development outside

Discuss John Bowen Synths - Solaris
darkshine75011
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development outside

Post by darkshine75011 »

Happy New Year John, I wish to sell a lot of Solaris ..... ....................... .....................

Are you thinking about starting a franchise for development outside
For creating new modules ... Filter, oscillator, envelope, effect ......
and take a commission on the sale ?
Solaris is the perfect machine with all hardware DSP
Working with U-he, D16, Spectrasonics............Dave Rossum(EII) with the Best .

the solaris is operating system for the future.............. :)
John Bowen
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Re: development outside

Post by John Bowen »

I had hoped to get some agreement with third parties, but so far there's been no takers. I specifically asked Urs (U-he) about licensing some of the modules from him, but he said he preferred to keep it all 'in house', and I suspect this will be true with any other prominent software developer.
Zahush76
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Re: development outside

Post by Zahush76 »

In any case - are there plans to add more "modules"? For example a filter that emulates the roland sound, or the korg sound (since most of the filter modules on solaris are more of the american type such as moog, oberheim, sequential, etc.)?
John Bowen
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Re: development outside

Post by John Bowen »

There are plans for more modules, yes...but as to when, I really cannot say. It will take longer than I first thought, I suspect.
As to specifically a 'Roland' or 'Korg' sound - so far no one has ever requested such - only a version of the Yamaha CS-80 filter block, which we have analyzed a bit already.
BillySynth
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Re: development outside

Post by BillySynth »

I think most of us would prefer further development on the CS-80

Billy
Hein Eken
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Re: development outside

Post by Hein Eken »

John Bowen wrote:There are plans for more modules, yes...but as to when, I really cannot say. It will take longer than I first thought, I suspect.
As to specifically a 'Roland' or 'Korg' sound - so far no one has ever requested such - only a version of the Yamaha CS-80 filter block, which we have analyzed a bit already.
Well,- IMO, there isn´t such like a Roland or KORG sound and almost every synth of these brands sounded slightly or sometimes also significantly different.
Remembering the times doing studio sessions all day using Minimoog, Prophet 5, Obie-8 and a DX7 which was all I needed to get almost any sound necessary except from later arriving samplers.
Solaris existing OSC and filter modules produce an extremely wide palette of sounds and actually as it is.
It´s much more flexibility and functionality than to find in any other actual digital synthesizer keyboard out there and sounding that analogue.
With Moog, SCI and Oberheim (multimode) filters alone, we get a variety of sounds which I don´t expect to be much more improved when wasting time for developement of maybe a Jupiter-8 filter because it´s not so very different sounding compared to the others and probably not recognizable for average ears in a mix or playback.

The Yammi CS80 is a significant different sound compared to the old american synths, so it might be a good addition though.

But what I´d like to see earlier than a CS80 filter is the previousely discussed 4-part MIDI multi mode and a slight increase of voice count,- if that´s possible at all.
If not,- dual timbrality using 2x 5 voices over MIDI would do it too, at least for me.
Maybe there could be the option using 1 part polyphonic 5-voice and the 2nd part poly 5-voice, monophonic (1 voice) or monophonic unison (5 voices stacked incl. option of mute/defeat single voices in that play mode and part).
Both parts w/ the option to play both over MIDI and using the local keyboard incl. wheels & ribbon as MIDI (out) controllers only and the options to play 1 part local and the other over MIDI or both local in split/dual modes.
For me, that would improve preformance features much more than any new filter model.

Hein
John Bowen
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Re: development outside

Post by John Bowen »

Hein,
Thank you for writing - and what you said is exactly the point. Since resources are limited at the moment, I have to put the effort into the features that have been requested most, and multitimbrality has been requested by far more people than an expansion of sound modules.
scope4live
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Re: development outside

Post by scope4live »

Most folks who want more options haven't played the Bowen MultiMode Filters yet.
You have the CS80 Super BPF and Ribbon control built in. I had a CS80 and it was perfect for the 11 Piece horn Band I worked in as the Ring Modulator and Super Band Pass Filters really complimented the Horn sections.
But then I went to a 4 Guitar/Drummer stage, and the CS80 was buried, no thick Monophonic capabilities, so the Oberheim OBX stepped up and filled the void.
Everything one needs is in the Multimode options, including the Oscillator choices like the signature sounding Jaws.
But until you use the Ribbon Controller for Filter Sweeps you won't hear the quality of these Filters.
I need wide frequency sweeps, and need to time them in realtime. Doing percussive ADSR Stabs then using the highest point of the ribbon to drag down the FreqCutOff values reveals the incredible quality of these filters. I've never heard anything like them, and having 2-4 seperate Filters sweeping in parallel is nothing short of stunning. It's nice having LFO and Looping EGs to control your sweeps, but mine must be in realtime at any given moment, and retriggered EGs or Unipolar LFOs are just not up to the realtime chores I need.

Also worth mention is the Bowen Tube Filter. It's a Comb but has such precision editing and control, when mixed with LPF and AP3 of the MultiMode flavors you get sounds other synths can't touch, and again, I cannot stress enough the incredible quality of realtime control of every aspect of Solaris.

Joystick and Ribbon 1/2 are the Juice for me. My presets are nothing but Analog sizzle and constant wave table motion. I even have a sick preset where the Joystick blends/morphs the Oscillators, while I use the Ribbon for Sweeping, so when I play a chord, I step on the sustain, and then use the Joystick and Ribbon simultaneously and I just can't do this on hardware synths, and there's nothing Native that can use realtime parameter modulation like this.

So if you have a real Analog Monophonic synth and need a partner, forget about these Native synths or even other hardware synths, they are yesterdays news.
I actually pity the poor guys that open or follow us as most have laptop windows synths, and Receptors/Motiffs and they are punished severely.

I used to get my ass kicked by headliners all of the time, I know the feeling, and have guaranteed that embarrasment from ever happening again by owning Solaris...

JB is too modest IMHO, surely he must know the beast he has created...??

Ankyuvarymush.
Magnus C350 on a TV Dinner Tray Stand with 2 x PigNose Amps for stereo


https://soundcloud.com/jimmyvee/wormhole
John Bowen
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Re: development outside

Post by John Bowen »

Jimmy,
Your posts are always so fun to read! The enthusiasm is much appreciated....

jb
Hein Eken
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Re: development outside

Post by Hein Eken »

scope4live wrote: But then I went to a 4 Guitar/Drummer stage, and the CS80 was buried, no thick Monophonic capabilities,
Ankyuvarymush.
True.
When I said "CS80 sounded significantly different compared to the US synths" it was all about the CS80 is truely a thin sounding synth and it´s strength was poly AT usable by local weighted keys keyboard which was an extremely rare feature already at that time.
There were some minor specialities in the CS80 synth architecture, but it would never be possible to mimik these by just only adding a CS80 filter to an exisisting digital synth w/ the lack of a fully weighted velocity sensitive action and poly AT, so IMO adding such a filter could be more or less obsolete or OTOH implemented at any time because some purists want it.
I myself, I won´t need it urgently.
A CS80 sounds so thin it can easily be emulated by a VSTi and the one which does it best is the cheapo Memorymoon ME80.
I like it more than the Arturia.

So yes, John should know best what to do for future improvements.
I´m happy to read he´s busy figuring out MIDI multi mode and optimisations of the already existing features.
Personally, I hate all these update cycles I know from other brands products, mostly adding new features but rarely fixing existing bugs, instead produce new ones w/ the new features require more CPU cycles,- products which never will be finished in the end.
But optimising code, speeding up things, bring the horsepower for MIDI multimode and 5 more voices (eventually),- that would be great improvement !
Can´t wait and look forward winter NAMM and Musikmesse news !

Hein
scope4live
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Re: development outside

Post by scope4live »

Agreed.
I wish I could have afforded to keep both but I had a road crew then and they thanked me for getting rid of it. It was heavy, and inside of an Anvil Case it was as bad as a B3.
Magnus C350 on a TV Dinner Tray Stand with 2 x PigNose Amps for stereo


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Zahush76
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Re: development outside

Post by Zahush76 »

scope4live wrote:Agreed.
I wish I could have afforded to keep both but I had a road crew then and they thanked me for getting rid of it. It was heavy, and inside of an Anvil Case it was as bad as a B3.
Hi Jimmy!
So, what about those analog emulations you promised to record? Any progress?
scope4live
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Re: development outside

Post by scope4live »

I totally forgot, but the good news is I have 4 months of weekend gigs now as I am trying to get Conventions only, more pay / less work.
But have time to do those now and actually have some great presets to share.
So since I take requests, be specific since you know what you'd like to hear, and I shall try to get something together, w/ Presets over the next few days.
I only need to Rock my front yard and see friends at their gigs, which around here takes weeks just to see everyone.

So tell me particular sounds you want, like Sync's, LFP/BPF Brass like a CS80, Filter Sweeps, Parallel Filter sweeps, Wavetables vectored, leads, ARP Strings, Melotron and samples...etc.etc.

Ankyu
Magnus C350 on a TV Dinner Tray Stand with 2 x PigNose Amps for stereo


https://soundcloud.com/jimmyvee/wormhole
Zahush76
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Re: development outside

Post by Zahush76 »

scope4live wrote:I totally forgot, but the good news is I have 4 months of weekend gigs now as I am trying to get Conventions only, more pay / less work.
But have time to do those now and actually have some great presets to share.
So since I take requests, be specific since you know what you'd like to hear, and I shall try to get something together, w/ Presets over the next few days.
I only need to Rock my front yard and see friends at their gigs, which around here takes weeks just to see everyone.

So tell me particular sounds you want, like Sync's, LFP/BPF Brass like a CS80, Filter Sweeps, Parallel Filter sweeps, Wavetables vectored, leads, ARP Strings, Melotron and samples...etc.etc.

Ankyu
Rrrrrrrrrr.
All of 'em, if possible.
A month ago or so, you mentioned some 50 presets you made, that you could record short snippets of.
And of course, the main subject was sounds that sizzle with analog flavour.
I don't know. Anything that comes to your mind as good sounding - but not the presets that we all have already heard on the various demos.
scope4live
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Re: development outside

Post by scope4live »

Your Wish is my Command.
A short snippet w/ an explantion of controllers/modualtions, etc.
For example.
The mighy Jaws Oscillator is a String Oscillator in my Book, but with a slight EG amount for pitch modulation on the inital note, is really cool as the Oscillator widens and close in time and detunes, which reveals the lush character.

I will watch the NFL games while I do small sections at a time.

Tonight I can have perhaps the String Oscillator stuff, and W/ & W/o samples, octaves via ModWheel, etc.

Erev Tov..
Magnus C350 on a TV Dinner Tray Stand with 2 x PigNose Amps for stereo


https://soundcloud.com/jimmyvee/wormhole
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