Using Solaris with Kronos...

[serena-5]

Tonight, I was playing the Solaris along with my Kronos 88...and I can only describe it as musical heaven !! The Kronos is a rompler-dream, with the best sampled orchestral strings out (IMHO, better than Kurzweil, Yamaha, and Roland). But it's solo and ensemble analog sounds sound extremely pale when played alongside the Solaris, which to me sounds reminiscent of the multi-tracked Moog things of years past. I still can't get over the fact that this thing is digital...it breathes !! And the Oberheim and Moog patches in the first two banks totally kick butt. Has anyone else compared this to the sounds of other VA's of current vintage (Access, Clavia, Waldorf, etc)...actually compared them side by side ??
John, I know that this is probably redundant, but how do you duplicate the old Mini trick of feeding the output into the input, and clipping (overdriving ??) the sound ala Jan Hammer ?? I saw a video where you did just that, but I couldn't make out how you did it. Loved that sound...
ps...I think I speak for most, if not all, of we first-run buyers...THANKS A TON for sticking with this Solaris project to completion !!

[John Bowen]

Thanks for such nice words! It is very humbling and satisfying to read, especially after all the years of struggle to get this project to completion!

The Minimoog feedback ‘trick’ is used in my Bank 0 Preset 10 JB MiniFeedback Lead. If you want to increase the overdriven sound, go to the VCA and turn up the Level.

This preset takes the output of that VCA, and brings it into the Mixer 1 as the 4th input, and as this level is increased, you get that sound.

Cheers!
john b.