Sequential Pro 3 Introduction

[Razmo]

Does the SE have an aluminum panel, while the standard has a plastic panel?

Graphics silk-screened on SE but adhesive overlay for standard?

It actually looks like it is a sticker on the standard, just as they did with the prophet 8 and evolvers... Seems that the 400 dollar value gets more and more reasonable...

[blewis]

Would’ve been nice if the SE had a 44 key keybed too.

[Razmo]

Would’ve been nice if the SE had a 44 key keybed too.

I hear you, except in my case I do not have the space for that extra octave, so I will not complain... But I probably would find that space if I had to... And the Paraphonic playing could use that extra octave for sure... In my case, I will be having the TP8S of my Quantum connected via MIDI, so I can always play the PRO3 from a 5oct keybed... Lucky me 

[Razmo]

Also, I read someone state that the SE version is a great deal heavier than the standard version.

According to the specs, the SE version is a whopping 11 pounds more.

Standard - Weight: 16 lbs
SE - Weight: 27 lbs

I wonder what material differences there are, since the SE is almost 5.5kg heavier... SE is more than 13kg total, which to me seems rather heavy for a 3oct synth  ...

[Sacred Synthesis]

Would’ve been nice if the SE had a 44 key keybed too.

Absolutely.  For that reason alone I'm not interested in the Pro 3.

[guyaguy]

Also, I read someone state that the SE version is a great deal heavier than the standard version.

According to the specs, the SE version is a whopping 11 pounds more.

Standard - Weight: 16 lbs
SE - Weight: 27 lbs

I wonder what material differences there are, since the SE is almost 5.5kg heavier... SE is more than 13kg total, which to me seems rather heavy for a 3oct synth  ...

Wood. Lots of wood!

[LoboLives]

Would’ve been nice if the SE had a 44 key keybed too.

Nah. No point. It has less voices than the Pro 2.

[Razmo]

Would’ve been nice if the SE had a 44 key keybed too.

Nah. No point. It has less voices than the Pro 2.

With paraphonic playing, that ekstra octave could quickly become useful though...

[LoboLives]

Would’ve been nice if the SE had a 44 key keybed too.

Nah. No point. It has less voices than the Pro 2.

With paraphonic playing, that ekstra octave could quickly become useful though...

If it's completely necessary there's always MIDI 101.

[Razmo]

Would’ve been nice if the SE had a 44 key keybed too.

Nah. No point. It has less voices than the Pro 2.

With paraphonic playing, that ekstra octave could quickly become useful though...

If it's completely necessary there's always MIDI 101.

Not if you want a selfcontained synth to take on the road... Unless you want the extra hazzle... Still, for the added price it would have been a welcome extra for many I think... But as stated, I personally am fine with only 3... Less space to take up, and I will play it mainly from the Quantum anyway.

[Quatschmacher]

Best Monosynth Award by Sonicstate:

https://youtu.be/bCLWYeASaCU?t=934

Presented by Nick and Grizzly Adams at that!

Gaz Williams is a lovely guy, I spent an enjoyable few hours at his house last year nerding over synths and he kindly let me try out his Industrial Radio MIDIBass which has led me to ordering one.

[mrj1nx]

So, when he says 32 sets of 16 wavetables, that means the pro 3 ships with 512 wavetables? Or does he really mean 32 sets of 16 waveforms? as in 32 wavetables? If there really is 512 wavetables thats great news and a quite big step up from the number we saw in the Prophet 12.

[Razmo]

So, when he says 32 sets of 16 wavetables, that means the pro 3 ships with 512 wavetables? Or does he really mean 32 sets of 16 waveforms? as in 32 wavetables? If there really is 512 wavetables thats great news and a quite big step up from the number we saw in the Prophet 12.

Each of the 32 waveTABLES has 16 waveFORMS that you scan thru in 256 discrete steps (it interpolate between the 16 waveFORMS)... That add up to 32*16 discrete waveFORMS stored in memory in total for all the waveTABLES. ..

You can morph thru the 16 waveFORMS in a waveTABLE in 256 steps as mentioned creating additional waveFORMS... So in theory, you have 32*256 different waveFORMS available... 256 per waveTABLE.

So no... You do not get 512 waveTABLES... You get 32... But the interview gave the impression that they are considdering either user wavetables or factory added ones in a later OS update... I personaly hope they go all the way with user wavetables.

An alternative middleground to dumping of user waveFORMS to the PRO3 could be to simply let users select the 16 waveFORMS in a waveTABLE, and in what order they should be in that table, choosing from the allready available 512 waveFORMS...

That would eliminate all the hazzle of preset compatibility between several PRO3s with different user waveTABLES in memory since all would allways have the same waveFORMS, only the waveTABLES would differ, but as these fill only few bytes the user waveTABLE could be stored with the preset! ...

In fact I think this would be the most useful implementation, and if Sequential wanted to include more waveFORMS they could easily add them, and preset integrity would still remain.

Ps. I am in no way hinting at you being dumb or anything, by writing TABLE and FORM in capital letters... It is only to make my rant easier to decipher as these two terms are being said over and over again, and it is so darn easy to mix them up 

[guyaguy]

Seems like so many people focused so much on oscillator count that they missed the huge expansion in the oscillator function—morphing and number of waves. I think the Pro 2 only had 32 waveforms and you could only morph between the one before and after. Not that this is a Pro 2 mk II of course...

[Razmo]

Seems like so many people focused so much on oscillator count that they missed the huge expansion in the oscillator function—morphing and number of waves. I think the Pro 2 only had 32 waveforms and you could only morph between the one before and after. Not that this is a Pro 2 mk II of course...

Waveformwise, PRO3 is a great step up yes... There were 3 waveforms in the PRO2 wavetables compared to 16 in PRO3.

And the analog oscillators also have a huge of variety as all waveforms has both a continuous shape knob and a Shape Mod knob... I do not know the resolution there, but if they are like with the digital oscillator, having 256 settings each, then the analog oscillators would give your 256*256 different tonal waveforms... That is huge!... Now add the possibilities in syncing them also and the number gets out of this world... Oh... And FM, AM etc ffom the mod matrix would make it even crazier.

I would say that PRO3 do not lack sonic variety for certain.

[mrj1nx]

Ps. I am in no way hinting at you being dumb or anything, by writing TABLE and FORM in capital letters... It is only to make my rant easier to decipher as these two terms are being said over and over again, and it is so darn easy to mix them up 

Thanks for pointing that out Anyhow Ive seen pretty much all Pro 3 vids on youtube, and Dave often says 32 sets of 16 wave tables, so I thought, that sounds suspiciously high for a DSI/Sequential synth so I figured it be worth double checking. Anyhow, I'm def warming up to this one, but will hold out for the next announcement, as I'm more of a poly kind of person, hoping it will be a big brother kind of thing (Maybe something that does P6+OB6 and more). Although I've seen the light regarding how paraphonic modes can create alot of happy accidents and stuff to help the creative process. I kinda think a number of paraphonic modes should be an option on poly synths too as there are a couple of cool modes that all give their sound.

[guyaguy]

Seems like so many people focused so much on oscillator count that they missed the huge expansion in the oscillator function—morphing and number of waves. I think the Pro 2 only had 32 waveforms and you could only morph between the one before and after. Not that this is a Pro 2 mk II of course...

Waveformwise, PRO3 is a great step up yes... There were 3 waveforms in the PRO2 wavetables compared to 16 in PRO3.

And the analog oscillators also have a huge of variety as all waveforms has both a continuous shape knob and a Shape Mod knob... I do not know the resolution there, but if they are like with the digital oscillator, having 256 settings each, then the analog oscillators would give your 256*256 different tonal waveforms... That is huge!... Now add the possibilities in syncing them also and the number gets out of this world... Oh... And FM, AM etc ffom the mod matrix would make it even crazier.

I would say that PRO3 do not lack sonic variety for certain.

Yup lots of options there. The difference between steps on the VCOs won’t be as great as they are on the wavetable of  course—but with some FM or AM or even some noise modulating the shape it definitely will sound different!

[Razmo]

Ps. I am in no way hinting at you being dumb or anything, by writing TABLE and FORM in capital letters... It is only to make my rant easier to decipher as these two terms are being said over and over again, and it is so darn easy to mix them up 

Thanks for pointing that out Anyhow Ive seen pretty much all Pro 3 vids on youtube, and Dave often says 32 sets of 16 wave tables, so I thought, that sounds suspiciously high for a DSI/Sequential synth so I figured it be worth double checking. Anyhow, I'm def warming up to this one, but will hold out for the next announcement, as I'm more of a poly kind of person, hoping it will be a big brother kind of thing (Maybe something that does P6+OB6 and more). Although I've seen the light regarding how paraphonic modes can create alot of happy accidents and stuff to help the creative process. I kinda think a number of paraphonic modes should be an option on poly synths too as there are a couple of cool modes that all give their sound.

All the info I got on the wsvetables, I got from Paul Dither by asking, and he has got his hands on a PRO3, so I would assume the info to be correct, but you are right... Dave keep mixing the terms up in his interviews.

Regarding paraphonic mode, the cool thing for me is that each oscillator got its own VCA... That makes playing sounds a lot better... It is kind of like a hybrid para-polyphonic playing because if you let the vcf stay static, it will basically be 3 voice polyphonic because each oscillator has its own dedicated vca.

Personally i never thought anything good would come from having each osc play a different timbre, but there are a lot of fuzz about this since PRO3, so I will certainly try it out to see if it is any good for me.

[Razmo]

Ps. I am in no way hinting at you being dumb or anything, by writing TABLE and FORM in capital letters... It is only to make my rant easier to decipher as these two terms are being said over and over again, and it is so darn easy to mix them up 

Thanks for pointing that out Anyhow Ive seen pretty much all Pro 3 vids on youtube, and Dave often says 32 sets of 16 wave tables, so I thought, that sounds suspiciously high for a DSI/Sequential synth so I figured it be worth double checking. Anyhow, I'm def warming up to this one, but will hold out for the next announcement, as I'm more of a poly kind of person, hoping it will be a big brother kind of thing (Maybe something that does P6+OB6 and more). Although I've seen the light regarding how paraphonic modes can create alot of happy accidents and stuff to help the creative process. I kinda think a number of paraphonic modes should be an option on poly synths too as there are a couple of cool modes that all give their sound.

And about the next thing... Do not think you need to wait, Dave said it was easier to make and for anlther type of musician, so I doubt we see a new poly flagship... More like a new eurorack module maybe or even a semi modular synth.

Also, I am normally a poly guy, but I realize tjat PRO3 is so unique that it will not be reasonable to make a poly equivalent... Three filters would be costly in say a 16 voice synth, even two is huge. Also there is a certain something about paraphonic playing you only geg from a paraphonic instrument that I kind of like a lot which is further alluring to me... And even if my genre which is ambient is mainly poly intensive, lots of elements do not need to be... Basses, berlin school sequences and arpeggios... Lead sounds and fx... A mono synth can be quite useful, especially when it is so deep as the PRO3 so that no poly simply doubles it in voicecount.

I do not think I will see any poly from Sequential that would make the PRO3 completely obsolete... In fact, Dave has a tendency to always create something new... Even the PRO2 is not obsolete because of the PRO3, it has a curtis filter, and four very different oscillators, and the filters can be routed... I think the only obsolete synth is the P8 since REV2.... Even aN Evolver still holds its own place today.

[guyaguy]

Ps. I am in no way hinting at you being dumb or anything, by writing TABLE and FORM in capital letters... It is only to make my rant easier to decipher as these two terms are being said over and over again, and it is so darn easy to mix them up 

Thanks for pointing that out Anyhow Ive seen pretty much all Pro 3 vids on youtube, and Dave often says 32 sets of 16 wave tables, so I thought, that sounds suspiciously high for a DSI/Sequential synth so I figured it be worth double checking. Anyhow, I'm def warming up to this one, but will hold out for the next announcement, as I'm more of a poly kind of person, hoping it will be a big brother kind of thing (Maybe something that does P6+OB6 and more). Although I've seen the light regarding how paraphonic modes can create alot of happy accidents and stuff to help the creative process. I kinda think a number of paraphonic modes should be an option on poly synths too as there are a couple of cool modes that all give their sound.

All the info I got on the wsvetables, I got from Paul Dither by asking, and he has got his hands on a PRO3, so I would assume the info to be correct, but you are right... Dave keep mixing the terms up in his interviews.

Regarding paraphonic mode, the cool thing for me is that each oscillator got its own VCA... That makes playing sounds a lot better... It is kind of like a hybrid para-polyphonic playing because if you let the vcf stay static, it will basically be 3 voice polyphonic because each oscillator has its own dedicated vca.

Personally i never thought anything good would come from having each osc play a different timbre, but there are a lot of fuzz about this since PRO3, so I will certainly try it out to see if it is any good for me.

I definitely dig different timbre per voice. The MonoPoly was the first synth I had that allows different waveforms for paraphonic playing. It cycles through VCO 1-4 and each can be a different shape. But the PolyEvolver took it to the next level for me because you could set the gated sequencer for a different wave per step and keystep through the waves. It should be useful in ambient context--even if applied subtly! I even like setting one oscillator at a higher octave just for some surprises.