When I first purchased my Prophet XL in the fall of last year ("slightly used" from a large retail music chain) it froze up regularly. Because of this, I was unable to use the synth in a live situation. I was about to permanently move from the United States to Berlin, Germany. I had some important final gigs coming up in the U.S. before my departure. I contacted Sequential about the issue, and since there was not sufficient time to send it to the factory and wait for it's return, to their credit the Sequential service folks sent me a replacement motherboard AND power supply, and instructions on how to replace them and ship the old parts back. I am electronics-savvy, having worked on loads of hardware over the years, so this was an option for me.
After the replacement, I used the keyboard heavily in my studio for a couple of weeks until my gigs, and the system did not freeze, so i gigged with the keyboard a couple of times. It worked. I thought the problem was behind me.
Since then, I have relocated to Berlin, and I am just using the Prophet XL in the studio. It worked fine for a few weeks here, but then it resumed irregularly locking up. Sometimes it just froze, silent and no response from menu screens, buttons, or other signs of life, except the display was still showing whatever screen it was on. Sometimes it would freeze while playing a note and then it produces a shrieking loud noise until I power cycle it. Sometimes power cycling it works, and sometimes it freezes before completing a reboot. If I wait a little while with the power off, then try again, it usually boots.
I've got the 2.2.2 firmware installed, and I have completely reloaded all the loadable 8dio sample sets (I purchased all the kinds that were available from 8dio) several times.
Considering what i paid for this keyboard, I am understandably very disappointed in its instability. I've been watching this forum since I encountered the issue, and the freezing issue seems pretty widespread, but also difficult to reliably reproduce. Now that I am in a Berlin, it seems like it would be more difficult than before to get the unit serviced (JustMusic here in Berlin could ship it back to the U.S. for repairs but I don't think they have the ability to fix it here). There appears to be no known reliable fix from what I have read on the forums.
I have noticed some weird "sluggishness" with sounds playing, just before the freeze. I can't put my finger on it, but it seems to me, or feels to me, like a MIDI/data buffer overflow or something. This is regardless of whether the keyboard is hooked up via MIDI (DIN or USB), so it might be some kind of internal software handling of MIDI streams (or the raw data that eventually gets converted and sent to the MIDI ports). That's just a guess.
The sluggishness feels similar to what I have seen on some of my other keyboards that have polyphonic aftertouch, and other keyboards typically hang for a while but eventually start responding once the MIDI traffic jam of aftertouch events starts to clear. Those keyboards don't freeze permanently at least, and in their case ignoring or disabling polyphonic aftertouch stops the issue.
I'll contact Sequential about this issue, but based on the very recent threads about Prophet X or Prophet XL freezing, I am not hopeful about a permanent reliable fix. That's a shame. In general, I love Sequential products. I will probably buy other products of theirs. But I don't know what to do with this Prophet XL. It's even difficult to use in a studio environment. Destroys any musical flow that might have been going on when it locks up. And as a composer for film in addition to live performer, I have deadlines to meet. I cannot count on using the Prophet XL for much of anything.
I love it when it's working. But I am pretty tired of dealing with it now. I feel like I threw away a ton of money, and there's not much hope of recouping it. I'm willing to try other experiments or test ideas, but nothing I've read in the forums is a permanent fix for sure, from what I am reading.
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