Early impressions from my first couple of hours, written last night:
Beautifully constructed, this is a build that lives up to expectations set by the price point. The semi-weighted action feels good (1), the ashen stained end caps match the dark metallic aesthetic better than any natural stain possibly could, and in my limited time so far all of the controls have a nice solid feel to them. It is a knobby synthesizer at heart with obvious DSI heritage.
A quick tour is really all I’ve had time for, but there are both standout moments and aspects that I’m going to have to explore deeper before I’m entirely sure what to think. There’s also a lot I need to look at more deeply, including the effects. Essentially all I’ve done is dial in the plate reverb with some percussion and it’s wonderfully stunning. I could have played that kit for hours.
The stereo filters are obviously a centerpiece of the tools at a sound designer’s disposal and they are glorious. Warm and buttery, with resonance that can be subtle or aggressive. I haven’t played with drive much just yet, so that’s also on my list to explore further. In the time I’ve had this evening I have only sped through the first of four banks of presets. There’s a ton here, and so far it’s really wide ranging with more of a tendency toward exuberance than bread and butter.
I should also point out the part I’m least blown away by, which is plain, exposed sample playback. First and foremost, the Prophet X is not going to replace anyone’s modern sampler. This should be obvious from reading the manual, but it’s still something of a shock in practice, and anyone hoping otherwise should adjust their expectations. The samples appear to be well recorded and plentiful, but the lack of any per-sample editing or synthesis parameters means you’re going to use them in a very particular fashion. You can’t tweak a single drum differently than the rest of a drum kit: one pan position/filter/tuning/etc configuration applies to the entire kit. You can’t freely mix and match samples from different keymaps. There’s no overt provision for switching between among keymaps based on velocity, though it’s certainly possible to cross fade between two if desired.
No, it’s not really a sampler. It’s a synthesizer whose oscillators can draw from raw sample material. With that in mind I’m not entirely convinced just yet that the samples offered are the most useful set imaginable. They’re a little specific and literal, drawn as they are from a primarily acoustic library. Still, there’s quite a range on offer and there are definitely a number of unusual ambiances and other textures to explore in addition to the familiar and more exotic acoustic fare.
So it has to come down to doing more than just mixing samples and calling it a day. Finding out just how far you can go with the tools here will be interesting. Those are the terms on which I plan to address the Prophet X and I’m going to need time to dig in that I won’t have much of before the weekend. There are a number of patches I’ve come across that have only oscillators sounding, and they’re still marvelously complex and expressive. Just familiar. So, I’m expecting the real magic is in letting samples and oscillators interact, and that’s where I’m going to be digging deeper.
I wish I could spend more time tonight but, alas, meetings tomorrow morning mandate that I get a reasonable night’s sleep.
(1) I am going to have to explore the velocity curve options because the factory setting appears to have a pretty narrow usable range. It’s easy to produce extremely low and high velocities but the middle of the range takes a unfamiliar touch.
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