Dave Smith announces the Pro 2

After teasing an announcement all week, Dave Smith Instruments has unveiled a new flagship monophonic synthesizer called the Pro 2.  The Pro 2 marks a natural progression of Dave's synth engines, using the digital oscillators and analog filters of the Prophet 12 but using a form factor similar to the Mopho SE.  At $1999, the new mono synth isn't cheap, but the incredible list of features justifies the price point.

The Pro 2 has a ton of great little features, like paraphonic mode, 32 step sequencing, and control voltage integration.  The amount of connectivity and control it offers is astounding, and this looks like it could be THE modern style mono synth, bucking the analog oscillator standard of today in favor of digital, albeit more editable, oscillators.

This is a slam dunk for Dave-- the keyboard won't attract the low-price aficionados, but DSI already has multiple synths for those crowds, between the Tetra, Mopho, Mopho Keyboard, and Mopho X4.  The sound demos in the video above show how warm and deep it can be.  The sheer sonic possibilities could make this a great all-in-one modern mono synth, with full blown connectivity.  The only thing that might hold it back is its price-- for just $1000 more, you could get a full on Prophet 12, or for $200 more the Prophet 12 module.  Can't wait to hear more.  For more information, read on below or check out the official DSI site.

From Dave's site:

Rheyne - Live Jam #45 (5/24/12)

"Facebook: http://facebook.com/rheynemusic
Twitter: http://twitter.com/rheynemusic

Live looping improv jam with a DSI MoPho, Akai MPD26 and APC20, two iPads, an iTouch, and a DJ TechTools MIDI Fighter 3D. One iPad is running Audanika's SoundPrism Pro, triggering NI's Massive through an iConnectMIDI. Lemur is running on the other iOS devices, wirelessly controlling mixer functions and effects in Ableton Live. All audio is passed through a PreSonus 1818VSL connected to a Macbook Pro.

All loops are recorded live. Download or stream the audio at SoundCloud: http://snd.sc/JgCRhM"

Awesome live performance by Rheyne.  This is the guy to watch if you're ever feeling under-creative.  Always delivers these incredible little jams via YouTube.  Also, his sounds are GREAT.

Prophet 5: Analog vs Digital

I was checking out these videos yesterday, and found them pretty interesting.  This Youtube user is comparing the patches found in the original Prophet 5 to the Arturia Prophet 5.  Some of the patches are almost identical.  While it's unfair to truly judge due to the sound quality Youtube offers (I'd love to see someone do this and upload it to SoundCloud), it does show that you could probably get away with certain plugs in mixes, especially for background sounds.  It would also be interesting to compare these to the modern Prophet 08.  While Arturia's plugins are of the most demanding CPU wise, they are among the best.  Check out the videos and try to hear some differences yourself.  Of course, don't get me wrong, I'd take real analog any day...

Patch Breakdown: The Prophet Piano

Mozart - Sonata in C using the Prophet Piano Patch by The Synth Symp

Today I'll be breaking down a patch for you guys.  This was one of the original intentions of the site, so hopefully this will happen more often from now on, since patch building is essentially the heart of synthesis.  You can have a great synth with crap sounds if you're not careful.  I didn't create this sound but I'd like to start with it as a template to what the future of this will look like.  Above is the Prophet Piano patch (No. 77 on my DSI Tetra) playing Mozart's Sonata in C (MIDI from this website).  I think it's a decent stab at the sound of a real piano, and should be easily recreated on any number of synths.  Hopefully this tutorial will give you a really great understanding of what is happening in this sound.

DSI Tetra Sequence Demo

DSI Tetra Sequence Demo by The Synth Symp

Here's a little demo using my Tetra I got for Christmas.  The Tetra is a great little piece of synth with an unfortunate interface and app holding it back.  It's basically a 4-voice Prophet, but with even more features like sub-oscillators.  The app that Soundtower makes (I won't even link it, it's that bad) doesn't play nice with DAWs, however, so any programming you'd like to do while recording this synth requires you to use the onboard controls, which is a fair amount of menu-diving, unfortunately.  The app on its own works brilliantly for me but I've heard a ton of complaints from others, however, which is why I've joined the CTRLR crew (I've made a post about it earlier.  MIDI controllers for every synth!).  Let's hope Dave Smith and his crew cook up a Tetra keyboard sometime soon, otherwise I'll end up buying a Mopho keyboard to help this thing out (the Mopho keyboard's knobs map directly to the Tetra and they can be polychained).  Enjoy!  I think this turned out way better than I expected it would.  The Tetra packs some great sounds.

And of course, if you want to see anything on this blog, shoot me an email (thesynthesizersympathizer@gmail.com) or find me on twitter (@thesynthsymp) and follow/ @ reply me.  I'd love to hear what you guys want to see!  And if you want me to keep making content, click an ad or throw in a buck in the ole donate on the top left.


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