PROPHET 6 TUNING

[Ingrinator]

Hello I have a problem with the tuning of my prophet 6. Even though I set it up by pressing "preset" + "0" it's still out of tune and sounds horrible with my other synth. When I put a tuner on my prophet it says the note is a bit flat... What can I do ?
thank you

[creativespiral]

Hello I have a problem with the tuning of my prophet 6. Even though I set it up by pressing "preset" + "0" it's still out of tune and sounds horrible with my other synth. When I put a tuner on my prophet it says the note is a bit flat... What can I do ?
thank you

Don't be shy about re-running the calibration routine many times.   Each time, it will store a new calibration index for the current temp of the synth.   (Note:  from powering on cold to reaching fully warmed up temperature, that process may take 30 minutes or more, and rise from room temp ~23 celcius / 74 fahrenheit (depending on your room) up to ~58 celcius / 144 fahrenheit.    You may want to run the calibration right after it turns on, 15 minutes in, 30 minutes in, 45 minutes in, and an hour after powering on... to set a bunch of calibration indexes that will kick in as the synth warms up.

Best practice for the most stable tuning is to let the synth warm up for a bit before playing, and perhaps just run a new calibration right before you're ready to record or play live. 

I made a bunch of observations and recommendations here:
https://www.presetpatch.com/article/Prophet-6-and-OB-6-Tuning-Calibration

Also, as a side note:  This is a VCO synth, so it should be expected that even right after calibration each voice and each oscillator may be +/- 2 cents from nominal, depending on which octave you are playing in.  That's just the natural performance variation of VCOs.   But if its more than 2-3 cents off, definitely re-run calibration. 

[LPF83]

I might also suggest recalibrating the wheels if nothing else works.  It's possible to knock them out of calibration with some accidental button presses and of course in the case of pitch wheel it can manifest as a tuning issue.

[werner_54_]

Hello I have a problem with the tuning of my prophet 6. Even though I set it up by pressing "preset" + "0" it's still out of tune and sounds horrible with my other synth. When I put a tuner on my prophet it says the note is a bit flat... What can I do ?
thank you

Don't be shy about re-running the calibration routine many times.   Each time, it will store a new calibration index for the current temp of the synth.   (Note:  from powering on cold to reaching fully warmed up temperature, that process may take 30 minutes or more, and rise from room temp ~23 celcius / 74 fahrenheit (depending on your room) up to ~58 celcius / 144 fahrenheit.    You may want to run the calibration right after it turns on, 15 minutes in, 30 minutes in, 45 minutes in, and an hour after powering on... to set a bunch of calibration indexes that will kick in as the synth warms up.

Best practice for the most stable tuning is to let the synth warm up for a bit before playing, and perhaps just run a new calibration right before you're ready to record or play live. 

I made a bunch of observations and recommendations here:
https://www.presetpatch.com/article/Prophet-6-and-OB-6-Tuning-Calibration

Also, as a side note:  This is a VCO synth, so it should be expected that even right after calibration each voice and each oscillator may be +/- 2 cents from nominal, depending on which octave you are playing in.  That's just the natural performance variation of VCOs.   But if its more than 2-3 cents off, definitely re-run calibration.

Hi.
I had a similar issue, i tried a solution from the helpdesk, and that was : Hold PRESET and press 3.  Worked fine for me.
Best regards,
wm

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[ChrisDuncan]

Don't be shy about re-running the calibration routine many times.   Each time, it will store a new calibration index for the current temp of the synth.   (Note:  from powering on cold to reaching fully warmed up temperature, that process may take 30 minutes or more, and rise from room temp ~23 celcius / 74 fahrenheit (depending on your room) up to ~58 celcius / 144 fahrenheit.    You may want to run the calibration right after it turns on, 15 minutes in, 30 minutes in, 45 minutes in, and an hour after powering on... to set a bunch of calibration indexes that will kick in as the synth warms up.

Best practice for the most stable tuning is to let the synth warm up for a bit before playing, and perhaps just run a new calibration right before you're ready to record or play live. 

I made a bunch of observations and recommendations here:
https://www.presetpatch.com/article/Prophet-6-and-OB-6-Tuning-Calibration

Also, as a side note:  This is a VCO synth, so it should be expected that even right after calibration each voice and each oscillator may be +/- 2 cents from nominal, depending on which octave you are playing in.  That's just the natural performance variation of VCOs.   But if its more than 2-3 cents off, definitely re-run calibration.

Hey, man.

I wanted to take a moment to say thanks for your post. Just got the Prophet 6, and the oscillators in all the presets sounded terribly out of tune with each other, like almost half a semitone. I'm an old classic rock guy and I thought the heavy detuning was an intentional stylistic thing for modern music.

However, while playing around creating new sounds today I had to turn fine tuning on osc 2 to 2:00 to get them in tune, at which point I figured I was missing something. It never even occurred to me to run calibration (I'm not all the way through the manual yet). Followed your suggestion and suddenly it's all in tune and the presets sound, well, awesome. Your article on tuning was also most informative. Every day is a school day.

Anyway, I appreciate folks like you who take the time to help others and just wanted to say so.

[luke_lol]

Hey everyone,

I was looking for help troubleshooting a tuning issue on my prophet-6, but after typing out my whole problem, I fell upon the fix! I figured I'd still post anyways in case anyone ends up in my situation. Here were my troubleshooting steps:

I gave it time to warm up (At least 30 mins at a stable temp)
I checked the globals: transpose, master tune, alt tuning: all are at 0/normal
I ran the oscillator and filter calibration with PRESET+1 numerous times
I calibrated the pitch and mod wheels with PRESET+7,8,9
I reset the globals with GLOBALS+WRITE
I cleared oscillator/filter calibration with PRESET+3
re-calibrated after that with PRESET+1 again numerous times
All throughout I've been sending MIDI in from my computer to make sure it isn't a internal MIDI issue
I've been on the basic preset (accessed by pressing PRESET+WRITE) to ensure a pure tone
I'm using the stock ableton tuner on my computer, reference is 440hz

Up until that point, my tuner was still showing all notes to be about 85 cents flat.

What was my solution?

I noticed the pitch wheel was very finicky. I would tap it and the pitch would change but stay steady on the new note. So I ran the pitch and mod wheel calibration again—and it worked! Maybe I needed to do that after doing PRESET+3? I'm not sure. In any case, I solved my own problem, and maybe my story will help someone else.

[BT]

Just a note, but the calibration keys are PRESET + 0.

[luke_lol]

Just a note, but the calibration keys are PRESET + 0.

My mistake that's correct, wherever I said PRESET+1 in my original post I meant to say PRESET+0. Thanks for catching that

[coposan]

If nothing you tried works, it would be worth re-casing each voice card i.e. removing each voice card, dusting them and the holders, and then putting them back..this solved all my tuning and calibration issues!
Before I used to get one of the voice sound always weird until I recalibrated it. Then the calibration started to hang at 11..now everything looks and sounds good!

Instructions for the desktop version:
1) Remove the screws on the sides (there are two on the wood panel and two behind it) and from the back - total of 12 screws.
2) At this point you should be able to lift the front panel and gently rotate it away from you so that the panel can rest behind the synth body.
3) you will see 6 cards with two visible condensers on each sticking out towards you, and on each side of each voice card there are two white clips you need to press together in order for the card to pop out.
4) once it is out, shoot it it with compressed air and do the same for the holder.
5) putting them back is the trickiest part: In my experience is good to push first one side in a little from the corner, then do the same on the other corner and repeat until the clips can be closed back. Push them a little more and try to apply a perpendicular force, no twists to avoid breaking the PCB plastic - look at the other cards to know what orientation the one you are putting back should have..they look like they could fit both ways.
6) repeat for all the voice cards

Good luck my friend reading this, hope it solves your issues!