50 Oscillators!! Solar-50 Review - Sonic LAB
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- Опубліковано 22 лип 2024
- Another unusual instrument from our friends in the East comes in the form of the Elta Music Solar-50 - Big Ambient Machine.
This is a FIFTY OSCILLATOR - yes (50!) instrument with 10 voice groups each with 5 oscillators (sawtooth) per voice.
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00:00 Intro
02:40 Setup Example
04:56 A voice
09:57 The filter
10:25 The structure and routing
15:37 LFOs
16:25 More complex patch
19:11 Effects
21:02 Summary
#soniclab #solar50 #dronemachine
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![A Box Of Ambient [Solar 42]](/img/n.gif)
No PWM! And you let it in the building
- I need some oscillators.
- I'll give you fifty.
- I need some waveforms to choose from.
- Nah just sawtooth.
Doesn't seem like a very balanced choice to me...
You miss the point. You're thinking in terms of a subtractive synthesizer. This is additive.
@@bukkaratsuppa6414 well actually it would be more additive if it had sine wave as osc not a saw.
@@ionianechoes My thoughts exactly. Additive synthesis is cumulations of sine waves - ie a fundamental.
It sounds really interesting but that's an immediate no thanks from me. Not a big fan of saws.
@@TayTayMakesBeats You're probably just using the wrong recipe.
Thank you for wrestling with this so that others don't have to/others might want to. It seems obvious that you had to put a lot of work in here.
I think the proper name is "Sawlar 50"
woohoo! been looking forward to this one :D
The design brief went like this: "Step one: Let's make something that Trent Reznor will use on a single soundtrack project. Step two. Step three: PROFIT."
HAHAHHAHAHA excellent
Spot on. Really cool instrument, but how many tracks are you going to realistically use this on? One? Three?
@@McEnroe911 To be fair, it's not that expensive. i could see picking one up for something weird.
Happy new year Nick :)
I rarely say this, but this synth seems almost to wild.
Wonderful sounds, thanks for the nice review
They could send this directly to Florian of “BAD GEAR” for review 😊
Even he would have a difficult time getting a song out of it.
I love that channel. A very charismatic fellow.
Must check eyes, Sclar-50 indeed. Impressive sound in-tune or not, reminds me of those unruly 1970s Public Information film sountracks shown on the BBC. Plug it into a pitch quantizer? Fantabulous Nick.
Genuinely, if it had 25 square waves and 25 Saw I would buy it.
After 50 shots of vodka, it all becomes clear.
Prophet 12 has 60 oscillators and much more modulation possibilities.
This is very interesting and I think to really "get it" I'd need to spend some time and gel.
It's great to see unique instruments like this one being created. Hopefully I'll get to see this in the wild at some point.
Cheers.
This is gone... but now they are about to come out with the Elta Solar 42... that I think I totally want.
What does it sound like if you forget about tuning and trying to play melodies? I’d like to hear it just make noises.
0:16 "quite an anomaly". I don't think I ever heard a synth being described by that word.
Thanks for the review.
Needs more Cowbell!!
Me - “popcorn time this is gonna be a car crash”
Nick 3:02 - “if I press play...”
Me - “wow that’s actually not hideous”
Madness. Sheer madness.
I only bought one synth in 2020 (volca modular) .... due to the coof I’m out of work, or else this would be top of my list for ‘21.
Solar 50: “in tune” is overrated.
You can never have too many oscillators! 👍♥️
It definitely sounds instantly like a Christopher Nolan soundtrack
Is it totally mono no stereo features at all?
I’m not sure if this is fully analog, but the lack of tuned presets is a huge deal for me if it’s tough to manually tune. I guess it’s still good as a sound generator, but it doesn’t seem a good choice as a musical instrument.
That outro sounds like something The Cure would have done in the 80s.
A whole new approach to "chorus"... It's not an effect, is an actual chorus!
I'm getting Vangelis vibes. Cool!
If you leave it playing a sequence while going somewhere else, you will likely come back to the same sound because the transistors will not cool down. Or just play along, heat em up and the effect will be the same.
It’s a reverse avalanche oscillator machine, which is I guess inspired by Look Mom No Computer, who made a 1000 reverse avalanche oscillator mega drone.
but that outro. reeeally nice
This kind of machine is incredibly attractive to me. But giving the instability of the oscillators it probably would not be appropriate for a live situation. And if you have this beast it would be really cool to use it live. Only for sound design I don't know if it would be worth it.
I've seen UA-camrs make it sound amazing. I have one and after turning on more than 5 oscillators it gets totally saturated so I'm not sure if it's defective or if I'm too stupid to use it. Seems like it has a lot of potential though. Also only reviewers receive all of the effects carts. Normal those cost extra. Only comes with 3 I think.
The first time I saw this thing, I thought the oscillators were digital and it made sense as a hybrid instrument. So many drifting and unstable analog oscillators doesn’t make sense to me. As someone mentioned already, the Prophet 12 has 4 oscillators + 1 suboscillator per voice making 60 total oscillators. It is quite possible to create a detuned mess. What it doesn’t provide is a different chord voicing per synth voice.
New Alessandro Cortini album on the way. It’s mental!
Madness. It sounds absolutely amazing. Instant epic soundtrack drones and I could easily see weeks disappearing, playing it. Love the simple concept: Every voice has its own dedicated area on the panel, the modulation gives plenty of scope, but the LFOs are quite disappointing. It's definitely not for me, but I shall admire it from afar.
Yes, it'd be nice to see someone be really good at it. That would be a rare individual.
How obout this gentleman?
m.ua-cam.com/video/mMtTcmqbZsk/v-deo.html
Plus it is one of those synths you can play with a weenie. :-)
but can it do a super saw?
I love it, I would get it if it was half the price....hopefully people buy these and put them on the used market cheap.
It used to be a Soviet SS-X-30 ICBM console but they just re-jigged it a bit.
Fascinating. I can see myself loosing countless hours with an instrument like this. However, I'm not sure how I could use this synth in a musical context apart from soundscapes.
That's propably all its for, unless you can somehow get a second pair of hands to deal with the tuning for you.
Definitely one of the more innovative new synths. It is a bit of a shame about its tendency to go out of tune. I agree that it would be nice to have stereo effects and outputs, particularly for this type of synth. Plus, yes, a 1v/Oct CV input for each voice would have been nice. Continuous wave shape parameters per voice, if not per oscillator, would have been amazing ... . Would also be nice to have outputs for each of the 10 voices, both pre and post effects ... . Perhaps in the Solar 50 2.0?
At any rate, not actually in the market for another synth just yet ... perhaps when I am some of these upgrades will be made ... .
LOVE the concept, though!
Alan Wilder’s future sci-fi horror film score is made using ONLY this. Instant cult classic.
-Nostradamus
Where is Alan Wilder? Is he hiding in the future? If I live until 2050 will I get to listen to some new music?
@@MrTanukiD Alan Wilder permanently resides in the future - occasionally visiting us making sounds using today’s primitive technology.
Can you switch the photo sensitivity off?. May be thats the reason for the unattended de-tuning that happens.
thats a good point, yes you can in that you can dial back the sensitivity to 0
Can you play:"you are my sunshine" on it....
If it had some way of tuning it properly/automatically it would be awesome. But IDK, without that it's just too weird for me.
so thats what they used for the forbidden planet film
damn, super DUPER saw! Hard dance lovers rejoice!
Oh dear!
Masses and masses of oscillators, masses and masses of oscillators. Red lorry yellow lorry red lorry yellow lorry! Other stuff not such an OSHEW! We love you Nick. Much of the time, it's sounding like an early 90's US West Coast Hip Hop Record. Almost said West Coast but, I don't know many Blackpool based Hip Hop bands. Ballroom Gangsta Hip Hop maybe!
This synth for crazy professor :)
Needs more oscillators ;D
Look Mum No Computer: Hold my beer.
also called "The Abul Mogard Machine"
Parts put together from the cancelled Sputnik projects?
5% of Look Mum No Computer's 1000 Oscillator Megadrone. If only the knobs were bigger and less prone to being bumped off tune.
Have seen a bunch of videos about this, and I still have no idea who it's for. Have never seen an instrument try so hard to _not_ be musical. It's clearly not meant for anything resembling traditional music, but that leaves a big question... what is it meant to do instead?
Meditation, and creating drones.
This could end up in a cupboard locked away forever along with the akai timbre wolf!!
If you like wasting money, especially considering the 4x price difference.
If you have one in 2031 pull it put of your cupboard. Because then it will be worth 100000 dollars. This is serious genius/madness.
@@MrStupidHead I’m trying to work it out!! Madness I think!!
@@trevorbrown8737 Genius = Madness + 10 years. Ah, but some call me crazy.
You Division would have used the Solar-50! No question!
All the sawtooth you can eat buffet
"L2Music" like learn to music, what a cool name!
I'm all for alternative design ideas in the synth world, but is this useful?
Creative musician: Does it make sound? Yes? Very useful!
It is useful. It balanced my meridians and activated the 5G.
So it's basically a LOOK MUM NO COMPUTER synthesizer :) I can see myself just jamming randomly with this thing, no so much composing.
is there a master tune at least?
AAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
it would be pointless if it did, I think
Oh my Dog! My Solar 50 has been stuck in Russia waiting for shipment since December 21st. This waiting is making me crazy! 😭
Front panel looks like many's the synthmaster vst from 2008! For those than think this is a nonsense instrument, the clue is in the name, Ambient. Agree with Nick here tho, this thing just seems a bit too unstable.. Lovely idea if they could stabilise it a bit, and bring in a better osc tuning system than those crammed knobs. Thanks for the review 👍
The unstable detuned nature is the point though. They went out of their way to ensure it won't stay in tune long enough to, like, play a song. Each voice has a LED hooked up in reverse to act as a light sensor, with the voltage from that added to the oscillators, because it guarantees the device will be unstable. A lot of engineering went into making it impractical for traditional music. What I don't understand is why.
@@ToyKeeper Thanks for that! Yeah I get the instability is "the point", but I think their market would be far wider if it would have a 'stable' mode 😊
If they used another waveform you could at least build up brightness instead of relying on a single filter to tame that.
Lets playing a song. Ok give me a chord. (8 hours later)
I want this so bad but I also know Id try and use it for about 10 min then quit lol
Experimentation with a musical instrument should be a choice or an ability that an instrument offers, but before walking into those wild territories that instrument needs to offer the bare minimum of the normality, my own music is rather crazy and experimental, but when I buy a synth I think about how can (I) get wild and crazy with it, not how crazy this synth is!
A tough sell
too chaotic
An interesting box of tricks but not really my cup of tea - It'd give me a headache
I've thought the same thing.
There's too many features that are not thought through fully. This feels like a beta or alpha. Shame really.
Inadequate industrial espionage ;-)
The interface is terrible too. More of a weird experiment than a product.
If you have to start somewhere, and buyers are the beta testers as usual.
But with success, we'll see improved versions. These guys may not have the knowledge, experience, and money to make a more mature product, I don't know.
Certainly an odd beast. I'm completely not sure where it would fit into my studio. Also not sold on "50 oscillators" being that interesting or giving me something other than headaches. Any color you like, as long as it's sawtooth... nope. Really it would come down to the sound, and I didn't hear anything that useful coming out - very niche if I'm being generous. I do like designing my own sounds, but I really don't want to spend that much time tweaking tuning.
look at his Friday jam with the Solar50
the tuning is the Achilles' heel of this thing for me, besides the LFOs
You have 50 Osc's and you detune them..than what? :)
1K€, not bad.
Russians getting in the mix! Love it!
smh... seems to need a lot more polishing under the hood...
@Luke Purge chaos
Ntspt - never the same pitch twice. 3/4 filter with 'wonky pitch' and reverb, sounds 'nostalgic'. Coloured spaghetti, does it come in more patterns? Infinite reverb that stops is not infinite reverb. Is music political?
in soviet russia, the synthesizer tunes you
so played out that joke
@@maxb4057 I didn't realize you were with the internet joke police
@@ryanhallyyc just saying its lame bro
Don't get it.
Not even click bait. Let’s hope they all PWM.
There's no Square wave so...
5:54 too much noise...
Nick seems a bit like a deer in the head lights with this thing, I'd go further to say they he has seemed to miss the point of something like this completely. Like, he's using a hammer to paint a wall. If this was the only video I was of this thing, I wouldn't want to buy it.
What's the video that's good?
Well, was this vid so bad to you as well?
ua-cam.com/video/Hslm-H-HvjM/v-deo.html
@@Jason75913 no, that was a good video.
Huh?
hahahhaha... this is the funniest review ever
expensive, few patchbay possibilities... and always the same sound...
Despite how over the top this synth is, it's still very musical and more musical than a Moog Subharmonicon.
The subharmonicon is quite musical... In Andrew Huang's hands, not in ours, lol
@@Jason75913 I still waiting for AudioPilz to do a Bad Gear video on the Subharmonicon.
Is this going to be one of those instruments that is considered crap now, but then will start a whole new genre of music and be much sought after 10 years from now when the company has gone out of business? I think not. It will still be pointless in 10 years time.
I guess because it doesn't say "Roland" on it, no one's gonna give them shit for cramming tons of tiny knobs way too close together?
probably, lol
crazy russians with too much vodka in the mix!
I thought only americans were blessed with " creativity" . When the ruskies show it, it is too much vodka craziness.
8:15 useless patch
nick: "it's absolutely covered in knobs"
me, an American: "heh"
This demo is clearly not even close to what this thing is designed for. Sorry, Nick.
Do you have an example? Happy to share
@@sonicstate Elta's own videos illustrate the design's intended use pretty clearly, though I agree their approach to tuning is not as precise as I would like.
One big mess 😂😂😂
Once more Nick Batt comes up against an instrument which breaches the limitations of his musical thinking. A multiple oscillator instrument like this only "sounds a mess" if you think there is a way an instrument should sound to begin with. If you drop these expectations then there is just sound you are free to explore without saying what its "meant" to be.
Yes, but one still wants to actually use it. In contrast we reviewed the Lyra8 which also meets that description, but it had something special going on
@@sonicstate If you can't use it Nick maybe the problem is you? I've lost count of the instruments you dislike because everything must fit in with your static pre-conceptions of how things must be. Everything from this to Elektron stuff. You are one guy set in his ways.
@@dionysiaex5538 There's an obvious limit in the instrument in that you can see that the knobs are so close together that turning one means you have to be very careful not to turn the one next to it. That is distinctly unuseful and less an invitation to making new sounds than an invitation to turn the power off.
I thought Nick was very fair in his comments, it is repeatability that is the main issue. This is nothing to do with “musical thinking”, it is to do with the obvious impracticality of using an instrument with 50 oscillators that are continually drifting out of tune. I once tried polychaining four Behringer Model D’s together, a good idea at the time but wrestling with just 12 oscillators continually drifting out of tune was enough to make me give that one up for good.
I think the Lyra makes it immediately obvious that repeatability is never going to happen and that you are definitely not in control of the instrument (or your own mind while using it). This one on the other hand might fool you into thinking you can make some giant 50 oscillator otherworldly epic orchestral chord. And maybe you can, but if you want it to be repeatable then you’ll have to add a sampler into the mix as it’ll take a long time to get there and you may lose it after a couple minutes and never get it back, without even touching anything. I hope they press on though as it’s interesting stuff. I look forward to seeing what else they’ll come up with.
Spectacularly pointless and a painfully convoluted way to make music. Just buy a Dreadbx NYX
Great review but what a piece of crap.
Грубиян
I'll stick to my piano thanks.
Your piano has 88 oscillators
stocchinet All musical and in tune.
Musical yes. In tune no! But a compromise we got used to.
Bojang Prodöktschns Well certainly more in tune than this car crash.
@@smalltown4855 LOL