The Ultimate Prophet-5 from Synth Legend Dave Smith
Renowned synth designer Dave Smith is back, and he’s brought with him the most powerful Prophet-5 yet! A reimagination of the iconic 5-voice polyphonic synth, the Prophet-5 Rev4 is packed with features from every iteration of the Prophet-5. It inherits its ultra-stable voltage-controlled oscillators from the Rev3 and provides you with a choice between the Rev1 and Rev2’s Rossum-designed filter or the Rev3’s Curtis-designed filter. A unique vintage knob even lets you choose from behavior characteristics of the earlier versions. With its knob-per-function architecture, the Prophet-5 never fails to inspire — just ask the synthesists at Sweetwater! To get you started right out of the box, the Prophet-5 comes loaded with a stellar selection of factory presets, and it includes 200 user slots for storing your custom-made patches. Not only does the Prophet-5 sound incredible, but it’s also contained in a collector-grade steel housing, with hand-oiled black walnut accents and end cheeks. Dave Smith and the folks at Sequential struck gold with the Prophet-5, a drool-worthy synth for analog aficionados!
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Rock-solid oscillators
The twin beating hearts of the Prophet-5 are its dual Curtis analog CEM 3340 VCOs. Found on Rev3 Prophet-5s, the CEM 3340 VCOs are rock solid, with virtually no tuning drift. Their implementation in the Rev3 represented a major turning point in the design of the Prophet-5, enhancing the performance and sonic quality of the powerhouse synth. As on the legacy models, the Prophet-5 Rev4 offers simultaneous selectable waveshapes — sawtooth and pulse on oscillator A, and sawtooth, pulse, and triangle on oscillator B, with pulse width modulation on both and hard sync for shaping the timbres of the oscillators. With the CEM 3340 VCOs, you have the ideal building blocks for creating harmonically rich analog patches.
Lush, dreamy analog filters
Dave and the team at Sequential went above and beyond for the Prophet-5’s filter section. Users can choose from two authentic re-creations of classic four-pole resonant lowpass filters — the Dave Rossum-designed 2140 (a modern update of the original 2040 found on the Rev1 and Rev2), and the Doug Curtis-designed CEM 3320. The 2140 is perfect for gristly bass lines and dense, sweeping pads, while the 3320 excels at dialing in laser-sharp high end for cutting lead lines. Both filters can be driven into maddening self-oscillation, and a dedicated 4-stage ADSR filter envelope gives you ample control over shaping the behavior of the filters.
Mountains of modulation
If you’re the kind of synthesist who likes to strip things back to the INIT patch and dig into some serious sound design, then the Prophet-5 is for you! Though simple, its modulation controls give you incredible flexibility to create vintage-style basses, leads, pads, brass, and strings, or generate brain-bending textures and effects. The Prophet-5’s single LFO offers three simultaneous waveshapes — sawtooth, triangle, and square — and an initial amount control. Use the LFO for pitch modulation and PWM of oscillators A and B or send it to the filter cutoff. And assign any of the mod destinations to the mod wheel. Additionally, Prophet-5’s Poly-Mod section lets you use the filter envelope and oscillator B as mod sources for affecting oscillator A’s frequency and pulse width, as well as the filter cutoff.
Deluxe performance controls
One of the most appealing aspects of analog synthesizers is the tactile experience of interacting with their knobs, switches, sliders, and wheels — and the Prophet-5 has plenty! With a knob-per-function design, the Prophet-5 treats you with detailed control over every parameter, so you can turn patches into living, breathing performances. The mod wheel and spring-loaded pitch wheel are highly responsive and a delight to use, and the Prophet-5’s premium semi-weighted Fatar keyboard feels exceptional under your fingers. It’s ideal for taking advantage of the Prophet-5’s velocity and aftertouch capabilities.
Crank up the vintage vibe
While inspired by vintage Prophet-5s, this latest iteration boasts modern reliability and high-fidelity sonics. But what if you want to inject a little bit of old-school instability into your sound? No problem! The Prophet-5 features a nifty Vintage control knob that lets you alter the behavior according to its revision model. Keep it pristine or go back in time all the way to the rare and highly temperamental Rev1. Do you think part of the charm of vintage analog synths is their unpredictability? Then you’ll dig this feature!
Sequential Prophet-5 61-key Analog Synthesizer Features:
- 5-voice polyphonic synth with pure analog signal chain
- Dual Curtis VCOs with PWM and hard sync
- 2 Selectable filter types — Rossum-designed 2140 and Curtis-designed CEM 3320
- LFO with sawtooth, triangle, and square waveshapes and initial amount control
- Modulation destinations include oscillator A and B frequency, pulse width modulation, and filter cutoff
- Knob-per-function architecture inspires expressive performance
- Unison mode with configurable voice count for fat monophonic tones
- Responsive mod wheel and spring-loaded pitch wheel
- Polyphonic glide
- 200 user and 200 factory patch memory slots
- USB MIDI and 5-pin MIDI in/out/thru
- Volume, filter cutoff, and sustain pedal inputs
- Mono line and stereo headphone outputs
- Collector-grade steel housing with oil-rubbed walnut accents and end cheeks
