MATRIXSYNTH: Dave Smith Instruments Pot Edition?


Thursday, May 21, 2009

Dave Smith Instruments Pot Edition?

According to Gearjunkies, a version of the Prophet '08 with pots instead of endless knobs is now available. Anyone out there confirm?

"Since the release of the Prophet ’08 in August 2007, Dave Smith has received numerous requests for a version with more vintage-style controls. The standard Prophet ’08 primarily uses rotary encoders for its front panel controls, but some customers prefer potentiometers (AKA pots) like those used on the vintage Prophets, particularly for the more performance-oriented parameters like filter cutoff and resonance. The new Prophet ’08 Pot Edition offers an alternative with 38 of the 52 front panel parameters controlled by pots; rotary encoders are still used for the remainder of the controls.

So, what’s the difference? The features and functionality of the non-pot and pot versions are exactly the same. The difference is strictly in the controls themselves. Encoders are “endless”—they have no minimum or maximum limit. The advantage to that is that when you edit a preset parameter, the change begins at the preset value and increases or decreases, depending upon the direction turned. Pots typically have about 270° of travel and have definite limits. The advantage to that is that you know, by feel, where the minimum and maximum limits are and you can sweep through the entire value range in less than one full turn.

The Prophet ’08 PE features three edit modes for the pots: Relative, Passthru, and Jump. In Relative mode, the value change is relative to the preset value. In Passthru mode, turning the pot has no effect until after the edited value equals the preset value (that is, until the edited value “passes through” the stored value). Jump mode uses an absolute value based upon the position of the pot when edited; turn a pot and the value jumps immediately from the stored value to the edited value.

The Prophet ’08 PE melds the best of the “old school” with the modern features and affordability of a new generation.

The MSRP of the Prophet ’08 Pot Edition is $2,309.00 and it is available now. Photos and more information will be available very soon.

Dave Smith"

Update: here it is on the DSI site. via jmelnyk in the comments.

7 comments:

  1. this text is from the DSI site so i'm guessing it's legit. it's not in their store yet, tho.

    seems like a cool idea, given that the encoder functionality is my biggest gripe about the evo/p08. however, given the plethora of people with failing encoders on their DSI products, i'm hoping that these were manufactured with a bit more care...

    ReplyDelete
  2. I wish it had special front panel graphics since it is the "pot" edition.

    ReplyDelete
  3. thats good news - I would prefer pots too but on the rack version of course

    ReplyDelete
  4. I just wish that DSI would use encoders or pots THAT F***ING WORKED!
    Jezus, how hard can that be...

    ReplyDelete
  5. Yeah how the hell can people accept the crap he sells and sends a tube to fix your problems.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Encoders seem to be universally unreliable on everything, though; of all the products I have with encoders, I can't think of one where the thing reacts correctly all the time. Now it's possible that the arcane art of switch debouncing has been forgotten... but it's also possible that encoders are a better idea in theory than in practice.

    Pots go bad too, of course. But I get the impression they're more, er, consistently inconsistent... even if they have scratchy bits on the pad, they'll still increase a bit when you turn them a bit, and a lot when you turn them a lot. Contrast that with the typical behaviour of encoders I have known - you turn them a click up, and there's a non-zero chance of them not reacting at all, moving in the opposite direction, or hurtling 100 in the requested direction...

    Trouble is, there's no good answer to the problem of having a nice knobby front panel married to a patch memory. Hopefully touch screens can save us all there. :)

    ReplyDelete

Note: comments that insult people will be removed. Critique on gear is allowed. Do not ask if listings are still available. Click through auction links to check yourself. Posts and pics remain for historical purposes. To reduce spam, comments for posts older than one week are not displayed until approved (usually same day).

PREVIOUS PAGE NEXT PAGE HOME



Switched On Make Synthesizer Evolution Vintage Synthesizers Creating Sound Fundlementals of Synthesizer Programming Kraftwerk

© Matrixsynth - All posts are presented here for informative, historical and educative purposes as applicable within fair use.
MATRIXSYNTH is supported by affiliate links that use cookies to track clickthroughs and sales. See the privacy policy for details.
MATRIXSYNTH - EVERYTHING SYNTH