Very cool, thank you. I feel I’m good with the Prophet 12, then. It keeps giving me good stuff, and what comes out of it, I warp into oblivion within the Blackbox.
So no X for me. Close call, though. This one came closer than the Summit.
Look, if somebody throws it my way, I’ll do a circuitghost journey on my explorations with it 
and I’ll make sure you get front row seats and all the pop-corn you want 
1 Like
Really, the only thing I want, is a Sequential with some proper goddamn tools for composition within the instrument. Not just their step and gate sequencers, but some kind of song writing tool. You can write entire tracks with a bi-timbral Sequential, but not with their sequencers.
Tempest is close, so clearly, they can do it. Pro 3 is touching it, also.
1 Like
How about using samples to modulate the oscillators:
3 Likes
Yep. Very cool, no doubt.
EDIT: Ah, I see what you did there. But no, I’m not getting a Prophet X. Nice try, tho
1 Like
What’s the gear equivalent of a “feeder”…?
1 Like
I would also like to see something like this from Sequential. But I feel like the Tempest was closest to that because of the collaboration with Roger Linn.
1 Like
Very true. The Pro 3 sequencer gives me faith, though. But I get the feeling, Dave really is revisiting his past now, before it’s time to wrap it up and let the next generation do their thing.
1 Like
I’ve seen this on forums, people speculating Dave starting to wrap things up, and I don’t know, I am going the other way. I think he is going to crank out the hits for years to come. I have read they have two other products that are in development right now. If the OB-X is real, then that would be one of them. Maybe they do have a Tempest successor coming out? Or maybe a poly Pro 3? I would love a Tempest/Groovebox with the Prophet X engine.
2 Likes
I’m in your camp. Fire seems much nicer there 
1 Like
I am genuinely curious as to why you believe Sequential is capable of building a great composition tool. I have not heard of a Sequential/DSI sequencer/arpeggiator mentioned in the same breath as a Pyramid, Cirklon, Elektron, etc.
I’ve seen some people say things they like about DSI sequencers but maybe there’s an “it” factor I overlooked in their descriptions.
The Tempest, tho Linn was a great contributor there, is pretty damn good at certain parts of song writing. And the Pro 3 does a lot of cool sequencing tricks.
But like you, I don’t really believe they’ll come up with something like a Prophet version of the Analog Keys or Digitone Keys. I just know that if they did, that’d be the perfect board for me.
1 Like
I don’t have any Sequential gear, but I’d like to ask about their microtuning feature. When using a microtuning on the Prophet X, do samples also get adjusted the same way, playing back the same microtuned note as the synth voice that sounds when you press a key on the keyboard?
I called Sequential recently to ask them for their presales opinionatin’ on using the Pro-3 with the wavetables as a modern Prophet VS and they’d mentioned this option as well.
Is there any site that has the original wavetables/extracted files and advice on how to format without too much conversion? From my googlings there are some truncated wavetables but if I’m going to try I might as well rip it myself and try to get as close to original as I can 
1 Like
Some nice sounds here. Nothiing mind-bending, but the Prophet X is so much better than what comes across in most of the small number of demos that I think it’s worth the bump:
6 Likes
Prophet X in the wild:
At least when he turns a knob, something is happening. Seen quite a few “performances” where the knob turner would only turn knobs to turn knobs. What a waste of knobs! 
Prophet X is awesome. AMA
I took a risk buying this thing because there just isn’t that much info out there, but I’m really happy to report that it’s been an incredibly inspiring machine.
Here are some random sounds from my first week with the unit. I really didn’t hear the kind of stuff I liked in any demos but I’m really happy to report that it satisfies my experimental explorations well.
All sounds straight out the box.
DRAMZ -
GAUSS -
INDUSTRO
LURK (stick around or fast forward to the end. It gets squirly 
)
VS ASCEND
Thoughts.
Those were sounds from my first week with the unit, but I’ve actually had it for about two months now.
I don’t think I’d recommend this synth to everyone, but I happen to exist within the cross section of users I believe could get the most value out of this. I’ll detail a bit of my perspective in hopes it might help anyone considering this.
Having owned the Rev2, I knew what to expect from the modulation potential and workflow of this beast, and I can happily say it lives up to my expectations here.
In general, I love working with sampled content that has a baked in ambiance and “vibe” to it. I like to stretch sounds beyond their intended use.
I ALSO do soundtrack work and sometimes I just need a bog standard Kalimba or some strings. I’m tired of browsing through kontakt libraries and plugins and I’d prefer to get cosy with a single library of these kinds of sounds onboard the PX. It serves well enough for me here.
The stock library is very unique/baked as opposed to being straight hits from acoustic instruments. Some things, like the pianos and rhodes, could be better. The beauty though, is that all of this content is right there waiting to be stretched and morphed into something totally different.
I love the sample banks of ambiences/drops/cinematic hits. These have different samples per key. These are so unique in their audio content and are an INSTANT source of inspiration when experimenting. I’m talking about using these as makeshift oscillators/modulators or just applying random sequences to the and shifting the sample underneath an entire patch to be in a new realm of sound. Or play said sequence and click on/off the sample stretch button on the fly. I don’t see this getting old.
The filter is fucking great. Very unique. My other main synth is a Prophet 6 and I was understandably very worried about the overlap as I like to keep a minimal studio. Honestly, there is very little overlap. The stereo filter doesn’t seem to get to harsh, even when using it in pretty extreme ways.
The thing can be glitched the hell out, and it holds up to it well. Using a high quality stereo sample to audiorate itself? Sounds fab. I love linking the Mod wheel and sliders to various granular-esque loop settings. It’s super quick to do, and super hands on. The Hack/Decimate are incredible underneath that filter to give the sample some hair and grit.
Likewise, the onboard Prophet VS waves (and a 3rd part PPG pack I installed) really nail the vibe I’d want from those kind of units. I can’t speak to their accuracy to the originals, but with a touch of the aforementioned hack/decimate, I get very close to the kinds of aliased and fried, vintage digital stuff I loved when I had an ESQ-1.
It performs pretty damn well for straight up standard synths duties. Poly and mono. I have some free VCO user made samples I loaded from synths like OB6 and erebus. I also caved and bought the “Last Prophet” sound pack from Odio (who seem to have given up on this synth entirely) - it’s actually really cool because some of these samples have baked in modulation like PWM or hard sync effects. It’s a really fun way to arrive at a new patch when your ‘oscillator’ itself already has some movement.
Closing
This thing is very specific, and very dope. I had to think really long before grabbing one because I just wasn’t seeing it used for the kinds of sounds I like. I could see these starting to be let go pretty cheap in the next year or so!
I’m wrapping up a big music gig, when I finish, I will be buying an Octatrack for the second time. I plan on having a solid 6 months where I use nothing but the OT as my main repository for music creation. I’m not going to load a single sample into it ahead of time, instead relying on the gear I love to generate unique input material on the fly and I feel like the PX is going to be absolutely amazing sample fodder for this venture.
15 Likes
I’ve been eyeing this synth for ages and I think you may have finally sold it to me. These kind of demos and your write up are exactly what I wanted to hear. Think I’ll trade up my rev2 and P12D.
2 Likes
Great sounds!
I was looking at the PX for the same reasons you got yours, manipulating audio etc. but I had to get a P10, couldn’t get past the core sound of it. But maybe one day……
1 Like