JOHN BOWEN SOLARIS SYNTHESIZER PROTOTYPE DEMO NUMBER TWO

JOHN BOWEN SOLARIS SYNTHESIZER PROTOTYPE DEMO NUMBER TWO from RED MARTIAN on Vimeo.
http://johnbowen.com Watch the screenshots. It's great to see manufacturers come together like this.
Update: Solaris demo 1 here.

John Bowen Synth Design & Zarg Music

I was just checking out John Bowen's Zargmusic site and I thought I'd put up a post on it. I remembered reading about John Bowen being part of Sequential Circuits, but I had no idea how large the scope of his contributions to the synth world were.

He started as the first official Moog clinician in 1973 and later joined Dave Smith and Sequential Circuits in 1976. He is the man behind the original 40 Prophet 5 presets and he was SCI's Product Specialist creating 99% of factory sounds for nearly all of the SCI product line. He contributed to the design of SCI instruments. After SCI was bought out by Yamaha, he moved on to Korg where he became the Product Manager for the Wavestation synths, followed by the OASYS project the Z1, and the OASYS PCI. After Korg he joined Creamware and worked on a number of projects including Pulsar/SCOPE and the Pro One and Prophet 5 emulations. Via Zarg Music John has released number of synths including the acclaimed Solaris and the Red Dwarf synths.

An interesting tidbit of trivia according to the history page on Zarg Music is that John Bowen coined both the terms "wave sequencing" and "multitimbre." The basic concepts behind wave sequencing also come from John. Fascinating bit of synth history.

Title link takes you to the Zargmusic site with more. Be sure to check out the history page and samples of each synth. If you haven't checked out the Red Dwarf, make sure to do so. It's a semi-modular with a number of interesting modules including a CEM Oscs-Pair, Waldorf OSC, WaveTable Osc-Modular, CEM LP 24 dB Filter and much, much more.

John Bowen Solaris - More Presets and Demo 2

Published on Mar 8, 2017 Stephen Hummel

"Volume 9 of the 'Circuits and Strings' series of studio jam videos from subtractiveLAD aka: Stephen Hummel.

With this set of presets I wanted to explore some more classic timbres, along with sounds that only the Solaris could do. These presets are created using only the Solaris sound / effects engine (no samples or external effects besides the occasional touch of reverb).

I have made Wavetable-based patches that, in some cases, lean more towards a Waldorf Wave in character, while others lean towards a PPG Wave 2.3...

Some patches are decidedly Moog in flavor, with some exploring a more hybrid Memorymoog-style character (CEM oscillators with Moog filter) and others a more pure Moog sound (Moog oscillators and filters).

There are patches that are FM-based and some that come close to modeling acoustic instruments. I also think I got very close to the original Oberheim "Jump" timbre...

I will be delivering all of the presets that I make to John Bowen and he will send them out to the Solaris users"

Demo 1 here.

John Bowen Solaris SN 0364

Note: Auction links are affiliate links for which the site may be compensated.

via this auction, also on Reverb

Update via Z in the comments: "That first photo of the Solaris with the SCI gear is MY PHOTO of MY GEAR."

Note the Solaris has four oscillators, not 3 as stated in this listing, and they are digital, not discrete. I'm guessing by discrete, they mean fully featured, routable, independent oscillators. The Solaris is about as close as it gets to a fully modular poly synth. It's more flexible than most. You can freely assign and route the different components of the synth vs. being stuck on a set path. Check out http://www.johnbowen.com for details.

"Groundbreaking audiophile digital poly, 3 [4] discrete full-range DCOs per voice.

- 7th-generation, this unit is less than one week old.
I received this unit today from Germany.(8.19.19)
- The unit is still sealed in the factory box and has NOT
been opened (see photos #4 & 5)
- John Bowen has assured me the warranty on this unit is transferable and will be 100% honored. I will provide his contact info if you need to confirm.
- This unit's serial # 0364
- This black-faced unit has the optional backlit pitch/modwheels and newly offered OLED screens.(those options cost extra $$)

The entire 2019 run is sold out. I rarely ever see these for sale. I waited 13-months for this one. Don't miss out on a rare opportunity."

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John Bowen Solaris - New FX routing and Input/Output pages

via John Bowen on the John Bowen Synth Design forum, via http://twitter.com/solaris_synth

"The latest OS has a new arrangement for the FX pages, and adds new inputs/outputs assignment pages. I was hoping to get some video showing these before I took off to Germany on Sunday (Feb. 7th), but it may have to wait.

Basically, one of the coolest things about the re-design is that now there are 4 Effects busses (channels), and you can have any output receive any of the FX buss outs. This means you could use the 4 stereo analog output pairs ( (or the S/PDIF) to send out a separate effect (there are currently only 4 effects). Or, you can put any combination of effects in series, however once you use an effect, it is removed from the available 'FX Pool'. You can even put the FX busses in series themselves, so that one set of outputs has just chorus, but another output set has chorus routed into delay (as shown in the pictures below). All in all, an extremely flexible setup!

On the Output page, each Output set is listed with a selected signal source. This source list is as follows:
OFF, Synth, Ext 1/2, Ext 3/4, S/P-DIF, FX Chan 1, FX Chan 2, FX Chan 3, FX Chan 4.

Selecting Synth, for example, will route the dry, direct synth output to the associated Output assignment.

I'll see if I can get a visual of some kind posted before I leave. Busy packing and getting things together today (and I have a gig tonight!)
-john b.

-edit- here we go"

Synth Legend Spotting - John Bowen on Bass & The Solaris

This one in via Patrick Link

"Legendary synth designer John Bowen (Moog, Sequential Circuits, John Bowen Synth Design) playing bass June 14 at Vino in Issaquah, WA with his band Ventura Highway Revisted!

I met John a couple weeks ago when I received my Solaris. He gave me a guided tour through the instrument, explaining several design decisions and highlighting the many user-interface features for ease of navigation, editing, and sound design. The Solaris is my new go-to sound design tool, offering similar flexibility to modular systems - and it sounds fantastic!"

Great taste in websites as well! :)

Check out the stack of synths below.

John Bowen Solaris Unboxing Shots

via Sequence 15 where you'll find more pics.

The Solaris actually made it's first appearance here on MATRIXSYNTH back on March 26, 2007 as a teaser post. Take a look. It's great to see it arrive. Congrats to John Bowen! See the John Bowen label for a trip down memory lane (I wish there were a way to reverse order posts on Blogger).

http://www.johnbowen.com/

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Anyone Interested in a Desktop Version of the Solaris by John Bowen Synth Design?

via the John Bowen forums:

"Could there be something new to order soon?
And would you be interested?"

Thoughts?

If you aren't familiar with the John Bowen Solaris, see here.

John Bowen talks about Solaris (Demo) 1 - 5

YouTube via Moogulator | October 19, 2010
http://johnbowen.com/
"Munich 2010, Synth Meeting [Synthesizer Treffen], John Bowen talks about the Solaris"
Moogulator of http://sequencer.de/

You can see John's talk at the PNW Synth Gathering in this post.
See the John Bowen label below for all posts including more video of the Solaris.
Update: In case you find this post in the archives, there is a new video of the above presentation here.

MMTA Spring SYNTHFEST 2013: John Bowen Demos the Rotors on the Solaris

Published on Mar 18, 2013 matrixsynth·274 videos

One of my favorite features of the John Bowen Solaris. You won't find this in other synths. The simplest way to think of a rotor is a cycle through four oscillators. You can set whatever oscillators you want in the four rotor slots in any order you like, including up to four external audio inputs. If you want you can set all rotors to just OSC 1. Why would you do that? Because you can set modulations on OSC 1 and then use the rotor to skip through the changes. You can then cycle the rotor into the audio frequency range to create new timbres not possible on other synths. You can also adjust the crossfade level for the rotor for either smooth sounding or more edgy transitions. Everything is open to modulation as well. This is a new and pretty incredible method of timbral synthesis for source oscillators when you think about it. Be sure to see the John Bowen Synth Design website for more.

A side note: this marks the last post of my own content on the MMTA Spring SYNTHFEST 2013. More is coming in from others though, so stay tuned.

John Bowen Solaris Upate

The following in via the AH list:

"From the Planetz forums...
[John Bowen]:
'An update on pricing and availability has been posted on my Purchase page.

Here's an excerpt from a message I sent to all those who had made pre-order deposits, to clarify the situation:

"Klaus is the ideal candidate to oversee the conversion and upgrade of the special Scope modules that I hoped to add to the Solaris system (even though we originally had no idea we would one day have access to these). This last point is important, in that the process is not nearly as simple or easy as I thought it would be, and in fact, has caused a bigger delay than I expected.

"When I arrived in Germany last week, it was clear that I had a choice - either release the Solaris around late December (as I've been planning) but without the Minimax, SSM, and CEM filter (and oscillator), or give it more time to get the 'goodies' from the Scope library that I had wanted...

"So, this is where we stand: I am going to take more time on it, to give Klaus plenty of opportunity to get things as best as possible, because we all desire to have a product that holds to the high quality and excellence that has been at the core of what I've always tried to represent in my products. This delay will add 3 months to the schedule, with production starting in February and delivery as soon as possible thereafter (end of Feb. or early March)."

cheers,
john b.'"

John Bowen Solaris Gets An Update - v2.1 OS Adds New Functions to the Sequencer and Arpeggiator

via John Bowen Synth Design

"Here is my documentation describing the new functions in v2.1 OS for the sequencer and arpeggiator. I know many people don’t bother to 'read the manual', but in this case, I think it will really be of value. There’s some special applications of a few functions you need to know about, such as the ‘note pool’ used for random note values, or how the modulation paths work."

The images below are from the PDF documentation John shared with owners of the Solaris. You can click on the images to read. With four oscillators, vector joystick, classic analog models, wavetable synthesis, phase distortion, unique rotors, and a completely modular design, all running at 96 kHz for pristine audio quality, the Solaris remains one of the most powerful synthesizers to date.

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John Bowen presents the Solaris at the Synthesizer Meeting Munich 2010

John Bowen presents the Solaris at the Synthesizer Meeting Munich 2010 from o8o8 on Vimeo.

"John Bowen [ johnbowen.com/​ ] was invited to present his latest creation - the Solaris Synthesizer - at the Synthesizer Meeting [ fa.utfs.org/​synthesizertreffenmuenchen/​ ] held in october 2010 in München, Germany.

This video shows the whole presentation."

John Bowen Synth Design Solaris OS Update - v1.4.3

Note there are only 5 Solaris synths remaining. via the John Bowen Synth Design forum:

"Released Sun Mar 10, 2019, v1.4.3 OS fixes a few small display things, and adds two new features:

1) Sample Load routine - Instead of loading samples from the System page, as we have done, now the loading is done within the Preset, on Home page 3, parameter named 'SmpPool'. Each preset can now store the sample pool being used. Then, if the user wants to have each preset automatically load the appropriate sample pool when selected, you can set the System page parameter 'LoadSamp' to On, and Save it there as part of the global init file. If this is set to Off, then the user must go to the Home page #3 and press Enter to load the pool. If several presets call up the same pool, the system checks and knows this, so you don't have to load again. Also, it can take quite some time to load the preset in this case. For example, to load the factory Glockenspiel pool takes about 6 seconds.

2) Added a new function, calling it 'Patch Chain'. This appears on Home page #3 as well, in the top row, labeled as 'Patchain'.

Here's the idea - if a Preset has Patch Chain set On, then each of 5 Presets will be loaded into the DSPs, starting with the one farthest away from the selected preset.This means you can have 5 different sounds, one for each DSP, with 2 voices per sound (remember, the 6th DSP is used for the Master FX).

For example, if I have this parameter On for Preset 100, the first preset loaded will be 104, then 103, 102, 101, and lastly 100. That way, Preset 100 is the one that is being displayed on the front panel. However, any edits to any parameter will then go to all 5 Presets. (If you then go to store an edit, it only knows to do that to the current Preset.)

The sequence does not wrap around, i.e., if Preset 125 has Patch Chain On, it can only load 3 of the presets. The selected Preset (the last to load) goes to all remaining DSPs in this case.

How is this useful - with the Sequential 6Trak and Multi-Trak, I could make 2 Unison stacks of 6 different sounds on one key, and you could get some pretty big Unison sounds this way. Another thing I've liked with this is to have the 5 presets similar enough, but with small variances in tuning, cutoff, etc., to give an even more 'analogy' feel or sound. The voices are selected in a 'round robin' mode usually (depending on the Legato and EGReset modes), and so by repeatedly hitting a single key, you can hear each of the 5 DSPs playing 2 voices each per preset.

Obviously, this takes so forethought and planning, and isn't for everyone. Also note - loading 5 DSPs separately takes slightly longer when selecting the Preset.

I hope Solaris owners enjoy these two added features. I am looking forward to more developments in the near future.

-John Bowen"

John Bowen Solaris Pre-Order Now Open

via johnbowen.com

"Pre-orders for the remaining units from our first production run are open again! Price for Solaris remains at $3999.00 or equivalent in Euros (plus any VAT and shipping costs). We have a handful of units left to sell (10 or so), which will ship by end of June. The next time period for pre-ordering Solaris units will probably be for September production. (Please note that it is no longer possible to take direct pre-orders from customers residing in Germany or Austria, due to an exclusive agreement.)"

More details at the link above. The first three production units were shown at the Musikmesse. See the John Bowen label below for videos and more.

John Bowen Synth Design Introduces New Solaris Voice Expander

via John Bowen Synth Design

Note this is addressed to existing Solaris owners:

Dear SOLARIS owners,

We are pleased to let you know that we are ready to ship the SOLARIS Voice Expander. The unit adds another 10 voices of polyphony, using the PolyChain function. The price is 1839 EUR net (currently around $1950) plus shipping. The unit's dimension is 37 x 370 x 125 mm (1.46 x 14.6 x 5.0 inches).

Sales and production are handled by Sonic Core. Please contact Sonic Core at office@soniccore.de for more information.

--- DEUTSCH ---

Liebe SOLARIS-Kunden,

Wir freuen uns, Ihnen mitteilen zu können, dass wir bereit sind, den SOLARIS Voice Expander auszuliefern. Das Gerät fügt weitere 10 Stimmen Polyphonie hinzu. Der Preis beträgt 1839 EUR netto (aktuell ca. 1.950 $) zzgl. Versand. Die Abmessungen des Geräts betragen 37 x 370 x 125 mm (1,46 x 14,6 x 5,0 Zoll).

Vertrieb und Produktion werden von Sonic Core übernommen. Bitte kontaktieren Sie Sonic Core unter office@soniccore.de für weitere Informationen."

NAMM 2013: John Bowen Solaris Booth 5406 Hall B

Pic via James Maier aka Carbon111 on Facebook

If you make it to NAMM, don't miss John Bowen's Solaris at booth 5406 in Hall B.  It's a massive beast of a synth, quite possibly the pinnacle of boutique digital synthesis.

http://www.johnbowen.com

John Bowen Solaris Synthesizer w/ Memory Cards

Note: Auction links are affiliate links for which the site may be compensated.

via this auction

"Up for sale is the very amazing chameleon of a synthesizer… the Bowen Solaris.
As you may already know, the Solaris can really cover some serious synth territory.

It can deliver the most authentic analog sounds I have ever heard from a digital synth ( and i've tried them all ), but it also gives the most unique and amazing digital textures as well.

I personally feel that it is a VERY evolved Prophet VS, Wavestation, PPG, Waldorf engine but as stated above, It REALLY gets into the Oberheim OBXA, Xpander, Matrix 12 territory. Also competent to give Prophet, Juno, Moog sounds as well. Very much the "synth chameleon". Not to mention the amazing sequencer / arpeggiator, a stunning full panel of knobs to tweak for days and a VERY solid OS to insure you can use this synth for years and years to come.

This Solaris is in full working condition. NO operational issues. There are a few scratches underneath / sides where it was placed on stands. But the top panel is in great condition, as it most of the synth, really. Just stating things for full disclosure."

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For Luna - based on the Moonlight Sonata by Beethoven performed on the John Bowen Solaris

Published on Aug 6, 2019 Sean Christopher Evoking Emotion with Synthesizers

"This is my own take on Bethoven's Moonlight Sonata which I originally wrote in 2012 for my last album, Transcendence. That version featured a violinist and children's choirs, along with various software synths, I decided to recreate it on my newest synth, the John Bowen Solaris. All the sounds you hear are based on the factory presets with some editing by yours truly.

The Piano Sonata No. 14 in C♯ minor "Quasi una fantasia", Op. 27, No. 2, popularly known as the Moonlight Sonata, is a piano sonata by Ludwig van Beethoven. It was completed in 1801 and dedicated in 1802 to his pupil, Countess Giulietta Guicciardi. The piece is one of Beethoven's most popular compositions for the piano, and it was a popular favorite even in his own day.

Thank you VERY much for viewing and I always appreciate a "like" if you enjoyed listening to my work. PLEASE subscribe if you already have not. Thank you to NASA for the public domain moon footage from the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter."

John Bowen Solaris Synthesizer

Note: Auction links are affiliate links for which the site may be compensated.

via this listing

"MINT!, Not a mark on it. John Bowen Solaris Synthesizer with factory manual & memory card. Ships in original box."

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