John Bowen Solaris | Epic, Enormous & Expensive

A flagship synth from 2011, the John Bowen Solaris is both vintage and modern at the same time. It's all digital, but it can mimic both old analogs as well as the 80s hybrid synthesizers and more.

Check out the synth here:

The idea to use a Compact Flash card to store patches, presets, Wav-files and even the OS is a great concept in my opinion. Yes, it means you can loose everything if not careful, but as long as you have a backup of the card you can put it into another Solaris and boot it up to reveal YOUR Solaris.
Using the CF card does not mean the Solaris boots the OS from the card, you flash the Solaris from the card when there's a new OS update you want to install into the synth.
You do need to have the CF card present to have your presets and patches available though.

The demo song was made to showcase what I feel is the best part of the Solaris, the ability to mimic the classic hybrid synths like the Prophet VS, the PPG, and also synths like the Yamaha FS1R which uses formant shaping. The drum loop that comes up at the end is also out of the Solaris as you can create patches based off your own Wav-files.
The first part of the demo song is all recorded by hand, with a free flowing tempo. I also play an arpeggiated part on top of this.
The second part is recorded to tempo.
Some of the patches are part of this Solaris' preset bank, while some of the sounds are either edited presets or my own makings.
External FX used in the demo track: Valhalla VintageVerb, GFI Specular Tempus.
The demo track has been mixed and mastered using my well documented workflow and gear.

Find my music here:

Find my patches and sample packs through these links:

[brunostroszek]

Best money I ever spent on a synth. What you miss over YouTube is how absolutely massive this thing sounds in person. Just about any sound can be dialed in with some work.

[RayyMusik]

A masterpiece of synth design by a real genius.

[bobjoe]

This sounds absolutely amazing. It's the 21st century Matrix 12 (for lack of a comparison because this thing sounds like a ppg, dx7, and matrix all wrapped into one). I wish I had the money to buy one, maybe someday. Really cool that they included the PPG wave forms.

[chrishorsten]

Thanks Espen for your continued dedication to 80’s music and synth tech! I finally bought your album and loved it! Happy New Year and keep up the great content.

[g-muni]

Wow, love this synth. Only regret was backing out from the 2nd round of offered early on but you convinced me to get in on this next round of this amazing synth👍 Thanks Espen!

[spectre.garden]

Looking forward to part 2. What a great sounding synth and demo!
With a heavy heart, I opted not to buy one a couple of years ago, because I had the option to get a few other classics.

[MrDudleytheCat]

The Solaris is a beautiful synth to play. Yes it is all digital but the controls work together in this magical way and it has a special sound. It is one of my favorite synths of all time and I've played MANY of the flagship analog polysynths, both vintage and modern.

[dougsypeck]

Wow I was jealous when you got the Matrix 12 but the Solaris? Not many people get to take one of those for an extended spin. The synth gods are smiling on you and that thing just sounds tremendous. And your fine demo track really shows it off well.

[EverettDudgeon]

Absolutely incredible. I think if I had the money I would get the Solaris over an OBX8, Quantum, Moog One any day.

[christiand]

A video about the Solaris is a nice end year gift! Best wishes for 2022 Espen 🎄🎉🙏

[xpplayer]

A great synth to end the year with. Hope to see a little bit about John Bowen and some technology/development history regarding this synth in Part 2.

[kerzwhile]

Mt GOD this thing sounds amazing! Seriously! Great opening tune too! 👌

[zeronyne]

I got to touch the white prototype at NAMM in the Propellerheads shared booth WAY before 2012. It was pretty amazing then. Glad to see a few were built!

[punk]

I ordered mine Dec 2016 and sold some rather nice synths to fund it (Waldorf XTK among others) and I don't regret it. It has been under active development in all this time and it is way more powerful than when it was first released.

[PhilAndersonOutside]

Synth sounds very much like 1980s Tangerine Dream. The Tangram through about Tyger. Love how deep of a hybrid sound it has.

[lassel]

Great Scott! What the heck is this? What a machine! Never ever heard of it🤔

[pizzagogo]

Thanks Espen, very cool you got your hands on one of these. The amount of option in the oscillators filters etc is pretty awesome, I’m not 100% sure if I like the sound that much...but the layout with the multi screens does seem fantastic- I can see why it commands a big price. Great example of a synth made as one persons vision of what a instrument could be..great bit of kit😁. Look forward to part 2- best wishes for the new year!

[mackadresse]

Thank you Espen you make me discover a new World of Synth. Great work keep on going, you are an inspiration.

[supercompooper]

I love my Solaris. It really sounds massive and versitile. A lot of emotion comes through in the patches. Some of the best sounds I ever made were from it ❤️

[Aetila]

This is how synths should look like, with tons of display and pots! 🙂