video from Messe 2010

Discuss John Bowen Synths - Solaris
John Bowen
Site Admin
Posts: 2002
Joined: Sat Apr 07, 2007 3:00 am
Contact:

Post by John Bowen »

sjones wrote:Was it easy to access the dip switches to change the wheel colors? If it were a production deal it would have been neat to have software control for that .. but there are far more pressing issues :)
Stephen,
As you probably know, we'd have to add an extra A/D converter just to handle this....as well as other ideas we've had, such as connecting the LED intensity to an LFO output to 'pulsate' the wheels. Not going to happen at this point.
-jb
John Bowen
Site Admin
Posts: 2002
Joined: Sat Apr 07, 2007 3:00 am
Contact:

Post by John Bowen »

marzzz wrote:Oh yeah, the controllable vocal filter- that is going to be fun. I assume it will be controllable from the ribbon and wheels (simultaneously even?) also?
Marshall...it's just another filter type, so it can have all the same modulations as usual. (Remember, you have 4 mod paths to the filter, so you can have for example the Ribbon, Mod Wheel, Joystick, and an EG all controlling the same parameter if you want.)
marzzz wrote:And while we're at it, maybe we can see some other filters in the future, like perhaps CS-80/GX-1 style filters?
I don't have the CS-80 filter around to analyze it so that we can build an accurate model. We would need someone who has one and can send a series of specific recordings to provide the information, but even so, at this point there are no plans for this filter mode at the moment.
Perhaps you can get close with what Solaris has already, using a couple of filters in series?
-JB
John Bowen
Site Admin
Posts: 2002
Joined: Sat Apr 07, 2007 3:00 am
Contact:

Post by John Bowen »

seamonkey wrote:Love the poster for the lounge, it reminds me of a video Oingo Boingo did from the movie Danny's brother made.
I was in a group (the Robert Williams Band) in 1980-81, and a lot of our gigs were opening for Oingo Boingo! Great musicianship in both bands...it was a real learning experience.
-JB
John Bowen
Site Admin
Posts: 2002
Joined: Sat Apr 07, 2007 3:00 am
Contact:

Post by John Bowen »

scope4live wrote: Chord Mode was actually at the intro of Punk Jazz on the Mr.Gone LP, well that's the instance that comes to mind when I think of JoeyZ's use of it.
Jimmy, I did a quick scan on iTunes for this - are you thinking of the beginning of 'River People' on that album, because he could certainly be using a chord stack function there...but that wasn't the one I had in mind. I used to do the tune 'Black Market' as one of my Sequential Circuits demos, and in the middle section, there was a spot where I had to use 2 hands with oscs tuned to 5ths to replicate the chord stack in there (we didn't have the feature at the time).
-JB
scope4live
Posts: 546
Joined: Tue Mar 04, 2008 4:19 pm
Location: Somewhere between 120 and 150bpm
Contact:

Post by scope4live »

Yeah I bet that was Chord Mode too.
The glide parts always stood out w/ Joey Z.
Smae with his 2 Octave switch PBends on the ARP Odyssey. He never left a stone unturned.
And your idea sounded cool.
We must do whatever it takes to get the sounds........
I use to use 2 x Ensoniq Mirages w/ one PBend at 1 and the other at 2, both MIDI'd so I could use the Santana SG Deluxe Guitar sample w/ ModWheel feedback, to get the 2 string Guitar bends more authentic.
Magnus C350 on a TV Dinner Tray Stand with 2 x PigNose Amps for stereo


https://soundcloud.com/jimmyvee/wormhole
John Bowen
Site Admin
Posts: 2002
Joined: Sat Apr 07, 2007 3:00 am
Contact:

Post by John Bowen »

Solaris has separate pitch bend amounts for Up and Down, and you can put in a wide range - it's +/- 60 semitones!

-JB
scope4live
Posts: 546
Joined: Tue Mar 04, 2008 4:19 pm
Location: Somewhere between 120 and 150bpm
Contact:

Post by scope4live »

This could be the first hardware synth that renders software synths useless..... 8)
Magnus C350 on a TV Dinner Tray Stand with 2 x PigNose Amps for stereo


https://soundcloud.com/jimmyvee/wormhole
ScofieldKid
Posts: 45
Joined: Sat Feb 23, 2008 9:21 pm
Contact:

Post by ScofieldKid »

This is an update for the Delamar.tv videos. There are 2 parts here to view:

http://www.delamar.de/musikmessevideos/ ... izer-7898/

The page is in German, but most of the video is in English...
-john b.
marzzz
Posts: 221
Joined: Mon Dec 01, 2008 8:07 pm
Contact:

Post by marzzz »

For a minute, I thought JB was going to do the interview in German....!
seamonkey
Posts: 102
Joined: Tue Jan 22, 2008 7:10 am
Location: Michigan
Contact:

Post by seamonkey »

As mister spock would say..."fascinating", these are by far the most detailed videos we've seen up to date.
It is amazing to see the amount of detail and features that are falling into place so quickly, watching a dream become reality after all the setbacks is wonderful.

Regarding the lit mod/pitch wheels, is it too late to request this feature on our preorder?..I must say this looks much cooler than I envisioned.
Also, to change the colors, is it necessary to open up the Solaris to do so?
If one were to decide at a later date, would it be difficult to install by the user?
thanks
rick
scope4live
Posts: 546
Joined: Tue Mar 04, 2008 4:19 pm
Location: Somewhere between 120 and 150bpm
Contact:

Post by scope4live »

I did the same thing Seamonkey....I thought they looked like a USB keyboard, but they grew on me so I have changed my mind also.
If I remember you'll need to send 130 USD? to JB right when production starts up, at least I am hoping for that still.

Excellent Video Links Thanks.
Last edited by scope4live on Fri Apr 02, 2010 8:57 am, edited 1 time in total.
Magnus C350 on a TV Dinner Tray Stand with 2 x PigNose Amps for stereo


https://soundcloud.com/jimmyvee/wormhole
John Bowen
Site Admin
Posts: 2002
Joined: Sat Apr 07, 2007 3:00 am
Contact:

Post by John Bowen »

Hi Everybody!
I'm back home now...really nice of Delamar.tv to post such long videos! I sort of expected they would just edit it down to a few minutes. We were having problems getting the 2 cameras in a good position, where you could see both the interviewer and myself plus what I was doing with the synth, and what the displays showed, so we kept trying different angles. That's one of the reasons it jumps around a bit.

Overall, a really good response to Solaris again at the show! Of course, it was helpful to be in the same booth as Moog Music instruments, which occurred because we agreed to a deal with the same distributor (who will handle dealer sales in Germany & Austria). This company (EMC) are all a great group of guys who know synthesizers inside and out. One of the members, Kurt Ader, is also a major sound designer (as KARO Sound Development) for many other companies, and I expect he & his team will be making some wonderful sounds for Solaris as well.

Looking forward to finally getting production going once we receive all of the needed parts, hopefully by end of May.

Cheers,
John Bowen
galaxiesmerge
Posts: 104
Joined: Sat Mar 20, 2010 8:21 pm
Contact:

Post by galaxiesmerge »

marzzz wrote:Voyager? Andromeda? Hey Seamonkey, have you been sneaking into my studio?????

LOVE LOVE LUUURVVE the new ribbon- had no idea that this would happen, it is one of my favorite things on the A6 and allows you to get "really physical" with playing the synth. I agree the current prototype looks a bit ugly- may I suggest making the ribbon fairly dark, and perhaps minimizing (or even eliminating) any markings on it? Maybe just some subtle "fret marks" on the synth itself, and leave the ribbon plain?

First time I have seen the colored wheels. Might have to add that to my preorder. Love that it is controllable, my Voyager has the red "Fire" wheels which look great in the dark, I never did like the harsh blue.

Oh yeah, the controllable vocal filter- that is going to be fun. I assume it will be controllable from the ribbon and wheels (simultaneously even?) also? And while we're at it, maybe we can see some other filters in the future, like perhaps CS-80/GX-1 style filters?
I second the vote for the GX1/CS80 filters. One of the secrets to the CS80 sound is the Sine Wave sub-oscillators that feed with the sound into the filters (something almost everyone forgets to mention as a key part of the deep sound).
Solaris, Jomox Sunsyn,Modcan, Prophet-T8, Rhodes-Chroma, Pacarana,CS-80, Andromeda,M3,Nord-G2X,DK-Synergy
ThreeFingersOfLove
Posts: 76
Joined: Mon Jan 21, 2008 4:07 am
Location: Greece
Contact:

Post by ThreeFingersOfLove »

galaxiesmerge wrote:
marzzz wrote:Voyager? Andromeda? Hey Seamonkey, have you been sneaking into my studio?????

LOVE LOVE LUUURVVE the new ribbon- had no idea that this would happen, it is one of my favorite things on the A6 and allows you to get "really physical" with playing the synth. I agree the current prototype looks a bit ugly- may I suggest making the ribbon fairly dark, and perhaps minimizing (or even eliminating) any markings on it? Maybe just some subtle "fret marks" on the synth itself, and leave the ribbon plain?

First time I have seen the colored wheels. Might have to add that to my preorder. Love that it is controllable, my Voyager has the red "Fire" wheels which look great in the dark, I never did like the harsh blue.

Oh yeah, the controllable vocal filter- that is going to be fun. I assume it will be controllable from the ribbon and wheels (simultaneously even?) also? And while we're at it, maybe we can see some other filters in the future, like perhaps CS-80/GX-1 style filters?
I second the vote for the GX1/CS80 filters. One of the secrets to the CS80 sound is the Sine Wave sub-oscillators that feed with the sound into the filters (something almost everyone forgets to mention as a key part of the deep sound).
Yeah, adding sinewaves to a signal is a typical trick in the CSxx synths. I would love to see this implemented, too.
John Bowen
Site Admin
Posts: 2002
Joined: Sat Apr 07, 2007 3:00 am
Contact:

Post by John Bowen »

I got to play with a CS-60 today - the filters sounded very smooth.
Does anyone know the technical details of these (being lazy and not searching the Web yet)?
-John B.
Post Reply

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 19 guests