ELTA Solar 50

[Eddy Deegan]

I came across this interesting looking device today. It's a bit different in that it's not a conventional polysynth, rather it's a semi-modular with 50 individually tunable oscillators arranged in banks of 5, to make 10 voices, that can be played using a series of touch-sensitive strips, one strip per bank of 5 oscillators.

The modulation capabilities look to make it a very interesting performance synth too. Their blurb says ...

"Designed for creating atmospheric sounds, background music, microtonal music, super polyphonic electro symphonies"

... which is hard to argue with. It sounds very good to me.

https://youtu.be/x9YWKII5KDc?t=449

A comprehensive review from Loopop is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MtYa9vdiBMA

[Martin Walker]

Wow, that is one weird synth bottling up a host of fascinating performance-based voicings.

Coolio!

Martin

[Arpangel]

Thanks for posting that Eddy, looks extremely interesting, just off to see how much it is?



Talk amongst yourselves.........

OK......€1,000

[Eddy Deegan]

It's available for pre-order (shipping in December or January) for 1000 Euro from https://www.eltamusic.com/solar-50

I'm not pretending I'm uninterested myself but I'll be holding off for a while as I've already got the Arturia PolyBrute on preorder, plus there's a world of stuff happening at the moment with regards to my studio roof conversion so I'll take a closer look after Christmas and see what my desire factor is at that point

[Arpangel]

It's available for pre-order (shipping in December or January) for 1000 Euro from https://www.eltamusic.com/solar-50

I'm not pretending I'm uninterested myself but I'll be holding off for a while as I've already got the Arturia PolyBrute on preorder, plus there's a world of stuff happening at the moment with regards to my studio roof conversion so I'll take a closer look after Christmas and see what my desire factor is at that point

Me too, but it’s not on the top of my list by any means, I’m sorely tempted by Fat Ben's KARP2600, but can’t really justify it.
Also the Sega Mega FM is still trying to prise open my wallet.

[Ben Asaro]

Look Mum No Computer and (I think) loopop made vids about this wonderful machine.
I think this may win out for my annual synth purchase this year, I hope it becomes available here!

[Arpangel]

Look Mum No Computer and (I think) loopop made vids about this wonderful machine.
I think this may win out for my annual synth purchase this year, I hope it becomes available here!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zTe4GCx5y-Q

[Ben Asaro]

This is a very close race for me between the Solar 50 vs 2x Subharmonicons.

[Arpangel]

This is a very close race for me between the Solar 50 vs 2x Subharmonicons.

The Solar 50 sounds a bit limited, the demos do anyway, the waveforms seem very limited, they all sound like a jar of wasps, and tuning all of those oscillators?
If it was me I’d go for the SHMC between the two, although, I’m not even sure about that, seems like the emperors new clothes, which Moog have a habit of doing sometimes, my life changing synth of all time was buying a Matriarch, truly inspiring, and a great reason to go back to basics.

[Ben Asaro]

The more I look into this synth, the more I think it’s aligned with my compositional goals. It’s an incredibly powerful machine! There’s something vaguely CS-80ish about the pile of sawtooth waves. The ONLY thing that I wish it had were more outputs. Five outputs pre-panned across the stereo spectrum would have made this utterly perfect, but I’ll take 99% perfection!

I am dying to hear this in stereo running through two Deckard’s Voices for filtering!!

You can literally write an entire album with a single patch from this, which I think is the point?

I actually love it’s insular design, how it can interact with external devices but cannot be sync’d to them.

[Ben Asaro]

The Solar 50 sounds a bit limited, the demos do anyway, the waveforms seem very limited,

It's sawtooth only.

they all sound like a jar of wasps,

They are very harmonically rich and I think for something like this it's necessary. You can always filter out the bits you don't need/want, but if you're looking to drive the filter into feedback or the VCOs into AM, those harmonics will serve you well.

and tuning all of those oscillators?

This is the only thing that concerns me. I don't think you're "supposed" to tune them to anything approaching concert pitch, but even if you do, I think it's a lot easier to tune than a bunch of modular VCOs, because a modular VC'sO pitch shifts after you apply positive voltage which means you have to retune a complex modular patch anyway (depending on your sensitivity to tuning).

If it was me I’d go for the SHMC between the two, although, I’m not even sure about that, seems like the emperors new clothes, which Moog have a habit of doing sometimes, my life changing synth of all time was buying a Matriarch, truly inspiring, and a great reason to go back to basics.

I love/admire your ability to convince yourself across the entire spectrum of opinion within a single sentence.

[Arpangel]

The Solar 50 sounds a bit limited, the demos do anyway, the waveforms seem very limited,

It's sawtooth only.

they all sound like a jar of wasps,

They are very harmonically rich and I think for something like this it's necessary. You can always filter out the bits you don't need/want, but if you're looking to drive the filter into feedback or the VCOs into AM, those harmonics will serve you well.

and tuning all of those oscillators?

This is the only thing that concerns me. I don't think you're "supposed" to tune them to anything approaching concert pitch, but even if you do, I think it's a lot easier to tune than a bunch of modular VCOs, because a modular VC'sO pitch shifts after you apply positive voltage which means you have to retune a complex modular patch anyway (depending on your sensitivity to tuning).

If it was me I’d go for the SHMC between the two, although, I’m not even sure about that, seems like the emperors new clothes, which Moog have a habit of doing sometimes, my life changing synth of all time was buying a Matriarch, truly inspiring, and a great reason to go back to basics.

I love/admire your ability to convince yourself across the entire spectrum of opinion within a single sentence.

Don’t worry Ben, I convinced myself a long time ago that I’m far to lazy and impatient to go back to programming and "complicated stuff"
The thought of tuning all those oscillators, and actually "finding" the offending ones is about enough to drive me absolutely crazy, that would make it cumbersome for me, as a performance instrument. I watched a video of someone trying to do this, and he was fiddling around.
Still, I won’t jump to any conclusions just yet, I do tend to make u-turns quite regularly, the dictionary definition of a u-turn should be changed to "making an Arpangel"

[Ben Asaro]

LOL

I think I'm already wired into the tuning thing because every time I set up a patch on the modular, the first thing I do is tune all of the oscillators, even those I don't anticipate using, just to avoid issues later if I do decide to incorporate one. As my setup stands now, that's anywhere from 10-15 voices to tune every time.

Since you can turn oscillators on/off, you could in theory have either one bank, or one VCO from each bank, designated as a reference pitch and balance it that way ... I think that the actual approach would change, however, depending on how you decided to use the thing!

What I think sold me on this instrument, however, was at the end of loopop's video, he's going between two banks, and changing the chords just by turning oscillators on and off ... to me, that's where the rubber meets the road. To get very theory-nerd for a minute: If you are looking at purely 2 banks of 5 VCOs, that gives you 10 notes of a 12 note tempered scale. That will give you (implied or otherwise) every chord extension within a certain key -- and then you have 8 more banks to go! That is LOT of compositional power in a single, stand-alone electronic instrument! And it's all analog ... that's what we call in these parts a spicy meatball!

[Arpangel]

What I think sold me on this instrument, however, was at the end of loopop's video, he's going between two banks, and changing the chords just by turning oscillators on and off ... to me, that's where the rubber meets the road.

Yeah, that sounds cool, it reminds me of what I do with my cassette Portastudio sometimes, I record chords on each of the four tracks, and fade them in and out.
The low speed, plus miss-tracking Dolby ad a useful grunge!
Another thing, how many filters are there on the 50?

[Ben Asaro]

One filter in mono, no filter in stereo.

[Martin Walker]

The more I look into this synth, the more I think it’s aligned with my compositional goals. It’s an incredibly powerful machine! There’s something vaguely CS-80ish about the pile of sawtooth waves. The ONLY thing that I wish it had were more outputs. Five outputs pre-panned across the stereo spectrum would have made this utterly perfect, but I’ll take 99% perfection!

Adding extra outputs is often fairly easy if you ever indulge in DIY.

I've just had a look at the SOLAR 50 website, and it seems that five oscillators are by default connected to the Knob 01-05 control, and the other five to the Knob 06-10 control.

It's almost certain that each will be sent to these controls via resistors to mix the signals together, which means that you could tap off five of the oscillator signals before these resistors, and likewise for the other five. The chances are that you could simply send all ten signals to separate output sockets, with perhaps a smallish 1k series resistor to ensure that you can't short out the oscillators when you plug something into your new sockets.

After all, adding separate outputs is a common mod for things such as drum machines and the like, so lots of people have done this in the past.

Hope this helps!

Martin

[Ben Asaro]

Thanks, Martin! I am very much not in the DIY camp lol.

[Arpangel]

One filter in mono, no filter in stereo.

That’s a bit disappointing, they could at least give you a few filters across banks of oacilators.

[Ben Asaro]

I think they could have done a lot of things! But I still think it’s the most attractive new synth (along with the Peak and Summit) I’ve seen in a long time!

[Ben Asaro]

Nuts, this discussion made me re visit the Subharmonicon, and now I’m torn!

[zenguitar]

Time to start your crowd funding page

Andy

[Ben Asaro]

Lol srsly!

[Ben Asaro]

Well, I discussed this with my wife (who has no objection to my purchasing it), and after much back-and-forth'ing I've decided I'm going to pass on the Solar 50, as much as I would love to order it! I have serious concerns about pre-ordering something using the method that they want (supplying all of your personal info and then getting a PayPal invoice), there's just too much going on today in the way of cyber-threats. My other huge concern is having a one-off piece sent from another continent with email being my only recourse for service issues, and having the lack of technical skill that I possess, being unable to properly trouble shoot or service it myself.

I will say this -- it has inspired me to give my modular another look and I am going to be experimenting with the NerdSeq and Quadnic this weekend. Combined with the voices doubling that the Quadnic has and the TC MIMIQ, I can make an 8-voice super saw, which can then be doubled or quadrupled and mixed into stereo.

I was also surprised at how expensive the Subharmonicon is ... at $700, it's knocking on the door of the Solar 50 (Just a $400 difference between them in USD). But, ultimately, I think that the Subharmonicon will give me more of what my system needs at this point over introducing and entire new ecosystem and workflow to my creative overhead.

Kinda sad and relieved at the same time lol.

[Arpangel]

Well, I discussed this with my wife (who has no objection to my purchasing it), and after much back-and-forth'ing I've decided I'm going to pass on the Solar 50, as much as I would love to order it! I have serious concerns about pre-ordering something using the method that they want (supplying all of your personal info and then getting a PayPal invoice), there's just too much going on today in the way of cyber-threats. My other huge concern is having a one-off piece sent from another continent with email being my only recourse for service issues, and having the lack of technical skill that I possess, being unable to properly trouble shoot or service it myself.

I will say this -- it has inspired me to give my modular another look and I am going to be experimenting with the NerdSeq and Quadnic this weekend. Combined with the voices doubling that the Quadnic has and the TC MIMIQ, I can make an 8-voice super saw, which can then be doubled or quadrupled and mixed into stereo.

I was also surprised at how expensive the Subharmonicon is ... at $700, it's knocking on the door of the Solar 50 (Just a $400 difference between them in USD). But, ultimately, I think that the Subharmonicon will give me more of what my system needs at this point over introducing and entire new ecosystem and workflow to my creative overhead.

Kinda sad and relieved at the same time lol.

I think you’ve made a wise decision, especially regarding payment and support, a potential nightmare.
This synth is a great idea, but IMO a very flawed one, in reality.
There are too many compromises to make it worthwhile for me, more waveforms are essential, plus better filter implementation.