New review in Sound on Sound magazine

Discuss John Bowen Synths - Solaris
Neotrope
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New review in Sound on Sound magazine

Post by Neotrope »

Got my new Sound on Sound in mail yesterday and quite nice review of the SOLARIS which touts the flexibility, sound and only minor quibbles seem to be over polyphony, a personal bias against Fatar keyboards (um, not sure why Europeans don't like them, with the majority of ALL good synths of the past 10+ years using the Fatar keyboards ... I love 'em personally where my Korg Triton 61 was P.O.S.), and the normal niggles like some minor unfinished stuff (multimode), FX to be built out, and such. And the reviewer wanted a spring loaded joystick (timely with JB's question about that ...).

I looked and the story not yet posted to the SOS website, but should be first of the month, as they trail the site copy behind the print copy to preserve readership there.

Congrats John ... !
I have so much MIDI gear it would warp your soul.

I am the CEO of Neotrope® and am also the editor at MusicIndustryNewswire.com and have been a music journalist and MIDI guru since 1984 (ie since MIDI existed).
Movement
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Re: New review in Sound on Sound magazine

Post by Movement »

Just read the review (I received my SoS a couple days ago but hadn't opened it yet). Your post made me go find it. Definitely very positive!
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Re: New review in Sound on Sound magazine

Post by John Bowen »

Can someone tell me what is on the cover? I did get a copy of the review, but not the actual magazine.

john b.

Edit...never mind, I’ve now seen the cover online...too bad the Solaris didn’t get there! It was mentioned that we might have a shot at a photo on the cover....
Neotrope
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Re: New review in Sound on Sound magazine

Post by Neotrope »

UPDATED LINK: UA APOLLO ON COVER:
http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/jun12/a ... olaris.htm

SHORT QUOTE:
buy the issue via iTunes/newsstand for $5 (support SOUND ON SOUND!)

(short excerpt ... )

Years in the making, John Bowen’s Solaris is finally with us. So is this hugely ambitious synthesizer everything we hoped it would be?

Gordon Reid



Over the past few years, many vintage synths have been analysed, converted to digital algorithms, and found themselves reborn as software plug‑ins. The flow has always been from hardware to software, exchanging wood, metal and plastic for wafers of silicon and a few gazillion mildly inconvenienced electrons, and many musicians now take this for granted. Love the sound and ergonomics of the SuperPoly80Xa, whose manufacturer went bankrupt a decade before you were born? Don’t worry: like buses of the large, red, double‑decker variety, a selection of virtual analogue recreations will arrive presently. But have you ever wondered what would happen if somebody turned this concept on its head, taking an established Virtual Analogue soft synth that’s not based on a vintage synth, and converting it into a large lump of wood, metal and plastic? Well, now you don’t need to, because that’s what John Bowen has just done.

At the recent Musikmesse in Frankfurt, I asked John how the Solaris was conceived. He told me, “When I was at Korg, we were working on the software for the original OASYS card and I noticed that Creamware were essentially doing the same thing. I saw the virtual Minimoog come out on Scope and went to try a system in Canada, and when I realised that Korg was probably not going to continue with our little group, I jumped ship. After a year with Creamware and some consultancy work elsewhere, I decided to go it alone and see whether I could make it writing plug‑ins for the Scope platform. My first plug‑in had been called the Orion and, because people kept asking me to add things, it just grew and grew until, around the fourth iteration, I went bonkers and added lots of new stuff and then realised that it wasn’t the same product any more. So I gave it a new name and the Solaris plug‑in was born. I thought it wouldn’t be too shabby as a hardware instrument, and since the ex‑Creamware guys and I had remained friends and said that someday we would do something together, we decided to develop what is now the Solaris keyboard. By this time, the plug‑in had grown to over 1200 parameters, so I had to figure out a way to translate its user interface into a physical control panel. I had wanted to try multiple displays on a hardware synth for some time, and at first we were thinking of the Solaris as something with a small keyboard, but when I mocked things up to fit the available width, the front panel looked too ‘deep’. Arranging everything across a wider keyboard, it became clear that this was how the Solaris needed to be.”




The Solaris’ Oscillator and LFO sections.

John settled on a design that uses five text displays and a single, larger screen that contains everything else in dozens of menus, and which will eventually (if all goes well) provide a degree of graphical editing. If this looks familiar, I’m not surprised, because if some nasty people kidnapped your granny and said, ‘update the design of the Matrix 12 to bring it into the 21st century, or the old lady gets it’, you could send them a photo of the Solaris and she would be back home baking cookies in no time.

( .... )

buy the issue via iTunes/newsstand for $5 (support SOUND ON SOUND!)

http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/sound-on ... 46470?mt=8
I have so much MIDI gear it would warp your soul.

I am the CEO of Neotrope® and am also the editor at MusicIndustryNewswire.com and have been a music journalist and MIDI guru since 1984 (ie since MIDI existed).
Movement
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Re: New review in Sound on Sound magazine

Post by Movement »

John Bowen wrote:Can someone tell me what is on the cover? I did get a copy of the review, but not the actual magazine.

john b.

Edit...never mind, I’ve now seen the cover online...too bad the Solaris didn’t get there! It was mentioned that we might have a shot at a photo on the cover....
I was surprised it didn't even get a text mention on the cover. I glanced at the cover list of stuff in that issue when I first received it. If I had seen Solaris mentioned I would have opened it right away.
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Re: New review in Sound on Sound magazine

Post by John Bowen »

Hmmm, yes, that’s a bit surprising actually.

jb
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Re: New review in Sound on Sound magazine

Post by HUROLURA »

John Bowen wrote:Hmmm, yes, that’s a bit surprising actually.

jb
You mean disappointing ... :wink:
CheerZ
Neotrope
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Re: New review in Sound on Sound magazine

Post by Neotrope »

It is listed in the text on the cover; lower left above the UPC space.

(I deleted my rant here earlier about cover design .... nobody cares about what I think about cover design... ) :-)
I have so much MIDI gear it would warp your soul.

I am the CEO of Neotrope® and am also the editor at MusicIndustryNewswire.com and have been a music journalist and MIDI guru since 1984 (ie since MIDI existed).
francois
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Re: New review in Sound on Sound magazine

Post by francois »

I love this passage:

"One of my earliest attempts was an emulation of my Taurus pedals. I got close, and then wondered what would happen if I switched on the Unison mode and detuned the voices. Bloody ’eck! If Beelzebub played bass, that’s the sound he would use".

Now, since John is a bass player, I'm starting to wonder if the Solaris has Faustian origins ! :wink:
"Sit Solaris vobiscum"
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Re: New review in Sound on Sound magazine

Post by marzzz »

I like the fact that it was Gordon Reid who did the review- this is the same guy who has a Yamaha GX-1 in his living room, as well as vast experience with a lot of significant polyanalog synths (CS-80, Roland, Oberheim, etc.). That he liked the overall tone of the Solaris is a good sign, as a for instance, he didn't particularly like the StudioElectronics Omega 8, saying that it sounded almost too VA. At this point, whether the Solaris is on the cover of a magazine is almost moot, those who are interested will seek it out or hear about it soon enough. I don't think there are too many people out there who haven't heard of it at this point, just not enough who have heard it. The sound is what sells it- people just need to get their hands on one.
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Re: New review in Sound on Sound magazine

Post by Movement »

Neotrope wrote:It is listed in the text on the cover; lower left above the UPC space.
You're right, it's there. In small text right below a bolded text item. I totally missed it!
Neotrope
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Re: New review in Sound on Sound magazine

Post by Neotrope »

(... I totally missed it ...)

YOu know what, so did I! It wasn't until I went to look at it again, I went ooooh. Barely on there. Last minute, like.

But good review, so yee hah and pass the buscuits!
I have so much MIDI gear it would warp your soul.

I am the CEO of Neotrope® and am also the editor at MusicIndustryNewswire.com and have been a music journalist and MIDI guru since 1984 (ie since MIDI existed).
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Re: New review in Sound on Sound magazine / COVER PAGE

Post by galaxiesmerge »

Hi,

If you look at previous covers, or, in fact, covers on *any* magazine, you will find that they all have one thing in common: gear on the cover is gear that is advertised and has been advertised monthly within the magazine itself by the vendor. Gear *not* on the cover is gear that does not advertise in the magazine. This is a standard practice in the publishing industry - to get a cover page, a vendor *must* advertize for *several* months --- that is a significant revenue stream. The end message is that cover-page photos are purchased, they are not for free and not given away. For example, this month's cover is UAD ... look at how many months of advertising UAD has put into Sound on Sound --- if UAD's new gear did not make the cover, then the fear is that the UAD might pull or reduce their advertising dollars in SOS and it would be SoS for SOS.

The fact that the SOLARIS gets decent reviews is because it has struck a resonant chord with the reviewers and not with the bean-counters that run marketing and advertising :)

I have a ton of gear, and, I am very keen on the SOLARIS myself for many, many reasons. Let me put it this way: if John had not created SOLARIS, I would have continued coding models of synths on my KYMA system. As it is, I now code on KYMA for esoteric experiements as I eagerly await my SOLARIS. I just bought an Emu Emulator II+ and a library of 1297 sound disks ... I bought the Emu because of its *unique* tonal characteristics and I love the sound character - warts and all! In fact, I am looking at doing a convolution study using my KYMA to see what the convolution profile looks like and this would form the first virtual "clone" of the Emu ... now, if I could load Emu data-files directly and clone it into the SOLARIS ... hmnnn ... checkout the UVI re-sampled EMU-II ... if you know what I mean - a SOLARIS virtualization of Emu would be awesome ... better than a Mach3 by MOTU. SOLARIS could perform the task and so, on my wishlist is the SOLARIS is a virtualization player ... play all the synths with character with a great control interface! I have the entire DK Synergy library and also the DX-7 ... so those could be done too!

Then, with initial sales growing and word-of-mouth, start advertising in a few journals - pretty soon, SOLARIS will be on the cover of every one!

Cheers :)
Solaris, Jomox Sunsyn,Modcan, Prophet-T8, Rhodes-Chroma, Pacarana,CS-80, Andromeda,M3,Nord-G2X,DK-Synergy
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Re: New review in Sound on Sound magazine

Post by John Bowen »

I'm not as sure about the advertising connection with front cover appearances, at least in SOS's case. I think they were uncertain if it was going to be finished in time for the June issue, so they had something else already designed, etc.
Also note that Keys magazine (a German publication) had a very nice photo of the Solaris on their cover, and I've never advertised there: viewtopic.php?f=1&t=16041
galaxiesmerge
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Re: New review in Sound on Sound magazine

Post by galaxiesmerge »

John Bowen wrote:I'm not as sure about the advertising connection with front cover appearances, at least in SOS's case. I think they were uncertain if it was going to be finished in time for the June issue, so they had something else already designed, etc.
Also note that Keys magazine (a German publication) had a very nice photo of the Solaris on their cover, and I've never advertised there: viewtopic.php?f=1&t=16041
Perhaps I am a bit too crusty and cynical about Journals here ... it's great to see a cover with it though :)
Solaris, Jomox Sunsyn,Modcan, Prophet-T8, Rhodes-Chroma, Pacarana,CS-80, Andromeda,M3,Nord-G2X,DK-Synergy
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