Prophet 6 in manual mode

[thirteen_engines]

Hi all. I have had my P 6 for only about two months and am very much a newbie. I've been exploring the presets for most of the past two months but decided to switch off presets and go manual. No sound! JohnS posted something similar to this about a month ago but I don't think that this is a physical problem with the P 6 but rather a lack of understanding on my part about what happens when switching to manual mode (or local mode if you like).

I can get sound from the P 6 in manual mode if I run the calibration routine (pg. 56 in the manual and reset the global parameters (pg. 57), much as JohnS did. I take this to mean that the P 6 isn't defective. However, this isn't what I expected to have to do. Why would the P 6 not simply produce sounds based on whatever the current physical settings are on the instrument? I'm confused.

Keith

[pmanderson]

Try this:

1 ) Turn the MIXER level of both oscillators up (to the right)
2 ) Turn the High Pass Filter cutoff (HPF) all the way down (to the left)
3 ) Turn the Low Pass Filter cutoff (LPF) all the way up (to the right)
4 ) Make sure both filters envelope (ENV AMOUNT) levels are in the middle (12 o'clock)
5 ) Turn the amplifier envelope ENV Amount up (to the right)
6 ) Turn the amplifier envelope ATTACK, DECAY down (to the left)
7 ) Turn the amplifier envelope SUSTAIN up (to the right)
8 ) Turn the amplifier envelope RELEASE to the middle (12 o'clock)

[Jdoo]

One other thing to check, is that you don't have an expression pedal plugged in, and opened/closed in an unexpected way.  In fact... if you have to do a re-calibration to hear sounds in manual -- try unplugging any external pedals.  Don't ask how I know, this can screw you up...

[thirteen_engines]

Thanks. I tried your suggestions and after setting things up as suggested by Pmanderson I did get some sound but then after some fiddling about didn't really get what I was expecting to happen. For example, with osc 2 off in the mixer, making changes to osc 2 affected the sound (). In fact with everything down in the mixer there's still some sound coming through.

Also the low pass filter parameters don't respond the way I'm used to. I tried varying the resonance with no effect on the sound.

 

[pmanderson]

with osc 2 off in the mixer, making changes to osc 2 affected the sound

OSC 2 is a modulation source for filter and OSC1. Look at the polymod section. Thats why you hear a change.


Turn resonance of LPF all the way up, then sweep the LPF cutoff from right to left. It should scream

I'm too impatient to walk anyone through everything regarding synths; the steps above gets you to a starting point but there is a lot to learn. You will have to dig in and figure it out.

The diagram below is very basic but from left to right you can see how the sound is generated.

[thirteen_engines]

Thanks, Pmanderson. I have been using synths since the mid seventies and thought I had a handle on things. The P 6 seems, to me at least, a bit different. I guess I'll just have to play with it some. I have been able to get some useful sounds with it but it's going to take a bit of fiddling to really understand it.

Cheers.

Keith