John Bowen Synth Design

I am super pleased to report that I received my white Solaris today! Bought it on December 10, 2007 and here it is finally on my doorstep October 25, 2011...and you know what? The wait was worth it! My first impressions out of the box were that the synth is gorgeous and the build quality is very high. But of course once I powered it up and had a few minutes to play, it didn't matter how it looked because it sounds AMAZING. Here are some unpacking pics...took them late at night so the lighting is bad, but hope you can sense the excitement I had opening this box. Can't remember the last time I was this thrilled to get a new synth.

To fellow pre-order customers waiting for your units, hope you have as much fun unpacking yours and powering it up the first time as I did!

Thanks John and all of the Solaris team... not only for making your dream synth a reality but for sharing that reality with me.
Now the fun REALLY begins.

Howie

Oh man, that is soooo beautiful! Glad to see the white Solari are getting into people's hands. congrats!

OUUAAAHHH ! Cool man !
Which sérial number have you ?

How exciting! I was happy to see all those white front panels on the rack in Germany! Enjoy you Solaris and post a demo if you can!

I was order #17, placed December 10, 2007. As for the serial number on my Solaris, there is NO sticker of any kind on the outside (unlike what appears to be a sticker on JimmyV's unit in the photos), but under the system info page on the main LCD I see "Serial 032dac5b". Might be that Sonic Core had their serial number system on their builds, but now that HMT is handling production the assignment system has changed...? I'm guessing either my unit turned out to be #32, or that some further deciphering of that code is necessary.

Howie

Update: John saw my post above about not having a serial number sticker, and shot me an email saying that there indeed should have been one on the unit. So they are mailing me the sticker to apply myself. And guess what? Serial # 00017 after all! Thanks John!

Howie

Ok , just less 40 units to wait ! Good Life solaris !

I'm guessing that embedded serial isn't related to your actual serial number of 17 at all. Bits 6-10 have 10001 in binary (17), but bit 11 is in use already so there's no way to encode more than 32 serial numbers in that location.

epoxy2600 wrote:I am super pleased to report that I received my white Solaris today! Bought it on December 10, 2007 and here it is finally on my doorstep October 25, 2011...and you know what? The wait was worth it!

epoxy2600 ... thank you thank you for sharing. I think my unit will look identical to yours, and this is exactly the kind of warm and fuzzy I was hoping for in starting this thread to SEE what is happening during the trickle out period. I'm excited again, and now forced to figure out WHERE in my studio I will actually put the bad boy ... guess something is going into the closet

So happy to see folks getting their units after so long (YAY JOHN!!!!) ... and super happy to see white ones headed out into the world. Looking forward to some YouTube vids at some point (I know I'm going to do one on my iPhone 4S, as that is so easy it's silly not to do one...) hearing the sounds in play. WOW, unboxing never looked so good.

I'm kind of punchy ... eating mex food and margaritas... dreaming of solaris ...

I have been eating Chimichangas in Brown Enchilada sauce ( My Beaner bro next doors' wife threw a party for Jose and me today, we each get our retirements checks the same Friday every month ) and chugging Patron Margaritas.......Mi Estas Ma Tondo Pinchy Way...

Naturally I sleep for Solaris and have no gigs except for chosen Convention gigs and special weekenders, no more 6 nights a week for a while. Classic and Prog Rock has tortured me too long. Now I do Soalris music, which means I make a preset, than write a tune, and this synth makes anyone creative...

JBowen, MarcoPolo, Hummel and a few of Scarrs presets are great lessons if you dig through them.'
Solaris has the finest Ring Modulator I ever played, with the excessive routings, and CS80 quality, it's a Diamnond in the Rough.....

I didin't want anyone thinking I was rich so I have put an M Audio Decal over the Solaris logo, it look great.......

Here’s a blog written by a new Solaris owner: http://sequence15.blogspot.com/2011_10_01_archive.html

There are a few points needing correction or clarification (which I’ve sent him), but overall I think it will give a good feel for what all the Solaris can do.

One of the problems he mentions is with his velocity and aftertouch, and it reminds me to point out that one needs to make sure there are good values set for the Velocity and Aftertouch Tables (found on page 3 of the Home page group). I set the INIT patches to have useful values, so in general it shouldn’t be a problem.

Technically there should be no issues with either one, but you can always try to re-calibrate things if a problem continues. New users should check the User Guide for exact information on how to use the Calibration Menu (Appendix 6, page 59).

-john b.

No more new owner since epoxy2600?

John Bowen wrote:Here’s a blog written by a new Solaris owner: http://sequence15.blogspot.com/2011_10_01_archive.html

Wow, if Dave was #37 I should be in the pipes here shortly.

Dave was #18......

jb

Nice to see all the Solari with custom color wheels