I'm really on the fence about getting a synth for my FM/VS/DX/Wavetable type tones. I like the Prophet 12 but the Sledge seems more versatile and it's also less expensive. Any benefits of one over the other?
I own both.
They are not really comparable tbh, but I'll do my best.
Firstly price...£899 Sledge, £2400 Prophet 12.
That's the biggest advantage of the Sledge over the Prophet 12.
I have to say I love my Sledge, best UI ever IMO and by far the quickest synth to program that I've ever owned.
Being able to switch oscillators on & off with a button press is great and the knobs are nice and big too.
24 note polyphonic and you can layer patches too which is great.
effects don't sound great, but theres phaser, flanger and chorus plus delay and reverb too - very handy.
Being able to use your own samples as waveforms on the Sledge is really cool, but the implementation of this feature is unbelievably slow and convoluted and like something you'd find on a synth in the early 90s.
There's also 'quirks' with how it treats looping points in the samples, so it's only of limited use unfortunately - the end result being you rarely use it.
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Sonically I think the Sledge sounds pretty good. It's a bit limited in its palate but believe it or not I find that a strength not a weakness.
It certainly doesn't have the richness and depth of Prophet 12, but then it doesn't have analogue filters either and costs nearly two thirds less.
It's not in the same league as the Prophet 12 from a flexibility point of view though.
Only two LFO's on the Sledge for a start with very limited routing options for each one compared to 4 LFOs on the Prophet 12 with just about everything routable to them.
There's 3 oscillators on Sledge. There's 4 on the Prophet 12, plus a sub oscillator.
No sub oscillator or auxiliary envelopes on the Sledge like there is on the Prophet and the Prophet 12 has separate outputs for the second layer too - the Sledge does not.
Also from a playing point of view the ribbon sliders on the Prophet 12 are brilliant.
I think the Sledge represents great value for money and if you purchase it you won't be disappointed, but if you want a synth that has more sonic depth and greater flexibility and becomes more rewarding to use the longer you own it, The Prophet 12 is definitely the one to get.
There's a big price difference between the two though, so only you can really decide if the Prophet 12 is worth the difference.
IMO it's worth every penny!