Hello all,
Long time Rev2 user, but I just found a brand new (is that new-old-stock, I guess?) Prophet 12 keyboard on sale at a local music shop. I know you can get them fairly cheap on the used market, but I'm not in the US so the cost difference was negligible for lower risk, so I chose that option slightly on impulse and mostly due to watching workflow videos where the sound design workflow of this synth seems miles ahead of the Rev2, whose cramped interface is annoying the heck out of me for a while now.
Aside from being concerned that I'm slightly crazy for paying anything but bargain basement prices for a discontinued synth, I'm hoping I gel with it (it hasn't arrived yet, at the moment of this post). So I thought I'd ask you all a few questions regarding synthesis with this monster. I'm comparing it to the Rev2 because they're, in a sense, the most similar of the synths I have - but mostly because I'm reasonably familiar with standard subtractive synthesis architecture (I have/had everything from Moog monosynths to Nords) and have no real idea what to do with all of the extra stuff the Prophet 12 has or how to really get the best out of it.
I bought it because I love my Nord Lead 3 and that's a fully digital synth with an incredibly wide range of timbre and a ton of depth, and I have no problem equalling or even beating the Rev2 in nearly all cases on sound, quality, and richness with it, with some care (I keep them both for totally different reasons, naturally). So I fully expect the Prophet 12 to be warm, rich, deep, intriguing, and capable of strikingly organic sounds (just like the DX7, though hopefully with a much easier editing workflow!). To me the big features of the Prophet 12 are the tuned feedback, the larger mod matrix compared to the Rev2, the individual delay lines, and the much larger screen and better workflow.
I'll preface this by saying I don't need this synth to "sound like" anything else - I've got all the synth strings, lush pads, bells, brass, EPs, etc. I could ever care for already - but I do want to create sounds that could be described as "organic" - stuff that doesn't immediately scream "synth!" or "digital" (but doesn't have to scream "analogue" either... I mean digital in the sense that it's obviously a computer making the noise or some similar interpretation). That means sounds that hit that human psychoacoustic sense of physical, tactile, and potentially made using materials found and worked by hand. This could include everything from war drums to string-like sounds to sea shells to... well, you get the point. The Rev2 strikes me as slightly "brash" and I'm hoping the Prophet 12 has a bit more of a tamed brashness to allow for more control over the warmer timbres.
Question 1: Is this a reasonable expectation for the Prophet 12?
Question 2: What in the heck can I do with wavetables? I "get" them - they're basically just oscillators with different timbres/spectral complexity, but they seem... gimmicky? Are they more than just a gimmick on this synth? Are they well chosen and musically useful? Any tips for using them other than the obvious use cases?
Question 3: I've read through the tips and tricks page (and am watching Caley Kelleys vids, which were what sort of sold me on the workflow to begin with), but do you have any further words of wisdom for me as I approach this synth?
Question 4: Is it possible to sync the envelope repeats to MIDI clock (like you can with the Sub 37)? Any tips for keeping these in sync if not?
Thanks all for this great forum, lively discussions, and fascinating banter. I'm looking forward to enjoying my second Dave Smith/Sequential synth, and definitely hope for more to come.