ELTA Music has announced that their SOLAR 42 analog microtonal drone ambient machine is now available to pre-order.
The SOLAR 42 is described as “an improved model of the SOLAR 50”, an earlier 50-oscillator/10 voice synthesizer, that they said was designed for making atmospheric sounds, background music, microtonal music, ‘super polyphonic electro symphonies’ and more.
Features:
- Two white noise generators.
- Two Samples and Holds
- Two volt octave VCO voices with different waveform variations, including
morphing. - Two LFOs as in SOLAR 50.
- 5 step analogue sequencer
- Preamp for contact mic.
- Envelope follower
- Stereo mixer with panoramic left and right channels
- Dual polyvox stereo filter
- Dual cartridge effector combiner with CV control. Now you can load a different
effect on each channel. - Stereo audio output
- Dry audio outputs volt octave voices
- External audio input.
- Joystick
- Separate push-button keypad for six drone voices
- Touch sensitive keypad controller for volt octave voices.
- Power supply unit no longer needs to be reset.
- Reduced output noise compared to SOLAR 50.
Pricing and Availability:
The SOLAR 42 is available to pre-order, priced at 1500 euros + shipping. They expect shipments to start around October 2024. Audio and video demos are to come at the ELTA site. For info, contact [email protected].
Gosh that’s a glorious knobby bit of electronic kit
Question as someone that’s learning electronics: did they use 2v/octave specifically for microtones?
I believe that’s 2 (quantity) volt per octave (1v/oct) oscillators.
any oscillator can play notes between scale notes (microtones).
I know I am being pedantic here, but for a drone / ambient machine, I really would have loved a more gentle, calm looking UI. This one’s UI is sooo busy, I prevents me from buying it. I would love to see a future incantatioon of this synth being somewhat more inspired by SOMA than modular; vertical symmetry would go a long way I think of making it look pleasant The synth itself is lovely though, and does a great job of taking the typical drone boxes into the stratosphere!
I understand your take, but we’re talking about a Nuclear Submarine equivalent of Drone Machines – I think the panel fits the degree