John Bowen introduces the Solaris hardware synth

John Cooper · Post by **John Cooper** » Wed Mar 28, 2007 9:53 am

Awesome achievement John. Congratulations!!

Now try to get some sleep before the sales storm hits!

-John

reflex · Post by **reflex** » Wed Mar 28, 2007 9:53 am

John managed to squeeze in an interview about the Solaris a few days before Messe. It was a lot of fun to talk with him about his new baby - he's a wonderful person to interview because of his sincerity and enthusiasm.

Here's a link to our chat on CDM:

http://createdigitalmusic.com/2007/03/2 ... nthesizer/

Joxer the Mighty · Post by **Joxer the Mighty** » Wed Mar 28, 2007 10:05 am

Just another 'Congrats John!'.

It's quite exciting to see hardware Solaris become a reality!

Post by **irrelevance** » Wed Mar 28, 2007 10:13 am

="Shayne White"]

I assume more information will be released soon so that we'll have an idea of its features? Does it do the things the software Solaris could do, like analog, FM, rotor, vector mixing, wavetable, etc.?

I'd like to know how much of the original routing is in there. What about modular slots? Can you imagine being able to connect this up to a computer and download a mod patch into memory and be able to tweak from the front panel or even add other osc slots to make a huge monster patch!

Post by **irrelevance** » Wed Mar 28, 2007 10:19 am

Also imagining updated scope modules being compatible and transferable between the new Scope cards and Solaris. Or Flexor and blackbox loaded in hardware

Joxer the Mighty · Post by **Joxer the Mighty** » Wed Mar 28, 2007 10:59 am

Shayne White wrote: I assume more information will be released soon so that we'll have an idea of its features? Does it do the things the software Solaris could do, like analog, FM, rotor, vector mixing, wavetable, etc.?

Here are a couple closeup shots found at matrixsynth.com

http://bp0.blogger.com/_FMBJEkaC8Lw/Rgl ... G_4004.JPG

http://bp2.blogger.com/_FMBJEkaC8Lw/Rgg ... G_4011.JPG

fortune · Post by **fortune** » Wed Mar 28, 2007 11:41 am

Well, I was happy to meet John today at MusikMesse and to see/listen to his fantastic baby. It's got a really convincing sophisticated structure with a huge amount of sonic possibilities and an amazing soundengine. One of the major benefits is there are dedicated display sections with knobs and switches at each group (oscs, filter etc.) for convenient tweaking while still having a good overview on other settings. A real hardware gem to put ones hands on!

H.G. Fortune

valis · Post by **valis** » Wed Mar 28, 2007 11:45 am

I recognize those shots

http://www.johnbowen.com/images/closeups/IMG_4003.jpg
http://www.johnbowen.com/images/closeups/IMG_4004.jpg
http://www.johnbowen.com/images/closeups/IMG_4005.jpg
http://www.johnbowen.com/images/closeups/IMG_4006.jpg
http://www.johnbowen.com/images/closeups/IMG_4013.jpg

filesizes should be more manageable and things are a bit more consistant across the shots.

Joxer the Mighty · Post by **Joxer the Mighty** » Wed Mar 28, 2007 11:47 am

Oh sweet...thanks Valis. So, are u the original source of the anonymous submissions to Matrixsynth?

Just found this interview:
http://createdigitalmusic.com/2007/03/2 ... nthesizer/

valis · Post by **valis** » Wed Mar 28, 2007 12:14 pm

I posted these same ones just a little while ago, but I didn't post those originals that you're linking to. The source of theose is probably either John or one of the SonicCore guys, as John shot them and gave them to me as well (for his website). I would have put them up earlier but I have been busy as heck the last 48 hours, and they rank in at 600-700Kb+ each in the originals (which is a bit of a bandwidth hit imo, save that bandwidth for the audio samples!). I have now reduced them down to roughly 60-70k each & adjusted the colors a bit.

Shayne White · Post by **Shayne White** » Wed Mar 28, 2007 12:55 pm

Those screenshots are really good...it looks like it's the same general layout/design as the software Solaris (but with new guts!). Drool, drool....

I feel all warm and fuzzy inside...the pre/post volume button for the mixer modulation output was my idea, and I helped out with the modulation design for the mixer inputs. I'm not demanding I get credit for anything, though.

Maybe someday I'll be able to afford this thing.

Shayne

dawman · Post by **dawman** » Wed Mar 28, 2007 2:17 pm

Dear John,
Don't sell this sucka' 4 nuttin' under 2 large.

sonicstrav · Post by **sonicstrav** » Wed Mar 28, 2007 2:25 pm

Great - I said Solaris was as good as hardware - now it is hardware !!!

Cool!

Congrats, John !

hifiboom · Post by **hifiboom** » Wed Mar 28, 2007 2:26 pm

Shayne White wrote:Those screenshots are really good...it looks like it's the same general layout/design as the software Solaris (but with new guts!). Drool, drool....

I feel all warm and fuzzy inside...the pre/post volume button for the mixer modulation output was my idea, and I helped out with the modulation design for the mixer inputs. I'm not demanding I get credit for anything, though.

Maybe someday I'll be able to afford this thing.

Shayne

I`m really interested how much better that sounds than the Solaris plug-in version.

but if they managed to port all these modules to the new SHARCs in that short time, they may port the complete Scope stuff to the new SHARCS without a bigger problem, too ...

sooner or later.

katano · Post by **katano** » Wed Mar 28, 2007 2:52 pm

ahh, i can see usb and spdif, very good, very good

alfonso · Post by **alfonso** » Wed Mar 28, 2007 3:03 pm

Awesome product.

What makes me happy for it is to see how a dream remains a dream also when it becomes reality if the passion and the knowledge are given the opportunity to fly high.

For what I can see this "thing" has been done as it should, with no compromise, bravo John!

husker · Post by **husker** » Wed Mar 28, 2007 3:49 pm

I wonder how long they have been developing this thing (in secret with SonicCore)....quite an amazing achievement when it's not actually based on Scope.

johnbowen · Post by **johnbowen** » Wed Mar 28, 2007 4:26 pm

Hi All,

I've just had my first chance to read through all the comments....I want to say, I really appreciate all the great congatulatory comments and enthusiasm expressed - it means a tremendous amount to me, because you are my First Community. I was not going to post, as I'm REALLY tired, and it's now 2:00AM, but I felt I had to.

Most especially moving to me was alfonso's comment about a dream becoming a reality. I can't express how much impact that statement has, as it's something that hit me the day before we went public, but I hadn't really articulated it to anyone. Seeing this come about is an amazing result of much perserverance, hope, faith and confidence in that the thing you are doing will be the right thing, etc. If I told you how many times I heard negative about the idea (and from some very respected and knowledgable people I might add, who now are expressing wonderful words of support), you would be even more surprised that it has actually made it through to this point! Thank you, alfonso, for posting that!

Now, quickly to a few other points:

Shayne - Except for the ModularWindows and RD module functions, all of the Scope Solaris' functions are (or will be) implemented just the same in the hardware. As I've already stated in the press release, no Scope dsp modules were harmed (or used) in the creation of this project, for the main reason that it would have been illegal to do so. Holger and Juergen are men of very high ethical standards, I can tell you. Now that the situation has changed, and they have the rights to put in whatever converted modules from the library that we deem needed, I hope we can do just that, but this will take quite a bit of time. Keep in mind that they have only recently become involved as the keepers of the flame for Scope and Creamware products - there's no way one could convert the dsp modules to work on the new platform in 3 weeks' time!!

As it's still quite a prototype, I haven't had it long enough to even compare the sound against the Scope version, but if anything, the keyboard version should sound a bit smoother and clearer in the top end, with less aliasing (except where desired, such as wavetable or VS waves).

It's been hard to convince some people at the show that there's no Creamware-related code or hidden Scope boards inside, but this is indeed the case....everything used is newly developed, both in the code and the hardware boards, so just let this show the abilities of the SonicCore guys to bring something fairly sophisticated like this to life in a relatively short time - the project got under way in September/October. As a closing comment on this, just know that I believe for the future, we are all in good hands.

cheers,
john b

p.s. and yes, shayne is the cause of that Post button in there! Heck of a thing to explain to people on the show, though....

husker · Post by **husker** » Wed Mar 28, 2007 5:16 pm

I'm stunned at what you and SonicCore have achieved since October! This bodes well for the future of Scope in SonicCore's hands.

I forked out plenty of $$$$ form my Andromeda...maybe the Solaris will be a good digital partner

Release it when it is ready in terms of quality...then add features later and people will buy buy buy!

There is nothing like a reliable product + free incremental feature updates to keep users very very happy (compared to too many features, but not reliable at launch). Plus every incremental update is a new excuse to do press releases - keep reminding people!

dawman · Post by **dawman** » Wed Mar 28, 2007 7:07 pm

All I Can Say Is The Time To Strike Was Perfect !!

There is no competition. Scope Is re-born with this extreme statement.

This Time Around, I AM A CONTENDER.

CAN'T TOUCH THIS......................................................M.C. HAMMER

PlanetZ forums - scopeusers.com

John Bowen introduces the Solaris hardware synth

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