John Bowen Solaris, User Manual

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LFOs panel) will override the 

PlayMode

 setting, un-

less the 

UniVoice

 setting is 

Chord

.

Legato

Determines if a voice is retriggered when it is stolen for use 

in legato mode or not. When Legato mode is Off, only the 

most frequently pressed key will sound. In Legato mode 

(reassign or retrigger), a key that is held down will re-sound 

after another key is played and released. 

Reassign

 mode 

reassigns the voice to the original note, resulting in a legato 

effect. 

Retrig

.

 mode retriggers the original note.

EgReset

Shutdwn

 mode forces the envelopes to be reset to zero 

for each new note-on event. In 

Running

 mode, the enve-

lopes continue running from wherever they are currently 

when a new key is pressed.

NotePri(ority)

When 

PlayMode

 is set to 

Mono

 mode, note priority deter-

mines which key pressed will have priority, i.e., which note 

will be sounded. In 

Low

 mode, the lowest note played on 

the keyboard will sound. In 

High

 mode, the highest note 

played on the keyboard will sound. In 

Last

 mode, the most 

recently pressed key will have priority. The early Minimoogs 

had a low note priority; most synths now use last priority.

UniVoice

This parameter determines how many of Solaris’s voices 

should be assigned to a single note. The more voices as-

signed, the thicker and punchier the sound will be, though 

polyphony will be affected if you are using 

PlayMode

 set to 

Poly

. There is an “intelligent assignment” that will allow you 

want to stack unison voices in polyphonic mode, however. 

By setting 

UniVoice

 to 

3

, for example, each note you play 

will have 3 voices assigned to it. The more voices you 

assign, the lower your polyphony will be. The current OS 

supports 10 voices, so in this configuration you would have 

3 voices of polyphony.

The 

UniTune

 parameter can be applied to in either 

mono or poly mode.

If you want to play a chord stack on one note, set this  

parameter to 

Chord

, ensure that 

PlayMode

 is set to 

Poly

and the 

Unison

 button on the front panel is off. Press and 

hold a chord, then press the 

Unison

 button. As long as the 

Unison

 button is on (LED lit), any notes you play will play 

back your stacked chord.

UniTune

This parameter acts as a tuning spread (+/- 100 cents) 

between the voices specified in 

UniVoice

. The larger the 

value, the more detuned from each other the voices will 

become. This can result in an extremely “fat” sound.

Figure 87. Home Menu, page 2 of 4

ExpPed

Expression Pedal. A continuous value. Can be assigned to 

control 

Expr

 (volume level) or overall 

Pan

 position, relative 

to the initial pan setting of each part.

SusPed1 and SusPed2

Sustain Pedals (switches). Values for both pedals can be: 

Sostenuto, Sustain

 (interacts with the front panel 

Hold

button), 

Ribbon Hold, Sequencer On, Arpeggiator On, 

Arpeggiator Hold, Arpeggiator Transpose

. Refer to 

Table 18 for details about 

Arpeggiator Transpose

.

Pol.

Each pedal has this parameter. It allows you to set the po-

larity of the pedal. Pedals can also be completely disabled 

by selecting a value of 

Off

. This value is stored as a global 

value.

Assign1 and Assign2

These are the assignable switches on the front panel, to 

the left of the 

Octave

 switches. Possible values are:

Parameter

Description

GloGlide

This turns Glide Type from Off to whatever is 
programmed for global 

GldType

.

Glide 

01-Glide 04

This turns on/off the individual oscillator glides, 

as programmed on page 2 of the oscillator’s 

Main

 Mode. See  “Oscillator Parameters 

(Main Mode)” on page 24.

GlideAll

This affects all 4 oscillator glides.

RibHold

When 

On

, this keeps the most recent value 

“touched” on the ribbon (so you don’t need to 

keep holding down the ribbon).

ArpTrans

Allows you to transpose the active arpeggiator 

pattern. Start the arpeggiator and press the 

Hold

 button. Now, press the assignable but-

ton that is configured for 

ArpTrans

. Playing 

C4 on the Solaris keyboard will play the pat-

tern in its original key. Playing any other note 

on the keyboard will transpose the pattern. 

Press the assignable button again (turn it off) 

to play a new arpeggiator pattern.

Table 18.  Assignable Button modes

Mode

Each of the assignable buttons can be configured to func

-

tion as 

Toggle

 buttons, or 

Moment

(ary) buttons.