Multitimbrality

[Octupole]

Indeed that looks very very nice. Thank you for the preview and the continued work on the OS!

I am not sure if I understood correctly: will the multi presets be a new kind of object stored on the CF card? If yes, will they point to the single presets, or will they contain an independent copy of them? Will they have an independent storage structure (e.g. multi banks), or do they share the current structure with the single presets?

Another question concerning the voice count: how will this work together with the poly chain mode? If you have a slave unit connected to the master, the total voice count will be 20 instead of 10. Can you specify to the master whether a slave unit is connected, or how is this managed?

[chapolin]

So good !
It look to be easy and pleasant to use it, many thanks !

[John Bowen]

Indeed that looks very very nice. Thank you for the preview and the continued work on the OS!

I am not sure if I understood correctly: will the multi presets be a new kind of object stored on the CF card? If yes, will they point to the single presets, or will they contain an independent copy of them? Will they have an independent storage structure (e.g. multi banks), or do they share the current structure with the single presets?

Another question concerning the voice count: how will this work together with the poly chain mode? If you have a slave unit connected to the master, the total voice count will be 20 instead of 10. Can you specify to the master whether a slave unit is connected, or how is this managed?

So, the old preset format will be changed. Once you load an older preset, it ‘becomes’ a new larger multi-preset, but we aren’t making a distinction of a whole new object type - it’s just the ‘new preset format’. Once you save it as such, it won’t be compatible with older OS systems. What I'm doing now is putting all of the modified presets into a new Bank while I work on things. Anyone who does not have the v2.0 OS will not be able to read the new format presets, of course.

The structure of the new preset format simply mutliplies the amount of data held, so you can load 4 different sounds, then edit them, and store them as an entirely new preset. They don’t ‘point’ or refer to any other object.

With the voice expander, I am able to use PolyChain just as you would expect (if I have the same preset loaded in both). If a part has 2 voices assigned, but I have PolyChain turned on, the first two voices play locally and the next two play out to the voice expander. this happens for each part. (And if the expander has a different preset, well it will play whatever it can from the assignment in that preset).

Cheers,
JB

[synthwalker]

Hi John, great job as always... can't wait !
What will hapen to V1 presets when reading the CF Card with a V2 Solaris ? Do we have to convert each even if we don't need to change anything or will the V2 Solaris seamlessly read them ?

[John Bowen]

V2.0 will read the v1 presets just fine. It’s just the reverse you cannot do. All V2 presets are 4 times the size of V1 presets, and have all the extra parameters for Multimode.

[t_tangent]

This is fantastic news John, thanks for the video, and this will certainly add a new dimension to Solaris, especially when used together with the upcoming expansion module. Note to self: may be time to sell my Polyevolver rack to fund the Solaris rack.

[stefanovic]

Very good news John, both the new OS and the expander!
I was wondering if the expander could be used as a "regular second solaris" : with one solaris keybard unit, we will be able to have up to 4 parts if I understood well. Thus, with two solaris keyboard units, we can have up to 8 parts. Will the expander enable to have 8 parts as well? And if so, how will the 4 supplemental parts be edited on a connected keyboard unit?

[John Bowen]

Very good news John, both the new OS and the expander!
I was wondering if the expander could be used as a "regular second solaris" : with one solaris keyboard unit, we will be able to have up to 4 parts if I understood well. Thus, with two solaris keyboard units, we can have up to 8 parts. Will the expander enable to have 8 parts as well? And if so, how will the 4 supplemental parts be edited on a connected keyboard unit?

So, the expander uses exactly the same motherboard as the keyboard. You just don’t have any front panel (obviously) to control it. To have an arrangement where you have 8 parts, you need to set each part on a different MIDI Channel. The sounds you would use for each part would be stored on the CF card, just as you have with the keyboard. Keep in mind that you are also limited in this case to 10 voices for the first 4 parts, and 10 voices for the expander’s 4 parts.

If you want to use a DAW to sequence 8 parts, you would then (1) connect MIDI Out from the keyboard into your DAW, (2) then MIDI Out from the DAW to both the keyboard and the expander, making sure the Solaris keyboard’s output is being fed through the DAW to the outputs. With SysEx Transmit On for the keyboard, and SysEx Receive set On for the expander, you would just need to change the MIDI Device ID to match the expander’s ID, and then all front panel edits would occur on the slave unit. Also, to play and listen to the other parts, you’d just change the base MIDI channel of the keyboard to play each part in the expander, one by one.

There is also a command on MIDI page 2 called 'Xmit Pre’, which stands for ’Transmit Preset’. Turning this to ‘Active' and pressing Enter sends over the keyboard’s current preset edit buffer to the expander. At the moment, while there is a SysEx command to save that preset to the expander’s CF card, it’s not yet implemented to do that from a keyboard Solaris, but this will be looked into.

[stefanovic]

This is perfectly clear, thanks!

[gundorf]

do you think the patch chain will still be valid? (.. which I find reaally fun!! ..)
please!!

[John Bowen]

do you think the patch chain will still be valid? (.. which I find really fun!! ..)
please!!

We’ve been discussing this, as it does present a significant challenge to the new structure. I’m afraid we will probably be unable to continue with this feature, although you will be able to duplicate 4 sounds stacked with the new Multimode OS.

[jgale]

This is great news!

Will you be able to use the sequencer / arpeggiator on select parts and turn these off for other parts?

John

[John Bowen]

This is great news!

Will you be able to use the sequencer / arpeggiator on select parts and turn these off for other parts?

Yes.

[jgale]

This is great news!

Will you be able to use the sequencer / arpeggiator on select parts and turn these off for other parts?

Yes.

Excellent - can't wait!

[gundorf]

do you think the patch chain will still be valid? (.. which I find really fun!! ..)
please!!

We’ve been discussing this, as it does present a significant challenge to the new structure. I’m afraid we will probably be unable to continue with this feature, although you will be able to duplicate 4 sounds stacked with the new Multimode OS.

Would the round robin be available with multimode os?
Thank you for all your work!!