Announce when you receive your Solaris!

[Soul circuits]

Received mine 2 days ago , still exploring !
Great time so far -;)

[FunKeyLicious]

Yeah - 2 days ago I became a happy and very excited Solaris owner when I finally received my piece of joy (SN: 179) after having been on the waiting list via E.M.C. in Germany since August 2012

Never have been awaiting a new synth like this time since I got rid of all non-analog synths during the past few years. The Solaris will be the perfect companion to my analog beauties and I'm really curious to get a deep dive into those lush soundscapes.

BTW: Only recently I have been finally convinced to stick to my Solaris order when I got the possibility to play Robert Wittek's Solaris during a nice visit at his home. He definitely masters this synth...

[Soul circuits]

BTW: Only recently I have been finally convinced to stick to my Solaris order when I got the possibility to play Robert Wittek's Solaris during a nice visit at his home. He definitely masters this synth...

I think Robert convinced many people these days, he should chime in when he has a little time

[Zahush76]

Arghhh. My Solaris was sent weeks ago. At first it was sent to some address in Germany and was returned to Sonic Core and then sent again to Israel on the 23rd of May. It was somehow received in customs only on the 4th of June. I called them and they said that once it's in customs - the procedure can take up to 30 business days
Gosh, it's just so arghhhhh when you know that what you ordered is in your country, only a few miles from your home, and you can't touch it.

[Zahush76]

So i got my Solaris an hour ago, hooked it up and started playing. The instrument itself is wonderful. It's indeed a "no corners cut" kinda synth. But my main problem is shippment and packaging. For some reason, DHL's Economy shipping was chosen - even though i was willing to pay 250 euros or whatever, to have it sent up to my front door within a few days (i did the same when i got my GRP A4 and it was great).
What i got for the Economy shipping, was economy treatment. First of all, it "began its journey" from Sonicore on 13.5 (!!!) and i only recieved it today. But that has to do more with the shipping method.
What got me disappointed was the shape of the package. It's strange to me that this is such a "no corners cut" synth - but the packaging itself is poorly made:



As you can see, they used a very cheap kind of cardboard, and it's all squashed.

And for some reason, there was styrofoam only on the two sides - inspite that i've seen former Solaris with another one in the middle




As a result of this "mickey mouse" packaging, the Solaris got a dent on the left side wood panel:



Anyway, not much to do now, is there?
So, now it's placed with its "friends" and i'm playing it:



I'm happy i finally got it. But this whole things leaves a sour taste, know what i mean?

[John Bowen]

For some reason, we had a lot of trouble getting his unit to Israel. Of all of the shipments, I've never seen so many problems, and we had many emails back and forth with him.

For the shipping carton - this version used heavier cardboard than we used in 2011 for the first shipments, and I have seen 3 examples now that the corner on these didn't look good, so we already decided we need to use a double box for the next series. I really apologize to Zahush76, as he has been through a lot with this delivery, and I have to say, it's been a most atypical situation.

Of course we will send you another wood end piece to put on your Solaris. It's quite simple to replace - you have to find a tool that works the side bolts - but all it takes is removing the 5 bolts and swap out the side panel.

Again, I am very sorry this was such a bad experience...
Sincerely,
John B.

[Zahush76]

Thanks John! I'd appreciate it very much if you'd send another left woodside panel.
Thanks for the quick response.
Another thing i noticed is that for some reason, the high C key to the far right is harder to press and more sluggish in comparison to the rest of the keys.
Again - the sound itself and the synthesis optiions are amazing, and i'm happy i got it so don't get me wrong.

[John Bowen]

...Another thing i noticed is that for some reason, the high C key to the far right is harder to press and more sluggish in comparison to the rest of the keys.

Hmmm, so it's like something is rubbing against the side to cause some friction against the key?

[Zahush76]

...Another thing i noticed is that for some reason, the high C key to the far right is harder to press and more sluggish in comparison to the rest of the keys.

Hmmm, so it's like something is rubbing against the side to cause some friction against the key?

The only thing i managed to see was the end of what i think is the "stripe" (or whatever it's called) on which all the key are placed, and goes from left to right all across, underneath the keyboard. It seems to be extended about 2mm further from the far right key.

In addition (they seem to keep adding as i go by), the Main\Mod button of the Mixer\Insert fx section is pressed almost all the way down. It has almost no resitence - as opposed to all the other buttons.

What is all of this?!

Also, i connected it via usb and tried to use it as a master keyboard. It seems that whatever i do (also tried the midi settings on the main display) - cubase recognizes it, but keeps insisting that the midi in is "active" but the midi out is "inactive" and i can't control nothing with it.

edit: this just in. The manual says (on pg 45) that the MIDICtrl parameter determines wether or not the solaris will send and recieive MIDI signal, and that it should be defaulted to ON. Well, i turned it on. What happens when i turn it on is that when i play chords - the notes are all over the place. Some are delayed a bit, some are not heard, and some are fine. When i set it back to OFF - everyting returns to normal. It also happens when i change "SendArp" from Off to On.

[John Bowen]

This MIDI behavior over USB sounds a lot like the problems we had with the old OS. It's not likely you didn't get a new OS, though....strange. You can always try re-installing the OS.
As for the Main/Mod switch - does it function, or is it not switching things?

[Zahush76]

As for the sluggish C key at the far right end of the keyboard - what should i do? Do you think it'd be wise to remove the right wood panel to get access?

No, the wood panels are just added on; there's no access to the insides from the sides.

[inaheartbeat]

Solaris serial number 127 received today and reporting for duty! Thanks to John for getting back to me real quick on some issues I had with it that turned out to be the known issues of boot freezing and no sound on startup. Been playing with it this afternoon and am trying to juggle time with my wife and time with my new keyboard. The wife is currently losing badly

[3rdConstruction]

Celebrity in the house! She's home, finally...

photo-2.JPG (123.76 KiB) Viewed 23799 times

Sorry for the lame phone photo. Solaris deserves a professional photo shoot, maybe on a blizzard-blown mountain top with a manly explorer, frost-encrusted beard and sun-scorched skin, with the following text: "For the rarified heights of true exploratory synthesis & sound design - serious inquiries only!"
... ok, nevermind. But honestly, damn, what a synth. Right now I can only play her through a small Epiphone tube amp. It's actually doing interesting things struggling to keep up with the raw POWER of the Solaris' output. Set the controls for the heart of the sun INDEED! Where the ---- do I start? Am I even licensed for this thing?

Luke

[marzzz]

Nice! I am starting to really like the look of the White Solari, even though we know that that darker ones have a warmer sound...

[E.lad]

Finally got my new baby about a week ago. Whoooo!

Really amazed at this things sound & potential!

Having a couple of small issues with build and software that i thought i'd share

- Volume pot feels very loose and wobbly

- Mod & Pitch wheel feel like there rubbing in frame work thus making them extra tight

- About every second or third time i turn it on it get's stuck on boot screen!

- USB/Midi only working some times

- Also i can hear a slight decimator/distortion over sound. Mostly noticeable when doing a filter sweep (i'm using toslink/digital out)


I'll try a software update though i'm sure it's up to date.

Also how do you swap left/right stereo with digital out? As when i pan left and right it's the wrong way round?

Sorry to be all so negative and fussy.