Title link takes you to shots via this auction. Not the biggest shots, but you don't see these often. If you are considering this or any other action I post, ALWAYS be sure to read the auction details in full. I only post the bits that interest me here and I DO NOT police auctions. Always check the comments to see what others say. Details:
"This was the flagship of the SCI line and their last (and greatest analog synthesizer). Apparently, there were only 500 units produced before the project was shelved due to competition from the much cheaper Yamaha DX-7. I am the second owner of this synth. It has been gently used in my smoke-free studio.
Brief specs:
- 8 voices
- 2 VCO's per voice
- Classic SCI Poly-Mod section
- MIDI control of various parameters through velocity and/or pressure modulation
- Semi-weighted keys
- Velocity and aftertouch (The Prophet T8 was renowned for its pioneering system of aftertouch)
- Single, Split, an Double modes- The T8 can be played as a single synth (one patch), two separate synths (upper and lower patches), or two patches can be played at once"
The competition from the DX7 part has a grain of truth but is mostly bunk. IMHO Sequential did paint themseleves into a corner in that you had the Prophet 5 and 10 out for several years and were respected well understood synths.
ReplyDeleteThen you had the Prophet 600 which seemed to have almost the same features as the 5 plus 20% more voices... for half the price! I know that really confused me when both were still on sale though a salesman at the time mentioned the 5 did have more parameter reolution and sounded better. So the spin on the T8 was I guess people were waiting for Sequential to bring out a top of the line synth for a while and what came out just had one of the best keyboard actions ever and nothing else impressive. I mean it doesn't sound like crap but it was quite expensive and the DX7 aside (which did sound like nothing else on the market) by the time it came out there were lots of more impressive sounding keyboards on the market (though with less expressive keys). What you got with a T8 was a Prophet 600 with 33% more voices and the best expressive keyboard being sold at the time... for about 3 times the price of the 600.
The T-8 always gets a bad wrap as a glorified Prophet 600 and I think that is wrong. First of all, it has all of the routings and more that the Prophet 5 had and that the Prophet 600 does not. Second, it has after touch and that very nice wooden weighted action keyboard. Third .. there is a trick for the EGs .. no matter how hard you mash the keys or have the velocity settings, you cannot the EGs to go fully open. This is even documented in the user's manual. Because the T-8 has an impressive MIDI implementation it was possible to program a small device (such as a pic controller) to give you the full 127 value on the EGs. While you lose the velocity sensitivity, you can use this as you see fit and it then causes any Prophet 600 within a 5 mile radius to wither away.
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