Favorite P6 "neutral" presets

[Jan Schultink]

Dave said it himself: presets are created to impress casual music store visitors that hit a C chord and want to try things out.

Question, what are your favorite P6 presets to start out with/create music? I like the Pianotron 779, the ClassicBrassic 797 for example to get a good starting sound of a piano or 1980s brass for example. What else?

[Paul Dither]

To be honest, the Prophet-6 is the first instrument by DSI that made me force myself to go through the presets (there are also a lot of them). I had one go at the OMOM set, listened to John Bowen's Prophet-5 recreations and haven't really made it all the way through the rest - I think I got about halfway through the factory patches. That doesn't imply a statement about the presets, which are all good. But I find it more fun and gratifying to start from scratch on the Prophet-6, simply because it's so easy to tweak. So in that sense, my favorite preset is the one you get after pressing the preset and write buttons.

[DJKeys]

I second that.

When I need a sound, I just hit initialize patch and go-

-dj

[Jan Schultink]

Yes I understand that it is cooler to design your own sounds, but I think there are 2 creative modes in synth music creation. One is triggered by a new sound design, the other is triggered by a chord progression or melody inspiration.  In the latter, I feel the need to be able to switch on a "standard" sound quickly (string, brass, piano, electrical piano, harp, organ, distorted guitar, etc.) to elaborate on it before it is too late and gone from my memory forever.

I am now busy building that bank of sounds.

[Jan Schultink]

I found these ones useful:

524 - simple bass
555 - high, thin strings
616 - Oberheim strings
679 - swelling string pad
779 - piano
797 - 1980s brass
803 - pluck
901 - cello
988 - house organ (minus unison)