On the other hand, my measurements of the maximum stage times revealed that, in contrast to the Prophet 10's times of approximately 25s, 50s, and 40s (Attack, Decay and Release respectively), the Prophet V' s times of 8s, 11s, and 12s preclude many of the long sweeps and gentle effects that you might otherwise hope to coax from it. Nevertheless, Prophet V blows these figures away, with a complete AD cycle of just a millisecond or so. The original synth was more than reasonable by the standards of the time, with a fastest VCA Attack of around 1ms, and a fastest VCA Decay of about 9ms. ![]() Moving on, I measured the fastest transients that the two synths can generate, which revealed some stunning results. Copy protection is by means of a USB dongle. Prophet V will run as a stand-alone application, and as a VST or RTAS plug-in on both the PC and Mac, as a DXi plug-in under Windows, and as an AU plug-in on the Mac. This restricted the number of notes that I could play simultaneously, but introduced no other problems, which is a compliment to Arturia's programming. Consequently, much of this review was conducted on a sub-spec machine. Mac: 1.5GHz processor with 512MB of RAM running Mac OS 10.2 or higher.Īrturia have increased their recommended minimum hardware specification for Prophet V, adding 50 percent to the CPU speed, and 100 percent to the RAM.PC: 1.5GHz processor with 512MB RAM running Windows 98SE, 2000, or XP.No, it's not original, but it's a well-chosen enhancement. By the way, instead of offering a Keyboard tracking on/off switch, the soft synth offers a knob to vary it from zero to 100 percent. The filters in both synths produce the same, haunting sound, and track the keyboard so accurately that you can play them just as you would the oscillators. The last I saw, it had crashed through the Nyquist limit of my analyser and was heading upward toward 30kHz without pausing for breath.Īlso good news is the way in which you can 'play' the self-oscillating filter. This compares well with the Prophet 10, which has a minimum of 10Hz, a maximum when controlled by the cut-off frequency knob of 8.55kHz, and a maximum when pushed to the limit using CVs of. The soft synth has a lowest cut-off frequency of 10Hz, a maximum when controlled by the cut-off frequency knob alone of 8.47kHz, and (when used at 44.1kHz) a maximum when pushed to the limit using CVs of 20.5kHz. ![]() This is equivalent to placing a 10dB/octave low-pass filter across the output! If these results are a consequence of the filter emulation, rather than any significant differences in the spectra of the noise generators themselves, they might explain the cyclic waveforms' lack of brightness when compared with the originals.Īnalysis of the range of filter cut-off frequencies is more encouraging. Here is an original hardware Sequential Circuits Prophet 5, the look of which has been mimicked very closely by Arturia.The noise generator on my Prophet 10, while suffering from the cyclic 'thump' that bedevils early Prophets, sounds 'whiter' than that of the soft synth, and a spectrum analyser confirms this, showing that the soft synth's white noise spectrum exhibits a marked fall-off above 5kHz, ending up almost 20dB down at 20kHz. The square waves and triangle waves were closer to the originals, but all three of the soft synth's waves sounded less bright than those generated by my Prophet 10. The original synth was noticeably brighter, the soft synth sounding just a little 'softer' than the original, and the difference was also clearly visible on an oscilloscope. ![]() Opening the filters fully on both synths (using both the cut-off-frequency knob and the filter envelope), defeating any modulation, and selecting the sawtooth wave on Oscillator A on both the soft synth and the Upper synth of my Prophet 10, I played middle 'C' on both, and expected to hear an all-but-identical sound. As luck would have it, I just happen to have a Prophet 10 to hand! Prophet 5 Emulation: Oscillators & FiltersĪrturia's literature states that they modelled their Prophet 5 emulation on the Rev 2 and Rev 3 models of the original synth, so the best instrument for comparison would be a Rev 3 Prophet 5 or a Prophet 10, which, if you ignore a handful of enhancements, is just a pair of Rev 3s in wolf's clothing. However, it differs from Arturia's earlier products, because it emulates not one, but two vintage classics: the Prophet 5 from 1978, and the hybrid analogue/digital Prophet VS from 1986. Arturia's Prophet V in its Prophet 5 mode.Īrturia emulate both the classic Prophet 5 and the lesser-known Prophet VS synthesizers in their latest software instrument.Īrturia's previous soft synths - the Minimoog V, Moog Modular V, ARP 2600V, and CS80V - have been generally well-received by reviewers and players alike, so Prophet V joins a respected family of recreations of vintage instruments.
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