While the Native Instruments Pro-53 is an amazingly accurate reproduction of the original Prophet 5, it has a few things going for it that the original designers at Sequential Circuits simply couldn't do more than dream about. First off, the original had but 5-note polyphony, while the Pro-53 has as much polyphony as the host computer's CPU will allow. Another upscale feature is the Pro-53's powerful and flexible digital effects unit. So now you can process the sound generated by the oscillators and thicken them up, or add a bit of extra gloss by using effects like delay, chorus, and flange. From subtle to far out, you can use the effects to totally change the character of the overall sound.

But this is no afterthought! And there's not just one effects processor onboard, but four in parallel! You get a TIME knob that sets the basic digital delay times. Set fully counter-clockwise, the delay is about one millisecond, which is perfect for flanging. Turn the knob up one third and you're in the 10-millisecond range, which delivers a rich chorusing effect. You can continue through slapback echo all the way to a one second delay when turned completely clockwise. The delay times of the four delay lines can be thickened by using the SPREAD control. When this is set fully counter-clockwise, all delays have the same time value. At maximum, one delay is at double the basic time, another is at zero, and each of the other two are in between. With SPREAD centered, you get a very cool rhythmic pattern of echoes. Finally, the DEPTH control engages the effects' LFO, which is how you fine-tune your flange and chorus effect. RATE controls the speed of the modulation and FEEDBACK works just like it would on any delay effects unit, controlling the number of repeats.