Dave Smith Prophet 08 is Here: All Analog, All Modern Synth Shipping
Who says progress is bad? Synth designer Dave Smith’s Prophet ‘08 synth is a new instrument inspired by his legendary Prophet series, but there are a number of clues that indicate it’s not 1978. First, driven by Internet buzz, word-of-mouth preorders are already taking off. (DSI hasn’t yet added the Prophet ‘08 to their price list because they’re scrambling to fill the early orders.) That means, ironically, the Web generation is better able to support “boutique” synths now than even synth customers of a few years ago. Second, I expect a lot of these Prophet ’08s will happily become outboard analog gear complimenting computers. (It’s a good thing Dave Smith was a driving force behind MIDI.) Lastly, the Prophet ‘08 has some great features we take for granted now that were harder to come by in 1978.
The Prophet ‘08 is analog to the core: it boasts a 100%-analog signal path and a “sonic character” not surprisingly modeled on the classic Prophets. What’s new:
- Velocity and aftertouch: If this spoils the “vintage” experience for you, go see a doctor.)
- Mo Modulation: “Extensive modulation routing capabilities”, making the Prophet ‘08 essentially a semi-modular synth; it’ll be interesting to see what this lets programmers cook up.
- Splits and layers:Four-on-four splits and layers with separate stereo outputs for each layer.
- Arpeggiator and sequencer: Arpeggiator, gated 16 x 4 step sequencer, and LFOs. Everything is syncable, as well — thank you, MIDI.
There’s onboard MIDI (even with “Poly Chain”), and CV input, as well. On the analog side, you get 2 oscillators and 1 lovely filter per voice:
- 2 digitally controlled analog oscillators (DCOs) per voice with selectable sawtooth, triangle, saw/triangle mix, and pulse waves (with pulse-width modulation), and hard sync.
- White noise generator
I have heard some complaints about the new models: some would prefer the pitch and mod wheels next to the keyboard rather than above, though the payoff is a full five-octave keyboard in a compact space.
I have to say, I’m a sucker for the Dave Smith philosophy of “un-nostalgic” analog. But, really, who would expect anything else: Dave Smith’s earlier instruments all progressed with technology, and he continues to do so. There’s a clear resonance with the modern Moog synths, like Minimoog Voyager and Little Phatty, down to special editions with colored wheels. (Dave Smith has the much cooler red glowing wheels, which is great if you’re tired of blue.) But the Dave Smith Instruments are also unique takes on how to reinterpret analog.
Detailed specs and descriptions are on the mercifully redesigned Dave Smith site:
Dave Smith Prophet ‘08 Page
And via news you’ll find more on the limited edition, videos of Dave, and other news, as well as further reassurances that the BoomChik drum machine really is progressing:
Dave Smith Instruments News
So, who’s getting one? And anyone have smart money
20 Comments
Leave a CommentDr. BS
now just gimme a Pro One ‘08..!
August 30, 2007 @ 7:59 am
Peter
Yes a rackmount version would make me cream my jeans
For that matter, a rack mount mono evolver would too.
August 30, 2007 @ 8:14 am
The Anthroid
yay, it’s not blue!
August 30, 2007 @ 8:37 am
Jon
I’d be curious to see a demo of how it sounds against a pro5 as well how it differs against a polyevolver…
August 30, 2007 @ 9:19 am
Keith Handy
I don’t see why the wheel placement should be an issue for anybody. It’s still just as accessible; you would just have your left hand a few inches further up from where it would have been otherwise; you wouldn’t have to re-learn your technique or anything. Maybe some kind of cushiony hand-rest just to the left of it would be nice, but I don’t know of any synths that have that.
Ah, typing useless comments is such an… adequate… distraction from the fact that I can’t afford a new instrument of any kind at the moment. ;)
August 30, 2007 @ 11:31 am
fatlimey
Excuse my ignorance, what’s “Splits and Layers”? I’d get “four on four” whats exactly?
August 30, 2007 @ 12:31 pm
dead_red_eyes
Didn’t Music Thing say it was going to be $2,000? If so … count me in!!!
August 30, 2007 @ 12:37 pm
Adrian Anders
http://www.audiomidi.com/common/cfm/product.cfm?pid=9736
Do Want.
August 30, 2007 @ 2:42 pm
Glenn
One wish: OSC
August 30, 2007 @ 5:40 pm
Adrian Anders
One other wish: Unison
August 30, 2007 @ 8:05 pm
poopoo
@Adrian There are controls for “Unison Mode” and “Unison Assign” and a “Unison” button so I think it has that covered.
The expression pedal input can accept CV as well which is cool. There is a mysterious “Poly chain out” connector so I wouldn’t be surprised if a rack mount version does appear.
August 30, 2007 @ 9:20 pm
poopoo
That “four on four” thing is confusing for an eight voice synth. There are four output connectors so perhaps they mean four part multi-timbrality, each with a seperate mono output.
August 30, 2007 @ 9:25 pm
Adrian Anders
@poopoo
You’re right… you would think with the popularity of unison sounds these days they would make it a big selling point for this synth.
Now I REALLY want it!
August 30, 2007 @ 10:15 pm
BirdFLU
I’m not desiring the P 08, but that’s just becasue I’m not in the market.
A modern AND affordable AND analog synth and people will still bitch about something. It’s worth the money just for the modern componenets that you know aren’t going to fail anytime soon. I’ve got a Moog Source and Yamaha CS-15, both in perfect shape, that stay in a climate controlled, surge protected environment. They both have had little problems to be fixed in the last year or so because they’re 25-30 years old.
A P 08 captures that analog synth sound and will be good for decades to come.
August 31, 2007 @ 1:08 am
Alex
Special editions are marketing tricks to suck peoples money! Moog did it, and now DSI too. How pathetic.. No one serious musician cares about stupid glowing leds under the pitch bend and mod wheel (which make the synth ugly IMO!) and the totally ugly Dave Smith signature (Hey people, call a graphics artist, or put the bloody signature at the back!). And as i can see from the photos, this synth doesn’t even compares to an original prophet 5 from the aesthetics view. It seems cheap compared to the original, as it has much less wood around it, and the text seems printed on a surface sticker!!! I wouldn’t expect such a thing if i was a collector. The original had text printed directly on it. I would never pay more money for this cheap implementation of special “eye candy features”. I would prefer to pay 200 or 300$ more and buy one that is made exactly or with the same quality and aesthetics as the original.More wood please! No sticker printed text please…no special edition bullshit please…
September 3, 2007 @ 4:49 am
Peter Kearney
The surface is not a “cheap” sticker but a fairly complicated (and expensive) plastic laminate which includes the graphics, the lcd window and a textured surface.
But I do a agree.. he should really hire Axel Hartmann or similar experienced interface designer and Dave’s taste in fonts is remedial at best.
September 4, 2007 @ 5:51 pm
jdm
I bought one, sight unseen, and while it sounds better than any of my v-synths, I’m really really really annoyed by the continuous encoders - you really need LED rings with those, ala Nord Lead 3, or have regular pots, ala P5 or even Moog Voyager (which I have, too). The Voyager is unquestionably a more solid machine and sounds a lot better, but as Dave points out, it’s not really fair to compare a $2000 8-voice with a $3500 mono synth. That said, I don’t think normal pots or LED rings on the encoders would have added that much $$, nor would more buttons - I don’t like having to dial an encoder to select Osc waveforms - esp since you have to dial all the way from 0-50% to get a square wave. Worse, you can’t get saw + pulse. Since the LCD can only display one param at a time, you have to remember each value to understand the patch - you can’t just look at the position of the pots you’ve touched. Worse, you have to mentally map the range of the param (usually 0-127, but not always - eg. the filter cutoff is 0-164) to 0-100%
In short, it sounds pretty good (VCAs are very noisy) but the interface leaves a lot to be desired.
I haven’t decided whether I’m keeping it….
September 6, 2007 @ 7:13 pm
The Prophet 08 is out : The Dual Nature of Matter
[...] From Dave Smith, comes the all new Prophet 08. Find out all about it from Create Digital Music [...]
September 8, 2007 @ 12:11 pm
dude
umm, still no oscillator FM (or osc as mod source) wtf?
like when DSI said that the evolver is like the Pro One…uhh, nope, no FM.
same thing here, it seems.
October 9, 2007 @ 1:01 pm
wave
Dave Smith is genius, but I’m love in my P5….
February 12, 2008 @ 8:30 am
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