Now we need a new Pro One etc

[BobTheDog]

Goodness gracious.  Then the Pro 2 sounds better to me than the Prophet-6.  Either you were recording with your cell phone, or I'm having an identity crisis.

What we need now is a poly P12/P6 comparison as well

[chysn]

What struck me was how poor the Prophet-6 sounded.  I don't know what to make of it.  Anyway, it's just one more bit of information to add to the mountain of tidbits that goes into a decision.

But you've heard recordings of the Prophet-6 sounding great, right? Why let one recording overturn all that?

I've heard plenty of recordings of both sounding great.

I don't think I'm alone in this preference.  The Curtiss filter sound - the one that gets so much criticism online - serves me perfectly well and really appeals to my ear.

No, you're not alone. Now that I have a Curtis filter on its own, I play with it a lot, and it's totally changed the direction of my modular system. That's a story for another thread, but the point is that it's a great sound. I don't think DSI should dismiss it just because they've done Curtis synths before. When Moog makes a synth, nobody ever says, "Here we go again with another ladder filter synth."

[Hector Space]

I was a little surprised by the aliasing noise on the second sawtooth of your second set of (mono oscillator) recordings. Can this really be the P6? I will have to check.

The second take of each example is definitely the Prophet-6, yes.

Ok I've done a test on my P6, it seems that oscillator 1 has a small amount of bleed through from its sub oscillator i.e. even when the sub is turned to zero there's a little bit of it that gets through on oscillator 1's audio path. It's really only noticeable at higher frequencies.
By comparison, oscillator 2 doesn't have this issue.

If it was the P6, aliasing doesn't happen with analog oscillators. A sampled data system would be necessary to produce aliasing, so this is a property exclusive to digital audio.

So I don't think it's an artefact of Paul's ADC conversion on the recording but just some analogue bleed.

[Sacred Synthesis]

What struck me was how poor the Prophet-6 sounded.  I don't know what to make of it.  Anyway, it's just one more bit of information to add to the mountain of tidbits that goes into a decision.

But you've heard recordings of the Prophet-6 sounding great, right? Why let one recording overturn all that?

I've heard plenty of recordings of both sounding great.

You're absolutely right, Chysn.  This is just what I'm thinking right now: it was only one recording among many.  But it happened to concern one of my primary patches, so it kind of hit the spot.  If I were to exactly imitate the same sound on my Evolver, I would use a touch of high pass filter and a bit of resonance.  That's how thin it sounded to me.  And again, it's not that the Pro 2 sounded so good, but that the Prophet-6 sounded so bad by comparison.  Probably this is one case in which only hearing the instrument in person could convince me one way or the other.  Regardless, I'm not thinking badly of either instrument.

I recently heard a Soundcloud recording of the OB-6 (with effects) that sounded equally thin, and it, too, struck me.  Until about year a year ago or so, I had a Soundcloud account for my improvisations.  I cancelled it primarily because I thought the audio quality - even compared with Youtube - was really poor.  Even though Soundcloud is a treasure trove of synthesizer music, I seldom listen to it for this reason: to my ears, it sounds really poor and tinny.  And no, it's not my computer speakers, because many other recordings sound fine through them, including Paul's.   So, I'm beginning to think this has more to do with Soundcloud than anything else.  I just don't like the sound of Soundcloud.

[tommiot]

I think I prefer the sound of the Prophet 6 over Pro 2, but it's like half a year since I sold my Pro 2 to fund my modular system, and I got the Prophet 6 just last week. Of course it doesn't have all the crazy modulation options the Pro 2 has, but even the Pro 2 still lacks some stuff like linear FM...

Oh well here is a Pro6 demo anyway. Sounds lovely to me, also as a mono synth. https://soundcloud.com/tommi-otsavaara/prophet-6-chill-demo/s-EBFp6 External EQ, reverb and delay was used. All except drums is Prophet 6.

[Sacred Synthesis]

I think I prefer the sound of the Prophet 6 over Pro 2.

What is your opinion of Paul's above recording.  Based on that alone, would you prefer the sound of the Prophet-6 over the Pro 2?

[tommiot]

I think I prefer the sound of the Prophet 6 over Pro 2.

What is your opinion of Paul's above recording.  Based on that alone, would you prefer the sound of the Prophet-6 over the Pro 2?

They both sound awfully aliased so I don't think I can comment on that. I think raw oscillators should be presented in uncompressed wav or other file type, not some 8kbps crap quality mp3 that Soundcloud has. I can upload some uncompressed raw Prophet 6 VCO samples.

[Sacred Synthesis]

I think raw oscillators should be presented in uncompressed wav or other file type, not some 8kbps crap quality mp3 that Soundcloud has.

I think we're onto something. 

[tommiot]

I think raw oscillators should be presented in uncompressed wav or other file type, not some 8kbps crap quality mp3 that Soundcloud has.

I think we're onto something. 

Here is a raw wav file. Just eight octaves of C with 1) saw 2) square 3) pulse at @ 3 o'clock and then some 4-note chords with a single saw and no slop, something you can do on Pro2 also with the paraphony.
https://mega.nz/#!iQESRT7b!XYKzYX-ihMeSbH9RcqJVLCiCrmg_u4AGARmN3pnmc1s

Sorry about hosting, it isn't very convenient to listen the file at Mega, but I don't want too much traffic in my Dropbox by posting public links.

[Paul Dither]

Okay, I just uploaded the uncompressed file of my second comparison to my Dropbox. Here you go: https://www.dropbox.com/s/aomxk23d5dhbuiv/P-6%20%26%20Pro%202%20Comparison.aif?dl=0

[Mr_Clean]

Hi, its interesting how everyone's tastes are different....In my case the P6 is the first DSI i actually liked the sound of. I had a mono evolver for a year and could never get on with it. I tried the other prophets and wasn't that inspired either. For me the P6 has a mojo (and thats why a paid a fortune for it !) It has a nice hand crafted organic sound, which is something I have not heard in a long time in a new synth......

We would have gotten more input if this thread were listed under "Pro-2" instead of "Prophet 6"

Sacred Synthesis would have to do that, since I'm not moderator of this subforum. I only own a Prophet-6. 

We're too deep into this exchange by now, so there's no sense in moving the thread.  Besides, it did come out of the Pro One/Prophet-6 discussion.

I would say DSI made me moderator of this subforum because they were certain I'd go for the Prophet-6.  I was, too.  I haven't given up on it, though.

For now, I'm just letting the dust of this thread settle; I haven't made any sort of decision for or against an instrument.  In my opinion, they're all excellent; it's just difficult to choose which ones are best for one's own circumstances.  For mine, the P'08 and PEK are still supreme.  Hence, I'd hate to make an imprudent decision based on idiotic GAS that I would soon regret.  In fact, just last night I was happily daydreaming about my original plan to have an all-Evolver set up.  I could still be very happy with such an arrangement. 

I like very much the sound of the first generation of DSI synthesizers.  I don't think I'm alone in this preference.  The Curtiss filter sound - the one that gets so much criticism online - serves me perfectly well and really appeals to my ear.  In fact, I spent almost two hours this morning working on warming up my PEK's sawtooth solo patch, and found that placing it in the good old 2-pole filter setting does give it a slightly less nasal character, and adding one oscillator of sawtooth-triangle gives it (obviously) a slightly mellower and darker quality.  I've barely touched the potential of my current instruments, even regarding the fairly basic synthesis that I use, so that I've hardly got a good excuse to move on to something new.

[_ADSR_]

https://soundcloud.com/prophet08/logos-td-cover

I think the P6 does a great job as a mono synth.  I could swap out the P6 for the P08 and Pro One for comparison as I record the midi data when I record audio.

[Sacred Synthesis]

Hey ADSR, that's a really nice rendition.  The sawtooth lead is just the sort of sound I like and use constantly.  Great patch and programming in general.  I think the Prophet '08 could do a fine job with this piece as well, and I'd love to hear it, for curiosity' sake.

I've only heard that piece of music in the rendition below, using a Minimoog for the lead.  I have to say that your Prophet 6 patch stands up to the Model D quite well.