Dave Smith Instruments announced earlier this week that the Sequential Prophet-6 is now shipping.

Now they’ve shared some background information on the Prophet-6 patch library, which features recreations of the original factory sounds from its 1970’s predecessor, the Prophet-5:

To program the sounds, the company enlisted the original sound designer, John Bowen.

Bowen was Sequential Circuits’ original Product Specialist. He created the majority of factory sounds and sequences shipped with the Prophet 5, Prophet 10, Prophet T-8, Prophet VS, and other Sequential products.

An acclaimed synth designer in his own right, Bowen has helped create instruments for Moog, Sequential Circuits, Yamaha, Korg, Creamware, and his own company, Zarg Music.

Presets 411-458 on the new instrument correspond to presets 1-1 to 5-8 on the Prophet-5.

“When Dave first revealed the Prophet-6,” explains Bowen, “I was curious to see if I could recreate the original factory presets I did for the Prophet-5, and asked if he’d like me to try.”

“When I received the synth, I was impressed with the additional functions available. Dave’s enhancement to my original Poly Mod design adds bi-polar control signals and allows for even more flexibility. And having a high-pass filter allows you to create sounds unattainable on the original Prophet-5. I was happy to find that I was able to accurately recreate the bulk of my presets.”

Added Bowen: “In fact, it was great to be able to spice up some of them a bit with the new FX section — which I think is an essential feature in today’s market. I congratulate Dave on creating a very impressive synth!”

The Prophet-6 takes the key qualities of the Prophet-5 — true voltage-controlled oscillators, filters, and amplifiers — and adds stereo outputs, velocity and aftertouch sensitivity, dual digital effects, a high-pass filter, a polyphonic step sequencer, an arpeggiator, and of course, MIDI.

The Prophet-6 is available now with a MAP of $2799.