The result was a versatile synth that could be easily morphed into a huge array of sounds and reliably change from patch to patch. Producers could return to the exact patch they’d made without having to start from scratch.ĭave Smith, who designed the instrument, used microprocessors that were state-of-the-art at the time to build its original circuits and make patch saving possible. This marked a huge change in synthesis because users could return to the exact patch they’d made without having to start from scratch.Īside from that, the instrument was meticulously engineered to sound really, really good. The Prophet 5 is the first polyphonic synth that allowed users to sound design in real-time and save their settings to instantly recall from memory. It’s no wonder that many producers today are curious about synth, especially with all these reissues of analog hardware coming available. Sequential couldn’t keep up and eventually lost the trademark to Korg-soon the Prophet series of synths fell out of production.īut the synth remained a highly demanded instrument and only recently has Sequential re-acquired its trademark for the Prophet 5, meaning that today you can buy brand new hardware editions of the synth.Īs well, Sequential has launched a similar series called the Rev series which is a re-issue of the Prophet 5’s counterpart the Prophet ’08. A short history of the Prophet 5Īfter launching the Prophet 5, Sequential was sold out almost immediately-there were notoriously long waitlists and it could take months to get one made and delivered to your studio. The synth features a selection of fairly standard analog synth sound design capabilities-including sections for its oscillator mixer, amp envelope, filters, LFOs and much more. The synth is notable for being the first to use microprocessors that could save and recall patch settings. The Prophet 5 is an analog polyphonic synthesizer with 61 keys that launched in the 1980s and was originally manufactured by Sequential Circuits. In this article, were going to unpack what exactly makes the Prophet 5 sound like a Prophet 5-and we’ll explore some budget-friendly ways of creating these sounds in your DAW

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Arturia v collection 5 in studio one