I've always wondered why the P6 (and Trigon, I think...) goes a bit thin and octave-y in Sync mode, compared to, say, the Prophet 5. My P5 sits directly atop my P6 these days, so the question keeps popping to mind...
I think the difference lies in the oscillator chip itself as well as design nuances of the synth. I think sometimes we think of a saw wave as this finite waveform that always sounds the same regardless of where you hear it, but it really isn't.
If you dial in mostly identical settings on an init patch + sync'd saw waves between the two synths (which may require even further tweaking to get them sounding closer), then bring up each to compare in a spectrum analyzer, you can see the personalities of just the raw oscillators are very different in their roll-off characteristics. The P10 rolls off the higher frequencies on a different slope, and creates what looks almost like a modulation of them on their way out, while the P6 exhibits a behavior we tend to see on more modern gear where the upper harmonics are rolled off in a more linear / stable way and preserved longer into the upper range.
I think that is what gives the P5/P10 a more vintage/warmer tone. I remember hearing Dave talk about how a faithful reissue of the P5 wasn't really possible until they started remanufacturing the CEM 3340. I think the reason they sound the way they do is partially because when Dave made the original P5, the industry wanted synthesizers to imitate the tone of real string / brass / key instruments as much as possible... imitating physical characteristics of traditional instruments was considered the main reason most would want to have a poly synth in the first place so it became kind of a design goal where "synthetic" sounds were lower in priority. The oscillators in the P6 are their own thing, very inspired by the older synths, but by default a more modern / bright / cutting sound that by default doesn't have the same "blur" or warmth that the vintage prophets had.
And then there are certain other subtleties that are just different between the synths... like while performing the above experiment, notice how the P5/10, even on the init patch, opens up the upper harmonics a bit if you turn keyboard tracking up to half then full. Seems like an odd design quirk, but my understanding is that vintage units did this, so it was intentional preservation of original behavior.
It's amazing how small / subtle differences can have such a profound impact on sound.
2 Replies
4500 Views