This Machine is Alive // Solar 42 f Deep Dive and Tricks

[@Davemech]

Samples, Presets, Courses: davemech.live/shop

[@AKDanMusicMan]

Will you be offering courses on this instrument?

[@Davemech]

@@AKDanMusicManI’m afraid not. It’s too small of a niche to make it a viable to create a course on. This deep dive is what I can offer for now :)

[@marvinvoigt3914]

Best demo Ive seen. It communicates the whole fun of getting carried away with just pure sound. Love it.

[@Davemech]

Glad it resonated ! 🙏

[@incog74]

Easily the best deep dive into the Solar 42F so far. Learned a ton. Thanks.

[@Davemech]

Thanks for watching 🙏

[@helpmeiaminhell]

Ordered one in July can't wait for it to arrive I've never been this excited about a piece of gear in my life.

[@williambayley3981]

Same- ordered in May it’s arriving on Monday hopefully

[@helpmeiaminhell]

@@williambayley3981 dang I'm probably looking at a December shipping date then.

[@aquaticborealis4877]

Wow, that’s quite a wait

[@thibald100]

I ordered on october 1st😂 Excited to see what you will make with this beast

[@chriskellenmurphy]

@@williambayley3981 did you ever get yours? I ordered end of May and still waiting anxiously

[@Vincenade]

I got this synth for some months now, and it's probably the most inventive piece of my gear... Soooo organic, and as you perflectly mention : any subtle and smooth touch on knobs makes the sounds evolve like no other synth. you tutorial is just great, and is filling some gaps I had with the understanding of the beast functionning. many thanks!

[@Davemech]

Glad you enjoyed it ! :)

[@txanklero]

Best S42f review so far! Congratulations David!

[@Davemech]

Thank you 😊 🙏 had a lot of fun making it as well. Such a deep machine. Also wanted to offer something different then the pure melodic side of the instrument

[@ITATTRACTS]

Got mine today, thank you so much for making this video. This thing is incredible.

[@Davemech]

Nice ! Have fun 😀

[@actitect]

Very nice, this sounds better and looks like more fun and options than about 90% of all modular racks I've seen and heard. Awesome device if you're into this sorta stuff for sure.

[@nikolay_valchev]

Outstanding synth. Great review and dive in it. Its really the sound design dream machine. Superb content, keep it up mate.

[@Davemech]

Thank you!

[@teamphil]

Thanks for this. It’s really helping understand it.

[@evenmind-music]

Absolutely stunning. Thank you so much for taking the time and effort to create this super informative and rich sounding walk through. I’m getting closer and closer to ordering one myself.

[@Davemech]

Great to hear you enjoyed it. Was a lot of work. Unfortunately it doesn't get as much traction as other solar 42 videos for some reason... Maybe I shouldn't put my face on a thumbnail 😅

[@evenmind-music]

Don’t know why this video doesn’t get as many views as others but I don’t think it’s because of the thumbnail - which looks nice to me :) Maybe with its length - which is perfect for the deep dive it is - it’s just more niche than a shorter video. And the Solar itself is very niche. So this video is a niche in a niche. Anyways, I’ve eventually made up my mind and - ordered one!

[@Roland_Tr909_Swing]

You have acquired the beast Dave.

[@evenmind-music]

When I first saw this instrument half a year ago I was like: woah this looks overwhelming. At second glance, I realised how simple it is once you look at the individual parts. And now I see how deep it’s true potential really is. Amazing.

[@Davemech]

Yeah exactly the process I went through :)

[@hexwavemusic]

Great video! I always wanted to see more about this machine because it's fascinating. Love the design and it sounds great, and your walkthrough shows very clearly how it works!

[@Davemech]

Cheers! Good to hear. It's really immersive and easy to lose yourself in.

[@prettylittlification]

Im so glad more of these Solar 42 videos are coming out. Ive pre-ordered one of these myself from Perfect Circuit, and have been going every week to figure it out, and i still haven't been able to tune the 6 drone osillators to a sound i like. So thank you again.

[@Heavycap]

Hey, you first tune voice 1 to VCO A / VCO B, then just work your way up on the keyboard tuning each voice to your desired note and you can get a wonderful effect, its what i did in my latest solar 42 session

[@prettylittlification]

That's very helpful, so each osillator knob gets tuned to the vco/a or b and depending if I'm using high pass or low pass signal. I'll try that this weekend. Thanks again

[@prettylittlification]

Also if you make a course on this device I would be very interested in that as well.

[@Heavycap]

@@prettylittlification Good idea, I will at some point do an in-depth example video and pass on some knowledge, covering more of the intricate features.

[@gracecore]

This is a great video thank you for doing this it's really helping me make up my mind if I want to purchase the unit. I hope you do more

[@Davemech]

Cheers glad to hear this long form video works well 👍🏻

[@z0OZ00OOO]

Mind blowing how many possibilities this has! Thank you for sharing 🙏

[@z0OZ00OOO]

Love the env looper 😱

[@Davemech]

Yeah that's a great feature

[@dietervoser4425]

Best Demo for Solar 42F !

[@Davemech]

Thank you ❤️

[@DaveS-Ace]

Giving this synth a like, cuz it’s so weird and I love it

[@DJ3KLANG155]

Wunderfull Sound ❤

[@aenamabag]

In the keyboard options menu, it looks like it basically has a build in 'Pamela's New Workout' with the way its all laid out.

[@myceliumtechno]

super super cool!

[@olivierd1972]

Thanks, Dave very useful like usually top notch 👍

[@Davemech]

Thanks 🙏

[@nr7975]

Great video, thanks!

[@Davemech]

Niels? Thanks ! 🙏

[@Longstride]

Awesome video! Mine arrived this week and I’m still just finding my way with it. The manual isn’t help if you’re not already au fait with modular concepts (I’m not 😂) so your video has been very helpful! Do you have a Solar 42 course? I couldn’t see one on your site. Thanks again!

[@Davemech]

Awesome ! Hope you’re getting along with it :) the manual is not super helpful no haha if you’re not familiair with that kind of stuff indeed. I don’t have a course for solar no. It’s simply too small of a niche to put the time in to create a course. Cheers 🙏

[@maxtarenzi4943]

Awesome. How long is the wait after the order? I couldn't find that information on Elta's website

[@Heavycap]

Nice deep dive, I'm still trying to figure out the 16 step internal sequencer, i feel like the Solar 42 has endless potential. It is really a mini euro rack.

[@kerosene4751]

New model already? People who bought the original Solar 42 must be steamed. It's been 12 months! When Polyend did the same with Play and Play+, they provided an upgrade path discount, but even then not everyone was happy.

[@Daniel-ot8gg]

This + syntakt must be amazing

[@Heavycap]

good idea, I was thinking of getting one to mix with the Solar, wondering about the Digitakt vs Syntakt

[@anthonykareis2181]

Thanks for the lengthy video. I should have mine by the end of November. Question for you. How consistent is the tuning of the oscillators? I mainly want to use this for short transition tunes between songs with my band, but I’d love to use this as a focal point of certain songs with the band. Say I tune one of the drone voices to play a D minor chord. Assuming I don’t adjust anything after turning the device off, will the oscillators still be tuned to those same notes the next time I turn this on?

[@Davemech]

Short answer: no Since it’s mostly an analog instrument it needs a bit of time to warm up. So make sure you turn it on 20 to 30 minutes before a gig depending on the surrounding temperature. The oscillators aren’t super stable either. AFAIK there’s no digital control keeping oscillators in tune for example so be aware of this. It’s not like you have to constantly babysit them but you’ll find that after 20 minutes or so some oscillators might be drifting off a bit.

[@jinn.凡境]

Hello, thank you very much for your video. I just received the 42F and have a question to ask. When I rotate the cutoff knob, there will be a rattling noise, especially in the Link state. The left cutoff knob will produce a piercing low-frequency noise when rotated. When I control the cutoff through LFO CV, there will be a rising sound like waves, which I think is normal. However, if I rotate the cutoff knob at this time, I will still hear the low frequency noise of stabbing and stabbing. When the rotation speed is fast, the sound will be obvious, but if I slow down the rotation speed, the sound will be much smaller. Excuse me, is this a normal phenomenon for the uploader? thank you

[@briansin]

Great video! Ugh, I just noticed that ONLY the AM button on voice 3 is wired incorrectly. Voice 6 is correct as is the FM button on voice 3. Have you figured out a way to correct this without sending it back?

[@Heavycap]

are you on the Solar 42 or 42F? how is the AM button wired incorrectly?

[@briansin]

@@Heavycap It's just as in the video. on the 42F, the AM button on Drone 3 is opposite of the rest of the FM/AM buttons on Drones 3/8. Not a huge deal, as not like i'm constantly switching out of AM mode on drone 3 (more a set the patch sound and play with it), but is what it is. It's all the 42Fs for now. Synth is still amazing though even with that production glitch.

[@Heavycap]

@@briansin ok, thanks, makes sense now, watched that part again.

[@Davemech]

Not yet. Will talk to him about it. Maybe it can be fixed without sending the unit.

[@JC-td4gg]

I hope they increase their capacity since they are going to have lots of orders! still waiting for mine!

[@evenmind-music]

They have been able to accelerate production. Orders placed now are expected to ship in December - previously expected shipping was January / February. When did u order?

[@JC-td4gg]

@@evenmind-music 8/18 They said Dec.

[@evenmind-music]

Ok the accelerated production might not affect your order anymore, but I don’t know. Anyways, wish you a good time diving into it once it’s there :)

[@JC-td4gg]

@@evenmind-music The only thing would be if it is shipped sooner. Very excited to get it!

[@HelmHell]

How accurately can you adjust the oscillators? Is that possible in cents? or is that not the concept of this synthesizer? - great video!

[@Davemech]

Each oscillator is pretty precise I'd say. For the first 4 voices with 5 oscillators it can be a bit fiddly but I'm able to dial in chords and microtonal stuff quite easily. They are not the most steady oscillators though but after having them warm up for a bit they are doing pretty well. But I sort of accept these quirks and let the instrument guide me a bit and just took with it. Retune if necessary etc.

[@freezeetch]

Solar 42 vs Syntrx II - any thoughts?

[@Davemech]

U have the first Syntrx not II but myeah, wildly different instruments. The solar is more playable directly from the get go where the Syntrx is more of an experimental sound design pallet using a lot of possibilities with audio feedback loops and what not. The solar 42 is more controlled and better suited for improvisation.

[@freezeetch]

@@Davemech I have Syntrx I and Syntrx II in my studio right now (borrowing the former and own the latter) - I keep eyeballing the Solar 42 though. I don't think I could justify owning both a Syntrx II and a Solar 42, hence my curiosity about how they compare. They do seem quite different, but they seem to be the best modular-in-a-box machines out there right now.

[@rusteros2]

What patch cables are you using in this video?

[@Davemech]

Mostly simple eurorack patch cables. And the ones with daisychain connector are called Stackables

[@rusteros2]

@Davemech I am very new to analog synthesizers and I read that there are different form factors, and even voltages depending on the synthesizer? Such as stereo and mono patch cables. I should just Google eurorack patch cables? Thank you so much for your help kind sir :)

[@Davemech]

@@rusteros2 yeahc if you search for eurorack patch cables you’ll be fine :). They are mono and 1/8 inch (3.5mm) cheers !

[@kostisv]

May I ask what stand do you use for the ST?

[@Davemech]

Ello. You mean syntakt ? I don't use a stand

[@kostisv]

@@Davemech Thamks for the reply but my comment was posted on the wrong video-channel! 😆 Great content by the way..

[@Davemech]

Haha 😆. And thanks 🙏

[@jonckheerebart9002]

Komt in het arsenaal😅

[@exdvayne]

OMG

[@scoobysienna]

how to add a drum machine to sync

[@Davemech]

The sequencer (keyboard) has a clock input 👍

[@Noiseferaofficial]

Can you connect it to a Scarlette Interface?

[@Davemech]

Sure. If you have two inputs on your interface you can just connect the wet out L/R each to an input. In your daw, hardpan each input left and right

[@Noiseferaofficial]

@@Davemech Thank you! What about the exit audio one?

[@hexwavemusic]

@@Noiseferaofficial That's external audio, its for running audio from something else into the solar.

[@Noiseferaofficial]

@@hexwavemusic gotcha

[@Heavycap]

you can connect 4 outputs to the scarlette, wet L/R and then also VCO A/VCO B, now you can put separate effects on either the stereo out and the VCO's.

[@drjandethlefs2257]

Fell for the YT hype and bought one 4 weeks ago...too many quality issues for that price, pots scratchy, filter noisy, ...returned it. Never again, just an overhyped noise and noisy toy. Tried another one in the shop, same issues

[@Davemech]

Hmm interesting. No scratchy pots here. Maybe a bit noisy when adding distortion which can add quite a lot of gain. Not to say your experience isn't valid though. Sucks that you didn't have a nice experience with it.

[@fabiangeorgmuentz6227]

How come you recieved and already returned it while others wait for it for months?

[@drjandethlefs2257]

@@fabiangeorgmuentz6227 local shop had 2 in stock, went there, bought one

[@selectfourteen]

You fell for the scratchy, noisy filter, overhyped toy when you heard it for the first time. Purchased it. Played the noisy overhyped toy and returned it. I have a hard time believing this story.

[@drjandethlefs2257]

@@selectfourteen Looked at videos for a couple of weeks, was fascinated and then bought one, played it for around 10 days and returned it...what is not to believe...? Where does it say...."heard it for the first time"?