Here is a interview with John Bowen about is new Solaris hardware synth.
http://www.musicador.com/musikmesse-200 ... ntrevista/
John Bowen Solaris interview at Musikmesse
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- KVRian
- 1185 posts since 2 Jan, 2004 from England
Certainly does look to be an interesting, if boutique, piece. Having said that, I'd be keen to hear one in the flesh later this year....
Sounds as though the price will be £2000, or 3000Euro, or $4300 or thereabouts. It'll have to be better than the other VA royalty [Virus TI, Nord Wave, Waldorf Q] or offer a completely different workflow and sonic character to the prophet08 or the Voyager to justify its price tag. You can pick up a Waldorf Wave for about that price on occasion. Still, it's nice to see the synth 'old guard' are still out in force!
Sounds as though the price will be £2000, or 3000Euro, or $4300 or thereabouts. It'll have to be better than the other VA royalty [Virus TI, Nord Wave, Waldorf Q] or offer a completely different workflow and sonic character to the prophet08 or the Voyager to justify its price tag. You can pick up a Waldorf Wave for about that price on occasion. Still, it's nice to see the synth 'old guard' are still out in force!
11, 418th in line to the KVR throne
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Nuisances Sonores Nuisances Sonores https://www.kvraudio.com/forum/memberlist.php?mode=viewprofile&u=2730
- KVRist
- 285 posts since 10 May, 2002
It's definitely something very large and extremely deep + years of work on the Scope plugin before it came solid ( and I didn't believe it could embody at this relatively low price )
When the first owners will get their unit, it will be quite a raving bunch !
When the first owners will get their unit, it will be quite a raving bunch !
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- KVRer
- 3 posts since 21 Mar, 2008 from Germany
this is quite one fine piece of gear. I like it having the displays all over the knobs and buttons. this is where other synths lack.
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Nuisances Sonores Nuisances Sonores https://www.kvraudio.com/forum/memberlist.php?mode=viewprofile&u=2730
- KVRist
- 285 posts since 10 May, 2002
The displays are really a requisite when you have 50+ sources of modulations everywhere and a *large* number of modulation targets ! 
4 oscs covering VA / wavetables / VS waves + 2 rotor mixers + 2 vector mixers
( that can be fed with other things than audio )
4 mixers with 4 inputs ( individual levels modulable ) galore of filters per mixers, pre - post assignable FX per mixer ... etc
It's a large modular wrapped into a small UI, not to mention that since it's DSP based, it's meant to be expandable with new algos of oscillators / filters / FX and such.
It's still the prototype on the video but the final version will be very close, add a joystick already.
Check http://forums.johnbowen.com/ you'll see how much John cares and listens to future users !
4 oscs covering VA / wavetables / VS waves + 2 rotor mixers + 2 vector mixers
( that can be fed with other things than audio )
4 mixers with 4 inputs ( individual levels modulable ) galore of filters per mixers, pre - post assignable FX per mixer ... etc
It's a large modular wrapped into a small UI, not to mention that since it's DSP based, it's meant to be expandable with new algos of oscillators / filters / FX and such.
It's still the prototype on the video but the final version will be very close, add a joystick already.
Check http://forums.johnbowen.com/ you'll see how much John cares and listens to future users !
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- KVRist
- 403 posts since 23 May, 2003 from wherever my mind is at the moment
The link to the musikmesse video demo you linked is down, here is another one:
http://www.delamar.de/solaris-video/
John offered a special preorder price of $2800USD for the first 50 orders if paid in full. I was able to preorder one at that price. I sold my V-synth and another keyboard to finance most of it.
I believe in John Bowen and his vision of a synthesizer which honors his analog roots but embraces today's technology.
I think in the future we will see more and more DSP based synthesizers in hardware such as Solaris and Origin.
Btw, John is offering a lower price of $3495USD for the next 50 preorders which require a $1000 deposit.
It will be an open system and John will be able to bring a lot of the Scope stuff into it or offer add-ons as they are developed. For me I envision this as being my last major keyboard purchase.
We've only heard small audio demos of it but what I've heard is HUGE!
And Nuisances is right, John has taken a lot of the input from his customers and implemented them, when is the last time you heard Korg or Roland doing that?
http://www.delamar.de/solaris-video/
John offered a special preorder price of $2800USD for the first 50 orders if paid in full. I was able to preorder one at that price. I sold my V-synth and another keyboard to finance most of it.
I believe in John Bowen and his vision of a synthesizer which honors his analog roots but embraces today's technology.
I think in the future we will see more and more DSP based synthesizers in hardware such as Solaris and Origin.
Btw, John is offering a lower price of $3495USD for the next 50 preorders which require a $1000 deposit.
It will be an open system and John will be able to bring a lot of the Scope stuff into it or offer add-ons as they are developed. For me I envision this as being my last major keyboard purchase.
We've only heard small audio demos of it but what I've heard is HUGE!
And Nuisances is right, John has taken a lot of the input from his customers and implemented them, when is the last time you heard Korg or Roland doing that?