The John Bowen Chronicles: The Beginning
Here are the articles I’ve written as a follow-up to my monthly column that appeared in German Keyboard magazine. I hope you find it a fun and fascinating look into the synthesizer design process, and perhaps inspire some of you to take your own adventure exploring and creating with the SCOPE design software. First we start with a bit of background information…
I’ve been fortunate to have been involved in the development of many legends in synthesizer history – the Prophet 5, the Prophet VS and the Prophet T-8 by Sequential Circuits, and the Korg Wavestation series and OASYS project.
Many years ago (1999), I left the world of hardware synthesizers to embark on a new journey, custom designing software synthesizers for the SCOPE DSP system. The freedom and flexibility of this system allowed me to explore creating tools for sound design without the usual limits of large corporate thinking, and my Zarg Music plug-in synths for the SCOPE platform quickly gained a reputation of sophistication and quality, attesting to many years of sound experience and User Interface design. After a long journey down this path, I returned to the world of hardware design with my first keyboard instrument, the Solaris. Working with SONIC CORE’s expert craftsmen, I hoped to create a new legend that carries on that tradition of innovation and quality.
My story was documented in a series published in German Keyboard magazine some years ago, but it left off at the end of my hardware years. We thought it would be interesting to pick up the story again, starting with discussing my approach in developing some of the Zarg Music plug-ins over the years, and how that has led back to the Solaris project.
