Marvelous! I love it! There are some minor short comings, that are irrelevant if you use it with Ableton or any DAW. The most important parts are the oscillators (samples and wave forms) and the ease of sample manipulation to produce patches. 34:33 Very Nice Patch with the Pink Noise! I see that some people want to compare it to software, an in truth if you just want to make music as inexpensively as possible (not a bad idea), you can do anything you want inside of a computer and sound fantastic! You can be a star with just that. I think when a person buys certain types of hardware, the motivation is different, it not just about making music. In some sense its a trophy, in others its legacy, yet still with others inspiration, exploration, or reliability. Do what makes you happy.
Donal Finn Yes, It is a computer with an awesome dedicated interface, DA conversion and connectivity. Much more satisfying than software alone. That being said, grabbing Omnisphere 2.5 and using this as controller is a very exciting prospect.
That Rossum filter is crazy beautiful. Wow, it really sounds like a flagship contemporary Prophet. I did notice there’s a high-pass in the effects section, if you need more of a bandpass-type filter flavor. This may have just won my heart. 🥰 and you know Nick likes it when you see him make the stink face. 😉 EDIT: i did buy it 2 years ago, and since, it’s made its money back many times over. After this landed in my studio, i stopped touching other poly synths, and ended up selling both my other polys. I recommend using Lady Gaia’s excellent multisample editor (skip the official 8DIO one), and sending it your own samples. I sent it my own VCO and wavetable samples and it sounds breathtaking. Also Lady Gaia made a community-sourced VCO library which is excellent. Note that the Sequential presets are hit and miss (as usual with Sequential). This synth always sounds best when you roll your own.
I have to give Nick credit for his speed at demonstrating some of the beyond surface level aspects of the synth during the video. This helps enormously when you're sitting on the fence when watching (and listening ) to a review of a complex and 'different from the pack' instrument. The immediate comparison that comes to mind , is the Roland V synth, with a hint of prophet 2000. I owned a V synth for years & was a very early adopter. So early that I had to wait for the better o/s to come out, which really made it an amazing piece of kit as it ironed out the very audible stepping in the filters and more besides. I sold it as I'd gone into full on analog synth mode regards hardware ownership, and it no longer gelled as much in the mix for me at the time , but that's another story altogether. This by comparison, is a BETTER piece of gear & so it should be, considering its higher price & the 14 years since the original V synth. How much better at its current price, is an interesting scenario, as there's such a plethora of hardware now available , as well as software which offers all kinds of bells and whistles (pardon the pun). Amongst the many things in its favour, the Dave Rossum filter design is unique sounding ( he did the morpheus z plane filters and they were incredible at the time; it never really took off as it was very difficult to program imho), and It's bitimbral (is the split or layer accessible over different midi channels?) with a very user friendly Interface. But it's also over £3k at current exchange rates , with no idea of wether the follow up sample.packs are included in the outlay or..? Imho, if it were closer to £2k , It'd be a winner. Comparisons to the brilliant but ageing V synth would then pale enough due to the higher resolution of everything available AND you're buying newer technology which should be less 'hiccup prone' than the older stuff. Overall it's an interesting instrument, packed with oodles of potential AND it looks (and sounds) like fun, straight out of the box. Ultimately it's market forces that'll make or break the deal. On a Personal note, I hope it's around for as long as the V synth.
i think you must be nuts to think this synth can replace a kronos, i have a kronos and certanly wouldnt replace it for a two engined one for a 9 engined kronos, and the kronos has twicce the no. of both programable patches and programable combinations. as i believe total memories for the phrophet x ,and is a far, far more flexable synth, once yourve learned to program all its engines. not shure how the patches and performances/combinations are arranged but no where as numourous as the knonos'. your mad, sorry mate.
carl aylward I’m aware of all that, I don’t care about all that. If I have to spend more time programming a synth than composing on it, to the gallows it goes.
EverettDudgeon138 How about the sound? Does it offer an advantage on sound compared to flagships of Roland/Yamaha/Korg? I find those ones so complicated to use and I don’t care for their built-in patches or the tweaking options on those very much.
Thanks again, Nick. Well worth a 2nd watch. Your summary is spot on, and seeing what you pull up out of this cleverly designed rabbit hole of an instrument, I'm amazed at how you blend 'a little' detune, slop, filter mod and envelope, the way a master chef would, just off the cuff, and come up with a world class sound - generic but unique and it sings!
This is one powerful quality made synth. It reminds me of my Prophet 12 which is my #1 go to analog synth in my studio. The fact that this synth can make sounds that no other synth can do is the biggest plus to me. Well worth the cost of admission. Nice long in depth demo, thanks.
I do like this synth...I just don't like it enough to pay that much cash for it. I also respect they're trying to do something beyond basic sampler/rompler functionality ('cause this can sound pretty cool), but again...that's a hefty price tag.
This synth costs 4000 USD! It’s more like a Montage-level synth than a Blofeld or Analog Keys price point! 1000 bucks being what you want to pay for this thing? Good luck with that! Lol. You can buy a lot of great synths for 1000 bucks, but this won’t be one of them!
Being used to vst’s (and a virus ti that I mainly use as a dsp powered vst) there is something to be said for immediacy that turns a synth into an inspirational instrument. What I mean is that having knobs to turn and buttons to press and immediately hearing the result can increase creativity and turn a synth into a musical instrument. I’ll have to try one out IRL to find out if this is it. Also, I’ve heard people, including Nick, say that this synth just “sounds right” in a mix organically. Again, that “x-factor” might turn this from a modestly specced synth (at this price point) into a genuine one of a kind instrument. Kinda like playing a real piano versus a really good sampled one. If you’ve never done both you’ll not get the difference but if you have you’ll hopefully get it...
Sounds really nice and Nick is right, the strength lies in combining both synthesis and sample creativity. I think you could get lost in this synth and I think the layout and workflow is really great for a synth like this, BUT, if you want to get deep with it, the workflow seems a tad clunky and cumbersome. For me, as a person who likes synthesis more than sample ROMpler type play, I favor the Quantum right now. I just think the workflow SEEMS to be a bit better for a big flagship synth that wants to have A LOT in terms of options for sound design. Also, Low Pass Filter only for a "Beast Synth???" Ugh. Great review and I do wish it was in a price point for it to be a no-brainer purchase.
Wow, oscillator cross modulation using the sample as one of the oscillators. Yamaha SY99 RCM revived again! This is really a huge step ahead compared to the old prophet 2000 (to which I compared initially before actual details and sounds were available). Another thing that really makes this instrument shine is the quality and depth of the sounds. Beautiful, and really usable and required when doing all these modulations and layering. Although I really like the other DSI synths, this one really in a league of its own. Thank you for a very (really) professional demo.
I respect Dave Smith for letting an independent like this channel review the product. It shows confidence and a respect for their market. Yamaha should take note.
Great demo! I have the Prophet X now and I love it :-) As I love my prophet-6 and did love my previous instruments: my korg prologue, my Nord C2D, my Kawai VPC-1 with VSTs, my Nord Wave, my Nord electro 3, my juno 106 and so on. There is so many nice instruments out there that nobody should need to feel unhappy if they don’t like the px ;-)
Well the prophet 6 is really hard to beat for what it does. I will sell it though, but I will really miss it for what it is. It is so cool. The prophet x is so new to me that I am still blinded by first love. You can’t trust me on that one yet ;-) I will defend it no matter what. Oscillators, samples and stereo filters are high quality. It can certaintly do «crazy shit» as Dave Smith said, but it does «basic» stuff really well too.
Your question got me experimenting some more on the px with «old school synth sounds». Two oscillators pluss two sampled oscillators or VS waves of choice through that filter with all the modulation possibility...it’s equally pleasing to my ears as the p6, but it is a way more powerful synthesizer when it comes to synthesizing, if you know what I mean :-)
Geir Nordheim definitely know what you mean. This decision has me stuck in between lol. I love the Prophet 6 for it’s sort of “dark” character. Very smooth/mellow in my book. It’s like I need it, because I feel it’s part of my sound. Then I hear the PX and I’m like.. FUCK, I need this! I’ll keep going back in forth until I eventually own both lol.
Hi, Nick. Fantastic review, as always. It looks and sounds like a synth should. I was wondering how you might compare this to the Roland Jupiter X, which I am contemplating purchasing. Obviously, I appreciate there is a significant difference in the cost between the two. But, which one would give the richer pleasure? Which one is more DAW friendly? And finally, the playing experience from the respective keybeds of the two instruments? Thanks
Really good, in depth review! Great to hear about importing user sounds being planned, would be ideal to see the sample waveforms, especially with so many editing tools. Lots of potential here!
No denying, it sounds pretty amazing. I want to get a 16 voice Moog One, but living in China, it's debatable whether I'll be able to get one. Should that fail, I'll likely get a Prophet X. Nice review, Nick.
What did you get in the end? I also live in China (Shanghai) and know a Moog distributor in Beijing. Just ordered the Prophet X myself because I have enough analog, this fills a gap for me.
@@Pharmacymusic1 Ooh, the Prophet X is a very nice machine. I know what you mean about having enough analogue. There's just something so different about digital that analogue can't do.
This is pretty cool. Like having a hardware kontakt or Omnisphere. Its very pricey for a digital oscillator rev 2 with a sample engine thrown in. What are the alternatives to the Prophet X for a kind of hands on subtractive style rompler synth?
What is the timestamp when he reviews the digital synth oscillators in full detail? I would like to know whether it has tons of wavetables or many different waveforms other the usual analogue waveforms.
cheers! super soundesign work on the fly, with still unfamiliar and complex/capable synth. nice job demonstrating the potential, the granular part was gorgeous! moar choir! 😂🎛🐛
Thanks for the great review Nick. It`s a nice machine if you are a Live performer and have the money but in the Studio or at home I think I`d just stick with something like the Rev2 plus some decent Kontakt libraries where you can alter the articulation easily on the fly, have no real voice amount restrictions and have much deeper multi samples for each note
I gotta say: I thought this was a pricey and likely short-lived gimmick when it was first announced. But this looks damn interesting. If they really do open it up to user samples...wow. Really appreciate your reviews Nick. Always helpful.
Three years down the line, I'm wondering if this synth was/is a success for Sequential. The official samples packs are disappointing as they run along with the current vintage analog craze rather than provide what this synth was actually made for. I mean, why on Earth would you put old Prophet samples in a newer and perhaps even better Prophet? It seem to me even Sequential's own marketing department got it all wrong. Thanks to Nick Batt for showing this synth's true potential. I'm getting one.
I think it sounds great and I really like the combination of synth and sampler. But I don't get the price. It doesn't even have analogue voices (sounds great regardless of it). Maybe total stability, very detailed sampling and very fast loading time is the expensive part.
as someone without a polysynth, OR a proper stage piano, this could be the right thing for me, two brids in one stone!! weighted keys would suit me in that regard, though i dont think DSI has ever done a weighted unit. Question about controlling the samples, can you make it sound like you are PLAYING, say, that bowed string bass? If this is coming out in 2018, maybe its only another year or two before theres a physical modeling engine combined with a filter per voice. Id personally be super enthused about a DSI-Kurzweil dollaboration.
Idk how Kurzweil's emulation of acoustic charachteristics like bowing works, Roland's "superNATURAL" method seems to work well sometimes. As deep of a sampler this ProphetX is, I wouldn't expect physical modeling of bowing/strumming/plucking etc - but in true DSI fashion the synthesis capabilities are vast and so if you think about how the bowing is sonically, you may be able to come up with a good sounding approximation via the LFO and modulation matrix. I agree the piano and string sounds are beautiful, but its really not designed to do acoustic instruments (like Nick says at end dont think of it as a sample instrument as those that emulate acoustic instruments as closely as possible are), its more about what all the synthesis facilities can do to create new interesting sounds
I didnt realise there was atucal sign language for Linear , exponential and logarithmic cross fades !! Interestingly the illuminati use the same symbols ..... coincidence ? I think not ! Great review / demo .
Just love the sounds from this amazing and awesome sounding synthesizer hybrid. Gives me the vibes of a mixture between the D-50 and a Wavestation EX. Going "gaga" over the lush long plate reverb.... Nick, make a video with more lush sounds from this synthesizer using the "granular" side of this beast. Cheers Daniel (host) of Eat and Listen channel (a RUclips series about food and music production)
Wow the sound at 34:30 and forwards is absolutely beautiful. Oh and BTW, people complaining about the price, funny didn't hear any complaints about the price on Moog One. But I guess people would probably pay 100k for that synth because it's a Moog.... which undeniably also sounds very good.
5 years on and it still amazes me how good this synth is, the only thing which comes close is the Quantum MKII. I will still be using this in 10 years time.
Considering the cost, I'd easily take a John Bowen Solaris over this. Granted, samples aren't the focus of the Solaris, and the Prophet X has analog filters, but what the Solaris can actually do is considerably beyond this, for roughly the same price. What Dave Smith REALLY needs to do next is sit down with John Chowning and make THE definitive FM synthesizer (in a way that Yamaha ignored and pushed aside), with user-defined algorithms, and long, multi-stage envelopes, running through Dave's "custom discrete" filters. The cost for such a unit would also in theory be considerably less than this unit.
Could you use the Voice Pan to widen the MONO samples too since they seem "smaller" when in Mono? Oh well, the XL now out with 32 voices mono / 16 stereo and 76 keys - if you've got the money! I haven't. :-( 27:00+ 16x4=64 Nick! 64 LFOs then. 64x as much as the Prophet6 or OB6.
It’s got to be said that this is a stunningly beautiful looking synth, I doff my hat to the Dave Smith aesthetics department. Sleek, sexy and stealth looking all in one design.
I've been thinking about an XL, but many other demo's left me at "meh". I'm not sure if I can live without bandpass filters for my samples, but your demo is the first one that showed me that this instrument might make it worth trying. There were many moments during your video that I said "I want that sound!" Very well done. (the granular stuff around 32:15 was awesome!)
I’ve been an 8Dio fanboy for the last 5 years or so (since they stopped being Tonehammer and started making deep-sampled orchestral instruments with realistic legato transitions). I completely don’t get this keyboard, I guess it’s Omnisphere in a box? Also 8Dio don’t have bass guitars and saxophones libraries among their range of Kontakt libraries so I suspect they were “produced” especially for this “X”
Heathcliff Yes it got my attention as an XT owner. The fidelity is much higher at the oscillator level here. I think the V-Synth has some strength in the variphrase etc but the quality here blows it away in almost every other way.
I would, buy an old sampler for example an Emu III XP (the cheap ones) and an analog filter, the rest is sampling your own stuff together and build your sound. This machine is so wrong, it is not a Prophet in any way, sounds so digital, thanks for the effort, great show.
“Letting users import their own material was an essential part of the Prophet X design from the beginning,” commented Dave Smith. “It makes what’s already our most sonically versatile instrument truly open-ended. We can’t wait to hear where musicians take it now. Things are going to get pretty wild.” Yummy! I reckon we were (and may still get) a Tempest X as some point.
This is much more fun and flexible in a DAW that is freely routable (like Reaper) with a few plugins. But, yes, it takes more work, especially in the startup phase.
I think it would be an interesting flavor to add to a composer's studio. It's obviously not an all-in-one workstation but to me it feels like it excels at soundtracks/scoring.
It is significantly inferior to what composers would use in terms of depth of sampling, expression and sheer width of tone. I can't imagine many composers using this which is weird given the 8Dio connection. I would never buy one of these as I think this kind of synthesis just works better in software, but I'm glad they had the balls to make it.
I have purchased one of these and keep going back to Omnisphere 2 and thinking why did I buy the Prophet X? The PX does not reach the depth, breadth or dynamics of Omnisphere or Falcon, but it is very immediate and fun to program.
Getting Blade Runner 2049 vibes. Samples are a bit lo-fi, but as he said, they're to build on. Looks like it's something you'd need to spend some time with to carve out the sounds you want, but once you do, they'll sound unique and amazing.
Thanks for the review, Nick! Access ditched new Virus (if it was there) and... not surprising that we see this great VA synth here now :) Oh, analog filters, pardon me :) BTW, sounds better than any Virus'. And samples... "Boom! Boom! ..." New winner :) Depends on the price tag tough. Square (Pulse) wave is surprisingly well emulated! Looks like real one on the scope. Hard Sync is unnatural.. Too accurate and (as mentioned here) the range is narrow... Strange choice (or a poor UI) here! No simple HP filter over LP... is strange. Granular is great... But not for 4k $! Be honest, it's better to buy DM-12 and any good small granular synth (or even a module) instead of this big machine. Of course if i've have a studio and a constant income (or really commercially successful music) then i would buy this _for real_ . As some other synthesizers as well ))
lol what it beter in this board ?? nothing .... bunch vst samples that u can buy online ,,but with way better sound ,instrument wise ,not cinema samples they cant sell to no one ,and digital board with nalog filters ...that any pc dsp audio board eat for snack ,so u buy samples u need omni 2 ,exit all to audio board = 2-3x cheper with wow sound compared to this meh board
Great product for the professional composer who has a good grasp of sound synthesis. Lack of touch screen and Seamless Sound Transition that has enabled me to just use a Montage for live use, makes the Prophet less less attractive for live use unless money is no object.
At about 32 minutes in you pull up a pink noise sample to demonstrate the granular synthesis capabilities. When you press the loop button the noise suddenly becomes pitched. How did you do that? On mine, hitting the loop button on the pink noise sample doesn't create a pitched instrument, only more noise.
OK I found out how. In case anyone else is at this part, you need to change the size of the sample. The smaller the size, the less pink noise comes through and more pitch. The part he leaves out is adjusting the size of the sample in loop mode. He must've done this beforehand so when hit loop it magically came up with that pink noise instrument. Love that sound.
James Reeno I played one for several hours at switched on in Austin, Tx. It seemed to me like a 8 voice minilogue with the monologue filter and low end. I liked it but without a sequencer it just wasn’t as alluring for the price. Would still like to see what Sonic State thinks of it.
I'm a big minilogue owner (see my channel for my custom sounds) and I was SHOCKED to realize the $1500/$2000 (3x/4x minilogue price) version lacks the sequencer - um, wtf! This was their opportunity to fix the sequencer's limitations (such as no metronome, something the volcas all have) and allow for seperate sequencing of the 2 layers / splits. But in regards to the DSI ProphetX, the Prologue has 16 slots for users to upload PCM samples which it can playback chromatically via osc3 and of course that goes thru the VCFs like ProphetX, so I'm curious if the Prologue can come close sonically to the ProphetX; clearly the Prologue isnt all about sample based synthesis the way the ProphetX is, doesn't have multi sampling etc, but still. At least the Prologue has a sustain pedal input, minilogue has no such input or way to respond to a sus pedal.
12:37 - 13:18 That is peculiar. If I'm understanding this correctly, it should be like the Toriaz SP-16 which shows the sample waveform and has a really good zoom feature. It's super easy to sample synth waves and get the start/end/loop points exact. I've seen Dave's youtube videos, he had a Toraiz in his synth room! Surely it's something they could achieve in a firmware update?
This synth is honestly no match for a decent kontakt library and what I can do to samples on a pc. So I’m left wondering why I would spend four grand on it to be honest when I could buy a plethora of great synths and software libraries for less money.....? Or am I missing something....? The sound at the end is beautiful but so easy to recreate for a tiny fraction of the cost. I get that it is an instrument to be inspired by but I’d rather be inspired by a continuum or something worthy of such a hefty price tag.
Hmm... ahh.... interesting synth that doesn’t scratch any of my itches. I own three DSI synths already. I still think the Pro-2 is still my favorite Dave Smith design architecture, though I wish it had 8, 12, or 16 voices.
What Im shocked about is that the oscillators are digital. Not that I mind digital oscillators at all (if they sound good), but on a machine with this price tag I'm not so sure. It does sound very nice though.
Those samples he goes over at around 14:00 sound like they're straight from the presets of NI Prism, Spark or Kontour. . . . . The modulation of the oscillators with samples even sounds like something you'd get with those; also that sound at 35:00.
It must be a different patch on the JX-8P with the same name. I'm referring to the sound from 1987 used in many late 80s hits. This was indeed a D-50. I have two of them.
I like my vintage synths & samplers. I don’t care it they have a tiny screen. If they have amazing capabilities, that’s what counts. I feel like I could get some cool sounds out of this, if I really dug in. But, not much that I’m hearing really inspires me too much. &, I’d likely use outboard effects anyway. PLEASE, just find a way to make us a Prophet VS 2019, 2020 if that’s what it takes.
nice review. one thing that bugs me about dsi is why they make the filter resonance step when self oscillating? apparently so u can properly tune the filter resonance but I don't buy it..just use a sine wave as one of the normal oscillators and u have the same result. when I hear 'analog filter', I do not expect to hear any stepping what so ever. dsi's analog filters to me do not resemble analog when the resonance is high it steps chromatically..one of the beauties of an analog filter is when sweep the resonance slowly by hand without hearing stepping...dsi please in the future work on interpolation of the filter resonance..
I wonder if sample libraries purchased from 8DIO and installed on the X need to be removed if you sell the X ar some point. Given they are Prophet X specific sounds libraries (presumably), do the liscences travel with the instrument?
I would say yes. I would hope yes. It makes sense that the software used to install the samples may require a license but once they are on the synth, it should not be an issue. Good question though. If a person does not own some of the samples(10 years from now on a used PX), and they removed them from the machine to make space for others, they may not be able to restore those they don't own. I guess we'll find out about the rules regarding after market samples in December 2018.
Can't help thinking that they could have saved us all a whole lot of money by simply adding an audio input to a REV16 and route it through the filters and LFO's. That way I could use my own sampler and achieve something pretty similar
Great instrument, fantastic concept & sounds fabulous......but it’s clearly going to be a failure. I’m sure a few very highly paid pro musicians will add it to their collections but for the vast majority of us the price is just stupid , especially considering penny pinching crap like lack of filter variety and tiny screen ( for that money, really!).
Very nice! I do agree with some others it's a bit pricey. I would love to scoop one up eventually, but will prob wait till there is either a sale, or a good price on a second hand one. Thanks as always Nick!
No self sampling the digital section? Bummer....its immediately what comes to mind as far as getting creative with sounds. Its really the only sampling I do inside the computer. Sampling soft or hardware synths sometimes with insert modulation, then stretching/mangling from there.
I really liked my old EMU sampler's analogue filter (also Rossum design?) but dang the resonance on this one sounds like a not so good 90s digital filter when self osc. Not very sweet unfortunately. But I'm sure in the right hands (e.g. Nick's) this synth will sound marvelous.
It's like a standalone movie soundtrack machine.
Marvelous! I love it! There are some minor short comings, that are irrelevant if you use it with Ableton or any DAW. The most important parts are the oscillators (samples and wave forms) and the ease of sample manipulation to produce patches. 34:33 Very Nice Patch with the Pink Noise! I see that some people want to compare it to software, an in truth if you just want to make music as inexpensively as possible (not a bad idea), you can do anything you want inside of a computer and sound fantastic! You can be a star with just that. I think when a person buys certain types of hardware, the motivation is different, it not just about making music. In some sense its a trophy, in others its legacy, yet still with others inspiration, exploration, or reliability. Do what makes you happy.
Donal Finn Yes, It is a computer with an awesome dedicated interface, DA conversion and connectivity. Much more satisfying than software alone. That being said, grabbing Omnisphere 2.5 and using this as controller is a very exciting prospect.
@Donal Finn how many computers do you know that have analogue filters?
This synth is 100% about that analog Prophet filter. Makes Pigments sound like a toy. Listen in earphones, you’ll hear the difference.
That Rossum filter is crazy beautiful. Wow, it really sounds like a flagship contemporary Prophet. I did notice there’s a high-pass in the effects section, if you need more of a bandpass-type filter flavor. This may have just won my heart. 🥰 and you know Nick likes it when you see him make the stink face. 😉
EDIT: i did buy it 2 years ago, and since, it’s made its money back many times over. After this landed in my studio, i stopped touching other poly synths, and ended up selling both my other polys. I recommend using Lady Gaia’s excellent multisample editor (skip the official 8DIO one), and sending it your own samples. I sent it my own VCO and wavetable samples and it sounds breathtaking. Also Lady Gaia made a community-sourced VCO library which is excellent.
Note that the Sequential presets are hit and miss (as usual with Sequential). This synth always sounds best when you roll your own.
I have to give Nick credit for his speed at demonstrating some of the beyond surface level aspects of the synth during the video. This helps enormously when you're sitting on the fence when watching (and listening ) to a review of a complex and 'different from the pack' instrument.
The immediate comparison that comes to mind , is the Roland V synth, with a hint of prophet 2000.
I owned a V synth for years & was a very early adopter. So early that I had to wait for the better o/s to come out, which really made it an amazing piece of kit as it ironed out the very audible stepping in the filters and more besides. I sold it as I'd gone into full on analog synth mode regards hardware ownership, and it no longer gelled as much in the mix for me at the time , but that's another story altogether.
This by comparison, is a BETTER piece of gear & so it should be, considering its higher price & the 14 years since the original V synth. How much better at its current price, is an interesting scenario, as there's such a plethora of hardware now available , as well as software which offers all kinds of bells and whistles (pardon the pun).
Amongst the many things in its favour, the Dave Rossum filter design is unique sounding ( he did the morpheus z plane filters and they were incredible at the time; it never really took off as it was very difficult to program imho), and It's bitimbral (is the split or layer accessible over different midi channels?) with a very user friendly Interface.
But it's also over £3k at current exchange rates , with no idea of wether the follow up sample.packs are included in the outlay or..?
Imho, if it were closer to £2k , It'd be a winner. Comparisons to the brilliant but ageing V synth would then pale enough due to the higher resolution of everything available AND you're buying newer technology which should be less 'hiccup prone' than the older stuff.
Overall it's an interesting instrument, packed with oodles of potential AND it looks (and sounds) like fun, straight out of the box.
Ultimately it's market forces that'll make or break the deal. On a Personal note, I hope it's around for as long as the V synth.
Love this thing. It’s replaced my Kronos, Kurzweil and other workstations. Absolutely adore it as a composer.
Congrats on purchase. It seems like a really beautiful instrument. I am sure it is AWESOME for work as a composer.
i think you must be nuts to think this synth can replace a kronos, i have a kronos and certanly wouldnt replace it for a two engined one for a 9 engined kronos, and the kronos has twicce the no. of both programable patches and programable combinations. as i believe total memories for the phrophet x ,and is a far, far more flexable synth, once yourve learned to program all its engines. not shure how the patches and performances/combinations are arranged but no where as numourous as the knonos'. your mad, sorry mate.
carl aylward I’m aware of all that, I don’t care about all that. If I have to spend more time programming a synth than composing on it, to the gallows it goes.
M Busch Best synth I’ve owned as a composer. I’ve already scored three short films with it. It’s super fast to use.
EverettDudgeon138 How about the sound? Does it offer an advantage on sound compared to flagships of Roland/Yamaha/Korg? I find those ones so complicated to use and I don’t care for their built-in patches or the tweaking options on those very much.
Excellent review. Now I need an excuse to justify the purchase because I really have no legitimate reason to own this other than “it sounds fun”...
Thanks again, Nick. Well worth a 2nd watch. Your summary is spot on, and seeing what you pull up out of this cleverly designed rabbit hole of an instrument, I'm amazed at how you blend 'a little' detune, slop, filter mod and envelope, the way a master chef would, just off the cuff, and come up with a world class sound - generic but unique and it sings!
This is one powerful quality made synth. It reminds me of my Prophet 12 which is my #1 go to analog synth in my studio. The fact that this synth can make sounds that no other synth can do is the biggest plus to me. Well worth the cost of admission. Nice long in depth demo, thanks.
mattsynth Yes, for me it’s a kind of P12 on steroids, with samples :) Check out my own presets and noodling of the Prophet X on my channel ;)
I do like this synth...I just don't like it enough to pay that much cash for it. I also respect they're trying to do something beyond basic sampler/rompler functionality ('cause this can sound pretty cool), but again...that's a hefty price tag.
1000$ maximum is my feeling.
This synth costs 4000 USD! It’s more like a Montage-level synth than a Blofeld or Analog Keys price point! 1000 bucks being what you want to pay for this thing? Good luck with that! Lol. You can buy a lot of great synths for 1000 bucks, but this won’t be one of them!
ProckGnosis yeah. Agreed. For the sample playback stuff, i use logic exs 24.
MoolahNasreddin stick to vst’s dude.
Being used to vst’s (and a virus ti that I mainly use as a dsp powered vst) there is something to be said for immediacy that turns a synth into an inspirational instrument. What I mean is that having knobs to turn and buttons to press and immediately hearing the result can increase creativity and turn a synth into a musical instrument. I’ll have to try one out IRL to find out if this is it. Also, I’ve heard people, including Nick, say that this synth just “sounds right” in a mix organically. Again, that “x-factor” might turn this from a modestly specced synth (at this price point) into a genuine one of a kind instrument. Kinda like playing a real piano versus a really good sampled one. If you’ve never done both you’ll not get the difference but if you have you’ll hopefully get it...
It's called "EX" because that's what your girlfriend will become if you buy it
You left to buy a car but came home with a synthesizer instead.
Yeah... Car didn't do granular
Al Gonzales yeah, the keyboard won't ask for divorce
Hahaha
Ionian echoes We all need an Imogen Heap type of girlfriend. lol
Sounds really nice and Nick is right, the strength lies in combining both synthesis and sample creativity. I think you could get lost in this synth and I think the layout and workflow is really great for a synth like this, BUT, if you want to get deep with it, the workflow seems a tad clunky and cumbersome. For me, as a person who likes synthesis more than sample ROMpler type play, I favor the Quantum right now. I just think the workflow SEEMS to be a bit better for a big flagship synth that wants to have A LOT in terms of options for sound design. Also, Low Pass Filter only for a "Beast Synth???" Ugh. Great review and I do wish it was in a price point for it to be a no-brainer purchase.
best synth reviewer in the game....
Reviewing the best synth in the game.
Wow, oscillator cross modulation using the sample as one of the oscillators. Yamaha SY99 RCM revived again! This is really a huge step ahead compared to the old prophet 2000 (to which I compared initially before actual details and sounds were available).
Another thing that really makes this instrument shine is the quality and depth of the sounds. Beautiful, and really usable and required when doing all these modulations and layering. Although I really like the other DSI synths, this one really in a league of its own. Thank you for a very (really) professional demo.
The similarities between this and my favourite synth , the Nord Wave, are striking.
i used to own Nord Wave, and loved it really, but this one sounds far better.
Nick, your monitor is going to turn off in 3 mins if you don't press a button, just thought I'd let you know!
I respect Dave Smith for letting an independent like this channel review the product. It shows confidence and a respect for their market. Yamaha should take note.
Fundemental Roast Yamaha is washed up.
Thank you for this demo. The noise as granular source sounded amazing, thanks for trying that out!
Great demo! I have the Prophet X now and I love it :-) As I love my prophet-6 and did love my previous instruments: my korg prologue, my Nord C2D, my Kawai VPC-1 with VSTs, my Nord Wave, my Nord electro 3, my juno 106 and so on. There is so many nice instruments out there that nobody should need to feel unhappy if they don’t like the px ;-)
Geir Nordheim which do you prefer on the synth side of things?
Well the prophet 6 is really hard to beat for what it does. I will sell it though, but I will really miss it for what it is. It is so cool. The prophet x is so new to me that I am still blinded by first love. You can’t trust me on that one yet ;-) I will defend it no matter what. Oscillators, samples and stereo filters are high quality. It can certaintly do «crazy shit» as Dave Smith said, but it does «basic» stuff really well too.
Your question got me experimenting some more on the px with «old school synth sounds». Two oscillators pluss two sampled oscillators or VS waves of choice through that filter with all the modulation possibility...it’s equally pleasing to my ears as the p6, but it is a way more powerful synthesizer when it comes to synthesizing, if you know what I mean :-)
Geir Nordheim definitely know what you mean. This decision has me stuck in between lol. I love the Prophet 6 for it’s sort of “dark” character. Very smooth/mellow in my book. It’s like I need it, because I feel it’s part of my sound. Then I hear the PX and I’m like.. FUCK, I need this! I’ll keep going back in forth until I eventually own both lol.
Nice demo Nick, sounds good. Plenty of features.
I love it when Nick geeks out and gives us all the low down on new synth goodies
Hi, Nick. Fantastic review, as always. It looks and sounds like a synth should. I was wondering how you might compare this to the Roland Jupiter X, which I am contemplating purchasing. Obviously, I appreciate there is a significant difference in the cost between the two. But, which one would give the richer pleasure? Which one is more DAW friendly? And finally, the playing experience from the respective keybeds of the two instruments? Thanks
What a dream machine !
So expensive but so awesome...
the chor demo at the end is insane! superb!!!
Really good, in depth review! Great to hear about importing user sounds being planned, would be ideal to see the sample waveforms, especially with so many editing tools. Lots of potential here!
No denying, it sounds pretty amazing. I want to get a 16 voice Moog One, but living in China, it's debatable whether I'll be able to get one. Should that fail, I'll likely get a Prophet X.
Nice review, Nick.
What did you get in the end? I also live in China (Shanghai) and know a Moog distributor in Beijing. Just ordered the Prophet X myself because I have enough analog, this fills a gap for me.
@@Pharmacymusic1 Ooh, the Prophet X is a very nice machine. I know what you mean about having enough analogue. There's just something so different about digital that analogue can't do.
This is pretty cool. Like having a hardware kontakt or Omnisphere. Its very pricey for a digital oscillator rev 2 with a sample engine thrown in. What are the alternatives to the Prophet X for a kind of hands on subtractive style rompler synth?
I wish they would've also made a review of prophet XL
makes me remember my prophet 2000. killer 12 sampler with analog everything else. like a dco on crack. very cool. bring it back full circle.
What is the timestamp when he reviews the digital synth oscillators in full detail? I would like to know whether it has tons of wavetables or many different waveforms other the usual analogue waveforms.
It sounds incredible, absolutely amazing
cheers! super soundesign work on the fly, with still unfamiliar and complex/capable synth. nice job demonstrating the potential, the granular part was gorgeous! moar choir! 😂🎛🐛
Thanks for the great review Nick. It`s a nice machine if you are a Live performer and have the money but in the Studio or at home I think I`d just stick with something like the Rev2 plus some decent Kontakt libraries where you can alter the articulation easily on the fly, have no real voice amount restrictions and have much deeper multi samples for each note
I gotta say: I thought this was a pricey and likely short-lived gimmick when it was first announced. But this looks damn interesting. If they really do open it up to user samples...wow. Really appreciate your reviews Nick. Always helpful.
Boards of Canada should be lusting hard after hearing that final patch!
I love the deconstruction of the sound!! Backwards mandolin? Who would have known?
The only meaningful question for me is whether Ty has got one or is getting one?
Dave Rossum literally invented low-end compensation for resonant filters :)
16:00 - Son Lux in a single keyboard lmao
Three years down the line, I'm wondering if this synth was/is a success for Sequential. The official samples packs are disappointing as they run along with the current vintage analog craze rather than provide what this synth was actually made for. I mean, why on Earth would you put old Prophet samples in a newer and perhaps even better Prophet? It seem to me even Sequential's own marketing department got it all wrong. Thanks to Nick Batt for showing this synth's true potential. I'm getting one.
CANT WAIT. Getting it in 2 weeks 😍
I think it sounds great and I really like the combination of synth and sampler. But I don't get the price. It doesn't even have analogue voices (sounds great regardless of it). Maybe total stability, very detailed sampling and very fast loading time is the expensive part.
as someone without a polysynth, OR a proper stage piano, this could be the right thing for me, two brids in one stone!! weighted keys would suit me in that regard, though i dont think DSI has ever done a weighted unit. Question about controlling the samples, can you make it sound like you are PLAYING, say, that bowed string bass? If this is coming out in 2018, maybe its only another year or two before theres a physical modeling engine combined with a filter per voice. Id personally be super enthused about a DSI-Kurzweil dollaboration.
Idk how Kurzweil's emulation of acoustic charachteristics like bowing works, Roland's "superNATURAL" method seems to work well sometimes. As deep of a sampler this ProphetX is, I wouldn't expect physical modeling of bowing/strumming/plucking etc - but in true DSI fashion the synthesis capabilities are vast and so if you think about how the bowing is sonically, you may be able to come up with a good sounding approximation via the LFO and modulation matrix. I agree the piano and string sounds are beautiful, but its really not designed to do acoustic instruments (like Nick says at end dont think of it as a sample instrument as those that emulate acoustic instruments as closely as possible are), its more about what all the synthesis facilities can do to create new interesting sounds
I didnt realise there was atucal sign language for Linear , exponential and logarithmic cross fades !!
Interestingly the illuminati use the same symbols ..... coincidence ? I think not !
Great review / demo .
Calls for animated GIF
Yes that would be great :-)
Just love the sounds from this amazing and awesome sounding synthesizer hybrid. Gives me the vibes of a mixture between the D-50 and a Wavestation EX.
Going "gaga" over the lush long plate reverb....
Nick, make a video with more lush sounds from this synthesizer using the "granular" side of this beast.
Cheers
Daniel (host) of Eat and Listen channel (a RUclips series about food and music production)
great detail in this presentation, it helped me understand the arcitechture of this synth much better.
Nick really is the master with all things synth. so amazing.
Wow the sound at 34:30 and forwards is absolutely beautiful. Oh and BTW, people complaining about the price, funny didn't hear any complaints about the
price on Moog One. But I guess people would probably pay 100k for that synth because it's a Moog.... which undeniably also sounds very good.
Seems nice. I like the renewed interest in sample keyboards.
5 years on and it still amazes me how good this synth is, the only thing which comes close is the Quantum MKII. I will still be using this in 10 years time.
Considering the cost, I'd easily take a John Bowen Solaris over this. Granted, samples aren't the focus of the Solaris, and the Prophet X has analog filters, but what the Solaris can actually do is considerably beyond this, for roughly the same price.
What Dave Smith REALLY needs to do next is sit down with John Chowning and make THE definitive FM synthesizer (in a way that Yamaha ignored and pushed aside), with user-defined algorithms, and long, multi-stage envelopes, running through Dave's "custom discrete" filters. The cost for such a unit would also in theory be considerably less than this unit.
Could you use the Voice Pan to widen the MONO samples too since they seem "smaller" when in Mono?
Oh well, the XL now out with 32 voices mono / 16 stereo and 76 keys - if you've got the money! I haven't. :-(
27:00+ 16x4=64 Nick! 64 LFOs then. 64x as much as the Prophet6 or OB6.
It’s got to be said that this is a stunningly beautiful looking synth, I doff my hat to the Dave Smith aesthetics department. Sleek, sexy and stealth looking all in one design.
I've been thinking about an XL, but many other demo's left me at "meh". I'm not sure if I can live without bandpass filters for my samples, but your demo is the first one that showed me that this instrument might make it worth trying. There were many moments during your video that I said "I want that sound!" Very well done. (the granular stuff around 32:15 was awesome!)
Is there a way to easily recall favorite patches during performance. If so how many are available. Thanks!
Yes, it's called play lists.
So many features. All good. Are they still updating?
I’ve been an 8Dio fanboy for the last 5 years or so (since they stopped being Tonehammer and started making deep-sampled orchestral instruments with realistic legato transitions). I completely don’t get this keyboard, I guess it’s Omnisphere in a box? Also 8Dio don’t have bass guitars and saxophones libraries among their range of Kontakt libraries so I suspect they were “produced” especially for this “X”
Im curious what the V-Synth fans think of this. Its similar in architecture but lacks the sampling functionality. And of course no D-Beam!
Heathcliff Yes it got my attention as an XT owner. The fidelity is much higher at the oscillator level here. I think the V-Synth has some strength in the variphrase etc but the quality here blows it away in almost every other way.
Heathcliff sampling coming
Michael Otton Agreed. V-Synth GT forever, but this sounds more grand.
Michael Otton not hearing that.
Roland should resurrect the V-Synth gt, already a classic in my eyes.
Thank you for the honest great review...as always. On point! Ordering one today.
I would, buy an old sampler for example an Emu III XP (the cheap ones) and an analog filter, the rest is sampling your own stuff together and build your sound. This machine is so wrong, it is not a Prophet in any way, sounds so digital, thanks for the effort, great show.
“Letting users import their own material was an essential part of the Prophet X design from the beginning,” commented Dave Smith. “It makes what’s already our most sonically versatile instrument truly open-ended. We can’t wait to hear where musicians take it now. Things are going to get pretty wild.”
Yummy! I reckon we were (and may still get) a Tempest X as some point.
I know this is an old video now but I wish I had bought this over the Quantum
This is much more fun and flexible in a DAW that is freely routable (like Reaper) with a few plugins. But, yes, it takes more work, especially in the startup phase.
I like the sound of the filters. What is the best hardware filter module?
I really enjoyed the review NIck.
I don't understand who this keyboard is for; it's like Dave Smith built a Yamaha Montage.
I think it would be an interesting flavor to add to a composer's studio. It's obviously not an all-in-one workstation but to me it feels like it excels at soundtracks/scoring.
It is significantly inferior to what composers would use in terms of depth of sampling, expression and sheer width of tone. I can't imagine many composers using this which is weird given the 8Dio connection. I would never buy one of these as I think this kind of synthesis just works better in software, but I'm glad they had the balls to make it.
I have purchased one of these and keep going back to Omnisphere 2 and thinking why did I buy the Prophet X? The PX does not reach the depth, breadth or dynamics of Omnisphere or Falcon, but it is very immediate and fun to program.
Dave is remaking almost every original 80s Sequential synth, and this is the new Prophet 2000.
not even close to it ....... montage is pro tool this is toy for rich kids
Getting Blade Runner 2049 vibes. Samples are a bit lo-fi, but as he said, they're to build on. Looks like it's something you'd need to spend some time with to carve out the sounds you want, but once you do, they'll sound unique and amazing.
Thanks for the review, Nick!
Access ditched new Virus (if it was there) and... not surprising that we see this great VA synth here now :) Oh, analog filters, pardon me :) BTW, sounds better than any Virus'. And samples... "Boom! Boom! ..." New winner :) Depends on the price tag tough.
Square (Pulse) wave is surprisingly well emulated! Looks like real one on the scope.
Hard Sync is unnatural.. Too accurate and (as mentioned here) the range is narrow... Strange choice (or a poor UI) here!
No simple HP filter over LP... is strange.
Granular is great... But not for 4k $!
Be honest, it's better to buy DM-12 and any good small granular synth (or even a module) instead of this big machine. Of course if i've have a studio and a constant income (or really commercially successful music) then i would buy this _for real_ . As some other synthesizers as well ))
lol what it beter in this board ?? nothing .... bunch vst samples that u can buy online ,,but with way better sound ,instrument wise ,not cinema samples they cant sell to no one ,and digital board with nalog filters ...that any pc dsp audio board eat for snack ,so u buy samples u need omni 2 ,exit all to audio board = 2-3x cheper with wow sound compared to this meh board
seems like 2 lovely products the sum of which is less than its parts.
Great product for the professional composer who has a good grasp of sound synthesis. Lack of touch screen and Seamless Sound Transition that has enabled me to just use a Montage for live use, makes the Prophet less less attractive for live use unless money is no object.
Lovely but a bit 'niche' at that price.
At about 32 minutes in you pull up a pink noise sample to demonstrate the granular synthesis capabilities. When you press the loop button the noise suddenly becomes pitched. How did you do that? On mine, hitting the loop button on the pink noise sample doesn't create a pitched instrument, only more noise.
OK I found out how. In case anyone else is at this part, you need to change the size of the sample. The smaller the size, the less pink noise comes through and more pitch. The part he leaves out is adjusting the size of the sample in loop mode. He must've done this beforehand so when hit loop it magically came up with that pink noise instrument. Love that sound.
Nice review. Are you going to do the Korg Prologue at some point?
Big Bad Wolf had one. It sucks.
James Reeno I played one for several hours at switched on in Austin, Tx. It seemed to me like a 8 voice minilogue with the monologue filter and low end. I liked it but without a sequencer it just wasn’t as alluring for the price. Would still like to see what Sonic State thinks of it.
I'm a big minilogue owner (see my channel for my custom sounds) and I was SHOCKED to realize the $1500/$2000 (3x/4x minilogue price) version lacks the sequencer - um, wtf! This was their opportunity to fix the sequencer's limitations (such as no metronome, something the volcas all have) and allow for seperate sequencing of the 2 layers / splits. But in regards to the DSI ProphetX, the Prologue has 16 slots for users to upload PCM samples which it can playback chromatically via osc3 and of course that goes thru the VCFs like ProphetX, so I'm curious if the Prologue can come close sonically to the ProphetX; clearly the Prologue isnt all about sample based synthesis the way the ProphetX is, doesn't have multi sampling etc, but still. At least the Prologue has a sustain pedal input, minilogue has no such input or way to respond to a sus pedal.
Big Bad Wolf flimsy build quality, characterless tone, etc. i opted for an OB6 instead. MILES better sounding. Better interface too.
Great review, Nick! Lovely sounding - but 4K.... damn!
Can someone explain to me... what’s the gap in the synth market that this fills? Like... WHY buy this over, say, a Prophet 12 and a Yamaha MODX8?
12:37 - 13:18 That is peculiar. If I'm understanding this correctly, it should be like the Toriaz SP-16 which shows the sample waveform and has a really good zoom feature. It's super easy to sample synth waves and get the start/end/loop points exact. I've seen Dave's youtube videos, he had a Toraiz in his synth room! Surely it's something they could achieve in a firmware update?
That surprised me too. I would expect they'll fix that in a firmware update, because it's such an obvious thing.
are they still updating samples in 2020?
some pretty interesting sounds in there! just not sure if the price tag is justified
This synth is honestly no match for a decent kontakt library and what I can do to samples on a pc. So I’m left wondering why I would spend four grand on it to be honest when I could buy a plethora of great synths and software libraries for less money.....? Or am I missing something....? The sound at the end is beautiful but so easy to recreate for a tiny fraction of the cost. I get that it is an instrument to be inspired by but I’d rather be inspired by a continuum or something worthy of such a hefty price tag.
Hmm... ahh.... interesting synth that doesn’t scratch any of my itches. I own three DSI synths already. I still think the Pro-2 is still my favorite Dave Smith design architecture, though I wish it had 8, 12, or 16 voices.
What Im shocked about is that the oscillators are digital. Not that I mind digital oscillators at all (if they sound good), but on a machine with this price tag I'm not so sure. It does sound very nice though.
Those samples he goes over at around 14:00 sound like they're straight from the presets of NI Prism, Spark or Kontour. . . . . The modulation of the oscillators with samples even sounds like something you'd get with those; also that sound at 35:00.
Hey Nick. Any chance of doing a review of the Nord Wave 2? Since it offers similar functionality but with much more polyphony. Thank you :)
The "Children" patch on the Prophet X will make it as iconic as the "Soundtrack" patch on the Roland D-50.
It must be a different patch on the JX-8P with the same name. I'm referring to the sound from 1987 used in many late 80s hits. This was indeed a D-50. I have two of them.
I like my vintage synths & samplers. I don’t care it they have a tiny screen. If they have amazing capabilities, that’s what counts. I feel like I could get some cool sounds out of this, if I really dug in. But, not much that I’m hearing really inspires me too much. &, I’d likely use outboard effects anyway. PLEASE, just find a way to make us a Prophet VS 2019, 2020 if that’s what it takes.
i Wonder if the choir samples have enough words to say "FUS RO DAH"
I was skeptical about this synth at first but it actually sounds good and also looks fun.
nice review. one thing that bugs me about dsi is why they make the filter resonance step when self oscillating? apparently so u can properly tune the filter resonance but I don't buy it..just use a sine wave as one of the normal oscillators and u have the same result. when I hear 'analog filter', I do not expect to hear any stepping what so ever. dsi's analog filters to me do not resemble analog when the resonance is high it steps chromatically..one of the beauties of an analog filter is when sweep the resonance slowly by hand without hearing stepping...dsi please in the future work on interpolation of the filter resonance..
I wonder if sample libraries purchased from 8DIO and installed on the X need to be removed if you sell the X ar some point. Given they are Prophet X specific sounds libraries (presumably), do the liscences travel with the instrument?
I would say yes. I would hope yes. It makes sense that the software used to install the samples may require a license but once they are on the synth, it should not be an issue. Good question though. If a person does not own some of the samples(10 years from now on a used PX), and they removed them from the machine to make space for others, they may not be able to restore those they don't own. I guess we'll find out about the rules regarding after market samples in December 2018.
iVardensphere ??????
iVardensphere They will become free after a certain amount of time, probobaly a decade.
Can't help thinking that they could have saved us all a whole lot of money by simply adding an audio input to a REV16 and route it through the filters and LFO's. That way I could use my own sampler and achieve something pretty similar
It's like a Prophet DSS-1, haha. I'll have to mess with this one in person. Seems really freaking cool!
Very impressive... but for that price I’ll stick with my fully stacked DAW and a few midi controllers...
Supreme Lord Commander there is cheap hardware bro, come outa ya shell
Great instrument, fantastic concept & sounds fabulous......but it’s clearly going to be a failure. I’m sure a few very highly paid pro musicians will add it to their collections but for the vast majority of us the price is just stupid , especially considering penny pinching crap like lack of filter variety and tiny screen ( for that money, really!).
Very nice! I do agree with some others it's a bit pricey. I would love to scoop one up eventually, but will prob wait till there is either a sale, or a good price on a second hand one. Thanks as always Nick!
for that price i want to load my own samples . Looks good though.
Insane price. I'd really prefer to get a Roland JD-XA and have plenty of spare cash to buy some complementary gear.
I agree
Apples to oranges.
I was kind of thinking Prophet 12 and a Roland V-synth GT instead.
If you had a JD-XA (I do), you will wish you waited, saved and got this instead.
Prophet X, another world
No self sampling the digital section? Bummer....its immediately what comes to mind as far as getting creative with sounds. Its really the only sampling I do inside the computer. Sampling soft or hardware synths sometimes with insert modulation, then stretching/mangling from there.
Great review, but the synthesizer sounds kind of average, less than the sum of it's parts. Especially considering the price and just 8 voices stereo?
How so you create a fixed pitch as shown at 34:20?
Nice voice-leading Nick, thanks for the demo :)
I really liked my old EMU sampler's analogue filter (also Rossum design?) but dang the resonance on this one sounds like a not so good 90s digital filter when self osc. Not very sweet unfortunately. But I'm sure in the right hands (e.g. Nick's) this synth will sound marvelous.
Nick, do a review now with the 32 voice mode, user samples and libraries. Oh and the programmes for it