P12 + Pro 2... too much of the same?

[prestonj]

I own a P12 and I'm getting pretty excited about the thought of grabbing a Pro 2. I think I have a decent understanding of the differences on paper... but is there too much overlap between these two?

On a related front, I have a bit of a love hate relationship with the digital oscs on the P12. On the hater side, I think it boils down to how much editing you need to do off the bat to get a palatable sound coming out of the P12. IMO I find that turning on a basic single osc SAW wave and fiddling with the filter gets you pretty much nothing. Synths like the OB6 and P6 have an immediate sweet sounding voice. That said, once you get past the initial hump, the P12 comes up with some mind blowing sounds that extend way beyond what's possible with the more simplistic VCO based synths.

Is there any truth to this on the Pro 2?

Pretty open ended question I know... but curious to hear your thoughts.

[Tarjeijazz]

I have both, and to me its worth it.

It depends what you want. The p2 has the sequencer and all of the cv stuff connecting to external gear and also different filters.

If you want something that can connect to other gear then the pro2 is gold for you. Cuz you get the powerful p12 engine that can interact with other gear. I use the p2 cv out to plug into the pedal input of my p12. Its insane dude.

But in terms of style and sound, they are similar yes.

[Paul Dither]

There are a couple of differences. First of all the Pro 2 has different filters, which basically give you both the character of the Prophet-6 combined with that of the OB-6, albeit the circuits are not 100% identical. But ultimately, you get a different sound. Then you get the 12 additional super waves which are nice for thickening things up especially in paraphonic mode. Talking about the paraphonic mode: that enables you to do stuff that is impossible on typical poly synths as you can select different waveforms for each paraphonic voice. This provides you with a more experimental type of polyphony if you like.

Then of course you get the fulsome sequencer and all the additional connectivity, be it one extra MIDI out (MIDI Out 2/Thru), CV ins and outs, and the audio input. This makes the Pro 2 a perfect candidate for controlling other gear, especially now that you can send out CV trigger and MIDI CC automations via the sequencer and the according outputs respectively.

And finally, the Pro 2 is sort of the peak of all modulation monsters in the Sequential portfolio with its 51 mod sources and 180 mod destinations (including the 4 CV outs and 64 sequencer specific MIDI CC destinations) that can be used in a mod matrix consisting of 16 freely assignable and 25 fixed mod slots.

[jdt9517]

I have both and don't regret it at all.  Paul set out the differences pretty well.  i find that i gravitate to the Pro-2 for leads, bass and sound effects, and the P-12 for pads and sound effects that are more of a pad nature. 

Here's something I did recently with both the Pro-2 and P-12 - very electronic.  https://soundcloud.com/jdt9517/groove-lead

I find they really compliment each other.

[Quatschmacher]

I own a P12 and I'm getting pretty excited about the thought of grabbing a Pro 2. I think I have a decent understanding of the differences on paper... but is there too much overlap between these two?

On a related front, I have a bit of a love hate relationship with the digital oscs on the P12. On the hater side, I think it boils down to how much editing you need to do off the bat to get a palatable sound coming out of the P12. IMO I find that turning on a basic single osc SAW wave and fiddling with the filter gets you pretty much nothing. Synths like the OB6 and P6 have an immediate sweet sounding voice. That said, once you get past the initial hump, the P12 comes up with some mind blowing sounds that extend way beyond what's possible with the more simplistic VCO based synths.

Is there any truth to this on the Pro 2?

Pretty open ended question I know... but curious to hear your thoughts.

I’ll preface this by saying I don’t own either of these but have only spent several hours in a shop on multiple occasions with both. The P2 was more instantly gratifying, even just from an init patch and some filter tweaks - those filters are sweet. Even though I’m really looking to buy a poly, unless something weird happens, I’ll probably get a Pro 2 too.

[prestonj]

Thanks for the responses. I've test driven the Pro 2 a few times now and man does it ever sound great.

Do people dig the extra waveforms on the Pro 2 vs P12? I always felt the P12 could have included many more waves to broaden the sound palette. That said, it sounds like the P12 was running up against some hardware limits in the last version of the OS so maybe it just wasn't possible.