John Bowen Synth Design

Thanks for your post. I'd be happy to talk about the Wavestation, as it was a very intense time for me. The core group of Sequential folk that were hired by Yamaha, then traded to Korg a year later, had been given the task to develop a new synthesizer in 9 months (in time for January NAMM show, 1990...

Starting later this month, the folks at Sonic Core will run "The John Bowen Chronicles" exclusively on their website, with new installments every few weeks, leading up to the release of the SOLARIS synthesizer. I hope you find it a fun and fascinating look into the synthesizer design proce...

It's a sine-to-saw or sine-to-square output.

john b.

'Morphing' sine-to-saw or sine-to-square (as in the plug-in) Cool! Can it be modulated? If so, is it glitch-free? Yes, easy to modulate, it's just the Shape parameter. Glitch-free? Do you mean in transition, or? It's certainly as smooth and glitch-free as it's always been - but I realize there's qu...

Yannis,
I got the response today that the plan is to have SP/DIF in/outs. Concerning the analog converters, we should have a similar performance as in the A16 product from Sonic Core.

john b.

Yannis,
Sorry not to respond earlier - I will have to check with the guys for the details.

john b.

just back from the DR... The low note in the middle of SolSawSync.wav sounds rather brittle, not beefy like the Prophet examples... any ideas why? Well, after my initial recording of each file (I'm using GoldWave), I've been using the Maximise Volume tool at default settings to make each synth's le...

Today I have some simple examples of the new Supersaw waveshape! First up is a raw waveshape (no filtering) with me manually adjusting the Shape parameter to an extreme amount, which in this case changes the detuning factor: 1) Solaris Supersaw #1 Next is an example using an envelope driving the Sha...

And now back to the specifications: Today I received another update to the OS - this one adds several additional oscillator modes: 1) a 'supersaw' type 2) 'Morphing' sine-to-saw or sine-to-square (as in the plug-in) 3) Emulation of a Mini's oscillator, with the 6 discreet waveshapes The detune of th...

Hi All, I, too, have the impression that the little signature pad approach as it appears on the Prophet '08 just doesn't seem 'classy' enough - I thought it looked a little questionable. I can understand Dave wanting to go that route, as it's fairly easy to sign a number of these without committing ...

Yannis, I appreciate your comments! 5. The two Prophets seem to be EQed in the low registers - they have this oomph which is absent from the Solaris and the Microwave XT The research I was part of in the early days of the Korg OASYS showed that there is a issue in the Prophet osc sawtooth in the low...

To Forum readers: The information below that Jackal is discussing comes from a private email I sent to those who have fully prepaid for their Solaris synth: I'm a little sad that there won't be an onboard ribbon controller, but a supporting connector for the Kurzweil Super Ribbon Controller (PC2SRIB...

2. In both the square wave and the sawtooth examples P5 and P08 sound a bit more filtered than Solaris. Maybe you could make another recording of Solaris with the filter closed just a tiny bit to match P5 and P08. Yes, you are quite correct! The Solaris has a BYPASS mode for the filter, taking the ...

OK - one more time, but for these I used a sawtooth waveshape for the sync'ed oscillator. Let's also add another synth into the mix - there is now a Microwave XT in the group, so we have Solaris, Prophet 5, Prophet 08, and the XT to hear...but not necessarily in that order :shock: If you want to gue...

Hmmmm, not sure how these look unpolished, or maybe what your definition of polished is. These have a linseed oil coating, and they look quite nice in person, I think...but obviously it's a very subjective thing. You should have a chat with Stephen at http://www.synthwood.com about it, since his tea...