MATRIXSYNTH: Prophet VS Rack for $175


Thursday, July 20, 2006

Prophet VS Rack for $175

Title link takes you to the closed auction with a Buy it Now of $175. Just wanted to shar the pain...

"This is a rare but very cool find. It's in excellent working condition and in very good shape aesthetically considereing its age! It was used by a world class film composer. You probably would hear sounds from this unit in some of his earlier film scores. Power cord is included but no manual. Vector Synthesis is a type of audio synthesis introduced by Sequential Circuits in the Prophet VS synthesizer during 1986. The concept was subsequently used by Yamaha in the SY22/TG33 and similar instruments and by Korg in the Wavestation. Controlling the mix of four sound waves by defining a point on a vector plane using a joystick The Prophet VS vector synthesizer, which was Sequential's only digital synthesizer, came out in early 1986. Boasting a synthesis scheme known as vector synthesis, it combined the revolutionary digital waveform generator and vector joystick to the tried and proven analog Curtis filter, and resulted in a unique instrument with a very distinct sound. It still sees heavy use today despite its reliance on rare custom components with a high failure rate. Vector synthesis provides movement in a sound by providing dynamic cross-fading between (usually) four sound sources. The four sound sources are conceptually arranged as the extreme points of X and Y axes, and typically labelled A, B, C and D. A given mix of the four sound sources can be represented by a single point in this 'vector plane'. Movement of the point provides sonic interest and is the power of this technique. Mixing is frequently done using a joystick, although the point can be controlled using envelope generators or LFOs. "

6 comments:

  1. i wonder who the composer is/was.. I know danny elfman used these as well as john carpenter

    ReplyDelete
  2. it's very lucky to buy such price

    ReplyDelete
  3. I think I'm going to throw up...I've been scouring ebay for hours looking for one of these and somehow overlooked it completely. The buyer is one happy camper at the moment.

    ReplyDelete
  4. I'm very hesitant to post something commercial, so if it's off-base, please accept my apologies and delete it.

    If you're really searching for a vector synthesizer, I'm looking for a new home for my Yamaha SY-22. Great condition, professionally maintained. Comes with a matching SKB flight case. Will ship from the Boston, MA (USA) area for fair market price.

    Contact divbyzero@gmail.com if you're interested.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Sell ya my Prophet VS rack for 1,700.

    ReplyDelete
  6. There is a very nice free softsynth version of the VS over here ->

    http://manfreda.org/LordFrito/Prophet%20VS/VirtualVS/index.html

    ReplyDelete

To reduce spam, comments for posts older than one week are not displayed until approved, usually same day. Do not insult people. For items for sale, do not ask if it is still available. Check the auction link and search for the item. Auctions are from various sellers and expire over time. Posts remain for the pics and historical purposes. This site is meant to be a daily snapshot of some of what was out there in the world of synths.

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