Sequential Circuits Prophet 5 Rev. 2

I did not recive any manual to my Prophet 5 Rev 2 but it is not a problem. If you have worked with analog synts before you should get right in to it right away. It is easy to store patches. The only thing i think it is diffrent on Rev 2 compared to Rev 3 is that you have to press down the "EDIT" button before you can edit any sounds. The synth is very easy to use.

The prophet 5 rev 2 has 5 voices. I think it is enough. The sound is very fat and warm so you wont have to make those 6-8 finger chords to fat the sound up. My Prophet is expanded with a Kenton midi so it can send and recive note on and off. The synth is very basic. It have not as much performance fatures like it??s competitirs (Juppe 8, OBXa, Elka synthex etc). The keyboard is ok, not very good and not bad. The P5 Rev 2 lacks the tape interface. I have opend the hood a few times and spotted that the OS is 2.0 and it is a very early OS level (have i been told) so my P5 is probably one of the first Rev 2??s. My P5 lacks the serialnumber tag. To bad.

The sound is very warm and fat. I have owned Roland Jupiter 8 and Oberheim OBXa and some other analog polysynts like Juno 106 etc. But i have to say that i have never feelt a "directness" like i feel from the P5 Rev 2 from any other polysynt. I feels extremly alive and organic. It is a very big (from a sound perspective) synt, it can do so many things. The OBXa feelt very much like one trick synt. Isound 70??s Oberheim and nothing more. The prophet 5 is taking you to a much higher lever of sound creation. I have never tried a synt that is not modular that can create so much diffret sounds. This is "the" synth for the sound constructor. The poly modulation part is very cool to work with. I cant say that this synt have any weekness in is sound. You can make leads, basses, strings, effects that sound so good that you wont belive it. I wont say that it is a "allround" synth coz it sounds like it is just OK on all types of sound. This synt is "expert" on all analog sounds.

When i bought my Prophet 5 Rev 2 i knew it had some problem so i had to begin to troubleshot it. My synth had a few burned circutis. So before i could use it i hade to find a SSM 2040 (VCF) and one SSM2020 (VCA) but it was not that hard that some people are saying in diffrent synthforums on the web. I also hade some problem with the pulse modulation on OSC 1 and it was a an other chip that was broken. It was a common chip that i could get in a normal electronic store. But since that i have had no problem. It workes like a clock. I just give it 10-15 minute to warm up before i use it and it will hold the tune forever. You always have the "tuning" buttong you can press if you think it drifting away. But it is alos the charm with the Rev 2. That is a bit more drifty and unprecise compared to the Rev 3.

I have been in contact with Wine Country for som help and they have been very helpfull.

I have owned a lot of both analog and digital synts the last 10 years. I can say that this is probably the mod well sounding analogsynt i ever tried (and yes, i have tried the minimoog). It??s is even beating the Roland Jupiter 8 (i thought that no one will do that when i owned one, and yes i regreted that i sold it) But when i got the P5 Rev 2 my nightmares, that i sold the Juppe 8, stoped. The Rev 2 is very hard to get these days. It was only about 1000 made, and it was almoast 30 years ago. So it would be intereting to know how many that are alive to day. If you should get your hands on one some day. Stick to it.

this is a revision 2 built around 1979. easy to edit and program with 40 presets stored in 5 banks of 8 patches each. microprocessor controlled analog synthesizer with unlimited sound capability. the operation manual is very clearly written and easy to follow with in depth descriptions and some tech info as well. the presets are pure and fat with 10 oscillators and 5 note polyphony. the 2 voices (and all 10 oscillators) are tuned automatically by the microprocessor with the flick of a switch and after warmup is very stable and reliable.

5 voices, 10 oscillators, lfo, pitch bend wheel, mod wheel, poly modulation, course and fine frequency controls for voices, triangle wave, square wave, sawtooth wave, glide for mono only, "a" tuner, master tune, volume, edit, preset switches, great smooth filter section and nice sounding envelope generators. no midi, cassete interface, cv in/out, audio out, release pedal jack.

fat & fuzzy, pure hollow tones, huge 10 voice monophonic patches, electric pianos, organs, and all of those 70's & 80's pads that we all love. nothing high tech about these patches but that's why i love the sounds. raw, pure and non digital is what prophet 5 rev. 2's are all about. if you can't find use for this baby then buy a swiss army knife soft synth and sell me your prophet! i'll use it! no touchsensitivity but this is a minor annoyance considering the incredible sounds. keyboard is pratt read and with new bushings it plays smooth as butter.

prophets have their share of issues but from my experience check the power supply, battery and cmos chips and baby it afterwards for a long happy life. most prophets were gigged and can be pretty beat up if not serviced properly so get a hard case for travel to take care of it. reliability issues are generally from poor maintenance and my rev.2 so far has been rock solid. i also have a rev. 3.3 and find these very reliable as well. old synths can be a bit quirky so be prepared for imperfection.

competent synth techs and wime country are your only hopes unless you are prepared to spend long nights at your work bench fixing it yourself. the internet is a great help for do it yourself repairs. most parts can be purchased but SSM chips, CEM chips and hardware are very expensive. wine county are very nice people and can be a big help for a correct resoration.

rev. 2's are the most sought after for good reason and the reliability issues are unfounded as far as i can see. i own (2) rev. 3's and a rev. 2 and i find them both to be very solid. mine are both restored by me with many sleepless nights reading the service manual. the sound of the rev.2 just kills me and i certainly hear a difference but it's not a huge difference. it's kind of klike the difference between a late 60's strat and a 70's strat if you know what i mean.