Dave Smith Instruments

I
fi rst reviewed the Prophet-6
keyboard back in September
2015 and was impressed
enough to go out and buy one
myself, despite owning lots of
other classic and modern polys.
Since then, I’ve employed it on
numerous productions where its
high-quality sound has really come
into its own. I’ve been using it for
general polysynth duties such as
warm pads and ’80s-style brass poly
sounds (which it excels at due to its
very upfront and punchy character,
with plenty of high-mid presence and
triangle sub oscillator, Slop (to dial in
the randomness found in older
analogues), a resonant 12dB HPF (in
addition to the classic 24dB/4-pole
LPF), two digital FX engines (with
true bypass), an expanded ‘polymod’
section (polyphonic modulation,
where modulation changes
polyphonically) a transposable
poly-sequencer and arpeggiator, plus
comprehensive MIDI implementation.
The ethos with the P6 (and OB-6)
is putting all the sound-shaping
power directly under your fi ngertips,
so pretty much every function has a
dedicated knob/switch and there are
no menus – just a basic three-digit
LED to display patch numbers and
various global functions. The P6 is a
no-nonsense premium-sounding
performance synth and already widely
respected as a legit successor to the
Prophet-5. For the intimate details on
the Prophet-6 I refer you back to my
review in FM297/on www.musicradar.
com but here I think it’s more
appropriate to update you with my
thoughts after using it for a year.
The most important thing is that
the sound is still hugely inspiring and
engaging and few other current synths
can touch its upfront, clear-cut yet
earthy sound! The quality of the oscs
is right up there with the best and it’s
rich, creamy, gooey, sizzly and deep
with virtually no background noise in
the signal path. Warm-up time is fast
and tuning very stable once you’ve
calibrated the oscs a few times in
different temperatures. The envelopes
are punchy and very detailed
sounding and the effects transform
high-end sizzle), but I’ve also
employed it for various mono duties –
it can do very authentic, searing
Minimoog-style leads and snappy,
growling basses (the envelopes are
very punchy, allowing sounds to cut
like a knife). Classic poly sounds are
the P6’s forté but that would be
belittling its scope – it’s capable of
going way beyond this.
To recap, the Sequential-badged
Prophet-6 is basically a Prophet-5
made for the now, with an extra VCO
(six instead of fi ve voices), improved
oscillator stability, the addition of a
THE PROS & CONS
+
T he sound and build
quality are top-notch
All features are
matched with the
keyboard models,
so stacking and
poly-chaining is easy
M ore portable and
cheaper than the
keyboard versions
-
Not being able to
name patches can
be frustrating – you’ll
need a good memory
to remember where
all your patches are!
No way to modulate
the effects via the
wheel/LFO/aftertouch
and the single LFO
can be limiting. No
rack-mount option
You can’t poly-chain
the OB-6 with the
P6 or vice versa
Few other current synths
can touch the Prophet-6’s
upfront, clear-cut yet
earthy sound
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DSI OB-6 and Prophet-6 Modules | Reviews
FMU313.rev_dsi.indd 91 30/11/2016 16:31