Comments on: Messe Interview: John Bowen Discusses The Solaris Keyboard Synthesizer

By: delamar.de

delamar.de — Sun, 16 Mar 2008 10:39:04 +0000

Musikmesse 2008: John Bowen Solaris Video…

Den Synthesizer Solaris von John Bowen hatte ich letztes Jahr als eines der wenigen Highlights der Musikmesse Frankfurt empfunden.
In diesem Jahr habe ich Euch ein Video von diesem genialen Synthesizer aus der Hand von Legende John Bowen mitgebracht. S…

By: Create Digital Music » Our Favorite Things: Music Technology Holiday Gift Picks from CDM

Wed, 12 Dec 2007 05:21:21 +0000

[...] James Grahame runs the incredible Retro Thing blog, and aside from keeping us up to date on all things hardware did a terrific interview with Solaris creator John Bowen. I’m guessing these wishes are more practical than the DIY satellite, James? [...]

By: Create Digital Music » Clavia Nord Wave Synth Details

Create Digital Music » Clavia Nord Wave Synth Details — Thu, 15 Nov 2007 21:27:03 +0000

[...] Software defensiveness aside, the synth sounds like it may be terrific. To anyone who said this was a dull Messe trade show, all I can think is that you really aren’t fond of keyboards. [...]

By: Create Digital Music » New Nord and New Gear: Photos from Musikmesse Trade Show

Thu, 15 Nov 2007 20:31:48 +0000

[...] Our friend Rainer Knobloch got to spend a few hours on the Messe show floor, so we politely pointed him to some of the gear that inspired the most drool. Topping the list, of course, is Clavia’s new Nord Wave, just because Clavia hasn’t yet published anything on their site. (More Nord details coming later today; sorry for the delay.) But we also learn via these photos just how cool the Arturia Origin’s flip-up panel looks, and we get to see John Bowen cradle his new synth, the Solaris. (See our interview.) [...]

By: Anderson

Anderson — Fri, 11 May 2007 06:06:44 +0000

As a film composer I am always on the lookout for great synth. This appears to be a great machine. Can’t wait to use it in my work. Cheers JB and congrats.

By: Blueibis

Blueibis — Fri, 11 May 2007 06:03:33 +0000

As a film composer I am always on the lookout for great synths. This machine sounds like it’ll cut the 2 week pre-compose set-up of my hard ware and software synths to about 2 weeks of musical mayhem super-wide sounds for my score. Congrats JB, think you’ve got the best thing since……..well everything in synths lined up in this Solaris, can’t wait to see + hear it. cheers

By: Delius

Delius — Sun, 08 Apr 2007 02:48:00 +0000

Bravo, thums up for the Solaris.Soft synths are like virtual sex!Leave the computer you retardeds and go chase real girls, real boobs!
Stop playing with soft synth and go HARDCORE!
Nobodys knows how to play an instrument anymore!
There are a lot of ” musicians ” that know everything about plug-ins and soft synths,but don`t know a chord because the computer plays for him.
Real musicians play real instruments!Avé.

By: questions » Blog Archive » Messe Interview: John Bowen Discusses The Solaris Keyboard Synthesizer

Sat, 31 Mar 2007 21:31:21 +0000

[...] Original post by James Grahame [...]

By: Damon

Damon — Sat, 31 Mar 2007 03:20:40 +0000

Does it come with a trailer?

“Yes, Honey, I know you want to park the CAR in the garage, but LISTEN TO THIS THING!”

By: Valis

Valis — Thu, 29 Mar 2007 18:27:41 +0000

This synth is not really comparable to the Virus, in fact if anything it’s the antithesis of the Virus. Rather than using ‘low dsp’ algorithms that give high polyphony, the Solaris seems to focus on loading all the dsp power the Virus would spread out among 16 patches and 192 ‘theoretical’ voices into a single patch with things like audiorate modulation (very dsp heavy), ready access to all parameters for realtime control without clumsy tacked on button combinations, a semi-modular design with access to a huge variety of components to be loaded into each ’slot’, and so on.

Mind you I have a Virus here myself. I think I would actually compare the Solaris more to Dave Smith’s keyboard, or perhaps Waldorf’s offerings. I’m not sure that works either though, as the Solaris seems to have a signal path that is a bit different than your typical “sum X number of oscs and run through Y number of filters” architecture.