John Bowen Synth Design

Neotrope wrote:Finally got my Solaris on Friday; only gone through some of it - bank 3 sounds amazing!!
A long strange trip from concept to reality, but great job John.

Wow, that's one helluva Solaris synth sandwich! Please tell us your serial number!?

Oh... my s/n is 0039 I believe.

White case, no lighted wheels, wood end caps (aluminum ends ordered separately). Rec'd April 1.

After I get my business taxes done, I'll be posting an in-depth review, for those interested in such things. More later

The sound quality is really noticeable, has real analog "bite" to it that I don't get with, oh say, my Nord Lead 3. Really has a clarity and blow the windows off power to the sound. Spongy analog blistery sound, that only analog traditionally does well (you know what I mean when you hear it ... "fizzy" might be the word... ). Wow. Still haven't had time to really dig in, had April 1 deadline, which has run over, and t hen taxes this weekend. So, NEXT weekend will be able to really get into it. Will shoot a video too of me playing, since I have my little Sony vidcam which does decent audio off the 202/20 speakers.

HAZAHHH!

After I get my business taxes done, I'll be posting an in-depth review, for those interested in such things. More later

nice looking forward to that, if you can capture a lot of high quality sound samples that would be awesome!

WOhoOO!!!!!

I am *so* looking forward to getting my SOLARIS TOO!!!! I just got my CHROMA ENABLER from Randel Osborne --- what a great job he did!!! Total real-time control for the Rhodes (ARP) Chroma. I know that only one other keyboard is going to be up to the task of playing with it and my CS80 and that's the SOLARIS. I saw the online pics and I am just tickled pink and excited about it!

Cheers

I almost bought a CS80 last week. The 'gods' were telling me it was time. First, there was one in Long Beach, about 20 miles from me (sold for abou $11K); hemmed/hawwed, chose not to (I'm trying to save up for house). THEN, a week later, one came up for sale, recently serviced... literally blocks away from me in Redondo Beach... and I went back forth on that. Traded some emails with the guy ... was ready to buy, and then very painfully decided I needed to stay focused on buying a house, since the prices have come down in my home town here where I can "almost" afford to buy again after 10 years of whacky inflated So. Calif. pricing. Pain!!!!!! What a choice ... CS80, or new home. That was really really reallllllllllly hard choice to make. So, enjoy your CS80 for me. My envy is showing all over

I owned a CS-80 back a few years ago- it completely cured me of any desire for a "vintage" synth. Even though it had just been serviced by (famous shop in SFO), including installing the Kenton MIDI mod, things on it kept failing and acting quirky, and it was impossible to tune correctly. I sold it (broke even at the time) to someone who could handle the maintenance chores. Now I await my Solaris, and the only analogs I would consider are modern- StudioElectronics (actually owned an Omega8 for awhile, sold it but would reconsider if they update the OS sometime this millennium), Tom Oberheim (that So4V looks intriguing, but will probably be $6000 or so), and that Schmidt 8-voice (in case I ever win the lottery). Also had an Andromeda for a decade, very nice but I sold it to finance the Solaris.

The CS80 does take special care and it is overhead - but the Chroma compares really well to it also, especially with the poly pressure addon by Chris Borman on the Chroma site. You can find my older CS80 videos on Youtube as Galaxiesmerge CS80 --- I have not found another synth that gets that tone. I sent a letter to ask about buying a Schmidt --- we'll see what they say. In any case, I did invest in a Modcan system about 18 months ago (112 modules) and when you get that tuned and hooked up to a Haken Continuun or a Kurzweil Midiboard, I have to say it does sound great. I have an album coming out later this year but I am awaiting to the SOLARIS as I would like to use on the tracks. Overall, the modern analogs sound really good too and you can get the CS80 filters on those --- I am not going to sell mine since it holds its tuning and works well though I am having it refurbished by someone with the skills and experience to do it right.. I am drooling over waiting the SOLARIS so I hope production will restart soon to complete the run of units. I think with an instrument like the SOLARIS, you can definitely approach analog especially if the random parameters and the other features are added later

I haven't added the CS80 filters to my CODE8-OD as another owner told me the current batch of MOTM-inspired filter packs are not as "juicy" as the first batch due to circuits used... I still like it...I still like my Alesis Andromeda, also; but ... trying to decide right now what to sell/keep for the house adventure. Selling the Yamaha 02r96v2 with all the addon boards + Console furniture, my (brand new) Hammond XK3 setup, Jomox Sunsyn (sigh), Kawai K5000s, Korg Poly800/EX800, Roland Vsynth XT, Supernova II rack, Nord Lead 3 KB, Dave Smith Polyeveolver KB+rack (polychained = 8 voices vs 4), Waldorf Q rack (yellow), 2 Matrix 1000 racks (white+black), Akai MPC4000, Ensoniq Fizmo; Korg Triton Extreme w/MOSS 88key, Kurzweil K2661 w/SCSI drive + sampling card; custom Hartman Neuron hack-rack mount unit (funky); Roland XV5050 with the world and vintage synth cards; Motif ES Rack with the modeling and DX cards; Yamaha FS1R; etc. etc. (waaaaaaah!!!!). Already sold the Kurzweil MidiBoard 88 (sadly Fedex Ground busted it in transit to East Coast).

Keeping: Hartmann Neuron KB, OB Matrix 12, JB Solaris (!), SE CODE 8 OD, Moog Voyager KB with custom ribbon controller (not the XL), Haken Continnum (custom white, current OS with synthesizer inside; short length), Kurzweil PC3K8, Ensoniq VFX(2?) for crappy poly-AT, Yamaha digital upright piano, Access Virus Ti rack/desktop (single processor); Arturia Origin KB; and Alesis Andromeda A6.

Some stuff on the cusp are the SE SE1-x OD custom rack, and my beloved Forat-pimped Akai MPC3000 with the ROM update, audio update, media reader SCSI upgrade, and custom Lexus blue paintjob; and my ruby red Waldorf Q+ with analog filters ...

As my friends keep telling me ... would you rather have the extra gear, or own your own home where you want to live.

I picked a bad time to give up sniffing glue!

Peace out! And happy "bunny day" this weekend.

Updated studio photo ... prior to starting the re-arrangement this week.

SOLARIS ... couple of pix

iphone, available light ... enjoy

i wait my solaris ...

Tinhu,
i had a message from John who said that my solaris will be in fabrication in one month.
Have you received a similar message ? And what does it say ?

I got a similar email from John. I'm expecting a tracking number in a week or so!!!!!!!

Jamie

I am officially in "holding my breath" mode....!

Patate le mgae wrote:Tinhu,
i had a message from John who said that my solaris will be in fabrication in one month.
Have you received a similar message ? And what does it say ?

I don''t know ...
I hope some good news after 26 mars ...