Sequential Circuits Prophet 600

self-explanatory analog synth. one knob - one function.

to all the previous descriptions i'd like to add an IMPORTRANT issue which HASN'T BEEN MENTIONED by the previous posters:

THE POT'S HAVE A LOW RESOLUTION AND CAUSE GLITCHES WHEN YOU TURN THEM AS YOU PLAY!

this gets especially important when doing manual filter sweeps (cutoff / resonance). before getting the unit, i informed myself about it right here, and, since nothing like this was mentioned, shot it at ebay - only to be very dissappointed when it arrived... =-(

according to a tech, the reason seems to be that the pot's are digitally checked every xy miliseconds, but the clocking cycles are so slow that you don't get an acceptable resolution when turning.

typical prophet filter/vca sound...
not as fat/warm as a moog (not even in unison mode - it's WIDE, but... a bit mushy), also the ADSR's are not as fast.
good for pads / sweeps / fx sounds, though.
or for basses / leads / perc's that don't need THAT moog attack ;-)

like most polyphonic analog's that have grown a lil' old, this one will need to be serviced from time to time, too.
i had to have my pitch wheel recalibrated plus one VCA replaced - and I was so lucky as to actually get one of those rare spares...!
once or twice the front panel crashed, meaning, changing of settings didn't change the sound, while the keyboard was still working.

Like any analog synth, the editing on this machine is intuitive and really fun! This is my first analog that features patch storage, and I couldn't be happier. The patch recall is fast, seamless, and incredible for live use. Gone are the days of having to take five minutes adjusting knobs and switches in between songs at shows!

I'm strictly audio, so I can't offer any opinion regarding it's MIDI capabilities.

The polyphony is never sacraficed for anything! No matter what, you will always have six full, rich voices of polyphony, putting very restraints on it's user.

From afar, it seems as though it is a run of the mill analog synth with oscillators, filters, and amplifiers. However, when you factor in the six voice polyphony, extensive modulation capabilities, unison, patch storage, and very dynamic envelopes, it's safe to say that this is much more than your standard vintage.

This is about as expressive as they come! The knobs and modulation allow for some serious expressiveness in any situation. I have yet to dream up a sound that I can't create pretty accurately, which is my biggest turn-on with this beast.

Don't buy this synth hoping to create seamlessly realistic instrument replications, as that is not what this synth was designed to do. It was rather made to create a vast soundscape of sounds that don't yet exsist. However, that isn't to say it can't make imitative voices, because it certainly can, just not as well as early digital synths can.

Ehhh... this is my main regret about the Prophet-600. Like many polyphonic synthesizers of it's time, it is prone to breakdown, and can be a bit fussy at times. I've only had mine for a few days, and it's already drifted out of tune. This would be a huge problem if it weren't for the auto-tune feature, which works amazingly well!

The Prophet-600 should be kept in a studio, out of harm's way. If you do opt to bring it on the road with you, it would probably be smart to invest in a hardshell flight case!

Thank goodness for Wine Country Sequential!
If you haven't heard, WCS is a company formed by the original Sequential Circuits team to provide an inredibly extensive array of services to all Sequential Circuits users. They sell brand new, warranted Sequential gear for really good prices. It is simply something that has to be experienced to believe. Support these guys!

This was probably the only good deal I have ever had on eBay, and that is only because the auction ended at 3:00am. It is worth every cent I paid for it, and would definitely buy another should this one get damaged in some way.

I own a Moog Prodigy, a Micro Moog, and a Casio CZ-1000 (a very early FM synthesizer), and I must say, this tops them all. I have a feeling almost all of my other synths will be sold, because the Prophet-600 does everything they can, and often times better, with way more polyphony.

The Sequential Circuits Prophet-600 has awoken a new creativity within me, and has been nothing but a joy to play!

Pretty straight forward, not much need for a manuel.

2 syncable VCO's + LFO, first synth to integrate MIDI (other than Prophet 10 with internal MIDI. Glide effect is not too shabby. Fat Unison mode (I love using this with an external chorus effect.) Polymod is useful when used with envelope filter.

Get those "Funkadelic" type sounds going and is also good for darker stuff. I personaly love the sound of this machine, bass can be *much* better.

Like I said, I love the sound of this machine, it's extremely versitile--you can go from very simple panpipe style sounds to harsh, bold and ballsy agressive type ones. The latter sounds work well when a chorus eefect is added--especially if you're going for a darkwave/ebm type of sound.
The low end isn't all that good, the envelopes are pretty slow, which makes it good for brassy and bell type sounds when you add resonance, not so good for bass. One thing that the Prophet 600 maintains well in comparision to a Prophet 5 is it's ability to create sweeping ghostly sound effect that are rich and mysterious sounding.

Very organic sounding. This would be the operative description. Raw too. It has it's own sort of character to it.
All around good for 80's style textures, not "plastic" sounding like DX7.

It's been pretty reliable so far, other than the membrane pad failing, but what do you want from such primitive technology from 23 years ago? There are a number of resources out there for a fix, though I haven't tried any of the membrane replacement modifications.
I would feel fairly confident playing this unit without a backup, though I'd prefer to use one and would definately never tour without one.

I've heard that http://www.winecountrysequential.com is a helpful resource, never had to deal with them.

Do yourself a favor--BUY THIS over a Polysix. This is a much more flexible synth, IMHO.

If it were lost or stolen I'd be pretty upset, but, honestly, I'd probably start saving for a Prophet 5 or a Pro-One at least.

Even though it is very tactile and pretty obvious--there is a learning curve to discovering how to use this instrument correctly. If you just want an analog soundbank for a bass line or a lead, there are much better machines (ARP/MOOG/monosynths, etc). If you want some analog sounds for 70s and 80s covers--a good ROMpler will get you closer with less hassle. It's weak at emulating other synths and all things "fat". Drums? Ha, ha, ha, get real...

But if you want to discover some sh*t you have heard before, turn on the arpeggiator, turn off your mind and start fiddling around for a few hours. Long, slow envelopes...ahhh. Very rewarding. But it won't be clear at first glance what the strengths of the P600 are. And most presets and patches sound kind of weak if you aren't using the arpeggiator, filters and long releases.

For its era and price, it offers more than most, so I can't rate it down. But it is true that I wish it had aftertouch, assignable midi controllers for modulation, etc. The key feel is unimpressive. The modulation wheel has no spring/return to center mechanism. Manufacturing has come a long, long way in the last 20 years, thank God.

This is where it earns its keep. Many of the sounds are pretty boring until you start twiddling around AND USE THE ARPEGIATOR. The sounds will make your jaw drop for something of this age and price. Very complex pads. Very beautiful. Pads. Pads. Pads.

You will not find another true analog machine that is so righteous for pads AND has easy memory. Even the new guys today--while great in so many ways--they just don't have the same sound and routes of experimentation. Less isn't always more--but the P600 has some unique possibilities.

So far so good. Stays in the studio though. Patch keypad is just fine.

RIP. Which is real shame. I would have loved to see what directions SCI would have gone in if they hadn't been killed by digital. Still want to play a T8.

Not the best for leads, really. But it is among the best available for analog pads--TRUE analog with MIDI in and memory. Many of the reviewers here have not emphasized this and criticize the arpegiator. Cool. Let the prices stay low. The pads from the P600 are a secret weapon.

Typical E-Z analog synth programming of the early-mid 80s..

Good features, good value - one of the only, and first analogs with built in midi (first, along with the Roland connected to it to demo midi at a trade fair). Sync, unison, arpegiator..pro analog features at value prices, without doubt.

Excellent, pro quality analog; in a mix you'd have difficulty discerning that it wasn't a Prophet 5: different envelopes-not as sharp, not as fast, but entirely irrelevant-i've heard bass lines and leads that in a mix are comparable to a Prophet 5 with minor differences, with it's own character that's different yet similar to a 5. Sometimes the 600's envelopes are better than a 5's (i have both to those who will argue) for certain things, including certain bass and lead sounds. Thickness and power's about 70% of a 5, but the difference is again only noticable upon direct comparison, in a mix it's great. Thus a great bargain for classic analog at ridiculously low prices. I'd disagree on it having a "late analog" flavor, that would be more the realm of the analog/digital sounding Super Jupiter or Prophet VS just as the DX-7 was choking off the last of the analogs.

Not particularly problematic other than occasional jiggling necessary to get the switches to work properly.

If not quite in the rarefied realm of the Prophet 5, Mini and Memorymoog or Oberheims, pretty close to this territory, for nothing prices. Far bette sounding than the comparitively cheesy and overly hyped Juno 60/106 which the 600 eats for lunch. Funny how the masses are about those Rolands..

As someone said below, the factory preset greatly show off the instrument's potential, esp. the effect sounds.
Knobs and switches to tweak, so editig is a breeze. Manual is typical Stanley Jungleib style, easy to understand, but this instrument explains itself. Very rudimentary MIDI, but with the latest Eprom (6.0.8) you can do all the basic stuff like selecting channel, omni/poly switching and SysEx dump of the currently selected sound.
Membrane switchpad is little unresponsive in use because of no tactile feedback when pressing a pad but you can deal with that.
A drawback is the rough quantizing of some knobs...ENV's have only 16 steps to adjust while cutoff is quantized in 128 steps...But after all, i found this doesn't matter as much as it seems before. In 'real life' i can go along with these limitations.

6 voices of analog power based on CEM chips and software envelopes, which makes them a bit slow compared to hardware based ENV's, but so what? I love the features like using all VCO waveformes together, independant pulse width adjustment on both VCO's, Chord traking, unison mode and the Poly-mod section, which make the Prophets so special. The lack of Noise is no prob for me, i have other gear to do that....
A cool feature for such an early synth is that the wheels are send via MIDI, so i can remote some parameters in realtime on the Boss SE-70 that i use together with the P600.

Pure analog with an extra edge!: Pads, Brass & Strings are no problem, Bass could be tricky because of the slow envelopes. But the most exciting sounds are the harsh, distorted metalic and noisy ones, which are created by the poly-mod section...VCO B to Filter, throw in some resonance or switch to Sync an you're done :-). This synth offers more than might be expected on the first look. Sounds are extremely dry, direct and crystal clear.

Tuning is ok but could be faster...lasts approx. 30 sec in worst cases. Keyboard contacts need some cleaning now and then (as most silicone rubber dome contatcs do). The most ugly fault is that the P600 'forgets' about his pots and switches during heavy tweaking sometimes....the Panel behaves like completely dead for some seconds, that suddenly gets back to work again... very strange :-|. Maybe i have to readjust the DAC gain or something like that....

If you consider buying one, be sure that the membrane panel works properly, because this is the most hard-to-get spare part!

Friendly people at WineCountry who supported me with service manual and diagnostic ROM.

I think comparing a P600 and P5 makes not much sense, the P600 is an instrument of its own. For less that half the price of a P5 you can get a superior sounding synth with MIDI and some features you won't find on other Synths of that Aera. I definitely would buy it again :-)

The factory presets sound pretty good and can be used raw, or at least as a good departure point to create your own personal variations if necessary. Sure, most analog fans believe they can do so much better than the poor idiot who did the factory programming -I tend to be a little more modest.
The manual (copy courtesy of Wine Country) covers everything you need to know. And the knobs are as easy as self-explanatory as any analog can get.

Polyphony is great considering the time this synth was built (6 voices for 1981). No aftertouch whatsoever, which is a pity. I do not use MIDI, sorry. The sequencer is extremely primitive and more of a curiosity today, of little or no practical value. But the polyphony alone makes it worth a 10.

I'm stuffed of reading users who insist on the many, many things a P-5 can do and a P-600 can not. So what? The P-600 can also do some things P-5s can not -no less than stay perfectly in tune from the time you turn it on until whenever you decide you had enough fun, which would be an amazing achievement for a P-5 or any Moog. As for the sound, it is true that the P-600 sounds thinner than older analogs, but thinner also means clearer, and while today's trend is to long for the "rawness" and "dirtyness" of the old P-5 and its predecessors, back in the early 80s many musicians wanted crystal-clear, crisper sounds and this is what the P-600 does. And it does it beautifully.

"Dirty analog" sound is not good or bad in itself, it's just a trend. I bet 20 years from now there will be a wave of nostalgia for old digitals, and people will pay fortunes for a DX-7 while MiniMoog cabinets will be used as planters.

For what is worth, the P-600 can also duplicate PERFECTLY some -not all, of course- of the P-5 sounds.

I had mine for a short time and everything works perfectly well, but the thing really does not look bullet-proof... one of these days the darn mylar pad will give up and then we'll see... The knobs are really cheap, not to mention the keyboard. No way I'd use it on a gig. I took it out a few times to jam with local friends, and had the uncomfortable sensation it might fall apart anytime...

Of course SCI is gone, Wine Country looks fine, but I never needed anything from them. Time will tell.

I don't want to part with it. It gives that special digitally controlled "late-analog" sound which -as I said above- I love and appreciate. If I had twice the money to spend, I guess I'd rather get another synth of its same generation -Oberheim?- than an overpriced primitive analog.

Programming a P600 is a breeze. All the controls are right there on the front panel. Just tweak and listen. I have a version 6-0-4 P600 so the MIDI-implementation is pretty weak. But I really don't need an upgrade as I'm not going to use it with a sequencer. For an early 80's synth the presets aren't that bad.

P600 has six voices of polyphony. Each voice consists of two VCOs a VFC and two ADSR envelope generators, one for the VCF and one for the VCA. Envelopes and the LFO are software generated by the Z80 CPU. VCOs are CEM3340 oscillators (can be sync'd) and the VCFs (and the VCAs) are CEM3372 chips. There are no built in effects but it really doesn't need them. There is a small Poly-Mod section which allows for some nice modulation routings. The P600 keyboard feels cheap and unresponsive, it doesn't send or respond to velocity. There is a small real-time sequencer onboard, but it's very limited so I only use it as a synth-notepad. P600 also has an arpeggiator onboard and with the sequencer it's a nice added bonus.

P600 sounds great. It sounds like a big, American, synth. Because of the digital envelopes it doesn't sound too ballsy, but it still sounds big. The filter has a brassy quality and sounds great. I've made some great ELO sounds with my P600, and they used the mighty CS80 ;) The oscillators are super-sweet and P600 beats any DCO synth hands down. Because of the Poly-Mod section P600 can also create somewhat more "unconvential" synth sounds. But I use the P600 for those "traditional" analogue sounds and I love it!

When it was first released, the P600 was marketed as a more affordable option to other Prophets. So, it's really cheaply built. I would never use my P600 on a gig. It just seems too fragile. When I got mine, it had two dead CEM3372 chips. I had them replaced and I also bought some spares. The membrane buttons on the front panel are also really fragile and there aren't any spare parts widely available. After I replaced the two filter chips on my P600 it has not given me any trouble. I'm keeping my fingers crossed ;)

Sequential Circuits is long gone, but Wine Country Sequential (I think some of them are old SCI employees) has some spare parts. Also, www.synthtech.com has CEM chips available.

I have/have had many differen't analogue polys. I've also tried many others. P600 is by far my favourite polysynth. Naturally I'd prefer a Prophet10 or the T8 (an 8-voice P600 with an amazing keyboard), but they cost twice as much as the P600. If it was stolen I'd propably buy another one as other Prophets are harder to find and they're more expensive. P600 is a great source for those classic 70's/80's synth sounds!

Six_0_8 for the midi

Patch editing is a breeze, just twiddle and WOOOSH!

Don't have the manual, but they are available from Wine Country for about 25 bucks.

6 voice polyphony

No effects

No expansion (hey, it was 1983)

Full midi capabilities with the latest EPROM

Onboard sequencer is useless (why anyone would use it is beyond me)

Realistic sounds? Who wants to make those?

I make electronic music, so it is perfect. It really stands out against my Roland units, which sound so pretty and refined. This thing is harsh and dirty- i LOVE it. It will cut through a mix like no other i have used. I couldn't be happier! Think "The Terminator" (the first one). Remember when the T800 first arrived?

There are no onboard fx, unless you count the poly mod section, which adds many sonic possibilities. Buy outboard if you want fx.

If you midi into it (i use a JX-10 as a master) THEN it reacts to keystrokes and such..

I have a very early version, and it is rock solid so far. It will never leave the house though- it is too precious to risk!

Wine COuntry Rules! They are always friendly and attentive. They still have many parts for the unit in stock...

If it were lost or stolen, i would be deeply depressed. Let's not even entertain that thought.
I have been writing electronic music for about two years now, so I'm no "true musician", but i do have a true appreciation for the older analogs. In an age where folks use computers to sequence/record, it is nice to balance out the cold, brittle technology with some good ol' 80's warmth.
I love it's sound, it's interface, it's physical appearance, and it's presence. What a score... Of course i compare it to my other gear, it stands out like a red headed stepchild; the kind you LIKE having around. God bless this thing.

I had purchased one of these that had the original presets installed and I didnt like them. You dont really get good sounds out of an analog synth unless you tweak it out yourself. Extremely easy to use!

I'm not the kind of guy to play 10 fingered chords so the polyphony is just fine for me. No effects but you shouldnt expect any on something this old. It has enough features to get all the sounds you need. MIDI is alright. . .but I just use this one to play live.

I love SCI stuff. The sounds are completely beefy and I prefer them over the Moog stuff I've owned.

I have dropped this thing, spilled stuff on it, had it kicked. . .it just keeps on going. I usually play a couple synths (usually the SCI Six-Trak).

I've called Wine Country and they pick up the phone right away and answer questions like they know what they're talking about. No complaints there.

I killed mine when I was trying to replace the pitch wheel for no good reason. I have purchased another and I'm going to use the old one for parts. I will always have a Prophet 600 in my set up. The sounds are huge!

As E-Z as analog synthesis gets...

Midi is basic but quite acceptible.

Excellent, CLASSIC Sequential sounds. Total disagreement with JKM, below, more in line with other reviews that will correctly tell you that this is an excellent value. Sequential pads/leads/bass...no problem. Prophet 600 bass kix ass, i know this after hearing it on several urban 80s cuts, slammin'..Doesn't have the attack of a '5, but so what? Cuts through a mix like all the Sequential keys, most of the time there's no way of knowing whether it's a '5 or a 600. Top notch, like a lot of unhearalded, unhyped synths that aren't stars..

Not a problem in apt./studio. For gigging bring the Nord/Waldorf..

Excellent value, as is the Max and 6-Trak, and until recently, the Pro-One, for THAT classic-era sound. A notch above most other manufacturers like Roland.

If you know about analog synthesis it is a piece of cake. If not, you will be pretty lost. I rate it as incredibly simplistic but I know what I'm doing. The rating I'm giving it is based a bit more objectively though.

Decent features, but the MIDI is primitive. What more do you expect from the first MIDI synth? All around pretty decent.

Someone below me says that the P600 excels at bass sounds. Maybe bassy pads, but not bass sounds in general. For one the software envelopes are incredibly sluggish without any zing to them--UNLIKE the Prophet 5 which has possibly the fastest envelopes on any analog synthesizer ever created. Without these fast hardware envelopes you can forget about punchy bass.

Secondly, the sound quality on the P600 is in the same league as the Prophet 5, but not the same ball park. Don't try to kid yourself--I've owned both the P600 and Prophet 5 and I'd say that the P600 is maybe 40% of a Prophet 5. Can they do a few similar things... sure, can they sound a little alike? Yeah. Is this a Prophet 5? Not even close, bub.

Knob quantinization is POOR--probably the biggest weakness of the Prophet 600. Zipper noise is clear on the filter if you hand tweak it... in fact, all the controls zipper to some extent. Not good. Realistically, the filter cutoff sounds like it has about 16-20 cutoff areas--it is NOT continuosly variable like the P5 is.

However, for dark pad sounds the P600 is good... strings too. It's not a bad synth on its own merits if you can get it for 300-350 dollars, but anything more and you should just save up for the real thing.

I got mine because I couldn't afford a Prophet 5 at the time. I traded it about a year later. It was okay, but the trade was irresistable. At one time I had a SCI Pro-One, P600, SCI TOM and SCI Drumtraks as my primary setup. It was sort of crazy all that Sequential gear. I've had my Prophet 5 rev 3.2 for a number of years now and don't miss the P600 at all.

If the Prophet 5 is a 10 (which it is) then the P600 is a 4.

No replacements for the membrane panel which controls much of the digital storage, rudimentary sequencer, MIDI controls and so on. If that goes, you are screwed. Overall hardware and chassis are a few rungs significantly underneath the Prophet 5. Power supply is another area that tends to suck for most SCI gear... be very wary of it. In fact, I recommend replacing it.

About 30 days after I sold my P600 the power supply blew on the new owner. It was easily replaced, but he wasn't too happy about it. Lucky for me HE initiated the trade and not me; I wasn't even looking to get rid of it--he just wanted something new.

SCI has been out of it for awhile.

A more featured synth than a Juno series Roland--but also less character and weaker sounds. True Prophet fans will not be placated by this offering. There are some upsides to the P600--a lot as a matter of fact, but this is no substitute for a Prophet 5... and take it from me as one of the biggest fans of the Prophet 5 and SCI equipment in general... the P600 is a few stone throws away from a Prophet 5.

However, if the price is right this is a worthy addition to a rig... if not particularly spectacular.

Highly underrated. A Beetle with a Porche motor.
The P600 is not a P5, but the P5 is not a P600 either.
The P5 is more wanted because it?s older, has been used on more recordings and looks nicer. Both Prophets sound equally as good, but they both have different qualities.

The P600 does not sound as versatile as the P5, but tends to sound a bit more aggressive with a sharper edge and more bottom end. Bass sounds is probably the P-600?s best quality. Pad-sounds tend to sound a bit thin. Those typical Prophet Brass sounds you?ll find just as good on the P600.
House and Techno lovers will probably be disappointed by the P600. It will suit Acid Jazz and R&B freaks better. Where the Juno-106 sounds cooked and juicy, the P600 sounds dry and raw.

Midi works really well on the P-600 and for being the first Synth with Midi, nothing wrong can be said about its midi-specs.
It?s got 100 memory locations, but the touch-pad with which to select each program is not that practical. It takes time to get used to it and it doesn?t always respond the way you wish it would. Unlike the P5, you select the number of the program instead of selecting a bank first.

It?s got a Sequencer, which is absolutely useless, as it can not be synced to external clocks and it doesn?t quantise the notes in 16th notes like on the Pro-One. A real pity Sequential Circuits hasn?t used the same sequencer on the P600.
The P600 has an Arpegiator too, but same thing, can?t be synced and only runs Up, Down and Up/Down. It can run them sort of randomly, when the notes are pressed in a particular order.

A very big down side to the P-600 is without a doubt its keyboard. It?s noisy because the springs under the keys are too rigid, which makes it sound like an old typewriter.

Another great miss on the P-600 is the noice-generator and in general you can The oscillators (12 of them) are very stable, once the P600 has been on for 10-minutes and the Auto-Tune button has been pressed about four-times.
The envelopes sound accurate and tight and of course, those famous Prophet Filters are warm and razor sharp. Its resonance filter will make everything else in the room resonate as well.

A great feature on the P-600 is the possibility to hold a chord and switch on the Unison mode, which will allow you to play that chord on every key. This is interesting for old Jazz-Fusion lovers who want to create those typical chromatic chord changes.

Theoretically I?m the second owner of this P600, but have been using it since my father bought it new in 1983 (Model No.237). I was 15-years old when my father bought the P600 and because I musically grew up with the little bugger, I would never be able to part with it. Officially I'm the owner since two years, when I migrated to Australia and took the Prophet with me from the Netherlands. This one is in absolute mint condition and in these past 18-years not ever has it shown any hick ups. Prophet 5?s I?ve seen plenty at dealers here in Sydney, but Prophet-600?s seem to be more rare.
One also doesn?t have to be afraid of P600?s sounding different from each other, as is strongly the case with the P5?s.

Well, as it's been so reliable, we never had to take it to a dealer.
The distributor for the Benelux was based in Holland and they had to shut their doors somewhere in the mid 80's. They were cool people and enthousiastic about their product. This type of enthusiasm is completely extinct these days.

Bad timing, a high price and having to meet its predecessor?s reputation, caused the P600 to become less successful than other analog synthesisers, even today.
The P-600 came out in a time where one-oscillator Poly-synths ruled the market and were more in demand because of their affordability (juno-60/Poly-Six/DX7). The P-600?s price swung in between the heavyweights (Jupiter-8/Prophet-5/OB-XA /Memorymoog) and the low budged synths, so not many were sold.

One of the biggest motives for purchasing a P-600 today, is because it has Midi, it sounds incredibly fat and analog and looks as vintage as its bigger brother, the P5. If you can buy one for a reasonable price, don?t hesitate, you?re gonna love it. In size and features it is probably not among the list of the Big Poly Synths, but when it comes to sound, it is definitely a sheep in wolves clothing.
It?s more a synth for the player. It can produce some very interesting effects and odd synth noises, but if you want the more Roland type of filter effects, forget about the P600.
It?s the real thing and no faking here like all the new virtual-analogs, so if you can buy one, get this classic beast as it will cost you only a fraction of what the polished imitators cost these days.

Even though I am the original owner of serial number 475, I had the latest software mod fitted in the early '80's. The factory presets are good and show off both the full pads and the wierder poly-mod stuff that they unit is capable of. Patch editing is simple; spin an knob or two and WHOOSH!. The manual is well-written, but you only need it to understand the theory behind the front panel controls.

One feature of this keyboard that many people don't use too much is the fact that you can make it a 1, 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, or 12 oscillator synth using 1 or 6-note polyphony. How do you do this? Use the UNISON TRACK feature. Put the MIX control all the way over to OSC A, hold down one note, and then flip the UNISON switch up. Voila! You now have a Pro-One synth in single oscillator mode. Move the MIX control to the center, hold down a key, flip the UNISON button and BOOM. A two-oscillator synth. Want 4 oscillators in unison mode. Hold down an octave, flip the Unison switch. The unison switch will now assign one two-oscillator voice to each key in the octave "chord" and track them as you play. This makes the Pro-600 one of the sweetest lead synths around. The on-board appegiator and sequencer are basic yet functional.

The string pads sound great. Horns can range from synthy to believable. Putting the synth in mono mode with a single oscillator enables some very sweet sounds that can be played quite expressively. This syth is a great prog/modern/dance/rock synth, not so great in jazz environments. Shredding leads can be accomplished by holding down multiple octaves and putting the unit into UNISON mode. You haven't heard anything until you've heard a Pro-600 running leads in 6 octave mode!!

I toured with mine for 10 solid years. It was rock solid.

SCI is gone (sniff). When they were around, they were quote good. I have not needed service in 13 years.

I love my 600. It has a great sound, is very playable, and has a personality. I enjoy it more than my Kurzweil K2000 simply because of the immediacy of the controls on the front panel. I love the solo modes and the oscillating filter sweeps and the BALLS that this thing has.

The presets are quite good, though I bought this 2nd hand so I don't know if they're the originals. Patch editing is very easy, there are enough front panel controls to keep things interesting but not too many to get lost with. The manual doesn't tell you much that you wouldn't have known already, and has some particularly silly entries, I think one is along the lines of 'Filter Cutoff Knob - This controls the filter cutoff'. Not a synth where a manual is really necessary.

6 voice polyphonic, made early 80's so obviously monotimbral. No effects but there is an on board real time sequencer. Good fun though very frustrating when you discover that the playback is about 1bpm out, so difficult to sequence against a drum machine. The keyboard is a little crude and slightly noise, no velocity sensitivity and the MIDI out from the mod wheel is oddly quantised.

The sounds are this instruments redeeming feature. It's difficult to get sounds that aren't warm, bouncy and often downright filthy. The curtis chips seem to have a characteristic 'fizz' to them that I haven't heard on other machines. Good for organ, string, brass and electric piano sounds, though the attack is a little soft, so perhaps not suited to very tight percussion.

The front panel is scanned by a 8 bit microprocessor which gives many of the controls and mod routings a quantised quality. Some may not like this, others may regard it as a feature. The Prophet 600 is certainly not a subtle synth in terms of patch settings, the upside is that the quantising lets you produce some sounds that would be impossible to get out of other synths, like stepped frequency/sync sweeps. Overall good in this category.

Has a bad habit of going out of tune for the first half hour of play, after that it is reliable. A retune button is build in but can take upto 10 seconds. Might be a nice complement to use live against the sharpness of a digital piano.

I've never dealt with Wine County (ex-Sequential) directly. There seem to be quite a few websites offering help and advice for the Prophet 600, particularly regarding it's odd system for selecting MIDI chanels.

For it's rough edges, it is a very fun synth to use with a gloriously rough and interestingly characteristic sound. It might fall down if compared to some of its more distinguished contemparies (eg Roland Jupiter), but is available second hand for a lot less.

If it was stolen I probably wouldn't replace it as there are better analogue synths available, but I don't think that I'd get rid of it in a hurry either.

You really dont need a manual, other than setting the MIDI channel.
The manual is OK, but not more. Editing patches is a breeze. The
presets suck, big times, but you will only load them out of curiosity.
You can load and dump the patches to a computer with a program out
there, very easy to use. No need for a patch editor, just twist the
knobs! Remember to warm it up before playing, and press the tune button.

Keyboard action is OK. Polyphony 6, 1 in unison(no shit...). Two VCOs
per voice. The POLY-MOD section screams! I wish it was possible to
sync the arpeggiator to MIDI. The MIDI capabilities are not so
good, but it is possible to make sysex dumps, phew, what a relief!
no expansion capabilities whatsoever. The onboard sequenser is useless.

No velocity, no aftertouch. No realistic sounds, well, it makes a
hell of a realistic synth sound! Thats why you bought it, wasnt it?

No gigging for me, I am to lousy, but the P-600 is sturdy. It has a
metal case with wooden sides. The only flaw is the tendency for
locking notes if fed with to much MIDI signals. I use a separate
output from my sequencer(MC-50) for the P-600, my other equipment, ca
15 units, share the other...

Nope, no such thing.

I chose the P-600 because of all its knobs, and I couldnt afford
a JP-8. I would definitely by it again, it is in its own class!

Very. Much easier then the new synths which need a graduate degree to program.

Great sounds, but could have used an extra vco which could be put into LFO mode

Just make sure with any old synth that you go and purchase a APC power supply so your local
electric company wont blow the power source with a spike or major dip!

Good, but trails the memorymoog in sound production, but more stable as a whole.

This instrument is very user friendly. It makes using modern synths seem like you need a programming degree from MIT. At this point I probably don't have any factory presets left on mine, but if you are an analog synth user then you can create sounds on first use with no problem. Saving presets is obvious. You push "Save."

"Unison track" is a feature not found on many analog synths. You hold down a chord voicing and push the switch and then you can play that voicing using one finger and it move it in real parrelel motion. Most of the time I want to use it I am using both hands for the chord so I have to move the switch with my nose. It is a primative MIDI instrument. By todays standards the use of on board sequencing is nearly useless with the exeption of playing a loop to play along with.

It is all up to the player.

Mine was the demo model on the floor of Manny's in New York before I purchased it from them in 1985. My MIDI in does not work and sometimes I have lost some presets, but If you understand analog synthesis making them again is just a matter of seconds. I could probably get it fixed but it does what I want it to do as is.

NA

If I could find another I would buy it again without thinking twice. I have three other analog synths. Two are totally patchable and one is hard-wired. Between the Prophet 600 and my Aries 300 I can get just about any analog synth sound that I can conceive and some more on top of that.

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.