Thread John Bowen Synth Design Solaris at Musikmess 2009

Review of the solaris at Musikmess 2009

The Solaris has well evolved since last musikmess in 2008: I only saw pictures recently, from Namm and such, but seeing it for real makes a different impression, the sound of some oscillators functions like the drive of peaks (i don't remember the exact name of the parameter right now) etc have excellent sonic results, very high grade design with new engines and such....


The 96khz sampling rate, added to the new engines and R&D for Solaris, makes it a really fantastic synth, with deep design/routing possibilities....

It is much better than an origin and if you know Scope/Xite technolgy, well at 96khz and on the dedicated hardware it sounds absolutely fantastic.

It is not a "one button does it all" , as there is a lot going on in terms of routing, oscillators, filters, modulations.... It is deep, not that complicated, but you have to take an hour or two to understand all the functions and how it is made, and I didn't have all that time, and neither did John who needed to answer visitors' questions.

NB:; the re is also a ribbon controller which is not shown on the picture on this site.
The ribbon is thick and have a better touch than the generally ribbon on most synths, and which i never liked the touch of them. The one on the solaris is thicker and softer, and eventhough it is a bit surprising at the begining, it feels much better than the "solid" ones.