Operation Manual
Operation Manual Version 1.0 June 2015 Dave Smith Instruments/Sequential 1527 Stockton Street, 3rd Floor San Francisco, CA 94133 USA ©2015 Dave Smith Instruments www.davesmithinstruments.
This device complies with Part 15 of the FCC Rules. Operation is subject to the following two conditions: (1) This device may not cause harmful interference and (2) this device must accept any interference received, including interference that may cause undesired operation. This Class B digital apparatus meets all requirements of the Canadian Interference-Causing Equipment Regulations. Cet appareil numerique de la classe B respecte toutes les exigences du Reglement sur le materiel brouilleur du Canada.
Table of Contents A Few Words of Thanks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ix Getting Started. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 Sound Banks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Selecting Programs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Editing Programs . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Low Frequency Oscillators. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .31 Poly Mod. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33 Poly Mod Parameters. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34 Arpeggiator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35 Arpeggiator Parameters. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Calibrating the Prophet-6. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56 How and When to Calibrate the Oscillators and Filters . . . . . . . . . . . 56 Calibrating the Pitch and Mod Wheels. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57 Resetting the Global Parameters. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57 Using USB . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Credits and Acknowledgements Sound Design Joseph Akins John Bowen Richard Devine Peter Dyer Tim Koon Kurt Kurasaki Kevin Lamb Jason Lindner Cord Mueller Drew Neumann Robert Rich Matia Simovich James Terris Mitch Thomas Taiho Yamada The DSI Crew Ashley Bellouin, Fabien Cesari, Bob Coover, Carson Day, Chris Hector, Tony Karavidas, Mark Kono, Andrew McGowan, Joanne McGowan, Tracy Wadley, and Mark Wilcox. Special thanks to Ikutaro Kakehashi and Yamaha Corporation.
A Few Words of Thanks Thank you for purchasing the Prophet-6. We take a lot of pleasure in creating all of our instruments but bringing the Prophet-6 to life was particularly satisfying. In many ways it brings my 40-plus years of designing synthesizers full circle. I’ll tell you why. In 2014, two events occurred that led to the creation of the Prophet-6. The first was a fairly common one around our office — our usual informal discussion about what would be interesting to build next.
Getting Started The Prophet-6 is a six-voice, polyphonic analog synthesizer with voltage-controlled oscillators, filters, and amplifiers. It was designed to provide all of the warmth and presence of a vintage-era synth with the added convenience and stability of a state-of-the-art, modern instrument. The Prophet-6 is first and foremost a performance instrument.
Sound Banks The Prophet-6 contains a total of 1000 programs. 500 are permanent and 500 can be overwritten. Banks 0-4 are User Banks that can be overwritten. Banks 5-9 are Factory Banks that are permanent. You can edit the programs of either bank, but you can only save them to Banks 0-4. As shipped from the factory, presets 000-499 are identical to 500-999.
It’s not always necessary to enter all 3 digits of a program number to recall it. For example: • If the current program is 100 and you want to recall program 101, simply press “1.” • If the current program is 100 and you want to recall program 110, hold down the tens button and press “1.” • If the current program is 100 and you want to recall program 115, hold down the tens button and press “1.” Then release the tens button and press “5.
3. Press the global button. Both LEDs on the button light up, indicating compare mode. 4. Play the keyboard to hear the saved version of the sound. 5. To disable the compare function and return to the edited sound, turn off the global button. Programs can’t be written while in compare mode. 6. If you want to save the edited sound, the write button is still flashing and ready to save, so enter a location with the program selector buttons. The sound is saved. 7.
PRESET Toggling off the preset button enables “live panel” mode Saving a Program If you’ve created a sound that you like, you’ll probably want to save it. Saving a program overwrites a previously saved program. Sound designers often save many incremental versions of a program as they continue to refine it. These intermediate versions often make good jumping off points for new sounds. To save a program to the same preset location: 1. Press the write button. Its LED begins blinking. 2.
Canceling Save Sometimes you may want to cancel saving a program before you commit. To cancel the Save process before you commit: • If the write button LED is flashing, press it again. The LED stops flashing and saving is canceled. You can return to editing if you want. Comparing Before You Save Before saving a program to a new location, it’s a good idea to listen to the program in the target location to make sure you really want to overwrite it. To evaluate a program before you overwrite it: 1.
Moving to the Next Level The Prophet-6 is filled with possibilities for sound creation. Although we realize that you’d rather spend your time exploring its capabilities, we’d like to point you toward a few things that will help you tailor the instrument to your needs. First, check out the Global Settings section of this manual. Read about Pot Modes and determine which works best for you when you’re editing sounds. You’ll also find information about MIDI setup.
Connections 1 2 3 4 1. AC Power Connector—Accepts a standard, grounded IEC power cord. Operates over a range of 100 to 240 volts and 50 to 60 Hz. 2. USB—For bidirectional MIDI communication with a computer. The Prophet-6 is a Class Compliant USB device and does not require additional drivers when used with Mac OS or Windows. See Using USB on page 58 for more information. 3. MIDI In, Out, and Thru—Standard 5-pin MIDI DIN connectors. 4.
4 5 6 7 8 9 7. Expression Pedal-LP Filter—Accepts a standard expression pedal that has a variable resistor on a TRS (tip-ring-sleeve) ¼ inch phone plug. Once connected, you can use the pedal to control the cutoff frequency of the low-pass filter to add expressiveness to live performance. 8. Audio Outputs—Unbalanced, ¼ inch audio outputs. The Prophet-6 sounds great in stereo, but can be switched to mono if needed. See “Mono/Stereo” in Global Settings on page 13. 9.
Global Settings Global settings are parameters that affect all programs. These include settings such as Master Tune, MIDI Channel, MIDI Clock, and others. Global parameters are printed above the numeric program selector switches (0 - 9). Use the Globals switch to choose between the two sets. The red LED indicates that the upper row is active.
To set a Global parameter: 1. Press the globals button. Pressing it once activates the upper set of parameters. Pressing it a second time enables the lower set of parameters. 2. Press the program selector button (0 - 9) that corresponds to the desired parameter. The parameters are printed above each switch. 3. Use the bank and tens buttons as decrement and increment buttons to step through available settings. 4. Once you’ve chosen the desired setting, press the globals button again to exit.
4. Clock Port: MID, USB—Sets the ports, MIDI or USB, by which MIDI clock signals are received. 5. Param Xmit: Off, CC, NR—Changes to the values of front panel controls are transmitted via MIDI as Continuous Controllers (CC) or Nonregistered Parameter Number (NR). Transmission of parameters can also be turned off. You could, for example, turn the filter cutoff frequence knob on the Prophet-6 and have it affect the cutoff frequency of another synthesizer.
Globals - Bottom Row 0. Local Control: Off, On—When on (the default), the keyboard and front panel controls directly affect the Prophet-6. When off, the controls are transmitted via MIDI but do not directly affect the “local” synth (that is, the Prophet-6). This is primarily useful for avoiding MIDI data loops that can occur with some external sequencers. 1. Seq Jack: NOR, Tri, Gat, T-g (Normal, Trigger, Gate, T-G)—Selects the mode for signals received on the rear-panel Sequencer jack.
value of 100. If you switch to a program that has a stored Resonance setting of 63 and turn the pot all the way up, it will only go to 90. To get to the maximum value of 127, you first have to turn down until the value is at the other extreme and the pot is at the limit of its travel (in this case, 0 and fully counter-clockwise, respectively).
7. Stereo/Mono: Ste, Mon (Stereo, Mono)—The Prophet-6 defaults to stereo operation. When set to Mono, this parameter defeats all pan settings and modulation, effectively making each of the outputs a mono output. 8. Pgm Dump: Prg, Ten, Ban, usr, All (Program, Tens, Bank, User Banks, All)—Transmits the current program, ten programs from the currently selected bank and tens location, the current bank, all user banks (0-4), or all banks (both user and factory) in SysEx format via the selected MIDI port.
Oscillator 1 can be hard-synced to Oscillator 2 for complex, harmonically-rich sounds when modulated. Oscillator 2 features a fine knob for detuning and thickening sounds, a low freq switch that allows it to function as an LFO for modulation purposes, and a keyboard switch that disables keyboard control over its pitch (useful when used as an LFO, or for drones and other effects).
Sync: Off, On—Turns Oscillator 1 hard sync on. Sync forces Oscillator 1 (the slave) to restart its cycle every time Oscillator 2 (the master) starts a cycle. This provides a way to create more complex, harmonically rich shapes from simple waveforms—especially when the frequency of Oscillator 1 is set to a different interval than Oscillator 2.
Slop Slop adds randomized detuning to the oscillators to emulate the tuning instability of vintage analog oscillators. This tuning instability is a big part of what made vintage instruments sound characteristically warm and fat. Because the Prophet-6 oscillators are extremely stable, small amounts of Slop can help impart a very vintage tone to what is otherwise a very stable, modern instrument. Slop amount is adjustable from subtle, barely perceptible amounts to wildly out of tune.
Mixer The Mixer section is where you set the levels of the various sound generators on the Prophet-6. These include Oscillator 1, Oscillator 2, Sub Octave (Oscillator 1 sub oscillator) and the white noise generator. You must turn up at least one of these in order to make sound with the Prophet-6. (Alternatively, you can use the filter to generate its own sine wave in self-oscillating mode.
Filters Filters take the basic, raw sound of the oscillators and noise generator and subtract frequencies, changing the harmonic content and character of their sound. This change can be varied over time using the Filter Envelope to produce more dynamic, animated timbres. The Prophet-6’s two-filter architecture allows for a wide range of sonic possibilities. The Low-Pass Filter is a 4-pole, 24 dB per-octave, resonant filter. The High-Pass Filter is a 2-pole, 12 dB per octave, resonant filter.
High levels of resonance can sometimes cause the Prophet-6 outputs to clip if its sound generators are also set to high output in the Mixer. Monitor your outputs carefully to ensure optimal, clean signal levels. If you experience signal clipping, try reducing the levels of the oscillators in the mixer section, the env amount parameter in the Amplifier Envelope, or the resonance parameter in either the low-pass or high-pass filter.
Filter Envelope The Prophet-6’s low-pass and high-pass filters share a dedicated, fourstage envelope generator. The Filter Envelope is used to shape the harmonic characteristics of a synthesized sound by giving you filtering control over its attack, decay, sustain, and release stages. This is one of the most important factors in designing a sound. Without an envelope, the filters would be completely static. They would stay open or closed by a fixed amount that wouldn’t change over the duration of a sound.
Attack: Sets the attack time of the envelope. The higher the setting, the slower the attack time and the longer it takes for the filter(s) to open to the level set with the filter cutoff knob. Percussive sounds typically have sharp (short) attacks. Decay: Sets the decay time of the envelope. After a sound reaches the filter frequency set at its attack stage, decay controls how quickly the filter then transitions to the cutoff frequency set with the sustain knob.
To adjust the responsiveness of the filter envelope: 1. Select a program — such as a synth brass sound — that has a slightly soft but bright attack. 2. Repeatedly play a series of notes or chords on the keyboard, so you can hear the effect of the adjustments as you follow the steps below. 3. In the Poly Mod section, enable the lp filter as the only destination (disable all other Poly Mod destinations such as freq 1, freq 2 etc.). 4.
To give you a real-world example, the main difference between the sound of the wind and the sound of a snare drum is that they have very different volume envelopes. Otherwise, they are essentially both white noise. Wind has a relatively slow attack, a long sustain, and a long decay and release. A snare drum has a sharp attack, no sustain, and virtually no decay or release. But again, they are both fundamentally white noise.
Release: Sets the release time of the envelope. This controls how quickly a sound dies out after a note is released. Env Amount: Sets the amount of modulation from the Amplifier Envelope to the VCA. In most cases you will probably want to set this fully clockwise for maximum VCA volume. If you experience signal clipping, try reducing the env amount or the levels of the oscillators in the mixer section.
EFFECTS A ON/OFF EFFECT 2 CLOCK B TYPE MIX SYNC 1 The Effects section Effects are divided into sets A and B. You can choose a single effect from each set. Effect A and B are applied one after another, in series. For this reason, reverb effects are only available as Effect B, since it’s the last stage in the serial effects chain — where reverb is traditionally applied. Either effect can also be set to “off.
To use Effects: 1. Press the on/off switch to turn on Effects. 2. Press effect and choose A or B, depending on which you want to apply and configure. 3. Turn the type knob to select an effect. Names are abbreviated. For instance “bbd” is the bucket-brigade delay. Refer to the list above. 4. Turn the mix knob to the right to blend in a good amount of the processed signal. You’ll want to be able to clearly hear the effect when you tweak its settings. You can dial it down afterward. 5.
Value Delay Time 1 2d 2 4t 4d 4 8d 8 8t 16d 16 4 beats 3 beats 2 beats 1 beat 1 1/2 beat 1 beat 3/4 of 1 beat 1/2 of 1 beat 1/2 of 1 beat 3/8 of 1 beat 1/4 of 1 beat Maximum delay time is 1 second. The combination of longer synced delay times with slower tempos can result in delay times that would be greater than 1 second. When that happens, the delay time is divided by 2 until it no longer exceeds the 1 second limit.
Display bbd Effect Type bucket-brigade delay Parameter 1 delay time Parameter 2 feedback amount ddl digital delay delay time feedback amount cho chorus rate depth PH1 phaser 1 rate depth PH2 phaser 2 rate depth HAL hall reverb time early reflections rOO room reverb time early reflections PLA plate reverb time early reflections SPr spring reverb decay tone bbd: This is a vintage bucket-brigade delay emulation.
rOO: This is a Room reverb. It’s the second largest of the available reverbs. Adjustable parameters are reverb time and early reflection amount. PLA: This is a Plate reverb. It emulates a classic reverb plate. Adjustable parameters are reverb time and early reflection amount. SPr: This is a Spring reverb. It emulates a vintage, guitar-amp-style reverb. Adjustable parameters are decay and tone.
Triangle Sawtooth Reverse Sawtooth Square Random 0 LFO waveshapes The Prophet-6 has a sixth “hidden” LFO waveshape that you can use as a modulation source — noise. To access this, choose random then turn frequency all the way clockwise. This generates a white noise waveform. The LFO can be free-running or synced to the arpeggiator, sequencer, or MIDI clock for tempo-synced effects such as filter sweeps, tremolo, and so on. Frequency: Sets the frequency of the LFO waveshape routed to the destination.
PW 1+2: When Oscillator 1 and/or 2 is set to square wave, this modu- lates the pulse width of the wave. Use a triangle wave LFO to create a chorus-like effect often used to emulate strings. Amp: Selects the amplitude level as a modulation destination. Use a triangle wave LFO to create a tremolo effect. LP Filter: Selects the Low-Pass Filter frequency as a modulation destination. Use a triangle wave LFO to create an auto-wah effect.
You can control how much the source affects the destination by dialing in a specific modulation amount with the filter env or osc 2 knobs. Modulation amount can either be positive or negative. Use Poly Mod to create complex harmonic effects ranging from FM (frequency modulation) to audio-rate filter modulation and beyond. Many classic sounds on the original Prophet-5 were created through clever use of Poly Mod.
Arpeggiator The Prophet-6 has a full-featured Arpeggiator. Turn it on, hold a chord and the Prophet-6 will play a pattern based on the individual notes held. Choose a mode (up, down, random, etc.), an octave range (1, 2, or 3), and a tempo, then pair it with an appropriately percussive sound, and you’ll be surprised at the number of creative things you can do.
An audio signal connected to the rear-panel footswitch - sequence jack can be used to control arpeggiator (and sequencer) playback. This makes it possible to tempo sync the arpeggiator to a recorded drum track or other audio source. See “Seq Jack” on page 13 for more information about choosing the appropriate mode for these behaviors. Arpeggiator Parameters Tap Tempo—Tapping the tap tempo button sets the tempo from 30 to 250 BPM. The LED flashes at the BPM rate you set.
Arp Mode Behavior Up Plays from lowest to highest note Down Plays from highest to lowest note Up + Down Plays from lowest to highest and back to lowest Random Plays notes in random order Assign Plays notes in the order the keys were pressed Sequencer The Prophet-6’s sequencer is similar to a classic step sequencer. It allows you to create a single sequence of up to 64 steps, including rests and ties, with up to 6 notes per step.
Most factory programs have a sequence associated with them. Recall a program and press the Sequencer’s play button to hear its associated sequence. To program a note sequence: 1. Press the record button. 2. Perform the sequence on the keyboard. The display indicates the current step as you play.
To transpose a sequence: 1. Press play. The sequence begins playback. 2. Press and hold record and press a key on the keyboard. “Middle C” is the reference point. Playing a note above middle C transposes the sequence higher by that interval. Playing a note below middle C transposes the sequence lower by that interval. Sequencer Parameters Here are the controls and parameters used when interacting with the sequencer. Record: On, Off—This switch turns sequencer recording on and off.
Master Volume/Program Volume The master output level of the Prophet-6 is controlled by the front-panel master vol knob. In addition, the volume of an individual program can be set with the prgm vol knob in the misc parameters section. This is useful for ensuring that your sounds have roughly the same volume from program to program. Unison sounds in particular can be very loud compared to other programs.
Distortion The Prophet-6 provides stereo analog distortion. This can be used to add warmth, harmonic complexity, and an aggressive edge to sounds. The character of the distortion is affected by the harmonic content of a program. Sounds with more high-end will sound different than sounds with fewer harmonics. To add distortion, use the distortion knob. DISTORT AMOUNT The Distortion knob Transpose The up and down buttons in the transpose section transpose the keyboard up or down in octaves.
Hold When hold is on, any notes played will continue to play until hold is turned off. When used in conjunction with the Arpeggiator, notes are latched on and replaced by any new note(s) struck. If hold is on and at least one key continuously held down, any new notes played are added to the arpeggio. HOLD The Hold button Glide Glide or portamento causes the pitch of a note to glide up or down from the pitch of the previously played note.
Fixed Time (FT): Glide is set to a fixed time, regardless of the interval between notes. Fixed Time A (FTA): The same as Fixed Time, but glide only occurs when playing legato. To select a glide mode: 1. Press and hold the glide switch. The numeric display shows the currently selected Glide mode. 2. To select a different mode, continue to hold down the glide switch then press the bank/decrement and tens/increment switches to step through the other choices. 3. When finished, release the glide switch.
To use Unison: 1. Press and hold the unison switch. 2. With the Unison switch held down, use the bank/decrement and tens/ increment switches to choose the number of voices to stack, then release the Unison switch. 3. To detune the oscillators, use the slop knob. Using Chord Memory Unison has another useful feature: chord memory. Instead of assigning voices to a single note, hold down a chord on the keyboard and press the Unison switch. The Prophet-6 memorizes the notes of the chord.
Key Assign Modes Key Assign (sometimes called note priority) determines what note has priority when more than one note is played on the keyboard or via MIDI: • Low-note priority (LO) is most common in vintage synths and is often used for playing trills by holding a note and repeatedly tapping a lower note. • Low retrigger (LOr) causes the envelopes to be retriggered with each keystroke.
Write The write button saves the currently active program. Saving a program overwrites a previously saved program. The Prophet-6 contains a total of 1000 programs. 500 are permanent and 500 can be overwritten. Banks 0-4 are User Banks that can be overwritten. Banks 5-9 are Factory Banks that are permanent. You can edit the programs of either bank, but you can only save them to Banks 0-4. As shipped from the factory, presets 000-499 are identical to 500-999.
4. Press a program selector button (0-9) to specify the “ones” digit of the program. 5. The write button LED stops blinking and the program is saved. Canceling Save Sometimes you may want to cancel saving a program before you commit. To cancel the Save process before you commit: • If the write button LED is flashing, press it again. The LED stops flashing and saving is canceled. You can return to editing if you want.
Globals Global settings are parameters that affect all programs. These include settings such as Master Tune, MIDI Channel, MIDI Clock, and others. Global parameters are printed in two rows the program number switches (0 - 9). Press the Globals switch once to access the top row. Press it twice to access the bottom row. For details on the various Global parameters, see “Global Settings” on page 10. GLOBALS The Globals button To change a Global setting: 1. Press the globals button.
Preset The preset switch toggles “live panel” mode on and off. In live panel mode the Prophet-6 ignores the currently active preset and reverts to the current front-panel settings of its knobs and switches. In other words, what you see on the front panel is what you hear. This is a great mode for learning, experimentation, and instant gratification. PRESET The Preset button To enter live panel mode: • Press the preset button to toggle it off. The Prophet-6 is now in live panel mode.
Pitch and Mod Wheels The Prophet-6 has a spring loaded Pitch wheel and a Mod wheel. You can use these controls to enhance live performance by bending notes and adding modulation in real time as you play. In the same way that guitar players use note bends and vibrato to give their playing expressiveness and character, these two controls can really help you define your sound as a performer and take you beyond just playing notes on the keyboard.
Modulation Wheel The Mod wheel controls the amount of modulation applied to any destinations chosen in the low-frequency oscillator section. This allows you to “perform” LFO modulation in real time by moving the Mod wheel. This is a great way to add expressiveness to a sound or performance. To choose a modulation destination for the Mod wheel: 1. In the low-frequency oscillator section, choose a modulation destination as well as a shape and frequency for the LFO.
Misc Parameters The misc parameters section allows you to access controls for a number of essential functions described below. To set the key mode and p whl range, hold down the associated button in the misc parameters section, then use the bank/decrement and ten/increment buttons to step through available settings. MISC PARAMETERS PAN SPREAD KEY MODE P WHL RANGE PRGM VOL The Misc Parameters controls Pan Spread: Pans the audio in the stereo field individually per voice.
Aftertouch Aftertouch is a performance feature that allows you to add modulation to a sound by applying additional pressure to a key after the key is already down. The greater the pressure applied, the more modulation is applied. The Prophet-6 provides monophonic (or “channel”) aftertouch, which means that applying pressure to any key within a chord will apply modulation to all notes currently held.
Amount: Selects the amount of aftertouch applied to a selected destination. Positive amount settings apply positive amounts of modulation. Negative amount settings apply negative amounts of modulation. Freq 1: Selects Oscillator 1 frequency as an aftertouch modulation destination. With a positive amount setting, pressing the keys harder will shift the Oscillator 1 pitch upward. With a negative amount setting, pressing the keys harder will shift the Oscillator 1 pitch downward.
HP Filter: Selects the High-Pass Filter cutoff frequency as a modulation destination. With a positive amount setting, pressing the keys harder will increase the high-pass cutoff frequency, reducing the low-end of a sound. With a negative amount setting, pressing the keys harder will decrease the high-pass cutoff frequency allowing more low frequencies to pass.
Calibrating the Prophet-6 The Prophet-6 is calibrated at the factory. Controls such as the pitch and mod wheels shouldn’t require re-calibration. However, because its oscillators and filters are voltage controlled and can be affected by extremes of temperature, you may need to use the built-in calibration function to tune them occasionally. How and When to Calibrate the Oscillators and Filters The first time you use the Prophet-6, please run its built-in oscillator and filter calibration procedure.
Calibrating the Pitch and Mod Wheels In general, the Pitch and Mod wheels shouldn’t require re-calibration. However, if you experience what seems like a persistent problem with either of them, the Prophet-6 has built-in auto-calibration procedure that you can use to remedy the problem. To calibrate the Pitch and Mod wheel’s low position: 1. Rotate and hold both wheels in their low position. 2. Hold down the preset button and press 7.
Using USB The Prophet-6’s USB 2.0 port enables bidirectional MIDI communication with a computer. A MIDI interface and MIDI cables are not necessary, just a USB cable. The Prophet-6 is a Class Compliant USB device. That means it does not require any additional drivers to be installed to communicate with a Mac or Windows computer. The Prophet-6 transmits and receives MIDI data via USB, but does not transmit audio.
Appendix A: Alternative Tunings By default, the Prophet-6 is set to standard, chromatic western tuning. Additionally it supports up to 16 additional alternative tunings, which you can access using the alt tuning button in the globals section. From the factory, the Prophet-6 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 find on the Internet. These must be in SysEx format.
5. 19 Tone Equal Temperament 19 notes per octave (19root2) offering better thirds than 12 ET, a better overall compromise if you can figure out the keyboard patterns. 6. 31 Tone Equal Temperament Many people consider 31root2 to offer the best compromise towards just intonation in an equal temperament, but it can get very tricky to keep track of the intervals. 7.
11. Other Music 7-Limit Black Keys in C Created by the group Other Music for their homemade gamelan, this offers a wide range of interesting chords and modes. C=1/1 (261.625 Hz) 1/1 15/14 9/8 7/6 5/4 4/3 7/5 3/2 14/9 5/3 7/4 15/8 12. Dan Schmidt Pelog/Slendro Created for the Berkeley Gamelan group, this tuning fits an Indonesianstyle heptatonic Pelog on the white keys and pentatonic Slendro on the black keys, with B and Bb acting as 1/1 for their respective modes.
15. Harry Partch 11-limit 43 Note Just Intonation One of the pioneers of modern microtonal composition, Partch built a unique orchestra with this tuning during the first half of the 20th century, to perform his own compositions. The large number of intervals in this very dense scale offers a full vocabulary of expressive chords and complex key changes. The narrow spacing also allows fixedpitched instruments like marimbas and organs to perform glissando-like passages.
Appendix B: Troubleshooting and Support Troubleshooting If you’re experiencing problems or unexpected behavior from your Prophet-6, here are a few typical scenarios and their solutions: The sequencer or arpeggiator has stopped running. Check the MIDI Clock setting in the Globals to ensure the Prophet-6 is set to out or, if set to in or slave thru, make sure the Prophet-6 is receiving MIDI clock. Some of the programs sound different than usual. Check the Mod Wheel position.
The Prophet-6 plays out of tune. Check Transpose and Master Tune parameters in the Global settings. If they seem correct, you may need to retune the oscillators. See “Calibrating the Prophet-6” on page 56. If this doesn’t help, recalibrate the pitch and mod wheels. “Calibrating the Pitch and Mod Wheels” on page 57. The pitch or mod wheel doesn’t go go full range. Recalibrate the pitch and mod wheels. See “Calibrating the Pitch and Mod Wheels” on page 57. A filter sounds strange or out of tune.
Appendix C: MIDI Implementation The Prophet-6 receives MIDI data according to the settings you have chosen in the global settings. In addition, there is interaction between some of the Program parameters that determine the overall response of Prophet-6 to MIDI data. Following are the Global parameters that affect response to MIDI: MIDI Channel: All, 1…16—Selects which MIDI channel to send and receive data, 1 to 16. All receives on all 16 channels.
MIDI Control: Off, On—When On, the synth will respond to MIDI controllers, including Pitch Wheel, Mod Wheel, Pedal, Volume. MIDI Sysex: MID, USB— When set to MIDI (MID) it will receive and transmit them using the MIDI ports/cables When set to USB it will receive and transmit them using the USB port/cable. MIDI SysEx messages are used when sending and receiving a variety of data including, programs, alternative tunings, system updates, and more.
Received Controller Messages Status Second Third Description 1011 nnnn 1 0vvvvvvv Mod Wheel: directly assignable controller 1011 nnnn 4 0vvvvvvv Foot Controller: directly assignable controller 1011 nnnn 7 0vvvvvvv Volume: Combined with Master Volume and Voice Volume 1011 nnnn 74 0vvvvvvv Brightness: Added to low-pass filter cutoff frequency 1011 nnnn 32 0vvvvvvv Bank Select: 0 - 4 select user banks 0 - 4; 5 - 9 select factory banks 0 - 4; others ignored 1011 nnnn 64 0vvvvvvv Dampe
Transmitted Controller Messages Status Second Third Description 1011 nnnn 0000 0001 0vvvvvvv Mod Wheel 1011 nnnn 0000 0100 0vvvvvvv Foot Controller: When assigned to Pedal 1 or Pedal 2 1011 nnnn 0000 0111 0vvvvvvv Volume: When assigned to Pedal 1 or Pedal 2 1011 nnnn 0100 1010 0vvvvvvv Brightness: When assigned to Pedal 1 or Pedal 2 1011 nnnn 0010 0000 0vvvvvvv Bank Select: 0 - 9 1011 nnnn 0100 0000 0vvvvvvv Damper pedal: Sends 0 if off, 0111 1111 when on 1011 nnnn 0000 0111 0v
Additional Continuous Controllers Transmitted/Received The following table details how MIDI Continuous Controllers (CCs) are mapped to Prophet-6 controls. They are transmitted when Param Xmit is set to CC, and recognized/received when MIDI Rcv Receive is set to CC.
NRPN Messages The Non-Registered Parameter Number (NRPN) MIDI messages are used to transmit and receive both global and program parameters. They are transmitted when MIDI Parameter Send is set to NRPN in Global, and received when MIDI Parameter Receive is set to NRPN in Global. The messages are handled in standard MIDI format using the NRPN CC commands in running status byte format. Below is the format used for transmitting a NRPN parameter.
Received NRPN Messages Status Second Third Description 1011 nnnn 0110 0011 0vvvvvvv NRPN parameter number MSB CC 1011 nnnn 0110 0010 0vvvvvvv NRPN parameter number LSB CC 1011 nnnn 0000 0110 0vvvvvvv NRPN parameter value MSB CC 1011 nnnn 0010 0110 0vvvvvvv NRPN parameter value LSB CC 1011 nnnn 0110 0000 0xxxxxxx NRPN parameter value Increment 1011 nnnn 0110 0001 0xxxxxxx NRPN parameter value Decrement 1011 nnnn 0010 0101 0111111 RPN parameter number MSB CC - Reset NRPN paramet
Program Parameter Data The following table lists Prophet-6’s program parameters.
NRPN Value Description 115 0-1 Pressure LFO Amt Dest On/Off 119 0-5 FX 1 Select 120 0-127 121 0-255 NRPN Value Description 236-255 32 - 125 Name 0-19 256-319 12-108 Seq Step 1-64 Note 1 FX 1 Mix 320-383 0-127 Seq Step 1-64 Vel 1 FX 1 Param 1 384-447 12-108 Seq Step 1-64 Note 2 448-511 0-127 Seq Step 1-64 Vel 2 512-575 12-108 Seq Step 1-64 Note 3 122 0-127 FX 1 Param 2 123 0-1 FX 1 Sync 127 0-9 FX 1 Select 128 0-127 FX 2 Mix 576-639 0-127 Seq Step 1-64 Vel 3
Control NRPN Data The following table lists the Prophet-6’s control NRPN data. It is received and transmitted but not saved as part of a program. NRPN Value Description 1088 0-1 Seq Play/Stop * 1 0-1 Osc 1 Sync 2 0-127 Osc 1 Level 3 0-254 Osc 1 Shape *Only available in normal Seq jack mode.
Request Program Dump Status Description 1111 0000 System Exclusive (SysEx) 0000 0001 DSI ID 0010 1101 Prophet-6 ID 0000 0101 Request Program Transmit 0000 00vv Bank Number, 0 - 9 0vvv vvvv Program Number, 0 - 99 1111 0111 End of Exclusive (EOX) The Prophet-6 will respond by sending out the Program Data in the format described below in Program Data Dump.
Program Data Dump Status Description 1111 0000 System Exclusive (SysEx) 0000 0001 DSI ID 0010 1101 Prophet-6 ID 0000 0010 Program Data 0000 00vv Bank Number: 0 - 9 0vvv vvvv Program Number: 0 - 99 0vvv vvvv 1024 bytes expanded to 1171 MIDI bytes in “packed MS bit” format 1111 0111 End of Exclusive (EOX) Program Edit Buffer Data Dump Status Description 1111 0000 System Exclusive (SysEx) 0000 0001 DSI ID 0010 1101 Prophet-6 ID 0000 0011 Edit Buffer Data 0vvv vvvv 1024 bytes expand
Packed Data Format Data is packed in 8 byte “packets”, with the MS bit stripped from 7 parameter bytes, and packed into an eighth byte, which is sent at the start of the 8 byte packet.
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