Sequential Circuits Prophet 600

Software version is .08, the latest available, as of the end of SCI. The presets mostly sound awesome. I was pretty surprised at the breadth of available presets, considering that this is an analogue synth. I mostly enjoy the big warm atmospheric pads. These are great for creating just that right touch of analog atmosphere. Of course, there are more than enough really wacked-out presets to satisfy anyone who wants to make odd freaky noises. Editing the patches is the easiset thing in the world. Twiddle some knobs and flip some switches. It helps to have the manual handy, as the manual shows what the actual position of the knobs and switches is in each preset. This is helpful, because of course the knobs only become active for a preset once you turn one, so waht you see on the board physically never really inddicates your preset. No automated recall of settings, we're talking 1982 here. The manual is decent, though it was written in 1982 and that really shows. The MIDI info is scarcem you'll need to experiment to get it working the way you want to with your sequencer. Also, you'll want to consult some outside explanations of analog synthesis, the ones in the manual are severely lacking. But it lists all the presets... which helps, and if you buy a manual from Wine Country (winecountrysequential.com) they include some newer info on the MIDI updates.

6-note polyphony, unless you're in Unison mode, which makes everything much fatter. Keyboard feels somewhat expensive, large, easy-to-use keys, and it's a hefty instrument. No velocity, aftertouch, etc., remember 1982? I was 9 years old, and Reagan was president. Arpeggiator is cool, and the manual helpfully puts a * next to sounds that are good for use with it. You get two arpeggiator modes. One is Arpeg Assign, where the keys arpeggiate in whatever order you play them. This can create very weird random effects, and it's sometimes cool to change notes while the arpeggiator is going, akthough you have to be a much better player than I to get the arpeggiation to play the way you want it to at high speeds. Oh yeah, speed is controlled by a knob, no syncing the arpeggiator to your MIDI beat clock here... but arpeggiated notes record into MIDI as single notes, which makes it easy to manipulate afterwards in a sequencer. The other Arpeggiator mode is Up-Down, which plays all the notes you are holding up, then back down, to infinity. pretty simple really, and cool at high speeds. One note, the only time I have crashed this keyboard is when doing stupid arpeggiator things like holding my arm down over fifty keys for arpeggiator action, then it just freezes and dies. No built-in effects. Who needs 'em? If you want an effect, spin the Resonance, Cut-Off, or Envelope Amount knob while holding down a key, and you can scare all of your pets/friends. Throw a little reverb on it if you want, but what you really want is that classy analog sound, and that's what you get. Thanks to the Poly-Mod section and the VCOs, many presets sound thick, syrupy, chorusy... you probably don't want to add chorus, flanger, or phaser. As far as expansion capabilities, it really has none. You can load and save programs from and to--don't laugh--cassette tape, or sysex them in and out using MIDI, and some adventurous folks on the web have written sysex programs to let you modify programs on your computer. But I look at all those big fat knobs and all I want to do is tweak them til the sun comes up. You can "augment" the beast with new operating systems if you want, see wine Country again, though probably most of the 600s floating around out there nowadays have the newest version. It has an onboard sequencer that you really don't want to use, unless you want to use, something like 1200 notes, should get you 35 seconds into a good jungle tune. Use an outboard sequencer, then twiddle the knobs while playing back!
I am really shamed to be giving this thing an 8 in this category, I'm sure in '82 or '83 it was a 10. But it's not a brand new, shiny Korg or Kurzweil, and you pay for the sounds with this baby.

As I said before, I was somewhat surprised with the realism of the sounds. There were especially some very usable organs. While they don't sound like a rich, stereo-sampled Hammond B-3, they sound thick, and they've got some nice little accoutrements to them, very prog-rocky. Also, some good string-type pads, although they really sound more like a good film than any intrument you've ever heard. I think the sounds (which according to the preset list are mostly designed to sound liek things like strings, basses, clavinets, harmonicas, etc.) are really just good jumping off points. For instance in the middle of a recording session a band member and I sat down and tried to work one of the organ sounds into something a little more bitey, juicy, but mellow. Took a little while, but the sound was perfect. Like others, I do think it doesn't quite have the tight fast bass you hear in Gap commercials, but I don't care, because I'm not making that kind of music. If you want that sound, every new-school digital/analog simu-keyboard is making it, so get one of those. The Prophet provides a little more expressive joy ewith its simplicity. I was actually most wowed by the big lush warm pads, which sound just alien enough that you know they're not actual audio of real instruments, but they're so warm you swear they come from nature. The sounds you can urge out of the Prophet 600 range from heavenly to downright frightening. Thick or thin, mostly on the thicker side, and everything tends to sound pretty warm. I really prefer the fatter, sustaining sounds and the polyphonic ones,but the great thing about the short little thin tones is that they can be coazed to do insane things with the arpeggiator. This keyboard probably works best for dance, techno type stuff, but I'm using it for prog-rock/metal/mayhem/weird music, and it's perfect. Actually a very good compositional instrument, you can twiddle for a minute on the knobs and come up with a song idea. It's very inspirational, as compared to a modern keyboard where you would simply dial up the sound you wanted for a song. No velocity, aftertouch, anything, but because of the ADSR envelopes, you do have some control over the attack and decay of a sound. So it can feel like it's sweelinh in or aftertouching, even though it's really not, and you don't need it do.

I rely on it because I have to. Some people may own one working and one for parts, or two workingm but they're a little hard to find, and it's really hard to justify buying two at around 500 a pop. I figure since mine works pretty much perfectly, and it's 17 years old, I'm not gonna have many problems with it. Yes, would and have used it without a backup.

Wine Country is mostly guys left over from SCI, and they will fix anything, but not for free. I jsut wish they would hire someone to write down what this thing can really do in an easy-to-use manual. Mine came upgraded, and it seems from the instructions that it is a very easy upgrade, just remove a ROM and replace it.

I would buy it again, and again, and again. It sounds fat. No other word for it. It's definitely not Modern, but it's fun to tweak knobs, ask any guitar player. I have been playing keyboards on and off, mostly off, for a few years, but I really use the Prophet 600 as a compositional tool, an idea factory, and an unending source of amusement when my guitar bores me. I love the sick filter sweeps, the insanely grainy sounds, the lovely wood paneling. I sometimes wish it was stereo, but what would I need that for? I bought the Prophet because i had played one before, and it's an instrument you can really enjoy. There is nothing imposing about it, unless you count the deviant nature of anaolog synthesis itself. If you want a fat, warm, analog synth, or weird other-worldly (but not digital) sounds, pick one up. it's well worth the 450 I paid and more. I most wish that the filters were controllable via MIDI. You can control the MOD wheel via MIDI, but that doesn't really do exactly what you want. This is really an audio instrument, but it's great to sequence a song with it, then tweak the knobs while recording it, you can really get some human sounds, plus you can make this thing scream like an animal.

Editing sounds is easy. There is a knob or a switch for every parameter. But because the CPU scans them, especially the switches are sometimes annoying to use. And you can't "see" the sound if you look the knobs.
I don't know about factory presets. The manual is quite good.

The architecture is basic analog synth configuration. Two VCOs, one lowpass VCF with a resonance, one VCA, one LFO and two ADSRs. The VCOs can produce triangle, sawtooth and pulse/square and any combination of them, which is a nice feature. The LFO is very simple, only square and triangle waveforms and no delay.
Now comes the best part: one of the oscillators can modulate the filter or the other oscillator's frequency. Voila! Now you understand the importance of getting many waveforms concurrently from the oscillator.
The polyphony is six voices. There is a unison mode which fattens the sound. The keyboard has five octaves, but don't recognize velocity or aftertouch. MIDI is poorly implemented, but this was the first US MIDI synth. It is in ONMI mode when powered up.
No effects, but a very simple sequencer. There are 100 patch locations. The memory contents can be dumped to a tape or as a sys-ex packet via MIDI OUT.

The raw sound is rather thin for an analog synth, but it's great for strings. Basses lack punch because of slow attack of envelopes. So nothing special so far.
The real joy begins when you discover the POLY-MOD section and start to modulate the filter or the A oscillator by the B oscillator with different waveforms. I immediately fell in love with this synth when I did this first time. I heard DX-7 type sounds, even white noise (there is no noise generator inside) and many odd sounds I have never heard before, because I don't have any modular synths.

The membrane buttons may cause some trouble, so push them gently. Also the potentiometers don't always work.

The Prophet 600 is great for creating unusual analog timbres, noises and effects. Also the strings are nice. But don't think to use it for tight synth basses. If you need just basic analog sounds, you should think buying a JX-8P instead. But if you want to explore new "modular" sounds, this is a cheap ticket, because this thing doesn't cost much, it has MIDI and patch memories.
I have more than 10 synths, but this little baby of the Prophet 5 can do things my other gear doesn't. (I am still talking about the modulation routings I mentioned under the "Features" topic). Remember to tweak the POLY-MOD knobs if you happen to see this in the store, so your opinion of this synth may change drastically.