Sequential Prophet 6

Sequential Prophet-6 | Reviews
85
down the line for replacement/service if
necessary – a clever move by DSI which
should help ensure the future longevity
of the instrument. The top panel is laid
out clearly in a P5-style with the
graphics silkscreened directly onto the
panel and the switches are a mixture of
later-style DSI push buttons and
P5-type selectors with LEDs. These all
feel sturdy and should stand up to
long-term abuse on and off stage. The
plastic/rubber-coated/silver knobs will
be familiar to owners of the Prophet 08,
Pro 2 and P12, and feel good with a
nice amount of resistance, though there
is some play in them.
Back to the keyboard for a moment.
The four-octave design keeps the
footprint small which is useful for
smaller spaces and makes the P6 easy
to transport. Undoubtedly, some players
will prefer a fi ve-octave keyboard (and
personally speaking I would have liked
an extra octave, as I think fi ve is perfect
for a performance synth) but most of
the time, four octaves is suffi cient and
chances are the P6 will be part of a
multi-board rig on stage at least, thus
you’ll not always require two hands on
deck simultaneously. When you do
require that extra range you can use the
very fast octave switches or connect an
external MIDI board. For soloing and
most two-handed duties, four octaves is
fi ne and I’ve never had an issue soloing
on my Moog
Voyager which is
only three and a
half octaves. Food
for thought!
Feels good
Feel-wise, the
semi-weighted synth-action keyboard is
massively playable and buttery – it’s
perfectly balanced for playing fast and
accurately. The velocity and aftertouch
response is also near perfect allowing
smooth and predictable modulation
SPECS
Oscillators: 2 new discrete
VCOs per-voice,
Continuously variable
waveshape per oscillator,
Variable pulse width, Hard
sync, Triangle sub-octave
generator (oscillator 1) per
voice, Low frequency mode
(oscillator 2), Keyboard
tracking on/off (oscillator
2), Oscillator slop
Mixer: Oscillator 1, 2 and
sub-osc levels, plus white
noise
Filters: Two-pole resonant,
high-pass fi lter with
velocity, Four-pole,
resonant, self-oscillating
low-pass fi lter, Velocity and
bi-polar amount controls
plus full and half keyboard
tracking controls
Envelopes: 1x fi lter ADSR,
1x amp ADSR
LFO: Five wave shapes +
noise source , Clock sync
(internal or external MIDI
clock), 5 Mod destinations
Poly Mod
Sources: fi lter envelope
(bi-polar) and oscillator 2
(bi-polar), 5 Destinations
Aftertouch: channel
aftertouch with bi-polar
amount, 6 destinations
Clock: Tap tempo, BPM
control, MIDI clock/internal
sync
Arpeggiator: 10 timing
divisions, Up to 3-octave
range, Up, down, up/down,
random, and assign modes
Polyphonic sequencer: 64
steps with rests/ties,
Transposition when holding
record/pressing a note
Effects: Stereo analogue
distortion, Dual, 24-bit,
48kHz digital effects, Delay
sync, True bypass
Performance controls:
Full-sized, semi-weighted,
4-octave keyboard with
velocity and aftertouch,
Backlit pitch and mod
wheels, Transpose controls,
Hold switch, Polyphonic
glide, Unison mode with
confi gurable voice count,
Live panel mode, 500 user
and 500 factory programs
(10 banks of 100 programs
each)
Connections: Left/mono
and right audio outputs,
Headphone output, MIDI in,
out, and thru ports, USB,
Low-pass fi lter cutoff pedal
input, Volume pedal input,
Sustain footswitch input,
Sequencer start/stop
footswitch input
Dimensions
813 x 323 x 117mm
Weight:
9.5kg
The P6 features two
24-bit, 48kHz effect
processors. The effects are
newly designed and when
off, provide true bypass so
that the pure analogue
signal path isn’t adversely
affected. Processor A
provides bucket brigade
delay, digital delay,
chorus, and two phaser
types, while processor B
provides the same, plus
hall, room, plate and
spring reverb emulations.
The quality and
musicality of the effects is
impressive all round and
they really enhance the
already great tone of the
P6, plus the delays can be
sync’d internally or to
MIDI clock. You can also
tap the sides of the P6 to
get authentic spring reverb
rattle! Further, each effect
has a mix level control and
two real-time dials, each
with their own display
where different parameters
can be tweaked. For
example, the spring reverb
has tweakable tone and
decay parameters, while
the chorus has rate and
depth; it’s all very intuitive
too. Finally, there’s a
handy ‘pan spread’
feature that spreads the
six voices across the
stereo fi eld. Lovely!
Effects
The P6 includes
a four-pole
resonant low-pass
self-oscillating fi lter
and a two-pole
resonant (static)
high-pass. They can
be combined to form
a band-pass fi lter,
extending beyond the
P5’s original scope.
VCFs
Modulation options
include an audio-rate
LFO, two snappy
envelopes, the mod
wheel, aftertouch,
pedals, velocity
and a ‘polymod’
section with
several destinations.
Oscillator 2 can act
as a secondary LFO.
Modulation
The keyboard is massively playable
and buttery, and the velocity and
aftertouch response near perfect
FMU297.rev_sequential.indd 85 9/8/15 5:24 PM