Checked out Solaris!

Shayne White · Post by **Shayne White** » Sat Mar 15, 2003 1:24 am

Well, I just checked out John Bowen's new Solaris synth. Awesome!!! It can do just about anything. The added Prophet-5 (CEM)oscs and filters are really nice. Solaris pretty much combines everything John had done for SCOPE into one mega-synth. And it doesn't use too much DSP, really -- because when you turn off features it reduces the DSP load instead of leaving them on all the time (that's good for polyphony!).

The great thing is all the mod sources. There's a huge list of sources, and tons of parameters can be modulated. Having that all in a ModIII patch would be horribly complicated and confusing. Solaris takes the power of the ModIII and makes it easy to use.

One complaint I have, though, is that there seemed to be a brickwall volume cutoff at -4db. I could make sounds *sound* loud by turning up overdrive, but the actual volume was cut off at -4db, no matter what I did. I don't know why. I was continually getting digital distortion until I found I had to keep the poly output at around 100 and turn up overdrive to about 40-50. Then it worked a lot better.

That's about my only complaint, and on a synth this huge, that's a pretty insignificant complaint!

Good job!! Now to dig up some money...

Shayne

Ganool · Post by **Ganool** » Sat Mar 15, 2003 5:19 am

I just have to agree. It's possible to create virtually any sounds with the Solaris.

johnbowen · Post by **johnbowen** » Thu Mar 20, 2003 3:51 pm

Thanks for the enthusiasm, Shayne!
Yeah, the final output level is currently using an attenuation scheme, however, I've found a module that I will replace it with, and the next rev will definitely have a hotter output!

regards,
john b.

On 2003-03-15 01:24, Shayne White wrote:
Well, I just checked out John Bowen's new Solaris synth. Awesome!!! <snip>
One complaint I have, though, is that there seemed to be a brickwall volume cutoff at -4db. I could make sounds *sound* loud by turning up overdrive, but the actual volume was cut off at -4db, no matter what I did. I don't know why. I was continually getting digital distortion until I found I had to keep the poly output at around 100 and turn up overdrive to about 40-50. Then it worked a lot better.

j9k · Post by **j9k** » Fri Mar 21, 2003 1:14 am

why would john bowen have two user accounts?

j9k

decimator · Post by **decimator** » Fri Mar 21, 2003 5:10 am

It's him because I've bought Solaris yesterday and we've discussed about this thread ...
BTW, I'am a very happy customer !!!!!!!!!!

caleb · Post by **caleb** » Sat Mar 29, 2003 11:45 pm

Yes I managed to intrigue a well known sound designer with the specs of the Solaris alone.

As much as I really don't need another synth and am not even a terribly good sound designer to get the best use out of the things, I'm still thinking about upgrading to Modular III and purchasing Solaris.

And then I swear I won't buy another synth - promise.

Shayne White · Post by **Shayne White** » Sun Mar 30, 2003 12:29 pm

Oh, yeah, sure.