User Manual

Prophet Rev2 User’s Guide

Appendix C: Alternative Tunings

By default, the Prophet Rev2 is set to standard, chromatic western

tuning. Additionally, it supports up to 16 additional alternative tunings,

which you can access using the

alt tunings parameter in the global

menu.

From the factory, the Prophet Rev2 ships with 16 preset alternative

tunings ranging from Equal temperament to Indonesian Gamelan

tunings. If you want, you can replace these with other tunings that you

can nd on the Internet. These must be in SysEx format. You can down-

load them into the Prophet Rev2 using SysEx Librarian for Mac or

MIDI-OX for Windows.

Here are descriptions of the default alternative tunings:

1. 12-Tone Equal Temperament (non-erasable)

The default Western tuning, based on the twelfth root of two.

2. Harmonic Series

MIDI notes 36-95 reect harmonics 2 through 60 based on the funda-

mental of A = 27.5 Hz. The low C on a standard 5 octave keyboard acts

as the root note (55Hz), and the harmonics play upwards from there. The

remaining keys above and below the 5 octave range are lled with the

same intervals as Carlos’ Harmonic 12 Tone that follows.

3. Carlos Harmonic Twelve Tone

Wendy Carlos’ twelve note scale based on octave-repeating harmonics.

A = 1/1 (440 Hz). 1/1 17/16 9/8 19/16 5/4 21/16 11/8 3/2 13/8 27/16 7/4

15/8

4. Meantone Temperament

An early tempered tuning, with better thirds than 12ET. Sounds best in

the key of C. Use this to add an authentic touch to performances of early

Baroque music. C=1/1 (260 Hz)