Bach on the Prophet 6 Synthesizer - Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring

Published on Nov 22, 2018 Tom Loncaric

"Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring is the most common English title of a piece of music derived from a chorale setting of the cantata Herz und Mund und Tat und Leben, BWV 147 ("Heart and Mouth and Deed and Life"), composed by Johann Sebastian Bach in 1723.

Played live on the Dave Smith Instruments Sequential Prophet 6 synthesizer. There is a touch of delay from a Moog pedal and reverb from the Prophet's internal effects.

The sound in the video was inspired by a brass patch I found on a 1983 Sequential Circuits Prophet 600. In order to imitate the timbre of the vintage synth, a few tricks were employed:

Oscillator gain settings are set low in order to not drive the filter too hard. The slop function is on about 25%, and the polymod is modulating oscillator 1 a tiny bit, and both these things give the slight sense of pitch instability found on vintage synthesizers. The high pass filter is cutting some of the low end to imitate the lesser bass response of the old gear. Finally, I added some noise and distortion (!) to match the slight fuzziness of the vintage Prophet."