Those calling me out on being too choosy or w/e that's what we do with our tastes as musicians. I for one certainly do not need a room full of only DSI gear when I have vintage stuff, esp Roland, that does everything so well. As said, modern synth wise, very little competes with that, inc Prophet 6. But OB-6 genuinely does, and it's the only decently priced modern synth that does hang with the old gear without sounding harsh/stiff.
P6 did sound constrained and locked inside it's box kinda thing, it could never bloom or have presence, was always 'small', and yeah I know all the gain staging tricks on the mixer section to not make it so harsh, but it simply doesn't 'glow' like either the old synths OR the OB-6 (which does). It's because of a number of things, firstly the VCOs in the OB-6 are looser and more organic, the mixer stage actually seems to do something other than just be a volume control (can get a bit of drive/harmonics going on) and the filter is 10x more rich and interesting harmonically than the Prophet 6.
Not so say the P6 is awful, it's probably my next favourite modern synth and may nicer than most Moog stuff they are throwing out (which has a hollow/hard sound unless you go to the Model D and poss the Grandmother but<<< y'know simple mono).
OB-6 is instantly inspirational, doesn't need any work to dial in a great sound, and most important it has PRESENCE, it sounds like it's in the room, coming out of the speakers, just like the best vintage did. P6 suffers from a very stiff sound in general and its amp stages weren't the best design imo, learned from and improved for the OB-6.
I just knew after lots of discontent and never-quite-there sound making on the P6 (and esp my ex-Rev 2 which is really bad when it comes to osc/filter tone and is only impressive via modulation and layers which is 'meh' to me if the core tone is grating in a track) that as soon as I dialed in a sound on the OB-6.. there it was! Just like a good analog synthesizer should be, rich, inspirational, present, easy to dial in without 'concern' about shaping its tone to kingdom come TRYING to make it sound good (ala P6) or knowing it will always sound like a poor/flat/weak impression of analog (Rev2). It just works.
If you guys can't accept that, then by all means carry on with your selected gear, if you can't hear/feel the difference in these units I'd suggest you'd probably better off saving the cash and just buying a VA or even a soft synth, I doubt it would matter to you. To me it's 100% vital, If I'm spending money on hardware it had better deliver on a instinctive and gut/connection level, not in the head where you keep it around because its "clever" (rev2) or because it can occasionally do some nice things (P6), for me I want it to hit me in the face how awesome it sounds each time I make a new sound on it, even if it's a subtle, delicate sound you can barely hear in the mix, I will know and that has an effect on the quality of the music you put out too.
OB-6 is better at bass, leads, pads, filter sweeps, delicate pretty sounds, atmospheres (other than very clinical cold ones which Prophets excel at and have their place) and even the distortion on the OB-6 (hidden vs the Prophet 6) sounds much nicer when applied to the core tone of the OB vs the P6. It sounds pasted on and harsh with the P6, but with the OB-6 it sounds super-organic like its wrapped in and around the sound. I made hundreds of sounds on my ex-Prophet 6 and none of them compare to even the lower end of my 'best' OB-6 patches. For what Rev2 and P6 do I don't think you need all that expense and space, but the OB-6 is like nothing else, even while reminiscent of past stuff it exists as a unique one of Sequential/Obie hybrid that has its own unique sound character and even when I owned all these synths it was still the first one and best one for most tasks in a song. Reviewing takes later in productions it would always be the OB-6 that 'won' and stayed, sometimes the Prophet 6 for its specific cool 'dull but atmospheric' sound (another thing with P6 its too brassy and squeaky/stiff until you reduce the cut off and then it just sounds full/muted... good for some things but it's not a 'fun' filter by any means.. and rev 2 is just dire there.. one tiny sweet spot the rest is like plastic)
I'm not alone in my findings of how vastly different musically these synths are and to many 'real' musicians who don't just collect synths and noodle all day, great tone is what comes first.. not features.. same with guitar recording, you don't just settle on a honkey sounding paper bag take of a cheap guitar when you can record something much richer... the OB-6 is that 'much richer' thing in the modern synth world. Nothing so far has touched it, not Modal, Not Moog, Not Korg, Not Roland and not even DSI's other offerings.
Last bonus points to OB-6 vs P6 and Rev2: It sits in the mix perfectly, very little work needed.. that's great workflow. Also it seems to make better use of the internal FX, somehow they just sound more beautiful and worthy when used with the OB-6 engine, like it was meant to be. They sound like band-aids on the Prophets but can be part of the sonic sculpture on the OB-6 without sounding cheap or stuck on!
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