26 thoughts on “Sequential Bringing MPE, ‘Vintage’ Sound To Prophet-6, OB-6”

  1. MPE support on the OB6…very nice! I’ll update the firmware on my OB6 when it comes out of beta, but I’m curious: Will it be as simple as connecting a Roli Rise controller to the OB6 (by means of something like a Kenton USB Host) to play the OB6 with the same expression as the Roli Rise has with Equator? Or is this not what “MPE support” entails?

  2. “Feature: Slop selectable between normal slop and Vintage operation”

    Is this a keyboard response thing? Or how the knobs respond?

    2. Probably similar to the new Prophet 5 vintage setting, which is like more refined “slop”: “We also researched what made the original P-5 sound the way it did — organic and alive — and found that a lot of that desirable character was due to fluctuations and differences in the response times and frequencies of the individual oscillators, filters, and envelopes from voice to voice. So we also added a Vintage knob that loosens all of them up like they were in the old days”

    3. “We also researched what made the original P-5 sound the way it did — organic and alive — and found that a lot of that desirable character was due to fluctuations and differences in the response times and frequencies of the individual oscillators, filters, and envelopes from voice to voice,” adds Smith. “So we also added a ‘Vintage’ knob that loosens all of them up like they were in the old days. You can dial in progressively more vintage character as you go from a very stable “4,” as in Prophet-5 Rev4, all the way to “1,” as in Prophet-5 Rev1, which was the most temperamental of all Prophet-5s.

    1. Slop, not slope. This has previously referred to in DSI synths oscillator tuning, what many other manufacturers call drift. It might also include variations in envelope envelope and filter response etc.

  4. Rad! gotta love firmware updates on functionally analog gear. The best of both worlds! I hope they fully implemented the arpeggio MIDI sync feature they gave me in the last beta. I like the commitment to excellence! Thanks Dave.

    1. Judging a synthesizer by the number of voices is like choosing a car based on the number of seats it has. A Roland SoundCanvas might seat 32 kids, but it sounds like a school bus.

      1. What I am saying is, adding the Vintage knob to the Prophet 6 basically makes it the same as a Prophet 5, except with one more voice, and for $700 less. Am I wrong about this? I am legitimately asking what advantage a Prophet 5 has at this point??

        Also, what is your obsession with chiming in on me?? Synthhead, a block feature would be nice to get rid of Zaphod constantly nagging me.

        1. This is a very subjective question as there are also form factors differences and insides to compare and YouTube videos comparing both that you could watch and decide In your own opinion and there aren’t apples to apples answers for anyone to give you. All I can say is I have a prophet-6 since launch and if I had to pick one synth out of my not to many I would pick it.

    2. I think you make a fair point that it is not clear where the big extra design or parts cost is on the Prophet 5. I would be interested to know what it is if there is one.

      I wonder if the Prophet 5 is priced as it is because the market is smaller, in part because many people will buy the Prophet 6 instead. A smaller production run means a higher price. (That is not to say that there are no reasons to buy the Prophet 5, I didn’t say that.)

  6. Fantastic news for a couple of synths that are not only the best on the market, but some of the best designed synths of all time. These and the Minilogue Xd are the finest instruments ever made. I personally love the OB-6 the most because of the Oberheim filters, but this is a matter of personal taste and preference.

    1. The MiniLogue Xd? !!! I nearly fell of my chair!

      Try playing some notes at high frequencies, the aliasing from the digital oscillator is an embarrassment.

      1. Unless you’re recording Ultrasonic IDM for Dogs, that won’t be an issue. Every instrument has a sweet spot, and the Xd has brilliantly versatile digital oscillators. Just because repeatedly hammering a C7 on the keyboard sounds unpleasant doesn’t mean that it’s a bad instrument, it just means that you’re conducting a meaningless technical test. It’s like saying, “My Porsche doesn’t handle well when I drive it across a field, therefore it’s a bad car.”

  8. This makes the OB-6 really (desktop module) very tempting! I am off to Youtube to hear it in action. Can’t wait to hear how slop sounds too.

    1. Yes, you can get per-note polyphonic modulation from an external MPE controller (the internal keyboard is still channel aftertouch rather than polyphonic aftertouch like the ASM Hydrasynth etc..)

  11. My Prophet 6 has a hell of a time staying in tune and I have to re-calibrate it once a month. Is my prophet a beta vintage model? 😀

  13. VINTAGE MODE (after updating the OS firsT): Press and hold Bank > Press Globals > Press 4. Toggle it on/off with Bank and Tens buttons.

    Even though I personally don’t need this feature, I can still appreciate that they did add it to both P6 and OB6. I know many people enjoy their synths more when they sound a little bit of “uncalibrated” sound to them.

    So big thanks to people @ sequential, it’s good to see you are still taking care of your older products.

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