John Bowen Synth Design

by **scope4live** » Mon Nov 29, 2010 8:59 pm

That would be awesome, but I'm still stuck with JLCooper w/ PAR Lamps.
Some Dinosaurs are still alive.
I've had his Fader Master since 1998, and his original MIDI Lighting Controller from 1986........
So nice to be unslaved from WIndows, but sadly MAC lights are everywhere now except a few rooms.

by **valis** » Mon Nov 29, 2010 6:57 am

Careful next Jimmy will be asking how to get DMX integration added to the pitch/mod color change mechanism so his MPC can do them in sync with his great stage light programs...

by **John Bowen** » Fri Sep 24, 2010 10:21 pm

Of course there have been requests to make the LED color switches digitally programmable.....which would require some converters and additional hardware, a different circuit board, etc., etc....more than I think we want to get into right now.

If you really wanted to change things that often, without opening up the case....well, maybe you could make a parallel switch board and have it hang outside of the case, attached with one cable.....

by **scope4live** » Fri Sep 24, 2010 7:16 pm

Do you mean we can just buy the custom wheels and change the colors when we get bored the Light du Jour...?
Thats nice.
I thought they came as a certain color as in a fixture...

If I have a shitty night I will use dual magenta to remind me of the pathetic performance.
Blue will mean I was cool ( OK ) the night before.
Red will mean I smoked down the house the night before and remind me to pat myself on the back.
Yellow will mean I was shaking because Chick Corea was in the audience the night before.
Green will mean I was very jealous as some chump ran off with the trim I wanted.
Pink will remind me I woke up with a guy in the morning and couldn't remember anything since its possible I was drugged.

So each night after the gig I shall set the colors before I leave accordingly.

Coolness...

by **marzzz** » Thu Sep 23, 2010 12:22 pm

Blue LEDs are too harsh- I actually couldn't stand them on the Voyager and the DSI PEK. Last time my Voyager went back to Moog for updates I had them change the LED to red (fire), much easier on the eyes.

by **John Bowen** » Thu Sep 23, 2010 8:00 am

Magenta? You mean the Pitch Wheel color....ah. Well, these are not standard, as you know, and anyone who ordered the LED wheels can change the colors (although this requires opening up the synth to access the DIP switch to do so).

Standard wheels will be the Fatar wheel assembly as seen in the earlier prototype photos....

-jb

by **scope4live** » Thu Sep 23, 2010 7:45 am

JB I want those colors, side panels and everything just like that model.
But the Magenta reminds me of mistakes. As a child my Classical Piano teacher always used Magenta eyeglasses all over my sheet music.
2 Blues better match the LCD's.
Skip the labels on the Mod section for me, maybe the Guitar Center demos might need them though...
I haven't used a PBend or ModWh for years, but when I sit in friends groups I do have to revert to the old style " Look Mom........1 Hand."
I re assign all of those w/ a MIDI Solution F8 since an expresssion pedal can be much more..............well, expressive.
I use the ModWheel, since it's not spring fed, to control my Master Send to FOH.
Thnaks for the pics though, the synth is ready for stage IMHO.

by **John Bowen** » Wed Sep 22, 2010 12:48 pm

ThreeFingersOfLove wrote:The pitch/mod wheel section seems a little poor. No labels, no buttons. How do you assign their functionality?

Also, doesn't "VCAs" seem misleading? Just saying.

Ah, you are correct - we didn't label the Pitch and Mod wheels - do you think it's necessary?

re: assigning wheels - the Pitch Wheel is not assignable at this time. The Mod Wheel appears in the Mod Source List, both individually and summed with Aftertouch.

re: VCA - we had 'Amps' in the first version, but kept saying 'VCAs' when discussing things, and so decided to change it, even though it's not 'technically 'correct. How about 'Virtual Controlled Amp'?

-john b.

by **ThreeFingersOfLove** » Wed Sep 22, 2010 9:19 am

John Bowen wrote:OK, I did some quick snapshots for those of you who want to see the production version of the Solaris. Please have a look at the set of photos here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/solaris_sy ... 5005848768

The pitch/mod wheel section seems a little poor. No labels, no buttons. How do you assign their functionality?

Also, doesn't "VCAs" seem misleading? Just saying.

by **John Bowen** » Tue Sep 21, 2010 12:17 pm

OK, I did some quick snapshots for those of you who want to see the production version of the Solaris. Please have a look at the set of photos here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/solaris_sy ... 5005848768

by **John Bowen** » Tue Sep 21, 2010 9:44 am

Ah, but those are not of the final production product! That was the second prototype, before I changed the ribbon to a much longer piece.

The final design can be seen in the video here:
http://www.sonicstate.com/news/2010/03/ ... -on-video/

The only thing that will be different is the color of the ribbon; the surface piece was supposed to be the same color as the case, with grey printing, but this was reversed by mistake!

You can also note a different graphic for the upper right 'Solaris'....I guess I should make some proper still shots, though.
-john b.

by **jimm1909** » Tue Sep 21, 2010 8:18 am

seamonkey wrote:
ThreeFingersOfLove wrote:Hi all,

now that the Virus TI|2 hasn't met my expectations aesthetically (also, how many times are they going to repackage the same synthesizer???), I can safely look back to the Solaris again. Does anyone have any real photos of the finished product? Things to do in Vegas

Regards,
Yannis
TFOLove, Carbon111 was at John's booth and posted a link for some pictures of the finished Solaris(Special Edition version). You can find them here:http://matrixsynth.blogspot.com/2009/01 ... laris.html

Awesome thanks for the response. I was wondering the exact same thing before I found this thread.

Thanks again,

-Jim

by **stardust** » Sun Feb 22, 2009 9:57 am

Thanks for the detailed photos

by **Carbon111** » Tue Feb 17, 2009 10:16 am

I added a little something about the Solaris at NAMM to my Blog:

http://carbon111.blogspot.com/2009/02/s ... -namm.html

by **HUROLURA** » Sat Feb 07, 2009 3:03 pm

John Bowen wrote:
HUROLURA wrote:Great job. Who are the people who contribute to this design John ?
Thanks! It's mainly me and my business partner, Goffe Torgerson. Sonic Core made some graphics suggestions as well, but we ended up choosing something closer to what Goffe & I discussed/designed.
-john b.

So you guys are not only synth sound designers but also simply designer. Really nice job anyway. The user interface looks quite easy to use and the instrument in itself has his own place at the center of any synth lover setup. I wish I could afford one but will probably have to wait ... I have the same kind of feeling with the Xite-1...

Wish you lot of success John.

CheerZ

John Bowen Synth Design

NAMM Show 2009

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