with didn’t fit snugly. It still uses 220V though, so a converter is required.
Now, much as I love it, I can’t say for certain that this Soviet-Era instrument is functioning 100% optimally. After all, I don't speak Russian, and I've never encountered another! You can probably hear the slight hum -- though the signal-to-noise ratio easily masks that when playing. Perhaps it could use a tune-up?
I’ve always found the unit perpetually intriguing. One minute it’s a 60s compact organ (w. a filter!), the next a 70s string machine, then a growling 80s analog synth bass, and then blammo: a rocket ship. I mean, c’mon.
If your path in life leads you to encounter a Solaris Estradin 314, maybe bring it home?
Thanks for watching.
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Wonderful description from the web:
Vintage rare soviet analog polyphonic synthesizer - SOLARIS Estradin-314. Produced in the USSR on "Estradin" factory in Zhitomir city (famous for its Estradin-230 & Altair-231 synths) in 1988.
SOLARIS uses organ style drawbars to create the basic tone, and has a analog filtering as well. Inside it has 12 voice boards that correspond to each key in an octave, and then uses a divide down system to get to the other octaves. The filter is really extreme and sounds fantastic, as well the envelope is really punchy, so you get great synth stabs, sweeps and percussive organy sounds.
If you use the envelope and filter sections carefully you can get great moogy leads out of it, warm organ sounds, flying ambient textures, in the high resisters it can sound like a string machine, or even a theremin if you crank the resonance.It has tons of character and can sounds amazing!"
Note the Volca Wave wavetable synth appears to have a vector joystick more akin to the SCI Prophet VS (Vector Synthesizer), Yamaha SY-22/TG-33, and Korg Wavestations. There is a difference between classic wavetable synthesis and vector synthesis. Wavetable synths typically have a number of single cycle waveforms in a wavetable oscillator that you can modulate through, while vector synths allow you to use a joystick to crossfade through four different waveform oscillators. The KORG Wavestation added the ability to sequence through waveforms, while the Prophet VS and Yamaha incarnations only allowed you to crossfade between the individual oscillators, each with a single waveform loaded vs. a wavetable of multiple waveforms like on PPG and Waldorf wavetable synths. An interesting side note is I believe the John Bowen Solaris is the only synth that blends both Vector and Wavetable synthesis. You get four oscillators with wavetables (including other waveform types), and the Vector joystick to crossfade between oscillators - meaning you can transition both within individual oscillators and between multiple oscillators.
If the Volca Wave is real, it will be interesting to see what synthesis they employ.
On a side note, some people have labeled synths like the Korg DW-8000 as employing wavetable synthesis. In this case, yes there is technically a wavetable holding the different waveforms available for each oscillator, but the behavior is more like your standard PCM or rompler based synth (or Vector synthesis minus the ability to crossfade between oscillators). You simply select a static waveform for each oscillator. Think of the DW-8000 as having sixteen distinct waveforms available per oscillator, while on the Waldorf Wave line of synths you instead have wavetables consisting of 256 waveforms each per oscillator. Depending on the synth, you can then set the start wave and the end wave and then use a modulation source like an envelope or LFO to sweep through them.
"Comes with power adapter, manual, CD and USB cable. Also installed is the Don Solaris Analog Voltage. A classic sound set that is amazingly programmed. Beats the factory presets by a mile."
"Playing with an EPS 16+ sequencer pattern controlling 8 midi tracks in a JV-1080 using the new and pretty nifty Don Solaris soundset - link below - as well as a simple drumkit from the Roland Dance expansion JV card simply changing 'patterns' by transposing the part (regular part, not a drum part but there are kits also among the instrument patches on that card). Patches tried out here are for instance SH101 Lead, JV80 D.Bass, 24 db Bass, TransistBass, AcidLine, Prophet VS, ESQ1 sweeps, etc. The EPS / ASR sequencer is very easy to use and kind of cool. 'Create instrument' on the EPS and set midi channel, repeat until all 8 slots are loaded. Can also play sampler presets together with midi if you create layers, for instance.
Don Solaris 1080 soundset (also 2080, XP30/50/60 etc)
http://www.donsolaris.com/?page_id=865
For those of you new into this the 1080 and the EPS 16+ were two of the most popular synth instruments in the mid 90's... that's how old they are; they cost peanuts today but still deliver! Great bargains!"
"Regarding the modifications, there are 2, both of which are switched via small rockers in the back.
Mods are:
1. Wider LFO range
2. White noise routed into VCF2 - gives a broader filter tone
The mods make an already deep synth even more versatile. These mods cost over a hundred dollars to install, and were done earlier this year, along with calibration and servicing.
For more information, please see Don Solaris' page, which was the basis for these mods. Just point google toward Don Solaris and CS-15 and you will find a detailed PDF.
All knobs and faders sound clear without crackling, with 2 exceptions: when warming up, occasionally the brilliance slider crackles, but not always, and once moved a few times, works perfectly. Similarly, the VCF 1 filter switch will occasionally make noise when moved, but when cycled through the switch, will work normally. These likely just need to be cleaned. Keys all work perfectly. The filter, even though it is 12 db/oct, sounds HUGE and this machine cranks out the most amazing bass. The CV/gate functionality on the back works for BOTH oscs and it also has an external in to process drum sounds for further mayhem..."
Solaris general demo Published on May 13, 2012 boxoftextures
Don't miss the Rotor demo below. It's one of the unique features of the Solaris.
"A brief exploration of some of the capabilities of the John Bowen Solaris synthesizer, showing the flexibility and depth of what you can do with it. This isn't a full blown tutorial but more of a taste of how you can program the synth.
"A demonstration of the basics of the rotors in the John Bowen Solaris synthesizer. The rotors are a somewhat unique module. They're not a sound generator on their own, but instead they let you mix and modulate several different inputs, be they sound sources or some other sort of signal. Using the rotors you can make either subtly motion-filled patches or you can go wild and make some crazy sounds.
"All live improvisation without rehearsal or any preparation. So please forgive any playing mistakes, or noise. I took 7-8 overdubs and this is the result. NO EXTERNAL EFFECTS no compressors!!!"
"Available at Waldorf store: http://www.waldorfmusic.de/
128 patches total:
60 analog synth style patches
35 analog bass patches
33 additional patches ranging from ambient, classic FM to special FX
By category:
36 Bass type patches
22 Pad type patches
17 Atmo type patches
14 Poly type patches
11 Keys type patches
10 Arpeggio type patches
9 Lead type patches
4 FX type patches
4 Perc type patches"
If you have ever been interested in picking up a John Bowen Solaris, now might be the time. They are taking orders for 2018 and it's looking like this will be the final run.
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