John Bowen Solaris Limited Edition User manual

John Bowen Solaris – a life’s work
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Solaris review. A life’s work: Three views on the John Bowen Solaris …
First: “The Solaris is a fusion of the most important synthesizer
designs of the past 40 years”
It may sound presumptuous: the John Bowen Solaris is in some ways the epitome of synthesizer design since the 70s.
Let’s see … there are various oscillators to choose from: Minimoog, CEM, Microwave, Prophet-VS, Wav (samples). Or
consider the filters: Moog, Oberheim, SSM, multimode filter, comb filter, vocal filter … The modules are a journey
through synthesizer history. Sure, it’s all purely digital, but the sound quality is excellent. Impressive.
Second: “The Solaris is the life work of a synthesizer enthusiast and
musician”
The Solaris’ enormous musical potential is no accident. As the first ‘official’ demonstrator for Moog, as co-founder of
the Prophet-5, as part of the team that developed vector synthesis (the actual concept for VS came from Chris
Meyer) and due to his decades of experience in playing instruments and programming factory sounds – Bowen has
been able to contribute his vast knowledge to the development of the Solaris. Above all, Bowen is a real musician. All
this is reflected in many details and in the user-friendly Solaris concept.
Third: “The king is dead, long live the king!”
Many years ago I realized that the polyphonic analog synthesizers of the late 70s and early 80s had ushered in their
own demise. Polymoog, OB-X, ARP Quadra, Prophet-5, Rhodes Chroma, Memorymoog, Yamaha CS-80 and PPG Wave
2.2 … many of those instruments never left the prototype status, strictly speaking (you’ll pardon my slight
exaggeration). Only a few instruments were actually “very” reliable, such as the Roland Jupiter-8 or Oberheim OB-8.
Well-to-do musicians often had several units of the same instrument with them on tour, a prophylactic measure
against the all-too-common technical failures. Vintage polyphonic synthesizers were (and are!) simply unreliable …

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and they’ve always been very expensive.
Today, skilled technicians have been able to bring some of those instruments up to the technical standards that
would have been very desirable 30 years ago. Sophisticated services and major modifications on the Rhodes Chroma
or Memorymoog, e.g., have refined these instruments to a high degree (although this, by very modern standards, is
unfortunately still “limited”).
Anyway, no wonder the appearance of digital in the mid 80s was so overwhelming. In addition to an increase in
polyphonic options, the digital instruments were significantly cheaper, more compact and more reliable as well.
But that’s not the end of the story. Digital synthesizers had (and still have) other limitations. Many of them are in
some way inoperable, their dynamic ranges unspectacular, a lack of musical quality in their sounds, etc.
Programming Yamaha’s FM was (and is) not everyone’s cup of tea, ditto for Casio’s phase distortion (a mysterious
handling of envelope parameters). And working with sampled sounds has led to a lot of thoughtless playback-music.
What we needed was intelligent sound programming! The typical manufacturers’ strategy (we’re talking about
Roland, Yamaha, …) was to try to compensate for the lack of programming options by offering an even larger
contingent of sounds (thousands of sounds, which is a horror when one thinks about it).
Many digital synthesizers are miles away from being musician’s instruments, a situation little changed today (with
exceptions few and far between). Keep in mind, we’re talking about “polyphonic” synthesizers! Although the industry
has tried to make the use of the instruments more palatable in recent years with the addition of a few buttons and
sliders, the creative potential of the “user-friendly” instruments has not significantly increased. Ultimately, most
digital polyphonic synthesizers are nothing but sophisticated sample players. A Renault R4 with a Porsche emblem
on the hood, if you will.
John Bowen’s Solaris closes this gap. Although purely digital, it’s a programmers’ instrument, a music synthesizer for
musicians. Solaris offers direct access to the entire sound structure, it invites you to create your own sounds
“starting from scratch”, that is, with the oscillators …. The Solaris offers no piano, guitar or saxophone samples (you
can load appropriate samples if you absolutely have to)! The instrument has enormous creative potential, fantastic
performance features and thus provides a real synthesizer in the most beautiful and best sense of the word. Above
all, the emitted sound quality is excellent.

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John Bowen Solaris Synthesizer
Correctly speaking, Alesis Andromeda, Jomox SunSyn and a very few other instruments have closed part of the gap
between vintage and modern polyphonic synthesizers during the last 15 years. But the Solaris’ extremely
comprehensive sound architecture (wavetables, etc.) is clearly a giant step ahead …
Good things come to those who wait …
Rarely have I longed for the development of an instrument as much as for that of the Solaris. Well, good things come
to those who wait. In this case, it was a long wait: From the first announcement to the final model, it has now been
several years. John Bowen had some bitter setbacks to deal with, followed by forced breaks when he had to refinance
the instrument. But Bowen’s persistence has paid off: The sophisticated and versatile Solaris will be a momentous
success.
A couple of impressions …
The first contact with my Solaris brought some surprises. The instrument was easily unpacked – solid cardboard, foil
to protect the instrument – as should be. It initially felt good, stable and robust. But there was this additional little
packet in the box with – hold on here – an external power supply! At least it was a very efficient and power-saving
power supply, or so it said in the directions. True, the big advantage of external power supplies is that there is no
significant heat development inside the instrument, a fact I always find reassuring. And, should the transformer be
faulty, this could be replaced without sending the whole Solaris off for repairs. But the fact remains, that external
power supplies are not a very elegant solution!

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John Bowen Solaris Synthesizer
“Yes, the power supply is outside of the synth. This avoids noise in the audio, and makes things simpler in the
production.” (John Bowen in his Solaris User Guide p. 9)
Well, that’s true.
Let’s stay with the hardware and some of the finer things in life. The Solaris keyboard is – how else could it be –
excellent. The feel is good. Also excellent the joystick, the display, the buttons and knobs. Or maybe “satifactory” is
more accurate here, for two reasons. First, we all know that the hardware of the noble 70s and early 80s cannot be
matched today. Second, Solaris production (currently in Germany) has not yet banned minor weaknesses. Pitch
wheels without properly closing zero points and other such irritations are an indication that the production still has
potential for improvement. As John Bowen and his team are on their toes, such shortcomings should be remedied
soon.
Let’s continue with the hardware. There’s a huge choice of rear panel connections: 8 individual outputs, four
independent inputs (although only monophonic) and USB, S/PDIF, MIDI plus two pedal inputs and a Compact Flash
card slot.
Due to what John Bowen calls “old school” layout and control (the Oberheim Matrix-12 and Xpander probably served
as models), quick and precise programming is innate to the instrument. As with the Oberheims, the Solaris
programming is divided into “Pages”. The MAIN page is all about oscillators, waveforms, pitch (> oscillator section)
and filters, filter types, frequencies and resonance settings (> filter section), etc. Pressing the MODulation button
brings up the associated MOD page. This principle is the same throughout the signal path (OSCs, LFOs, Filters,
VCAs, ENVs …) – everything very precise and extremely user friendly …!

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John Bowen Solaris Synthesizer
Polyphony?
Concerning the instrument’s polyphonic potential, a precise assessment is difficult. We have no exact information on
how many voices the Solaris has. But speaking from practical experience, there are hardly too few voices. Notes may
be capped when playing fat clusters if release time is set to a maximum of 20 seconds. Obviously, polyphony depends
on processor performance (… the power plant inside the Solaris consists of six state of the art third-generation
SHARC DSP processors).
“Even with a complex program utilizing all four oscillators, four filters, four mixers and healthy doses of modulation,
you can still expect 10 note polyphony!” (www.johnbowen.com)
You will probably have little reason to fully realise the Solaris potential at hand. A two- or three-part sound will
generally fulfill all of your needs. As a rule of thumb and in my opinion, the Solaris will place 10 to 20 voices at your
disposal. When I asked him, John was more cautious: “… for now it is fixed at 10 voice polyphony.” (John Bowen)

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John Bowen Solaris Synthesizer
Sound and Performance
Now things get interesting. The bottom line is musical quality, the most central question about an instrument. Sound
and performance stand in direct relation to each other and should be dealt with together. A good sound requires
immediate access and user-friendly tools.
With Solaris you have four parallel synthesizers (“parts”) in one package, which means many oscillators, many
waveforms, a myriad of mixers and filters, countless envelopes and first-class modulation possibilities. Enough to
keep you investigating new sounds for at least the next 20 to 30 years. Now to the crux of the matter: the Solaris
sound quality results from, among other things, a surprisingly wide dynamic range potential. Herein lies the central
weakness of most digital synthesizers – they may sound brilliant, but at the cost of reduced dynamic flexibility. They
always sound a little “flat”. The dynamic flexibility of a single analog voice, from say a Minimoog or a Pro-One, is
capable of bringing any digital sound to its knees.
A musician friend recently reported from Munich that a brand new Roland Fantom keyboard used at a rock concert
had no chance in the mix, whereas the little antique Moog Satellite squatting next to it came through clearly.
Originally, I had exactly these concerns regarding the Solaris. Digital is digital, there’s no way around that – and a
VCA is the only thing that allows for wide dynamic range. However, the Solaris dynamic potential is impressive.
Probably as good as can be had on a digital basis. Incidentally, don’t let the label “VCA” confuse you. It’s just not
true. John has confirmed my suspicions:
“Sorry, the Solaris is all digital. Originally I had the word amp instead of VCA, which I guess we should have left
there, but I kept calling them VCAs, so we changed it. Think “Virtually Controlled Amplifier” ;-) (John Bowen)

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John Bowen Solaris Synthesizer
In the Solaris, extensive sound material meets high sound potential, and the two encounter remarkable performance
potential: A weighted (grippy) keyboard, assignable wheels, a joystick, a multiple zone ribbon controller, etc … These
are the decisive ingredients for good sound performance. In addition, there is that small but defintely notable step
sequencer…. Not one of those tools with thousands of possibilities (as in many so-called “workstations”), but
extremely easy to operate and to the point: 4 tracks of 16 steps, upon request with different track lengths, each track
assignable … to the SSM filter, to LFO 4 speed, to the oscillator wavetable No. 29 – and one track for the melody
itself … what more could you want? In addition to the sequencer there is also a flexible arpeggiator on board. With
the Solaris, creativity knows no limits.
Now one highlight must be mentioned that could easily be overlooked …
Octave Up/Down
Well, a keyboard up / down switch wouldn’t seem to be that spectacular. But keep in mind: Solaris is synonymous for
unlimited sound potential. Four parallel synthesizers in one package, classic waveforms, a wealth of wavetables,
rotors, numerous filters, 6 LFOs, 6 envelopes … and all that within the limits of a 5 octave keyboard! But is that
really and truely enough? Not without good reason did Waldorf produce its legendary Wave in a 76-key version to
warrant additional soundspace.
Here is where the Solaris octave switches come into their own! What makes them so unique is not the fact that they
enable keyboard transposition up or down 1 or 2 octaves. The speciality lies in the fact that the current sound can be
retained (press the sustain pedal or the hold button), while at the same time the surrounding octaves are transposed
up or down. This embeds your sound in a choice of 9 octaves! Soup isn’t just about ingedients, it’s also about savour
and spice …

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John Bowen Solaris Synthesizer
Interestingly enough, the great John Bowen himself doesn’t seem to be fully aware of the usefulness of the octave
buttons.
“These buttons should be self explanatory. They change the range of the keyboard, but must be pressed before you
play to get the transposed values. They will not transpose keys currently held.” (Solaris User Guide, page 15)
In my opinion, the uniqueness of these buttons lies in what happens if you don’t press before playing. Play first,
press “Hold” (or the sustain pedal), then shift the keyboard range up (or down) and add more notes. The sonic
results are marvellous.
The tone-chameleon
Lists are not very attractive, but they put things into orderly perspective. The following is a detailed list (with some
explanations …) of components of the Solaris sound architecture:
4 Oscillators
For each oscillator, there is a choice between:
MultiMode Oscillator (sine, triangle, ascending sawtooth, descending sawtooth, pulse, noise, sample & hold,
morphing sawtooth, morphing pulse, “jaws” – 7 stacked sawtooth waves)
Wavetable Oscillator (the 63 sets of Waldorf Microwave wavetables)
CEM – Curtis Electromusic Oscillator (sawtooth, triangle, pulse, saw + triangle, triangle + pulse, saw +
triangle + pulse)
Wav – Sample Playback Oscillator (Solaris loads samples from the CompactFlash card into the RAM.
There’s a total of 32MB of sample RAM)
Vector Synthesis Oscillator (94 waveform sets in the style of the Prophet VS)
Mini Oscillator – Minimoog Emulation (triangle, sawtooth + triangle, sawtooth, pulse 1, pulse 2, pulse 3)

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John Bowen Solaris Synthesizer
All the “usual” parameters such as tuning, fine tuning, sync, shape (determining the shape of the waveform across its
continuum), phase, glide and linear FM are available. In addition, you have LOW (frequency) mode, which turns
oscillators into LFOs. Switching keyboard tracking off (NO TRACK-button) will give you a “fixed” pitch. CLOCK
SYNC allows you to synchronize the frequency of the oscillators to divisions of the MIDI clock signal.
2 Rotors
Rotor is a term generally associated with helicopters. As there, so here: something turns. The Solaris rotors
represent sound sources additional to the oscillators. To put it simply, a rotor generates a 4-step waveform sequence
in circular rotation. The sources of the rotor sounds are completely user definable. Oscillators, LFOs, filters, mixers,
external audio inputs, envelopes, the sequencer rows A to D and so on: the choice is yours.
Actually, a rotor is far more than a 4-pole audio source: it may be used for control signals as well …

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John Bowen Solaris Synthesizer
“Think of the Rotor as a 4-input mixer, that turns up one channel at a time. If sub-audio signals are fed into it, you
won’t hear anything as a contributing component to the rotor sound for those positions.
On the Solaris plug-in, I have a rotor that is disguised – it’s called a Modulation Mixer. I used it to slowly blend LFOs.
So, you could have, for example, all 4 Rotor inputs being the LFOs 1-4, and each at a different rate and shape, then
use the output to modulate things – and setting the Rotor to a very slow rate, you can have subtle variations of
modulation going on, but that would still be cyclical over the long run.” (John Bowen)
Back to the rotor being used for audio purposes. When the rotor is in the NO TRACK mode, it behaves like a slow-
playing wave sequence. Frequency control is possible (as with any LFO). If, on the other hand, NO TRACK is
disabled, the rotor functions as an oscillator – with a very unusual waveform, of course …