User Manual

86 Chapter 3: Programming the Prophet X Dave Smith Instruments
Chapter 3: Programming the
Prophet X
With its large and expandable sample library and full synthesis capa-
bilities, the Prophet X can produce a vast spectrum of sounds. While the
factory programs give you some idea of its scope, if you only make use of
its presets, you’re not really using the Prophet X to its full potential. The real
excitement is in creating sounds that are uniquely your own.
This chapter provides some brief tutorials, rst with fundamental synth
elements, then with the sample playback features, then combining both.
While there isn’t enough space here to cover how to use every Prophet X
function, the examples will help you get familiar with some basic concepts.
Making sounds you’ve never heard before can be very rewarding.
Synthesis 101: Synth Bass
Some of the best synth bass sounds consist of a single oscillator, a bit of
lter resonance, the right envelope, and not much else. So let’s start with
the Basic Program and go from there.
Short Version
To create a classic synth bass:
1. Press the global button.
2. Use Soft Knob 1 to navigate to basic program and press Soft Button 1
(write now). As a shortcut: hold down the front-panel transpose down
button and press the hold button.
3. Set lter cutoff to 40 (refer to the main display).
4. Set lter resonance to 100.
5. In the envelopes section, set the Filter Envelope’s env amount to 50.
6. Play a low note on the keyboard. Instant synth bass!
7. Experiment with the Filter Envelope’s env amount and decay settings.