Observed Quirks

[Lady Gaia]

I'm thoroughly enjoying getting to know my Prophet X.  It's a fascinating instrument with a distinctive sonic signature, lots of potential, and as my first DSI instrument I can see why the company enjoys a solid reputation.  From a usability standpoint it's exceptionally well thought out.

It's also enjoying its first week on the market, and inevitably there are going to be a few quirks.  I'll post my own observations and I'd encourage other owners to do likewise.

Two things I've encounter while exploring:

• Making fine adjustments with the detented Soft Knobs can be frustrating because they frequently skip over values when turning them one "notch."  This is most evident when trying to name a program, where I'm constantly skipping over the letter I'm trying to target and I need to turn the knob to some half-position between resting states.  Irritating, and presumably thoroughly unnecessary.
• On one occasion I returned to the instrument only to discover that it was at full volume despite the master volume knob being turned halfway down.  I'm not sure what happened, but it wasn't ideal.  Two possibilities leap to mind: if the instrument goes to sleep after inactivity and wakes up, or if it responds to MIDI volume by adjusting the master volume rather than scaling the values it gets to respect the master volume as the maximum possible.

Anyone else?

[ddp]

It seems to be some sort of generic OS bug.  It also happens with PROGRAM changes and Global > Edit Global changes.

[DMS]

I haven’t midi’ed up yet, I usually try to run straight out of the box to begin with. However, I’ve played it for extended periods of time for the past week with it going into screen saver mode many times, no volume problems here. Selection process is quirky tends to skip 1 position

[niagarasynths]

This knob related data entry problem was what made me take back my Rev2, and I'm not the only one who had this issue. When I had a Prophet 12 this wasn't a problem, and since the X resembles the 12 so much, I hope they get this behavior corrected, otherwise it's just not worth it to me. Since the data entry knob is the most important one on the machine, it should be bulletproof, like on my 08PE. Still, I can't wait to try this beast out when it finally arrives in Canada. Fingers crossed.

[encrust]

I've just pinged support on the following quirks / failures:
1. LFO rotary only every increases speed of LFO (regardless of direction of turn)
2. One time, all LFO LEDS stopped blinking regardless of LFO speed/state
3. One time, a piano patch lost samples of some notes of the keyboard
4. One time, as the unit cycled through the 8 voices, some were horribly digital distorted even though it was a simple analog poly preset
1. persists across power cycles
2. was cleared by a power cycled
3 and 4 were cleared by reloading the program
In addition, sometimes the rotary for program selection skips 2 instead of 1

[encrust]

More minor quirks:
- Sometimes the pitch of a program is transposed on loading, and needs the modwheel to be nudged before it returns to normal pitch
- 'Solo Vox' is after 'Synth' in the otherwise alphabetical samples category list (except perhaps 'Perc Tonal' and 'Percussion')
- It doesn't seem possible to see the name of the program that being overwritten during a save (just to hear the sound using the Compare function). This means that if you suddenly create a cool sound, saving it is somewhat risky

[Lady Gaia]

Another oddity this morning.  I enabled Multi Mode in Global settings and left my base MIDI channel set to 16.  As expected, one half of the split program I had selected could be played across the entire range with an external keyboard.  Nice!  So far, so good.

The manual states that the second layer will be played on “the next highest” MIDI channel.  Not a great description.  Is that intended to suggest that it’s the base channel + 1 or - 1?  Well, as it turns out it doesn’t much matter what it was intended to suggest because the other layer was being triggered by MIDI channel 2!  I’ll have to try other base channel settings to see if there’s some rhyme or reason here, but there’s definitely a bug in this case.

[Lady Gaia]

- It doesn't seem possible to see the name of the program that being overwritten during a save (just to hear the sound using the Compare function). This means that if you suddenly create a cool sound, saving it is somewhat risky

Agreed.  I ran into the same thing and found it thoroughly disconcerting.

[Robot Heart]

In addition to posting on the forum, I would also like to ask everyone to please report anything about incorrect operation directly to our dedicated support channel: support (at) davesmithinstruments.com

It's the only guaranteed way to make sure we see what you're finding.
Thanks!

[Razmo]

In addition to posting on the forum, I would also like to ask everyone to please report anything about incorrect operation directly to our dedicated support channel: support (at) davesmithinstruments.com

It's the only guaranteed way to make sure we see what you're finding.
Thanks!

And if you ever fix that encoder problem, please port that fix to the REV2 as well! ... it seems that this "skip 2 values" are a common problem with either your new encoders, or the code you're using for accelerating the value... it's really anoying, and I find it a bit ARGH! that this seems to be the standard now...

[ddp]

My startup patch seems to have switched to U3 P81.  How do I make a different patch the default startup patch?

[Sleep of Reason]

My startup patch seems to have switched to U3 P81.  How do I make a different patch the default startup patch?

On the REV2 it starts with the last preset you hit the Global button on. I'm guessing it's the same deal with the PX.

[ddp]

Sure is, thanks!

[AlainHubert]

Sad to see that some owners of the new flagship synth, who have forked over $4K, also suffer from those hit-or-miss quality encoders...
I sympathize with them, as my REV2 has had both front panel boards replaced because of this, but still exhibits the occasionnal annoying value skipping on some of them when turned slowly. It's manageable, but barely.

[LoboLives]

Sad to see that some owners of the new flagship synth, who have forked over $4K, also suffer from those hit-or-miss quality encoders...
I sympathize with them, as my REV2 has had both front panel boards replaced because of this, but still exhibits the occasionnal annoying value skipping on some of them when turned slowly. It's manageable, but barely.

This is why I love the P6 and OB6 patch selection buttons. I know I know...but there is something about them that scream “classic”.

[cbmd]

We have an updated OS which has been released internally which improves the encoder response on the PX.  We should have it posted in the near future. 

Additionally, we will be porting this fix back to the REV2 as well.

[Razmo]

We have an updated OS which has been released internally which improves the encoder response on the PX.  We should have it posted in the near future. 

Additionally, we will be porting this fix back to the REV2 as well.

Thank you!

[AlainHubert]

We have an updated OS which has been released internally which improves the encoder response on the PX.  We should have it posted in the near future. 

Additionally, we will be porting this fix back to the REV2 as well.

Yes, thank you ! 
 

[Lady Gaia]

That’s wonderful news!  I look forward to the update eagerly.

[ddp]

Awesome news indeed!