Dave Smith Instruments -Prophet 6

jimknopf · Post by **jimknopf** » Thu Sep 24, 2015 7:51 pm

NuSkoolTone wrote:Enjoy man! Wish I had the justification to get one. That's the first DSI that truly sounded "Analog" to me.

Same with me. A comparison test from the German Amazona website a week ago confirmed my impression: the other DSIs may be nice instruments with lots of techical possibilities. But the Prophet 6 is the only one of them sounding truly analog in the classical sense. And someone who had the 08 besides the six for some weeks of testing told me that the 6 had more in common with the Prophet 5 than with the 08.

Just compare the raw waves from the test (down on the Amazona page), and you will immediately hear the difference between the rather tame, smooth and even a bit flat sounding Prophet 08, and the raw vivid power of the 6:
https://www.amazona.de/vergleichstest-s ... phet-08pe/

After two more hours in my home studio, I was quite surprised about the flexibility of the 6. In some settings with slop set to zero, it can sound nearly as dry, clean, brutal and in the face as modern dance synths (Massive etc.). But it also delivers classic snappy Prophet 5 brass synth sounds, punchy funk basses, and with a portion of the "slop" parameter in warm pads, it can even remind you of the typical slight smooth Oberheim voice drifting. And having high pass besides low pass and FM in an analog synth, that's ten times more important to me than having four LFOs.

This synth is just fun to use and play! And Dave Smith is something like part of the whole music family to me (equally respected by Roland, Yamaha and Korg), so I make this exception of being so explicit about the Prophet 6 in a Korg forum.

skinmechanic · Post by **skinmechanic** » Fri Sep 25, 2015 9:24 am

I too could see the difference between the 08 and Prophet 6, then I realised that the Sub Osc of the 6 makes it have more warmth and bottom end. So I managed to do a side by side comparison with a Mopho X4 and Prophet 6 and certainly on the 4 pole filer of the Mopho X4 I can get the same results than the Prophet 6, but again the architecture is different so it's not a direct comparison and I couldn;t get the Mopho X4 to do everything the Prophet 6 does. I don;t own or have access to a Prophet 08 so couldn't make any comparisons with that model personally.

dfahrner · Post by **dfahrner** » Fri Sep 25, 2015 5:25 pm

RE Prophets and KRONOS, I posted this on another thread, but maybe it applies here, too: trying to duplicate a Mopho x4 patch with the AL-1 engine, I discovered how much more "analog" things sound using a random initial/start phase for oscillators and LFOs (analog oscillators don't start at the same time, duh)...and routing a little bit of Random 4 (continuous) S&H to OSC Pitch Mod duplicates the Mopho's Osc Slop parameter nicely...

df

Bertotti · Post by **Bertotti** » Fri Sep 25, 2015 10:33 pm

Danatkorg had a great post about this in another thread but I be darned if i can remember the thread!

skinmechanic · Post by **skinmechanic** » Sat Oct 03, 2015 9:08 am

I have the DSI Mopho X4 which is adequate for me and love the sound. The probem in the UK anyway with DSI gear is there isn't really decent distribution and most main music stores do not stock them due to the pricing I remember about 8 months ago there was a price increase of about 20% in the UK and that put a lot of their gear out of reach for most people. Whilst the Prophet 6 sounds good and I even at one time considered the Prophet 12 just for better flexibility the price is way too high at the moment. Pre-Sales support is hard to come by due to UK distribution, asking DSI direct gets you no-where they never seem to reply to queries when asking about the specifications and internals to try and determine which synth to look at, a shame.

Kontrol49 · Post by **Kontrol49** » Sat Oct 03, 2015 9:17 am

skinmechanic wrote:The probem in the UK anyway with DSI gear is there isn't really decent distribution and most main music stores do not stock them due to the pricing.

your obviously not looking in the right place

http://www.andertons.co.uk

These Guys have plenty of DSI in stock all the time.

skinmechanic · Post by **skinmechanic** » Sat Oct 03, 2015 9:20 am

They are all on the south coast, so not really local to visit. A lot of the stores I used to go to around the Midlands, North of England used to stock them but tell me that the they no longer make any money on selling DSI kit since distribution changed and the price hike.

Kontrol49 · Post by **Kontrol49** » Sat Oct 03, 2015 9:35 am

skinmechanic wrote:They are all on the south coast, so not really local to visit. A lot of the stores I used to go to around the Midlands, North of England used to stock them but tell me that the they no longer make any money on selling DSI kit since distribution changed and the price hike.

The only shop I knew in the North that sold them at one time was Production Room in Leeds but they stopped selling DSI stuff several years ago,I had an original Mono Evolver from them,and looked to get a P08 but the sales guy told me they lost there franchise with DSI probably due to lack of sales,so hence why they no longer dealt with them,I'm not aware of any other dealer within the North that sells DSI

KMR audio in London Sell DSI but doubt they have much in stock as they are mainly a high end console and outboard sellers,its where I had my Tempest from and they had to do a special order as they don't keep(if any)stock

DSI aren't your big selling Korgs and Rolands and not really the average joe keyboard players choice so is only really bought by Synth elitist players so its probably why most shops don't stock them,even big stores Like PMT don't even have them.

Sound Control in Birmingham used to sell them until they closed down and was my preference in person store but those days of large retailers having everything in stock are gone,PMT in brum is about the Best shop in the midlands area they have a decent synth department but lack any of the DSI stuff,which is a shame really cos they have a good selection otherwise of other big names,I'm surprised they haven't got involved with the DSI brand as of yet,maybe in the future perhaps,even DV247 in Brum has long gone so the choice of shops in the Midlands has almost diminished.

It would be nice to have more shops stock them so you could demo in person but I think the online sales have kind of killed any need to go to your local shop,I have very rarely in the last 5 years gone to demo something in person,I've used Andertons in guildford on many occasions preferring to buy online,if anything wasn't to my liking after playing in person they have a money back guarantee anyway and I would simply just return it,I no longer feel the need to travel to a shop to demo anything anymore,I pretty much do most of my research online prior to buying anyhow.

jimknopf · Post by **jimknopf** » Tue Oct 06, 2015 8:02 am

Just a hint to anyone testing a Prophet 6 in a store:

My velocity curve was set to 0 by factory default. That's the one among four possible velocity curves, where elephant pressure is needed. You can change that (press two times "Globals", then "5 - Velocity Response"). Curve 3 seems to work best for normal play.

With Curve 0 the patches are simply not sounding as they are supposed to sound.

Davd C. Polich · Post by **Davd C. Polich** » Wed Oct 07, 2015 3:50 pm

dfahrner wrote:RE Prophets and KRONOS, I posted this on another thread, but maybe it applies here, too: trying to duplicate a Mopho x4 patch with the AL-1 engine, I discovered how much more "analog" things sound using a random initial/start phase for oscillators and LFOs (analog oscillators don't start at the same time, duh)...and routing a little bit of Random 4 (continuous) S&H to OSC Pitch Mod duplicates the Mopho's Osc Slop parameter nicely...

df

Good catch. AL-1 is incredibly powerful, you just have to dig into it.

Kontrol49 · Post by **Kontrol49** » Sat Oct 10, 2015 1:47 pm

Don't know if anyone has noticed but theres been a Drop in the UK price on Dave Smith gear.

Prophet 6 now coming in at just over the 2k Mark...

http://www.andertons.co.uk/synths-amp-w ... yboard.asp

jimknopf · Post by **jimknopf** » Sat Oct 10, 2015 3:23 pm

I already paid 150€ less, than originally announced, here in Europe when I bought it two weeks ago.

It should definitely stay beneath 3000€ to be sold in numbers.

On the other hand, after two weeks of use, I can confirm that I don't regret a single Euro I paid for it: it's an instant graftification analog device with a great UI and a very well done keybed doing exactly what you expect it to do.

The 500 presets it comes with are quite a mixed bag (I can use/tweak about half of them and find it hard to imagine using the other half). Same with the additional sounds of the "old man of midi", though these contain some excellent programming.

Maybe after some time some skilled programmers might offer
a) a mixed bag of vintage and soul/r&b presets for it
b) compile a set of modern EDM/HipHop/Lounge/Electric Jazz patches for it

I can do some of my favorite sounds myself, but I'm no professional overall sound programmer and would enjoy further offers for the Prophet 6.

drb32856 · Post by **drb32856** » Fri Oct 30, 2015 12:51 am

Really wanting the Sequential P6 after playing around on one during Sweetwater's Gearfest 2015 and having it demoed to me by Dave Smith himself WOW oh WOW! What an amazing man and synth. My Kronos was my ultimate must own synth, but now the P6 has moved into a very close 2nd place. And with the recently announced rack version (no difference just no keys), I can see myself going into debt yet again (sorry to the Mrs) and putting a P6 in some form into my rig.

Joe Gerardi · Post by **Joe Gerardi** » Fri Oct 30, 2015 12:08 pm

Me too...

Except for the gelded keyboard. That was a deal-breaker for me.

..Joe

skinmechanic · Post by **skinmechanic** » Mon Nov 30, 2015 10:49 am

I'm torn between the Pro 2 and P6 for my next DSI synth early next year can't afford it yet. The Pro 2 4 pole filter is based on the Pro 5 and the Pro 6 is based on the same filter design as the Pro 2. Yes the Osc are digital, but to be honest in a mix I can get what I need and unless your a purist and study the waveforms on their own you won't tell the difference with careful programming. Still the only reason I'm looking at the P6 is the polyphony