John Bowen's Solaris Update

From the Planetz forums:

I think that's a good move. I like to see things done well with a minimum fo extra time invested. 3 months will seem like nothing 3 years from now.

Of course, he'll miss the "Christmas rush" but who the hell gets a synth for Christmas?

As said in the other thread, Christmas sucks for gear because you're too busy spending the cash on family members .

I think it's about time to post some nice mp3 demos though.

Is that the final interface design?

Wasn't there talk of a joystick being added?

I think they should go with this design.

Two wheels and no stick makes Solaris a eu-nuch.

http://www.plughugger.com/4/post/2011/03/the-solaris-diary-part-one.html

http://www.plughugger.com/4/post/2011/03/the-solaris-diary-part-two.html

Bernard, you know it's not a Roland product, right?

I think they should go with this design.

Wow! We've come such a long, long way since then...

:love:

Those demos have some amazing bass sounds.

Don't worry, he will find a way to lavishly praise Roland here, just like he just did in the Radikal Accelerator thread

GS had a longer thread, after 170 posts this was John's comment:

''Having read through this entire thread now, I have some comments to make.

It seems that the focus of criticism is around the price mostly, followed by the digital sounding nature of the synth, and the absence of MultiTimbre mode.

I don't understand the negativity about the price, as if I'm trying to 'cheat' people by charging so much, or whatever. The unit costs what it costs. It's pretty obvious - if something is too expensive, one just doesn't buy it. I'd like to have an Audi, for example, but there's no way I could ever afford one, so...but I don't criticize Audi for making it too expensive; I just have to look for something else.

My guess regarding the 'digital vs. analog' debate here is that the Solaris is not going to satisfy most of those who are looking for the 'old analog sound'. Yes, there are emulative models of older analog designs in there, but it's more than just modeling that gives a synth it's character. The signal paths, the little bits of circuitry that affect things in the old gear...all of that goes into part of the character of the old analog units, and I haven't heard anything on the market that really does analog well that is not analog. The Virus, the Nord, these both have a following for the sound they make, but they are very, VERY far from sounding truly analog.

Note that this didn't stop them from being used to make a lot of music!

And so it is with the Solaris. I hope people will find it a useful tool to help create the soundscapes they hear in their minds. The Solaris will present some new opportunities to try out ideas that haven't been available before on a digital synth, and that is exciting to me...to see what creative types will do with it. (The area of treating samples is one that I obviously haven't focused on much, but I think will be quite interesting, in that you can fully mess with the frequency modulation and sample rate reduction of a sample). There's also the fact that you have 4 External Audio Inputs, and can process these using any of the synth parameters, among many other things.

Yes, there's no MultiMode yet. It is planned, but time and resources dictate that this waits until a future OS. There's still several other features I'd like to add, but the whole project has taken much longer than anyone anticipated, and the delays have already generated quite a bit of negativity themselves, generally by people who have no idea of the circumstances.

I feel incredibly honored by all those who have put so much faith in me - and who have shown so much patience while we all wait for the Solaris to be finished. To the extent that I haven't provided adequate demos for some of you, or the proper kind of marketing that you'd like to see, or whatever...I'm sorry, but my primary duty has been to all of my pre-order customers, and I've tried to keep them updated and informed as to what was going on as best I could. For much of this time, I have been waiting for things as much as anyone else has!

Once everyone has their units, I'm sure you will see a variety of comments, both positive and negative. My hope is that the Solaris will be able to join the 'family' of synthesizers that people like to use and keep, and that it provides some inspiration over the long term as we develop and mature it in the future.

Sincerely,

John Bowen''

I don't think that the price is bad at all, especially for a boutique specialty synth, from a small maker.

Seriously, compared to synths like the JP-80 ($3500), or Moog Voyager ($3300), or especially the Voyager XL ($4999)....the Solaris seems VERY reasonably priced.

Especially when one considers all the innovative synthesis methods it includes, AND when you consider he's using a lot of Sonic Core parts....I had a Sonic Core Prodyssey, and DAMN it sounded good (The only reason I sold was because I hated the slider/modulation interface). I don't know if its the A/D converters or what.

BTW, that synth is beautiful, in both cream and black. I would probably get the cream one. Ribbons are the bee's knees.

I have never liked the look of it, but I think it will go down in history with the Radikal Technologies Accelerator and the Arturia Origin as the best digital synths of their type. My interest in the Jupiter-80 follows a very different purchase logic and so I will not include that in a top three list, even though it's the one I will most likely buy.

Out of those top three J

Having ordered my Solaris in January 2008, I was one of the early investors.

The Solaris appealed to me at that time not only because of it's open Operating System, which could be updated as John developed more features, but also because I am a huge John Bowen fan. His work with Dave Smith, and later on the Korg Wavestation, plus his affiliation with the Sonic Core sealed the deal for me.

I had to sell some of my synth babies to afford the prepayment but I felt it was worth it.

Little did we know at the time how long this creation would drag on.

John kept all of his preorder customers informed with constant updates on everything that was going on, and I mean everything.

As he said in his comments, many do not know the many difficulties that he faced, some of them personal in nature.

John has always listened to his customers, asking for suggestions, and many times implementing features customers requested.

I must admit there were times I was so frustrated, throwing my hands up in the air when another delay was announced, whispering to myself"that's it, I'm cancelling my order".

But then I would ask myself what would I buy with the money I received in a refund, and I would think there was nothing I wanted more than my white Solaris.

Anyone who has worked in manufacturing(I have), knows there is always a long delay between conception and the final product. Prototype units are like a lump of modeling clay which is used to shape the form of the final product.

Vendors are famous for promising final production dates, and then delaying them, mostly because the first production runs of a product usually result in discovering the errors between a blueprint and the final product.

John Bowen is not a Roland, Korg or Access company. They can buy vendor items in large quantities, and in doing so keep the costs down. John is buying parts in small quantities, therefore he is paying more for them.

John has invested much of his own money into the production of the Solaris, and I can most certainly say he will be lucky if he breaks even on the first 50 units.

I can understand the frustration from so many who have seen Solaris continually delayed, and it's price point. However, I'm saddened John had to explain himself in an open forum to many who will never buy a Solaris, or who don't even care about it.

As far as the price goes, I just received an email from the Tom Oberheim site, and the announcement the 4 voice SEM will be sold for $3495..well worth every penny if you ask me, and it's pretty close to the price of a Solaris.

The glaring irony is this thread began nearly 4 years ago.

As the saying goes, ''haters are gonna hate''

If you removed all the comments from people that would never really buy that product there would be very few negative comments left...

All power to John for being brave enough to bring such a specialised product to market...

John's dedication to the project is laudable, but the problem in producing something like this -- much like writing a book -- is that it never seems finished. This is a problem when a perfectionist has sole control over the time frame of production and commercial release. Perfection never actually arrives. There's *always* going to be more you could do, more features you could implement, changes in the interface that would be "better." But, like a book, at some point you have to just declare it done -- warts and all.

I'm not saying this necessarily to be critical. I don't intend to buy a Solaris, though it looks like a fine synth. The situation is just eerily similar to the plight of some academic writers I've known. Perfectionism tends to lead people in circles, or on an endless quest as the case may be, since the target or destination keeps moving.

Eventually the perfectionist gets used to *not* being satisfied with what he's done, and *that* actually becomes the program.

It uses Shark DSP's as I understand it and I know that Arturia admitted they took on more than they realised when they did the Origin, I can only assume the development tools are not as good as is available for PC software etc... Anyone on the waiting list will know all the details in any case but what you say is very true in life, sometimes we have to complete the project and move on... The good thing in this case is that it seems the buyers are mostly behind John and looking forward to the enhancements...

It's good that his base of customers is generally supportive. I also understand that this is a labor of love, and a lot of the usual rules don't apply. I think Mr. Bowen's amazing track record justifies at least that much.

Personally, I admire bold acts of vision. Every now and then, somebody creates a fantastically advanced synth not because 50,000 people will buy it, but because it's technologically feasible. It's an expression of ideals.

I hope it's a great success.