by TheFilterKing » Wed Jan 27, 2010 12:08 am
Hi all. After reading, and hearing, and viewing many things about the Solaris, I must say that so far for a (close to)$4000 price tag I'm not really that impressed.
First, the choice of using encoders makes me shudder. I really hate those puny things.
Second, the looks remind me very much of the Oberheim Matrix 12, with it's many displays and multi-purpose knobs, not too innovative. (but that's a personal thing I guess)
Third, there are still too many parameters lacking enough resolution, I hate zippering effects like the ones heard on some of the audio demos on this very site.
Fourth, there isn't any REAL audio demonstration of the particular behaviour of the different emulated filter types anywhere yet. I mean, a slow sweep of a lowpass filter cutoff (from max to min) having a fixed frequency (220 hz) single sawtooth oscillator as input signal with resonance on the threshold of self-oscillation, demonstrating the peculiar "cutoff frequency locking to harmonics of input signal" effect of some of these famous filters (which my Alesis Ion doesn't reproduce faithfully, read on...)
I'm 44 years old and I am the owner of an Alesis Ion (it is my only VA and I own many other real analog synths). The Ion which, so far, seems somewhat of a low cost version of the Solaris. It has 20 different filter types, some of which are modeled on famous ones like Minimoog, Oberheim, Arp, Roland, and a few others (but not the CEM however). It has a 12 virtual patch matrix with 35 sources and 75 destinations. It has real (endless) potentiometers with 12 bits resolution. Its layout is more related to an analog synth than a "computer with many small displays".
But it also has serious shortcomings: frequency response is limited to about 10khz because the engineers were sooo afraid of aliasing, that they took every step to ensure that there wasn't any. AND the behaviour of the emulated filters is not 100% faithful to the originals (I know, I've compared them side-by-side since I have access to a Minimoog, Oberheim SEM, Arp 2600, Jupiter 8, and others).
Did I mention I hate everything digital (in synths at least)? Because so far, we've been drowning in loads and loads of digital Virtual Analog crap, since about 1990 ! Underpowered JP8000 from Roland, overpriced Nord Leads full of coldness, Korg's MS2000 full of aliasing, and extremely limited polyphony, Novation overheating buggy aliased hardware, all those lousy interface Software Synths junk, etc etc...
The only significant products (synth wise) to come out in the last 10 years is the Moog Voyager (overpriced for what it offers, but hey it's a Moog!) , the Andromeda from Alesis (a bit expensive and buggy as ----) and Dave Smith's Prophet08 (reasonably priced but with those crappy encoders although a PE now exists).
But the Solaris at least uses a theoretical 32 bits high enough resolution and a reasonable (for 2010) 96khz sample playback rate. Let's see if we can FINALLY have oscillators and filters going into the 20khz frequency response like the old analog beast could with ease! (although not always in tune ':roll:')
If I were asked to fork out $4000 for a VA synth in 2010, I would want a true 10hz-20khz +/- 0.0db frequency response, INFINITE pot resolution (or at least 65536 values) for EACH analog parameters (not 1-100% in 1% steps amounts displayed, I mean like a REAL analog synth with 1-100% in .01 steps minimum), at least ALL the famous analog oscillators and filters emulated to 99.99% behaviour of the originals (not approximated reproductions), a traditional analog-synth type layout, a high quality semi-weighted action keyboard with at least 76 notes.
All this is easily possible with current technology, and the technical knowledge acquired from all those years of trial-and-ERROR VA's.
So when I read (in another thread) that John Bowen is already giving excuses for using encoders on the Solaris because of price concerns, I feel worried about what other corners did he cut, to keep the price at such an elevated level (but no higher?).
Who knows, I might be wrong. And we maybe on the edge of finally having a VA worthy of being called a "Virtual Analog Synthesizer". But I would need to be convinced further... I've been promised the Moon before only to end up with a small simili-Regolith pebble.
Sorry to ramble on...
A.H.
Hi all. After reading, and hearing, and viewing many things about the Solaris, I must say that so far for a (close to)$4000 price tag I'm not really that impressed.
First, the choice of using encoders makes me shudder. I really hate those puny things.
Second, the looks remind me very much of the Oberheim Matrix 12, with it's many displays and multi-purpose knobs, not too innovative. (but that's a personal thing I guess)
Third, there are still too many parameters lacking enough resolution, I hate zippering effects like the ones heard on some of the audio demos on this very site.
Fourth, there isn't any REAL audio demonstration of the particular behaviour of the different emulated filter types anywhere yet. I mean, a slow sweep of a lowpass filter cutoff (from max to min) having a fixed frequency (220 hz) single sawtooth oscillator as input signal with resonance on the threshold of self-oscillation, demonstrating the peculiar "cutoff frequency locking to harmonics of input signal" effect of some of these famous filters (which my Alesis Ion doesn't reproduce faithfully, read on...)
I'm 44 years old and I am the owner of an Alesis Ion (it is my only VA and I own many other real analog synths). The Ion which, so far, seems somewhat of a low cost version of the Solaris. It has 20 different filter types, some of which are modeled on famous ones like Minimoog, Oberheim, Arp, Roland, and a few others (but not the CEM however). It has a 12 virtual patch matrix with 35 sources and 75 destinations. It has real (endless) potentiometers with 12 bits resolution. Its layout is more related to an analog synth than a "computer with many small displays".
But it also has serious shortcomings: frequency response is limited to about 10khz because the engineers were sooo afraid of aliasing, that they took every step to ensure that there wasn't any. AND the behaviour of the emulated filters is not 100% faithful to the originals (I know, I've compared them side-by-side since I have access to a Minimoog, Oberheim SEM, Arp 2600, Jupiter 8, and others).
Did I mention I hate everything digital (in synths at least)? Because so far, we've been drowning in loads and loads of digital Virtual Analog crap, since about 1990 ! Underpowered JP8000 from Roland, overpriced Nord Leads full of coldness, Korg's MS2000 full of aliasing, and extremely limited polyphony, Novation overheating buggy aliased hardware, all those lousy interface Software Synths junk, etc etc...
The only significant products (synth wise) to come out in the last 10 years is the Moog Voyager (overpriced for what it offers, but hey it's a Moog!) , the Andromeda from Alesis (a bit expensive and buggy as ----) and Dave Smith's Prophet08 (reasonably priced but with those crappy encoders although a PE now exists).
But the Solaris at least uses a theoretical 32 bits high enough resolution and a reasonable (for 2010) 96khz sample playback rate. Let's see if we can FINALLY have oscillators and filters going into the 20khz frequency response like the old analog beast could with ease! (although not always in tune ':roll:')
If I were asked to fork out $4000 for a VA synth in 2010, I would want a true 10hz-20khz +/- 0.0db frequency response, INFINITE pot resolution (or at least 65536 values) for EACH analog parameters (not 1-100% in 1% steps amounts displayed, I mean like a REAL analog synth with 1-100% in .01 steps minimum), at least ALL the famous analog oscillators and filters emulated to 99.99% behaviour of the originals (not approximated reproductions), a traditional analog-synth type layout, a high quality semi-weighted action keyboard with at least 76 notes.
All this is easily possible with current technology, and the technical knowledge acquired from all those years of trial-and-ERROR VA's.
So when I read (in another thread) that John Bowen is already giving excuses for using encoders on the Solaris because of price concerns, I feel worried about what other corners did he cut, to keep the price at such an elevated level (but no higher?).
Who knows, I might be wrong. And we maybe on the edge of finally having a VA worthy of being called a "Virtual Analog Synthesizer". But I would need to be convinced further... I've been promised the Moon before only to end up with a small simili-Regolith pebble.
Sorry to ramble on...
A.H.