This video, via Perfect Circuit, is a hands-on demo of the Sequential Circuits Prophet VS synthesizer.
Here’s what they have to say about it:
“As the first synthesizer that implemented Vector Synthesis, it is capable of sounds very much unlike the analog and traditional wavetable synthesizers of the era—intense arpeggiations, patch randomization, and complex envelopes surround a synthesis engine based on mapping timbre as a two-dimensional space.”
If you’ve used the Prophet VS, share your thoughts on it in the comments!
Well it would be time for you to RESUSCIT THE VS.
Dave Smith and company (and the whole SEQUENTIAL team)
Now Sequential and reborn so I can not wait for the MYTHIC PROPHET VS to resurrect.
SEQUENTIAL FORCE
Nothing sounds like a VS. So punchy, warm, bright, fizzy, musical.
The Wavestation is nice but the vector envelope can’t go fast like the Prophet, and it lacks analog filters. The SY22/TG33/SY35 are nice but they have no filters and you really need a computer to program them.
When I think of the VS I think of the first sound in this video. I’m a bit sad that no current Sequential synths can really do that.
That first sound reminds me a lot of what Wakeman did on the opening soundtrack to Creepshow 2. Amazing. Man they need to bring a VS back. I’ve even emailed DSI about it and they mentioned they get requests all the time.
It IS a great instrument. I’m a big joystick fan, so I’d love to see an enhanced VS appear, but there are several good ways to vector in software now. There’s a programmable one in each of Logic’s ES2 and Sculpture synths. Rob Papen’s new Vecto is a nice 4-osc. synth designed around it. So the first question is: would enough people embrace it as a performance tool to justify it in new hardware? Second, could Dave beef up the old VS enough to make it even halfway competitive with the Prophet X? It could be done mechanically speaking, but its also maybe a bit too rosey/vintage to be practical. Now that I’ve said that, watch Dave release a VS2 that makes jaws drop.
By now the Prophet 12 LE is dead, out of production.
I’m sure they’re already reinventing the Prophet VS, VERY but MUCH more powerful than the original and its successor Korg WaveStation.
We hope it is so …………….
SEQUENTIAL FORCE
actually John Bowen’s Solaris is the current successor as he worked on the same concept for decades with Moog Music, Sequential Circuits and the Korg Wavestation series. Time will tell if there will be a collaboration again. We hoop so indeed 🙂
I sure hear you about the Solaris, which is an awe-inspiring beast. OTOH, the thing is probably smarter than many of us and therefore, stuck in the boutique category with worthies like the Synclavier. The trick is to scale a design in a manner that will = decent sales. Dave can only sell so many $4k synths, but if there was a VS2 with a bigger wavetable (user import as well, perhaps), a better display and enough memory to make it more of a current-level player’s synth, I suspect a lot of those would move at $2k. A new VS could be competitive with the Yamaha MODX with a few additions. Which ones? I have my ideas like anyone else, but I’m not John or Dave!:D
Ableton wavetable blow it out.
faaar superior soundwise. Fatter, cleaner, grittier if needed 🙂
The Arturia Prophet V has a wonderful implementation of this wedded to the classic Prophet 5. Terrific synth.
Behringer should do it… “build it and they will come” (buy) !
Man this thing sounds incredible!