ARTURIA – PROPHET V - MANUAL
8
If there was a single feature that defined the Prophet sound, it was the poly-mod section, which
enabled you to use the filter envelope and osc 2 to modulate the frequency of osc 1, the pulse-
width of osc 1 and/or the filter cutoff frequency. These modulation routings, combined with osc
1's sync function, produced the trademark (and at one time hopelessly overused) oscillator
sweeping sync sound, usually variations on what was originally factory preset 33.
The original price for a Prophet 5 was in between $3,995 and $4,495. Eventually a rack mounted
conversion of a user-supplied Prophet-5 was available from Studio Electronics. Later, there was
even the release of the Prophet 10 which is essentially two Prophet 5 circuits stacked together
for 10 voices spanning two keyboard manuals.
The Prophet 5 has been notably used by Kraftwerk, Duran Duran, No Doubt, Depeche Mode,
Vince Clarke, Talking Heads, Genesis, Gary Numan, Thomas Dolby, New Order, Prodigy, INXS,
The Cars, Phil Collins, Richard Barbieri, , Jean-Michel Jarre, Steely Dan, Kitaro, Level 42, Peter
Gabriel, the Eurythmics, Pet Shop Boys, filmmaker/composer John Carpenter and many more.
Prophet VS:
The Prophet VS was made by Sequential Circuits Inc. between 1986 and 1987. It was an
innovation in the sense that it was one of the first 'sample and synthesis' synthesizers. At the
same time, it was the first synthesizer to bring two-dimensional cross-fading between
waveforms into the mainstream. This interesting concept became known as vector synthesis.
The Prophet VS was primarily the invention of three people - Chris Meyer, Josh Jeffe, and Tony
Dean. Chris Meyer came up with the basic algorithm of cross-fading between 4 oscillators (in
essence, a 2-dimensional fade between timbres) and running that through the usual VCF/VCA
chain. It was an extension of the instruments like the PPG and Fairlight that could scan in one
dimension along a table of wave shapes or between two different wave shapes.
Another peculiarity that contributed to the success of this instrument was its modulation matrix.
This allowed it to largely surpass the limitations of classic modulation (the envelopes attached
to the filter and the amplifier, for example) by offering connection from all the modulation
sources available in the machine (envelopes, LFO, etc..) to any modifiable parameter one might
choose (oscillator frequencies, filter cut-off, amplifiers, panoramic, etc...).
The envelopes were also new to the scene because they were not structured like the usual ADSR
envelopes. They were made up of 5 points (from 0 – initial level – to 4 – corresponding to the
Release). Each of these points was associated to a parameter level and time; a loop function
could even be added between two points. These special features allowed for modulations styles
a lot more complex and creative than those of the classic ADSR envelopes.
In 1987, Sequential was sold to Yamaha, who introduced their vector-synthesis based SY22 in
1990. Other vector synthesizers were also to follow in later years, but the Prophet VS was then
and is still today a sought after instrument due to its incredible range of sounds. You will hear it
in recordings by Brian Eno, Trent Reznor, Apollo 440, Depeche Mode, Vince Clarke, Kraftwerk,
Erasure and filmmaker/composer John Carpenter, among others.
1.2
TAE®
TAE
®
, True Analog Emulation, is Arturia's outstanding technology dedicated to the digital
reproduction of analog circuits used in vintage synthesizers.
When implemented in software code, TAE
®
’s algorithms guarantee authentic emulation of
hardware specifications. This is why the Prophet V offers an unparalleled quality of sound.
TAE
®
combines four major advances in the domain of synthesis:
