Prophet-10 Limit number of voices?

[LPF83]

And all was good in the lands.

It seems to work great, and the usefulness of this feature is greatly underrated.  Less voices may seem like a limitation at times, but (and particularly for recapturing the characteristics of music made with vintage P5 back in the day), the musical impact this can have on playing is substantial.

Since I had already gotten accustomed to using the synth with 10 voices, the note stealing is immediately felt when in 5 voice mode, so I feel blessed to have the option for both... I will use both modes regularly.

Very nicely done Sequential!

[SynthHead]

It's great to now have the option, but am still glad I got the 10 and will use it in 10 voice mode mainly. I don't like note stealing and can't even play my 2 low note + 4 note chords on a P5 :/

[LPF83]

It's great to now have the option, but am still glad I got the 10 and will use it in 10 voice mode mainly. I don't like note stealing and can't even play my 2 low note + 4 note chords on a P5 :/

I too am glad I got the 10 - especially for poly unison mode!  If you don't like the musical characteristic the note stealing brings when playing 5 notes at a time, it may not be your thing, but to me it is the stand-out feature of the P10. 

To my ears, there are times when five notes just sounds so authentically vintage! 

[jok3r]

How does the poly-unison mode compare to the 5-voice mode compare soundwise? Is this effect always really heavy, or could you use it as a "per patch 5 voice mode"?

For example I have only one song my whole set list, that would benefit from only having 5 voices... and I don't want to change any globals during the show (because it happens too often that I forget to revert the changes before the next song... so all my programming is usually done in a way that I press only one knob to get to the setup of the next song on all my synth simultaneously without having to remember any special configurations). The song needs a very simple pad sound that is based on two slightly detuned saw waves. So could I do this by using only one oscillator in poly unison mode and turning up the unison detune instead of detuning two oscillators like I would do it usually? Or are the configurable amounts of unison detune to heavy to achieve such a result? Is the lowest level of unison detune "no detune at all"? In this case a little bit of vintage knob could do the trick for me also...

I don't have any hands on experience yet and it will take some more time until I saved up for the P10. So perhaps some of you lucky owners could tell me something about the behaviour. This will not change my decision to buy a P10 at all... I just can't wait to try this myself. 

[LPF83]

How does the poly-unison mode compare to the 5-voice mode compare soundwise? Is this effect always really heavy, or could you use it as a "per patch 5 voice mode"?

You could do that.  The poly unison mode is 2 voices so detuning unison on a single oscillator in this mode is a similar in effect to using two oscillators and detuning, but because unison detune settings is 1-8 you're going to have a lot more flexibility in the tuning amount by using 2 oscillators only.

[jok3r]

How does the poly-unison mode compare to the 5-voice mode compare soundwise? Is this effect always really heavy, or could you use it as a "per patch 5 voice mode"?

You could do that.  The poly unison mode is 2 voices so detuning unison on a single oscillator in this mode is a similar in effect to using two oscillators and detuning, but because unison detune settings is 1-8 you're going to have a lot more flexibility in the tuning amount by using 2 oscillators only.

Well, yes. That's basically the question: how subtle or heavy are the 8 steps of unison detune? Is '1' no detuning at all? Is '2' still subtle or already more than say 3-5 cents (or your definition of a small amount of detune)?

[LPF83]

How does the poly-unison mode compare to the 5-voice mode compare soundwise? Is this effect always really heavy, or could you use it as a "per patch 5 voice mode"?

You could do that.  The poly unison mode is 2 voices so detuning unison on a single oscillator in this mode is a similar in effect to using two oscillators and detuning, but because unison detune settings is 1-8 you're going to have a lot more flexibility in the tuning amount by using 2 oscillators only.

Well, yes. That's basically the question: how subtle or heavy are the 8 steps of unison detune? Is '1' no detuning at all? Is '2' still subtle or already more than say 3-5 cents (or your definition of a small amount of detune)?

It's more than my definition of a small amount of detune.  Non-scientifically, think of a typical detuning knob where the possible values have been simplified down to only 8, where 8=100%.   It's going to get messy fast after about 3-4 if playing many notes, its not a subtle effect like the vintage knob.

[jok3r]

Ok. Thanks for your opinion on that. There's only one question left: is preset button '1' no detuning at all? Or is poly unison always a little detuned?

Just to be clear... the manual says "With the unison switch held down, use the programselectswitches to set the amount of detuning. A setting of 0 is minimum detuning. A setting of 8 is maximum detuning."

a) there is no '0' button, so I guess '1' is what they were meaning.
b) minimal == none?

[LPF83]

Ok. Thanks for your opinion on that. There's only one question left: is preset button '1' no detuning at all? Or is poly unison always a little detuned?

Just to be clear... the manual says "With the unison switch held down, use the programselectswitches to set the amount of detuning. A setting of 0 is minimum detuning. A setting of 8 is maximum detuning."

a) there is no '0' button, so I guess '1' is what they were meaning.
b) minimal == none?

1 is no detune, its the default.  Basically on an init patch and engaging poly unison and playing 1 note is the same as using regular unison and setting it to use 2 voices.

[SynthHead]

FWIW I pretty much stick to either '1' or '2' on my unison patches, I like SOME detune but I don't like a LOT of detune on unison as it ends up sounding like a god-awful supersaw JP-8000 trance thing which I DETEST (makes me vomit).

That is on any synth, not specific to the new rev 4s.

To answer more about POLY UNISON, on my P10 if I leave it at '1' you can use the vintage knob to bring in some thickness between the 4 oscs/2 layers which is a little more subtle (and there's nothing wrong with the modern '4' either if that's what you want). Sometimes, depending on how detuned the poly patch already is (or not) I may hit '2' for amount of detune and this generally sounds about right for most things, mono or poly unison, I doubt I'd use 3+ but that's just me.

Either way if you're trying to just play like a P5 for some songs so turn PU2 on, I'd advise backing off the osc 2 fine tune to have a little less beating, reduce the 'vintage' knob (rather increase the number towards 4) so your basic patch is a little less wild, then hit PU2 with detune of 1 - so you have as close now to an non unsion sounding 5 voice patch that just sounds thicker and beefier without sounding wild. The PU2 on the Prophet 10 sounds great though so I wouldn't over think it, for many sounds just hitting PU2 and not adjusting anything (even with a detune of 2) is going to rock and just sound 'better' esp live if you're wanting it to cut through?

I don't use PU2 yet SO often, as I really do love 10 voice poly more than 4 osc poly.. so organic and flowing, I personaly do NOT like note stealing unless it's for a specific sequence (chords) for a specific effect, which is rare, but when playing properly I hate note stealing so it stays in Round robin 10 voice 90% of the time here, the other 10% in poly unsion (5 voice), never in plain old 5 voice non unison which is not my bag.