I'd hate to be limited to 5 voices on a synth that sounds as good as the new Rev 4s, in 5 voice mode when i try it it's jarring and unnatural for much of my playing/composing. Lots of the new epic nature of the rev 4 comes out ONLY on a Prophet 10 with Round Robin mode on, and in 10 full voices flowing orangically. If I'm going 5 voice then I don't mind using Poly unison and having note stealing specifically as a compromise for that thick 4 osc poly sound...
I'm not getting into this again here vs other forums but suffice to say that 5 voices is hella low for ANY poly regardless of what people made with limits/had to put up with 40 years ago. 10 voices is pure heaven on a synth this good and FINALLY beats the jupiter 8 on that score (by 2 voices no less!) and puts the Prophet (5) 10 where it ought to have been all along.
No, too many toes do not spoil the finger? no more than on other high poly units from the jupiter 8 on... too few voices SPOIL a ton of stuff though, to the point it's almost unusable on over 75% of the stuff I, and many others inc old rev 2/3 owners who used to curse the low poly, use them for.
Lets keep this in perspective and not start nay-saying the glory of 10 voices, properly done, at last on probably the best sounding well balanced poly analog ever made that lacked in 2 key areas in the past, poly and weird 'static' voice allocation, both now fixed in the Prophet 10.. along with the other 'improvements' like unison detune, A/T and Velocity and poly unusions that made it to both the 5 and 10 rev 4s. I see quite a few new P5 owners attempting to 'put down' 10 voices as some kinda bad thing and that's ridiculous, those of us who have Prophet 10s can HEAR what an amazing improvement the 10 voices are for natural chord to chord changes (NO MUD just natural) and long solo runs - not to mention it makes poly unsion (at then 5 voices) more than usuable for the occasional thing.
I think once Sequential have cleared the backlog of orders, they can look at the 5 voice expansion as it seems EASILY doable as said above, it literally just plugs into some connectors and screws on top of the main board... I think it's more about supply AND differentiation of units right now. I think if they offer that expansion we'll see quite a few '10 voice nay sayers' changing their tune and buying the upgrade, esp once they actually PLAY it with 10 voices (in a shop) instead of just assuming 10 voices is 'too much' or 'too fat' or 'impossible to mix' like some of the misinformed and self-justifying people posting on certain forums.
Those that are 100% happy with 5 voices can then just stick with the P5 and save money, nobody cares what others do but to imply 10 voices is a downgrade is pure BS, it's heavenly to have synth THIS great sounding, better sounding than the Jupiter 8... with high enough poly to do it justice and not have it sound like some weird 'sampled' effect when chords constantly cut off.
Prophet 10 is def a no brainer now IF you can afford it, and I see most pros on reviews/forums/videos (ie sonic state) opting for the 10 cos they know also that 5 was always one of the achiles heels of the otherwise world beating P5, esp with poly unsion AND the 5 voice 'dumb down' mode now in the FW anyway. I always wanted a Prophet 5 (vintage) even as the prices rose, but the one thing I KNEW would kill me and stopped me even looking (even though I've owned loads of vintage) was the 5 voice poly not being enough to even play my usual 4 right 2 left chords... so even without the natural flow of 10 voices, 5 voices was just too little for me as a 'proper player' (who also plays piano), 6 voices is my minimum for ANY synth. 10 voices gives enough to allow chords to flow without either clashing or hearing the (2 notes) note stealing on full 6 voice change overs. It's PERFECT.. 10 voices is no flaw or thing that needs working around, I always felt it was a sweet spot for poly analogs. The AN1x that tried to mimic a Prophet 5 in VA had 10 voice poly and worked great (other than not actually sounding like a prophet 5! lol)
The rest is dependent on your badge pref then, and for me Prophet 5 is the past now.. Prophet 10 is the future.. a genuine powerhouse/worhty upgrade and imo the BEST prophet ever made... better than a vintage P5 rev 2 with its many real-world/daily use drawbacks, better than the old Prophet 10's with their fugly design and different, softer sound and organ looking/over the top dual manuals just to allow space for heat reasons (not to mention the prices of those!)
Originally the allure of the "Prophet 5" name had me in my feels, but the poly was just too low to reconcile... thank god they had sense to release a genuine modern update in the P10, I couldn't go from my (nowhere near as good sounding ex Prophet 6 to 1 less voice for even more money no matter how good the rev 4 sounds by comparison!). Also, I'm now over the Prophet 5 name, it holds only some kudos to synth nuts, not the general public/music fans, and no point kidding anyone... only the VINTAGE Prophet 5's had that kudos, neither then new P5 or P10 has that (and arguably even the vintage ones will now lose it cos they just don't make sense any more vs the rev 4s - P5 or P10). So overall the game has been reset, the P5 (vintage) is the past, the P10 name (now) has been agreeably 'corrected' to be a monster synth but in a balanced/sleek package that actually sounds as good/better than vintage P5's did. For the next 40? years of music I think the rev 4 Prophet 10 badge will gain kudos, and if they stop making rev 4s which they eventually will even if 10 years from now, it'll be the Prophet 10 that is the highly revered not some dusty old P5 we once all loved from our younger days on music we can now (copy if we must?) on the Rev 4s anyway. The rev 4s are the best synth release in many years, probably since the 80s and has reset the game, certainly the vintage game, and has made people realise how many other synths just don't pass muster - from digital VAs, to soft synths, to insipid modern analogs with cold dull tone, to the ULI-B distasteful clones... even to the Jupiter 8 - nice as it is - it sounds hella thin and lacking in grit, grunt and ballz next to the new Prophet 10 rev 4... so maybe even the JP-8 vintage market will start to receed a little on price too. Sequential are gods for redoing the Prophet 5/10 and giving us what we've all wanted all along... stunning sound, great looks, great build and relatively good pricing. THANK YOU DAVE and co!
Prophet 10 rev 4 *IS* the new daddy of Prophets, like Rev 2 Prophet 5 (double the rev double the voices!
) used to be! Although the VCOs don't change, the 2 filter choices also make this a no brainer over any vintage P5/P10 (the extra doo dahs of the vintage P10s is hardly worth the expense/space/hassle/downsides and slightly inferior tone)
and as this site:
http://www.audiocentralmagazine.com/sequential-prophet-5prophet-10-lunga-vita-al-re/ states...
From this point of view, the new single keyboard Prophet-10 Rev 4 marketed in 2020 represents the confirmation of the original vision of Dave Smith and John Bowen: a single keyboard, with an agile profile, with all the commands necessary to manage the programming of ten polyphony voices each equipped with the same devastating dynamic power of a good monophonic synthesizer.
Which I agree with 100%. The prophet 10 rev 4 is
the dream synth Dave had always wanted to make. Everything else so far has been a compromise.
59 Replies
17958 Views