John Bowen Solaris - Analog Imitations 2016 by F5D

"A short track consisting of my custom Solaris patches, most imitating analog synthesizers. Includes also tracks with Waldorf wavetables. Some tracks have additional analog chorus and BBD delay in use + Relab LX480 as reverb. Limiting with Sonnox limiter."



"Some of my custom Solaris programs recorded in mono with and without fx, through modified Toft ATB analog mixer. Musically not very interesting, but to give an idea of how close to an analog synthesizer the fully digital Solaris can sound. Most sounds have been recorded without fx, but after 2:40 I introduce some analog Electro Harmonix guitar pedal fx (commented in the timeline). In the last two sounds I used the Waldorf wavetables and 'Jaws' (JP-80x0 supersaw) waveforms with logic digital stereo delay and Relab LX480 reverb. Some of the sounds utilize the built-in eq of the Solaris, but not the fx."

Custom Side Panels for The John Bowen Solaris & The Final Production Run?

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.

via John Bowen Synth Design:

"Join In With These Owners

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!"

JOHN BOWEN SOLARIS SYNTHESIZER w/ Original Box

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

via this auction

CLICK FOR MORE »

SOLARIS (John Bowen) Synthesizer - 100 Brian Kehew Presets

Published on Apr 2, 2018 OFR

"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..."

---

Update: For the month of April, John Bowen Synth Design is offering a $500 discount on the Solaris. You can find details here.

Jean Michel Jarre - Chronologie 2 Test on the John Bowen Solaris

Published on Jan 15, 2018 Synth Love

"Here is my cover of Chonologie II on my Synth . Enjoy :)"

Solaris + external FX Strymon BigSky. The Novation Peak is not used.

John Bowen Solaris 1.4.0 OS Update

via http://johnbowen.com

"New version 1.4.0 OS Released - Dec. 15, 2017

Just in time for Christmas, I am really happy to announce another major OS update to cap off 2017 - v1.4.0 is released today.

Here's the new features added with v1.4.0 OS:

1) A reworking of the voice handler for significantly better performance.

2) All parameter communication has been completed to work as SysEx commands. NRPNs are no longer supported (and were never fully implemented previously anyway). A complete SysEx implementation document is available online in the User Guides section.

3) A "Poly Chain" mode has been added, so you can have multiple units slaved together for increased polyphony (i.e., 20 notes from 2 units).

4) Added the new parameter “LoadSamp” on the System page 1/2. When enabled, the Solaris will automatically load the first sample pool on bootup.

5) The following parameters were moved from the Home page 3/4 to the System page 2/2: VTIntensity, VTOffset, ATIntensity, ATOffset. Renamed some of the labels for the pedal parameters. Renamed VTIntens and ATIntens to VTCurve and ATCurve (because response curves are what they actually are).

6) The following parameters are now saved to the global init file: Polychain, VTCurve, VTOffset, ATCurve, ATOffset. This means they are no longer stored per preset.

7) Improved display and editing of time values above 1 second.

8 ) Since EG6 controls the overall shape of the sound, the Solaris now boots up with EG 6 selected.

9) After samples are loaded, the wave number is always reset to 1 in the Oscillator Wave display.

10) An extra parameter was added for the Osc modulation amount parameter when the destination is LinFM. This separated it from the amount parameter for Shape. Older presets will sound correct IF the destination is set to Shape. However, if the the preset uses destination LinFM, when the preset is loaded by an older OS the sound will not be the same because the Osc modulation amount will not be correct. Also note there is no way to make such a preset backward compatible by setting the Shape amount because the ranges for the two amount parameters are different.

11) Parameters for setting the MIDI Device ID and transmitting the current preset buffer added (important for Poly Chain mode).

12) Improved encoder acceleration for the following parameters: LFO rate, EQ frequency, Phaser Offset, Oscillator and Rotor NoTrack frequency.


Again, I want to thank Jim Hewes ('minorguy' in the Forum) for all the arduous work he did to get SysEx fully working! With over 1250 preset parameters (and numerous additional front panel controls) completed, a major block in writing complete proper software editors for the Solaris has been removed. While I understand that some DAW software (such as Studio One or Cubase) still have issues recording SysEx, the only other option would be to assign a selection of the 1250 parameters to available CC numbers. We will investigate this for a future OS release, and would appreciate feedback as to how owners end up using the new SysEx implementation.

Also note: the User Guide has not been fully updated yet, but should be ready soon."

Persephone by Carbon111

Persephone is the latest release from Carbon111. Long time readers of the site will know Carbon111 from his awesome synth (and more) resource site Carbon111.com. If you are not familiar with the site, do check it out. You will find in-depth resources on Serge, Mattson Mini Modular, Waldorf's Microwave series (including wavetable charts!), and much more.

But this post is about his latest release, Persephone. The official release date is tomorrow, however, the Bandcamp release is up now (embedded above). CD preorders are currently live and will ship by early December. The CDs will be a limited edition of 300, with custom handcrafted packaging, liner notes, and track list, all signed and numbered. They are professionally replicated CDs, not burned CDRs, and will come in a lovely handcrafted black case. The gorgeous cover painting is by Mike Dubisch.


"The music on this album was created with love and the following instruments:

John Bowen Solaris
Waldorf Microwave mk1
Waldorf Microwave XT
Vermona '14
Vermona Perfourmer
Vermona Mono Lancet
Serge Modular
Sequential Circuits Prophet 600
Sequential Circuits Six-Trak
Analogue Solutions Leipzig SK
Kawai K3 and K3m
Industrial Music Electronics "Azathoth"
Ensoniq VFX
Yamaha VL1 and VL1-m
Yamaha TG33
Nord Stage 76
Korg MS20
Korg Electribe ES-1
Korg Electribe ER-1
Acidlab Miami
Native Instruments Absynth
Native Instruments Kinetic Metal
Bowed Dulcimer
Critter & Guitari Kaleidoloop

All music written, produced and recorded by James Maier
Mastered by Hermetech Mastering

Copyright (c) 2017 James D. Maier

Public Domain animal sounds on 'Spring' courtesy of the US National Park Service

released November 9, 2017"

v1.3.1 OS Update for The John Bowen Synth Design Solaris Synthesizer

via John Bowen Synth Design

"I am really excited to announce our first major OS "feature upgrade" for the Solaris synthesizer in quite a while - v1.3.1!

There's a number of new features and changes added with v1.3.1 OS:

1) Joystick position is now stored in the preset.
2) Assign buttons and Unison Chord stack now stored with the Preset.
3) A Random Tune parameter both in a preset and at the global level. This works per voice, and only affects the whole voice’s tuning.
4) Preset names and categories of the current bank are now loaded into a memory cache, making selection and viewing of them faster.
5) New MIDI Realtime on/off in the global MIDI page to send/receive Start/Stop commands.
6) Ribbon now outputs MIDI controller on CC18 & CC19.
7) Solaris remembers the last presets selected when you turn it off, so it will resume where you were.
8) Global override parameters added for Sustain and Expression Pedals.
9) Changed the Mod Source listing of Ped1 and Ped2 to "ExpPed and "SusPed" to make it more clear.
10) The ribbon Offset parameter now works differently. It adjusts the "neutral" point from the left end to the right end of the ribbon.
11) FX Bypass now does not alter the on/off state of the Preset’s effects parameters, but truly bypasses the FX bus, and stays bypassed when selecting through presets or using the Compare feature.
12) All remaining system bugs fixed. These include numerous display-related issues (parameters not being refreshed, wrong pages appearing where they shouldn’t, etc..)

This new OS works with both detented and non-detented encoder front panels. If you are a Solaris owner, this is a 'must have' update! You can download v1.3.1 from the Data Files section of the Solaris Forum (for Owners only).

More general information available at http://forums.johnbowen.com/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=16506. If you have not yet registered your Solaris in the Forum, please send a request to info@johnbowen.com."

The SynthSummitShow episode 18: John Bowen synth designs

Streamed live 5 hours ago Flux302 of Fluxwithit.com

Fascinating bit of synth history with John Bowen who started his career with synths during the early days of Moog Music, followed by Sequential Circuits. Dave Rossum in the early days of E-mu is mentioned as well. John now of course runs John Bowen Synth Design, and is the creator of the Solaris. You can find previous interviews with John at various synth events in the archives here.

Interesting little bit of trivia at 41:55 regarding John drawing some of the Prophet-VS waveforms as estimations of the waveforms on the front panel of I'm guessing either the KORG DW-8000 or DW-6000. It's interesting to know they are in there. It's worth noting all of the Prophet-VS waveforms and Waldorf, and therefor PPG waveforms, are in his new Solaris x 4, meaning four independent oscillators capable of having separate waveforms or wavetables from each. The Prophet-VS vector synthesis of course made its way to Yamaha's SY-22/TG-33, followed by Korg and the Wavestation where it morphed into vector sequencing. He also worked on the original version of the KORG OASYS which turned into the PCI card version. He then left to work with Creamware on Scope, on some of the first software models of vintage synthesizers. It's pretty incredible when you think of all the connections between synths John has not only influenced, but created over the years.

Note the Solaris 1U rackmount at 1:11:48. Two were made a couple of years ago but the idea was scrapped. John spoke with Axel Hartmann on it and they agreed that the lack of UI made it not worth it. The Solaris has over 1200 editable parameters and part of the magic behind the Solaris keyboard is the UI which makes it all easily accessible.

Funny note regarding the Yamaha DX7 at 1:23:00. John is referring to the Jellinghuas controller for the DX7 after that, and Flux is referring to the DTronics DT7 based on it.

Video description:

"The SynthSummitShow is a live streamed show dedicated to Synths, music technology and the people who make the gear we use possible.

Todays guest is John Bowen. http://www.johnbowen.com/about.html

John was instrumental in many of the products we all know and love, from the prophet 5 to the solaris John has been a staple in the music industry.

Host: Ken Flux Pierce is a sound designer, Music technology consultant and blogger you can find me at Fluxwithit.com"

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 - New Presets and Demo

Published on Mar 2, 2017 Stephen Hummel

"Volume 8 of the 'Circuits and Strings' series of studio jam videos from subtractiveLAD aka: Stephen Hummel.

My usual musical meanderings were pleasantly interrupted by the arrival of John Bowen's Solaris synthesizer in my studio.

I made some of the factory preset patches for when the synth was originally released years ago. Having it around again has been great and I've pretty much been lost in patch-making heaven since it got here. I thought it would be fun to show you the patches that I have made so far, with short little musical pieces to help demonstrate each preset. Some of the modulation stuff is more exaggerated than what I would normally do in a track but it is to show some of what the synth is capable of. Most of the preset demos feature music that I recorded as MIDI data which is then sent back into the synth from Reaper - just wanted my hands free for the joystick and ribbon, etc.

All sounds are from the Solaris only, no other effects or processing, with the exception of a little Verbzilla on the Blade Runner patch...

I feel like I've only scratched the surface on this thing and new ideas keep crowding my brain.

PS: The wooden end cheeks are taken off of this unit as it was being used for programming updates before coming to me."

CLICK FOR MORE »

The Last Sunrise

Published on Feb 12, 2017 kpsiegel

"This is my first video done in the newly rebuilt studio. I am dressed in a suit in this one because I just got back from dinner with my wife for her birthday and we managed to drink a lot thanks to some very generous friends of ours. It seemed like a good idea to grab the camera and just jam out with a bunch of synths.

Everything was recorded live off my X32 mixer. Drum channel had compression using the onboard compressor and all the reverb/delay on the synths was from an Eventide H3000 D/SE outboard send with a custom patch from Italo Di Angelis. Audio recorded at 48K/24 bit into my RME Fireface UFX. No post-processing at all. Hey, live is live!

Synths in the video:

MFB Dominion One
GRP A4 - played with the Axiom 61 controller
Macbeth Elements - played with the Axiom controller. Filter A used
Oberheim Two Voice Pro
Behringer Deepmind 12 - Doing arpeggio
Minimoog Model D reissue
Dave Smith Instruments OB-6
Waldorf XTk
Waldorf Q+ - That is the background pad using the sequencer
Schmidt 8 voice poly
John Bowen Solaris
Roland TR-808 for the drums

The lighting was red because I had the colored studio lights set to red. Just seemed like the right feel at the time. It causes graininess in the video image but I didn't care particularly."

New KORG Volca Wave Wavetable Synthesizer & Volca VC-1 Vocal Processing Synthesizer?

These don't quite match the teaser for Nov 1.

Real or not?

Thoughts?

Update: some commentary regarding the Volca Wave:

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.

John Bowen Synth Design Solaris

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

via this auction

CLICK FOR MORE »

John Bowen Synth Design Solaris Synthesizer SN 00251

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

via this auction

CLICK FOR MORE »

Solaris by John Bowen - my personal patches

Published on Jun 1, 2016 Default Corporation

"Some patch from scratch. No external processing and effects.
Recorded live in May 30 - June 01 2016.

Thank's mr. Felice Manzo of L.E.M.I. (Turin Italy)"

John Bowen Solaris Synthersizer

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

via this auction

CLICK FOR MORE »

Creative Cribs - Ty Unwin

Published on Dec 8, 2015 Spitfire Audio

This one in via Soviet Space Child.

A studio tour with composter Ty Unwin. See his IMDB page here for some of his work.

Synth spotting: Moog Voyager XL, KORG OASYS, KORG Wavedrum, Yamaha VL70m, Emu Proteus 2500, Wavestation AD, KORG DS1M, Technics WSA-1R, The Schmidt, Roland VSynth XT, Yamaha FS1R, Waldorf XT, Jazz Mutant Lemur, Teenage Engineering OP-1, Korg KAOSS Pad, Volca Keys, Casio MT, Strymon Pedals, Moog Moogerfoogers, Moog System 55, ROLI Seaboard, Roland Tegra 7, DSI Polyevolver, DSI Prophet 12, Access Virus Ti, Hartmann Neuron, Roland VS GT, Kawai K5000S, Arturia Minibrute, Elektron Machinedrum, DSI Tempest, Studio Electronics Boomstars, Yamaha Tenori-On, KORG SQ1, Moog Voyager RME, Soulsby Atmegatron, Yamaha AN1X, DSI Prophet-6, John Bowen Solaris, Roland JD-800, Roland V Piano, Natvie Instruments MACHINE, Live Push, KORG MS20M, and the Arturia Origin.

Don't miss the Schmidt light show just after 37:20.

John Bowen Solaris

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

via this auction

"The Solaris is the ultimate digital virtual analog synthesizer, with a massive array of controls and more dedicated displays than any other instrument on the market. It can mimic the entire history of analog synths, and does it with an amazingly high level of quality from the build through the actual sound. Nothing else is much like it. Just visit the John Bowen website for owner opinions and discussion. These are produced in very limited production runs with long waiting times. Save time and money with this totally pristine Solaris..."

CLICK FOR MORE »

John Bowen Solaris SN 240

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

via this auction

CLICK FOR MORE »