Friday, January 25, 2013

The Prophet 12: Dave Smith's Newest Monster is Genius




DSI unveiled their newest synth today, which Dave is calling the finest he's ever made. It's the Prophet-12, an incredible 12 voice, 4 oscillator-per-voice synthesizer for the price of $2999.  This keyboard has everything.  While the oscillators seem to be purely digital, the VCA and filters remain analog.  There's an effects section, with delay and distortion.  There are knobs to change the character of the oscillators.  Just by hearing it, you can tell its one of the most fantastic and innovative synths around.  I applaud Dave and his small team of engineers.  He's created a synthesizer that you could sell the rest of your gear for and not regret it.

Don't just take my word for it.  Listen below, in DSI's official video, and an additional demo.





"ANAHEIM, Calif.—January 24, 2013—Dave Smith Instruments today introduced a new polyphonic synthesizer, the Prophet 12, at the 2013 NAMM Show. “After 35 years of creating synths, this is simply my best synth yet,” said Smith. “We sort of started from scratch on this one rather than spinning off another product from our previous designs.”

At twelve voices, the Prophet 12 boasts the greatest polyphony of any instrument designed by Smith. Each voice features four oscillators capable of generating classic and complex waveforms, a sub-oscillator, resonant analog low- and high-pass filters, and analog VCAs. The new Character section adds a variety of wave shaping and sound sculpting options, like Drive, Hack, Decimation, Girth, and Air. Additional features include a tuned feedback path, a four-tap stereo delay per voice, expanded arpeggiator functionality, deep modulation capabilities, and bi-timbral operation. The LFOs, delay, and arpeggiator can all be synced, either to the internal clock or an external MIDI clock. Two programmable position- and pressure-sensitive touch sliders take the performance controls beyond the standard pitch and mod wheels (also included).

“We’re already blown away by the sonic breadth of this synthesizer’s new voice architecture,” Smith continued. “It doesn’t sound like anything else and I’m very excited for people to hear it.”

The Prophet 12 is expected to be available Q2 of 2013 with a projected MAP of $2,999."

Korg MS-20 Mini Information and Video blowout!


So many people have been waiting for this day, and for it to be official-- the Mini MS-20 is finally a reality, with an astounding price of $600.  By now you've probably read the full details on Korg's site, but there's still alot to be said about this instrument.  It's been such a long time coming-- the dreams of everyone who's bought the Monotron series.  The MMS-20 is the perfect addition to the family.

Sit back, and enjoy some of the videos of the new beast.