The John Bowen Chronicles: Part 4

Ambient

My 4th design–Ambient–was inspired by the Waldorf Q, mainly in the way that one could pan the inputs between two identical filter sections.

This became my most ambitious project, as it also had extensive arrangement of modulation paths, displayed in pairs for each of the many oscillator types and filters, as well as panning, and a few other things. The synth was designed to accommodate many different types of oscillators as well – I was trying to provide lots of flexibility, because I had done a survey of those who had pre-ordered the bundle. In this survey, the one question I posed was: did they want more polyphony, or greater functionality (and thereby sacrificing polyphony)? Almost everyone responded that they wanted more functionality, and I discovered then that my customers were a special breed. In all my times working for other companies, the issue of polyphony far outweighed any other consideration. The larger companies had to satisfy that issue, whereas a smaller ’boutique’ designer such as myself had the incredible luxury of being able to focus more on expanding the creative features set, because the users base was willing to go down that path with me. And this feeling, this relationship with my customers continues to this day – it’s why I’ve developed the products I have, with the Solaris hardware being the ultimate expression and culmination of my design work all these years.

check the sounds: