SEQUENTIAL Prophet-5 review with (Korg Drumlogue, KR-55 and loads of FX Pedals

video upload by Knobs & Switches

"Here is my first Review about the classic Sequential Prophet-5 full of audio, sampled P-5 Sounds and a bunch of FX Pedals.

https://www.sequential.com

Used Equipment: Apple iPhone 14 Pro Max, Sony ZV-1, Sony ECM-W2BT, Universal Audio Apollo Twin Solo, Steinberg Cubase 12 and Final Cut Pro X"

Also see Alex Ball's The History of the Prophet Synthesizer and related posts here.

Why The Finicky Analog Prophet 10 is Better Than Digital Keyboards

video upload by Retrothusiast

"The Prophet 10 is a wonderful analog synthesizer. However, from tuning issues to dropped notes, there were a few bumps in the road to reach my destination. Follow me on my journey as I explore this amazing instrument!

Chapters:
0:00 Intro
0:44 Want the Real Thing
1:16 Prophet 10 Specs
2:01 Prophet 10 Sound Demo
3:37 Tuning Issues & Dropped Notes
4:37 Prophet 10 Board Replacement
4:55 How To Turn On A Prophet
6:58 Afterglow

Watch Alex Ball tell the story of the Prophet: [posted here]

Watch me replace the Prophet 10 main board:"

Replacing the Main Board in a Sequential Prophet 5/10

video upload by Retrothusiast

"I had to replace the main board in my Sequential Prophet 10 because when the Rev 1/2 filters were selected, some of the notes would drop out. This is, however, after I had already replaced this keyboard because my first keyboard would not stay in tune. I'll be posting another video touching on this in the near future.

Sequential sent me new boards and I recorded a quick, down and dirty video documenting the procedure for anyone else who might have to replace their boards and wanted to see what's involved.

I followed these instructions provided by Sequential Support:

https://www.sequential.com/prophet-5-...

Hats off to Sequential Support. This company really is top-notch and despite the issues I had with the hardware, I can tell the Sequential team really cares and is extremely helpful and supportive! Thank you, Sequential!"

https://www.retrothusiast.com

Prophet~5 Tutorial: Radiohead, Aphex Twin, Japan

video upload by Alex Ball

"I had an opportunity to borrow a vintage Prophet~5 rev3.2 for a short while and, as I've done lots of videos on the Prophet, I thought I'd take the opportunity to create a tutorial showing three of my favourite uses of this classic synth.

0:00 Intro
0:53 Everything In Its Right Place Demo
1:21 Everything In Its Right Place Breakdown
3:21 Rhubarb Demo
3:53 Rhubarb Breakdown
6:39 Ghosts Demo
7:13 Ghosts Breakdown
9:15 Summary
10:05 Outro Jam

Note: Admittedly I'm busking the parts a bit as the video was more about the sounds, so excuse any not-quite-right chords etc.

The principals showns in the video will all work with a Prophet~5/10 rev4 reissue or a plug-in such as Repro-5 or the Arturia Prophet~V. They are also applicable to other synths that can replicate the architecture of a Prophet~5 (many synths can)."

Roland Fantom, ARP Odyssey, and UDO Super-6 make an appearance as well.

Five Polysynths - Which Should You Buy?

video upload by Alex Ball

"To answer the many questions I get about these specific modern polysynths I've decided to cover it off in a massive video. Hopefully this clears up which synth is or isn't the one for you!

All sounds are presented "raw" meaning that only FX from the synths themselves were used (if they have them) and that there was no processing of the audio afterwards. What you hear is what the synths sound like.

Notes:
1) Cheers to Markus for the Hydrasynth loan.
2) Cheers to CALC for sorting the Summit.
3) Cheers to UDO for sorting Super 6.
4) Cheers to Roland for sorting the Jupiter-X.
5) Cheers to Sequential for bringing back the OG Prophet.
6) First person to say "i cAn'T bELiEvE yOu fOrGoT tHe pOlyBrUtE" or something similar has to do 50 press ups and 10 Hail Marys.

0:00 Intro
0:40 Super 6 Raw Sounds
3:10 Super 6 Thoughts
5:45 Prophet~10 Raw Sounds
6:52 Here's the thing
7:36 Ah there it is
10:27 Summit Raw Sounds
12:55 Summit Thoughts
16:10 Jupiter-X Raw Sounds
18:22 Jupiter-X Thoughts
21:21 Hydrasynth Raw Sounds
23:17 Hydrasynth Thoughts
26:17 Outro"

Sequential Prophet-10 Bi-Timbral Stack & Split Tutorial With Alex Ball

video upload by Sequential

"A concise walkthrough of how to use the new bi-timbral stack/split feature, with some short musical examples.

Download the new OS here: https://www.sequential.com/updating-t...

Download new OS here:
https://www.sequential.com/2021/09/pr..."

Prophet vs Prophet - The Results (and what we discovered)

video by Alex Ball

Curious if he used the REV3 filter setting on the REV4 or the REV4 filter. Either way, they both sound great to me. Great comparision.
Update via Alex Ball: Curtis / rev3 throughout.

"This is a follow up to this video from last week: [posted here]

The answers were:
1A Rev 4 / 1B Rev 3
2A Rev 4 / 2B Rev 3
3A Rev 4 / 3B Rev 3
4A Rev 3 / 4B Rev 4
5A Rev 3 / 2B Rev 4
6A Rev 4 / 3B Rev 3
7A Rev 4 / 7B Rev 3
8A Rev 3 / 8B Rev 4
9A Rev 4 / 9B Rev 3


148 people gave a full set of 9 answers and out of 1,332 individual answers 740 (55%) were correct and 592 (45%) were incorrect.

In this video I explain that in a little more detail and talk about what we discovered that's of note.

Thanks for watching."

Prophet Vs Prophet - The Blind Test!

video by Alex Ball

Update: results posted here.

"A comparison between a vintage Prophet~5 rev3 and a new Prophet~10 rev4 (both designed by Dave Smith at Sequential).

This is a blind test where you see the same clip twice, but in one you're hearing the Prophet you see and in the other you're hearing the Prophet you don't see.

Write which you think is which for each of the 9 examples in the comments and I'll reveal the correct answers and the results of people's responses in a weeks time.

Huge thank you to Marius Leicht for his help with this video:

https://mariusleicht.com/

0:00 Explanation of how the test works
1:37 1A
2:04 1B
2:30 2A
2:50 2B
3:10 3A
3:46 3B
4:21 4A
5:06 4B
5:51 5A
6:29 5B
7:05 6A
7:24 6B
7:32 7A
8:25 7B
9:06 8A
9:44 8B
10:24 9A
10:52 9B
11:19 Outro"

A Closer Look at the Jupiter-8

video by Alex Ball

"A closer look at the legendary Roland Jupiter-8, an iconic polysynth from 1981.

Huge thanks to Shadow Child for the generous loan.

The end track is available here:



0:00​ Intro
1:10​ Demo 1: Ramp & Sync
1:44​ Demo 2: Unison Twist
2:04​ The Jupiter-8 Concept
3:24​ Demo 3: Bells
3:55​ Demo 4: Soft Chords
4:17​ The Jupiter VCOs
5:00​ Demo 5: Drill Wah
5:25​ Demo 6: Espen Kraftwerk
6:17​ The Jupiter VCFs
6:51​ Demo 7: Four By Four
7:23​ Demo 8: Filmscore
8:23​ Comparison to a Prophet~10
10:25​ The Key Modes
11:32​ Summary & Thoughts
13:15​ Contextual Demo: 'The Power'

The Links I Cited:
https://www.roland.com/uk/promos/rola...​
http://www.florian-anwander.de/roland..."

The Prophet is back!!

Alex Ball

"The Prophet is back baby!"

Alex Ball documentary video posts

Sequential Circuits Prophet~600 | By Design

Published on Nov 21, 2019 Alex Ball

"Another synth demo, this time with the Sequential Circuits Prophet~600 buddied up with its siblings.

This synth was the very first instrument released with midi (with Dave Smith of Sequential being the "father of midi"). He was later awarded a Grammy for its invention along with Ikataro Kakehashi of Roland. It was famously hooked up to a Roland Jupiter-6 at the Winter NAMM of 1983 to demonstrate that a universal protocol had been achieved.

The Prophet~600 was the third of this iconic series to be released after the Prophet~5 (1978) and Prophet~10 (1980). With their eye on affordable poly synths such as the Kory Polysix and Roland Juno-60, Sequential looked to create a cutdown version of their earlier Prophets and the 600 was the result. Around 6,000 of them were made between 1983 - 1985.

It has 6-voice polyphony with two oscillators per voice and has mixable saw, triangle and pulse available on both of those oscillators. The VCOs are identical to those found in the Prophet~5 rev3, Pro~One and Prophet~10 but the other ICs are different.

It has a resonant low pass filter, two envelopes, an LFO, poly mod, glide, oscillator sync, unison mode, patch memory, an arpeggiator and two sequencers.

And here's where things get interesting: the 600 has digitally generated envelope, LFO and glide voltages as well as digital values for the switches and potentiometers. In order to keep the cost down, an 8-bit Z80 processor and DAC were used that didn't quite have the spec to perform these functions at the speed or with the resolution that was ideal (it was 1983 after all). The result was that the envelopes weren't snappy enough and when sweeping the filter you can hear it stepping through the values.

Most owners rectify this and unlock the potential of the 600 with the GliGli mod that replaces the old processor with a modern one and also adds a bunch of features and the unit I'm using has this upgrade. We now have increased resolution, extra LFO modes, multimode envelope generation, unison detune, noise source, mix overdrive, full midi implementation and more.

In terms of physical changes, the oscillator mix potentiometer is now the Oscillator A level and the portamento the Oscillator B level. The envelope amount is now bi-polar with level 5 being the 0 volt point. The other updates are accessed via the numeric pad and speed dial whilst in manual mode.

I made all the sounds in manual mode and also used some timed automation of various parameters in places via midi.

Instruments used:
Sequential Circuits Prophet~600 (1983)
Sequential Circuits Pro~One (1981)
Sequential Circuits Drumtraks (1984)
Ibanez Jem 7DBK (2002)
Fender Blues Junior II mic'd with an SM57
Boss CE-2 (1979)"

Drumtraks: Sequential's answer to the LinnDrum (includes FREE SAMPLES)

Published on Jul 18, 2019 Alex Ball

"I've been planning to giveaway a detailed sample pack of my Sequential Circuits Drumtraks and so I thought I'd tell you a bit more about the machine whilst doing that.

Download the sample pack:
http://bit.ly/Drumtraks

As mentioned in the film, much of the specific information about Sequential Circuits comes from 'The Prophet from Silicon Valley' by David Abernethy and I thoroughly recommend getting a copy if you're into synth history. [you can find it on Amazon here]

Some of the original adverts and posters come from Retro Synth Ads.

The Boss DR-55 footage was shot by Ra Smith at madFame for my Roland documentary, so that's recycled here. Ra has been putting out a very cool series called 'Synth Quest' so go have a look. [episodes posted here]

Thanks for watching!"

Previous posts featuring Alex Ball

Prophet REV2 | In the Valley

Published on Jun 13, 2019 Alex Ball

"A demo that a number of people have been asking me to do for about six months, so I'm hoping it does the instrument justice.

The DSi Prophet REV2 (2017) is the successor to the Prophet 08 (2007) that was itself the comeback Prophet synth after Sequential had closed their doors thirty years prior.

Its heritage is legendary with the Prophet~5, Prophet~10, Prophet T8 and Prophet VS being a few of its relatives. It's also in good company with modern siblings such as the Prophet 12, Prophet~6 and Prophet X/XL.

Whilst it can do decent "classic" analogue sounds, retro patches would underplay all the modern things the REV2 can do. The 3 envelopes / 4 LFOs and comprehensive mod matrix combined with modern connectivity and synchronization make it a very convenient workhorse and I imagine players and engineers would have dreamed of functionality like it when the original Prophets were in their heyday.

You can stack patches, but the voice count halves when you do that. As mine is the 8-voice version that leaves me with 4-voices in that respect, but I worked around it. There's a kit to upgrade to 16-voice which is on my (long) list of things to do.

I used a combination of my own patches, some tweaked factory presets, some live playing, some midi and some tempo-synced grooves from the poly and gated sequencers. I used some onboard FX but also recorded some parts dry and added FX in my DAW.

Instruments used:
Prophet REV2 (all synth sounds)
Abbey Road Modern Drums (Drums)
Some miscellaneous drum samples

Some of the pictures of the other Prophets were taken by others back when we did "The History of the Prophet Synthesizer" last year. If you haven't seen that one:" The History of the Prophet Synthesizer

Roland SH-2 | Black Box Skank

Published on May 23, 2019 Alex Ball

"The Roland SH-2 from 1979 is one vintage piece I’d never seen in the flesh and one that wasn’t physically in my 'Land of the Rising Sound' documentary, so it’s great to be able to cover it on the channel.

Huge thanks to Ian Livingstone for the loan.

It reminds me of the SH-7 and SH-1 in terms of sound and the “auto bend” is very much in keeping with the early SH models, but then it’s also quite clearly a step towards the later SH-101 in terms of its layout. Quite an interesting one!

The SH-2 has Sine, Sawtooth, Square and PWM available on oscillator 1 and Noise, Sawtooth, Square and PWM on oscillator 2. There’s also a sub-oscillator, which really beefs things up.

It has one LFO (Sine, Square and S&H) with delay that can modulate pulse width, oscillator-frequency, filter cut-off and also trigger the one envelope. The filter is low-pass and can self-oscillate. There’s also portamento and adjustable auto-bend as mentioned earlier.

The SH-2 had a little brother with a single oscillator, the SH-9 (which I’ve never played). I’m guessing it’s very similar in a kind of Korg MS-20 / MS-10 sibling way. If you’ve played both, let me know!

There’s a few specific things I did such as taking the CV/Gate out and hooking up the SH-101 that ran back through the “Ext Audio In” of the SH-2. That gave me 3 oscillators and 2 sub oscillators so that I could mix and detune footings and waveshapes.

I also ran midi to my TB-303 and fired on CV/Gate from that to the SH-2. The 303 also ran through the Ext Audio In so that the whole effect came through the same filter / envelope / VCA.

Instruments Used:
Roland SH-2 (1979)
Roland SH-101 (1982)
Roland TB-303 (1981)
Roland TR-606 (1981)
Sequential Drumtraks (1984)
DSi Prophet REV2 (2017)
Yamaha U3 Piano (stereo mic’d)
Ibanez JEM 7DBK / Fender Blues Junior II / Mic’d with an SM57
Some EMU Emulator and Fairlight stabs
Couple of Project Alpha Sounds
There’s also a Pro~One and Korg MS-20 doing some cameo FX that I added after and didn’t film."

Oberheim Xpander | Living in the Matrix

Published on Jan 24, 2019 Alex Ball

"The Oberheim Xpander (1984) is quite a curious release from the legendary developer.

It has the classic muscly Oberheim sound with 6-voice polyphony at 2 VCOs per-voice. However, it then becomes very interesting because it then has some deep digital control. There's five LFOs and five envelopes per voice, lag processing, tracking generators, ramp generators a filter with 15 modes and a whole bunch more. Pretty amazing for 1984!

The instrument is fairly chunky, but most of the control is built around page diving and a modulation matrix. So, it would be absolutely enormous if they had a switch or potentiometer for each function. It's kind of a modular-esque synth without any cables and some elements being virtual.

Furthermore, there are multi-patches where a different single patch can be loaded for each of the six voices. The voices also have their own CV/Gate and discrete outputs if you so wish. It's also fully midi equipped and so some folk use the Xpander as a midi to CV converter to control various parts of a modular rig.

After I'd read the manual and got my head around the workflow, I programmed a few patches, tweaked a few others already saved on the unit, did some live playing, some midi and some CV/gate sequencing and this was the result.

All synth sounds: Oberheim Xpander
Midi control via Prophet REV2 and my DAW
Drums: Oberheim DX
Vocals: Recorded with an AKG C414
Guitar: Dan Electro Baritone / Boss HM-2 / Fender Blues Junior mic'd with an SM57"

Prophet VS | There Will Be Modulation

Published on Jan 16, 2019 Alex Ball

"The Prophet VS from 1986 is one of the most sought after of the original Sequential instruments. They only made 1,500 of the keyboard versions and around 500 of the rack mounts. I was very fortunate to be able to borrow one.

I talked about this synth in my documentary "The History of the Prophet Synthesizer", but the (great) demo was done by Marko at Retro Sound and I'd never actually seen one in the flesh myself.

If you don't know, designed by Chris Meyer, Josh Jeffe and Tony Dean; the VS is basically a digital synthesizer with an analogue filter and VCA. The sound generation is through a wavetable style approach with 127 different waveforms being available on each of the 4 oscillators. As this 80s tech, the single waves had to spread spread across the keyboard which results in some cool aliasing.

Once you've setup up your combination, you can ride between them in real time with the joystick on the top left of the instrument.

It also has a 7 source / 7 destination mod matrix, two LFOs, stereo chorus with independent switching, split, link and double keyboard modes, an arpeggiator, 99 memory slots, midi and aftertouch. The latter is infamous for going wrong due to two different design flaws with the voltage level and the instrument bending.

Interestingly, the envelopes are setup with stages 0-4 and can loop between stages 1-3 if you wish them to.

Chris Meyer has documented the whole story of the instrument here: https://learningmodular.com/the-story...

Whilst I dove in and started finding textural soundscapes, bell tones and peculiar atmospheres, I was most taken back by the very analogue-style sounds it could create. But, with the stereo movement you get from the instrument, the sounds still have something very "VS" about them. I dubbed it a "straddler" in my mind; a synth that has its feet in quite different camps.

I followed my nose, which seems the way to approach the VS and this is the result. I hope you enjoy it."

Daft Punk Synth Tutorial

Published on Dec 30, 2018 Alex Ball

"This week I thought I'd demo three Daft Punk synth sounds / samples on original hardware.

As these are all VCO-based analogue synths that are the best part of 40 years old, you'll probably find that settings vary slightly from one unit to the next. In fact, the settings vary on a daily basis on my own synths, depending upon temperature or how long they've been switched on etc.

CLICK FOR MORE »

Roland Jupiter 8 | First Contact

Published on Oct 20, 2018 Alex Ball

"Whilst I was recording the Prophet T8 for the documentary I quickly put down some Jupiter 8 as it was the first time I’ve ever seen one. I brought the audio and video back and built more stuff around it and this is the result.

I’m planning to do a bigger Roland thing with a more detailed look at these icons, but in the meantime, this is a first sketch; a quick trip to Jupiter.

Main part: Roland Jupiter 8 (1981)
Sequenced chords: Roland JX-3P (1983)
Arp bass: Roland Juno-6 (1982)
Arp chords: Roland SH-101 (1982)
Drums verse: Roland TR-808 (1981)
Drums chorus: LinnDrum (1982)
Drums final chorus: Fairlight CMI III Samples
FM Bells: Yamaha DX7 (1983) Not seen in film
Guitars: Ibanez JEM 7DBK, Squier Jagmaster
Amp: Fender Blues Junior II mic’d with an SM57
Pedals: Boss CE-2 and EarthQuaker Devices Organizer
Vocals: Recorded with an AKG C414

Sequencer: Cubase 9.5
Clocking: Arturia BeatStep Pro
Plugins: U-He, Goodhertz, Waves, PastToFuture, IK Multimedia

Space footage from the NASA public domain archive.
Scans from Retro Synth Ads. http://retrosynthads.blogspot.com/
Many thanks to the owner of the Jupiter, LinnDrum and 808!"

The History of the Prophet Synthesizer

Published on Oct 13, 2018 Alex Ball

"One of the most interesting stories of the synth world is that of Dave Smith and Sequential Circuits. I decided to try to tell some of it via their flagship series, from the Prophet 5 in 1978 to the Prophet X in 2018. With the help of a dozen other people who were incredibly generous and equally excited by their instruments, this film is the result: The History of the Prophet Synthesizer.

Massive and heart-felt thanks to all of these awesome Prophet people, this film would be very short without you!"

Sequential Circuits Drumtraks | Cosmic

Published on Sep 20, 2018 Alex Ball

"The Sequential Circuits Drumtraks is an overlooked unit, perhaps because of the Linn, Roland and Oberheim classics that came first, or perhaps because Sequential are so famous for their legendary synthesizers. Either way, it has a very punchy sound and reminds me of the DMX and LinnDrum.

I was interested to see that Tame Impala had made use of one on the Currents album and combined with the "May peace prevail on earth" message on the circuit board; I thought I'd try some space pop rather than something 80s.

Instruments used:
Drums: Sequential Drumtraks (1984) and PastToFuture Drums
Bass Guitar: Fender Jazz Bass / Orange OB1-300 / DBX 266XL
Electric Guitar: Squier Jagmaster (1998) / Blue Junior II / Vox Wah / Ibanez Tubescreamer / Boss CE-2 Chorus / SM57
Acoustic Guitar: Alvarez Baritone / AKG C414
Bass Synth: Sequential Circuits Pro-One (1981)
Polys: Roland Juno-6 (1982) / DSI Prophet REV2 (2017)
Dirty Synth: Korg MS mark I (1978)
Electric Piano: Rhodes Mark I Seventy-Three (mid 70s)
Vocals recorded with an AKG C414
Harp: GForce Mtron Pro
TamTam & Cymbals: Spitfire Joby Burgess Percussion

Plugins: Waves, Goodhertz, U-he, Past To Future reverbs, T-racks
Sequencer: Cubase 9.5"

Pro-One | Carpentry

Published on Jun 6, 2018 Alex Ball

Scans featured are via http://retrosynthads.blogspot.com/

"I've always loved 80s Sci-Fi soundtracks such as "Escape from New York" and 'The Terminator'. It's by no means a coincidence that they both share something in common; The Sequential Circuits Prophet 5. As the P5 is about as rare as a unicorn and as expensive as a decent car, I'll probably never get close to one. However, SCI's monophonic version of it, the Pro-One can still be found if you keep your eyes open. And sure enough, I managed to snag one.

So, here's an original track following the spirit of those great scores. Minimal and atmospheric, my take on a spot of Carpentry.

I've made a detailed walkthrough of the production and mixing of this track if that's of interest: [below]

Sounds used:

Sequential Circuits Pro-One (1981)
Korg MS20 (1978)
Oberheim DX (1982)
Squier Jagmaster (1998), Ibanez Tubescreamer TS808, Fender Blues Junior II (mic'd with an SM57)
Some Linn LM-1 samples (cow bell, snare and tom doubles, shaker)
Sequences and clocking via Arturia BeatStep Pro"

Pro-One | Carpentry /// Walkthrough & Tutorial

Published on Jun 6, 2018

"Hopefully it's a useful guide to synth and drum machine programming and arranging as well as mixing and mastering. All with the spirit of the John Carpenter sound.

Those great synth scans and images stolen from here: http://retrosynthads.blogspot.com/

Sections:
0:00 - Intro

Synths:
0:38 - Sequential Circuits Pro-One Overview
1:26 - Pro-One Bass Programming
3:19 - Pro-One Bass Part arranging
4:58 - Pro-One Riff in 5ths
6:47 - Pro-One Oscillator Sync Lead
9:06 - Affordable alternatives?

Drum machine:
9:36 - Oberheim DX Overview
11:49 - Oberheim DX Tuning Tips
14:05 - Oberheim DX Programming
16:20 - Oberheim DX Recording and Clocking

The Mix
18:20 - Mix walkthrough / screen capture

The Master
30:57 - Mastering walkthrough / screen capture

34:29 - Summary"