Review of the Dave Smith Instruments Prophet 08 Synthesizer

Dave Smith Prophet ’08 Polyphonic Analog Synthesizer

I absolutely love this synthesizer. With real analog oscillators, famed Curtis low-pass filters, and analog VCAs, the Prophet ’08 is capable of reproducing the familiar sounds of its legendary predecessors. But modern features like a greatly expanded modulation matrix and additional modulation sources — such as three envelopes and four LFOs per voice — take it way beyond vintage gear and make it a worthy and unique addition to the Prophet family tree.

Features include a gated 16 x 4 step sequencer, arpeggiator, split or stacked key modes with separate stereo outputs per layer, and rack ears for optional rack-mounting. The Prophet ’08 module can also be used as an expander to increase the polyphony of another Prophet ’08 — keyboard or module — to 16 voices.

The Prophet ’08 PE (potentiometer edition) has all the features of the standard Prophet ’08, but many of the front panel’s rotary controls use potentiometers (AKA “pots”) for more “vintage-style” control. (The standard Prophet ’08 primarily uses rotary encoders.)

Features:

– Full-featured polysynth with a 100% analog signal path
– Classic, real analog sound – including legendary Curtis analog low-pass filters – married to a modern feature set
– Compact size, huge sound
– Tons of knobs for direct, real-time editing and performance
– Oiled mahogany wood end panels

It is a bit pricy at around $2,000 brand new. You can find them pre-owned for around $1,300. Well worth the money! Go demo one in your area!

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