OpenTube

The History of the Prophet Synthesizer

Alex Ball

958,386 views

One of the most interesting stories of the synth world is that of Dave Smith and Sequential Circuits. I decided to try to tell some of it via their flagship series, from the Prophet 5 in 1978 to the Prophet X in 2018. With the help of a dozen other people who were incredibly generous and equally excited by their instruments, this film is the result: The History of the Prophet Synthesizer.

Massive and heart-felt thanks to all of these awesome Prophet people, this film would be very short without you!

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Prophet 5 (rev 3) and Minimoog Model D performed and recorded by Alex Ball at Curve Pusher Studios.
http://www.curvepusher.co.uk/

Prophet 10 performed and recorded by Mike TC at 100 Things I do at MESS, Melbourne.
@100thingsido

Prophet 10 rev 1 (only 2 of these have survived!) images provided by David Kean at Audities Studio
https://www.audities.org/

Additional Prophet 10 images provided by Mathew Watson at MESS, Melbourne.
https://mess.foundation/

Pro-One performed and recorded by Alex Ball.

Prophet 600 performed and recorded by JP Geersing
https://jpgeersing.nl/
The sound of a Prophet 600 with modern upg...

Prophet T8 performed by Alex Ball. Massive thanks to the owner!

Prophet 2000 performed and recorded by Pulsophonic
pulsophonic
http://www.pulsophonic.com/

Prophet VS performed and recorded by Marko Ettlich at Retrosound
http://www.retrosound.de/
@retrosound72

Prophet 3000, VS and Studio 400 images provided by Synth Electro
http://synthelectro-fr.blogspot.com/

DSi Tetra provided by Dave Grant

Prophet 08 performed and recorded by Patrick Gill
http://www.patrickgillmusic.com/
patrickgillmusic

Prophet 12 performed and recorded by Pulsophonic
pulsophonic
http://www.pulsophonic.com/

Prophet REV2 performed and recorded by Alex Ball

Prophet 6 performed and recorded by Mike TC (100 Things I Do)
@100thingsido

Prophet X performed by Alex Ball and recorded by Pendle Poucher. Huge thanks to the owner.
http://dulcitone1884.virb.com/sound-dust

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David Abernethy’s absolute bible on the subject: “The Prophet from Silicon Valley”:
https://www.amazon.com/Prophet-Silico...

Prophet 10 / Terminator time signature article: http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/cu...

External image credits:

All print ads from the incredible Retro Synth Ads archive: http://retrosynthads.blogspot.com/sea...

Dave Smith 1977 image: https://www.matrixsynth.com/2012/07/d...

Model 600 image: https://www.matrixsynth.com/2014/09/s...

Dave Smith late 70s: https://flashbak.com/hail-synthesizer...

Dave Smith Grammy image: https://www.sequential.com/about/

Model 700 programmer image: http://www.troperecordings.de/gear/se...

More model 700 images if you’re interested: https://www.matrixsynth.com/2015/12/v...

SSM schematic images: http://www.synthfool.com/docs/Other_M...

EMU history website: http://www.creative.com/emu/company/h...

NAMM 1983 image: http://www.gearjunkies.com/2012/12/da...

Prophet 2000 "coke can" photo conceived by Paul Gilby and taken by Mark Ewing. It originally appeared in a 1985 edition of Sound on Sound.
https://soundonsound.com

Prophet 3000 screen shots: http://www.muzines.co.uk/articles/seq...

Korg M1 image: http://www.muzines.co.uk/articles/the...

Sequential rebrand: https://www.sequential.com/2018/08/ds...

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I'm also on Facebook: Facebook: AlexBallMusic
I'm also on Instagram: Instagram: alexballmusic

Photos that accompany this film are here:
https://www.facebook.com/pg/AlexBallM...

20 Comments

@LearningModular 7 years ago Pinned

Clarifying a few things in the history of the Prophet VS:

The third person who contributed significantly to the Prophet VS was Tony Dean. I (Chris Meyer) came up with the voice architecture Josh later named Vector Synthesis, Tony designed the custom chips, and Josh was the project lead + programmer. The three of us spent numerous days brainstorming and debating its features before design started.

John Bowen indseed created some of the waveforms and patches; so did I, Josh, and I believe others at Sequential. Some were even randomly generated. (Not to take away from John, who is a great guy and programmer; just credit where credit is due.)

The envelopes were inspired by the Buchla 400. The VS’s waves could loop forward, or forward and back, but not backwards only. Back & Forth proved to the most useful (far more than forward only), and is all too rare on looping envelopes today.

In addition to voltage, another problem with aftertouch on the VS is that the bottom of its metal case flexed. If you placed your keyboard stand arms near the middle, it bowed the case upward, resulting in aftertouch always being on. Move those arms out to the edges, and it will behave much better.

For more on the development of the VS, from someone who was there: https://learningmodular.com/the-story-of-the-prophet-vs/

@rollomaughfling380 7 years ago

When the T-8 came out, I skipped school to go play it at the music store in my town. Spent hours there on it. My mom showed up and dragged me out of there. The school had called saying I was absent. She knew right where I was.

@Bati_ 4 years ago

Rest In Peace, Dave Smith… You’ve changed this world and we cannot thank you enough for your beautiful creations that have enhanced our lives immensely. I hope you can find peace and music there…

@BriggsMullen 5 years ago

Yamaha returning the name "Sequential" to DSI is such a feel-good moment.

@DerekPower 6 years ago

Now we have gone full circle from Prophet 5 to Prophet 5 😁

@Johnsormani 5 years ago

Alex Ball: the David Attenborough of synthesizers! Seriously: You have an absolutely great documentary voice. Not even talking about the quality of your content, which is more than BBC worthy. We are getting so spoiled by all this great stuff for free

@lasideasfugazes 4 years ago

Whatching this on this tragic day for everysynth lover... RIP Dave Smith.

@jasonmcgary 7 years ago (edited)

With a degree in electrical engineering and a full head of hair he went to work and by the end had ripped all his hair out building the prophet 10

@StarskyCarr 7 years ago

What an excellent way to pass 20 minutes. Loved it :)

@nickbek 6 years ago

THAT intro... one of the greatest P5 riff I've ever heard.

@Exitof99 5 years ago

I just bought a Pro-One from a pawn shop who didn't know what it was, called it a noise machine. All the knobs were set up so nothing but garbage came out, and the KYBD switch was off as well, making it seem like it wasn't working properly.

It still was a big purchase, but it looks like I paid a half or a third of the going price for a fully working one in the great condition this is in.

It's serial number 1050, so J-Wire keys and not the membrane. Every switch and knob working perfectly with no noise in the slightest.

So happy!

@AntwhaleNearfar 4 years ago

Keyboard player buys a complicated and expensive synth, studies the extensive manual, traverses the mind boggling learning curve, experiments with the seemingly infinite sound manipulating possibilities, feels a sense of euphoric accomplishment and satisfaction when finally mastering the instrument and its myriad of aural soundscapes and circuitry intricacies, gets onstage with his band to triumphantly express himself on his magnificent electronic device, made a musical reality by genius and inventive minds....guitarist in his band plays some cliched blues licks on a cheap Fender Squire and pulls all the hot chicks in attendance.