A feature of the new Prophet 5/10 rev4 models is one that I was not aware existed until I was asked about it. And that's polyphonic glide, similar to the same function in the Oberheim OB8. It's a very fun feature!
Dave Smith said that the Prophet 5/10 re-makes have a secret new function that was never announced... he was waiting for users to 'discover' it. What's he talking about?
Again Jim, an excellant video. I owned several Rev.3’s, and none of them had a legato glide..but’s that’s a great idea....I always appreciated that feature in subsequent synths that I’ve owned. My guitarist also owned a Oberheim OBX...and I remember it having a voice assignment system whereas every time the key was pushed, another voice would glide up to the key held until the last voice (#8) was triggered.../very cool effect.
That polyphonic glide effect gives a nice square wave sound and also combined with a sawtooth wave sound as well. Also, the sustain is really good on these voices that you demonstrated, as good as acoustic pianos but with a more organic sound to them. A monophonic or especially polyphonic glide on staccato playing would be more like glissando on a pipe or especially drawbar organ with waterfall keys. Monophonic and polyphonic glide with legato playing has more time to develop and give a distinction to the notes played, which is a more espected effect for a synth sound as well as organs with a sustain feature available.
Thanks for the video. I tested it on my Prophet REV2. It has Poly Glide too, but I think it acts a little differently, it sounds a little different, but just as cool. And luckily, the REV2 has legato Glide. Legato Glide is musically indispensable. All in all I think the Prophet REV2 is not so much different (but it has patch names, effects, more patch store, 16 voices, 2 layers/timbrals, sequencer, voice modes, ...). This is typical of Sequential/Dave Smith and I am always very disappointed, some Prophet models have Poly Glide, some don't, others legato Glide, others don't.
I absolutely love these videos, just amazing . I have a question for you, do you find that this rev 4 has the same midrange punch and clarity as vintage rev 3s?
I don't have enough first hand recent experience with a rev 3 to say for sure. I have never owned one and haven't played one in years. But every direct comparison video I've seen on RU-vid (post filter mod) seems to indicate that the rev4 sounds the same as the vintage Prophets.
Thanks for the fantastic prophet video's Jim. Your previous video made me even more excited about my prophet 10 I've pre-ordered, especially when listened to through a good sound system, wow what a sound . A question came to mind which is, the vintage control you dial in. Is it storable for each patch eg one patch could have a loose vintage 1 and another could have the tight vintage 4 effect or is it simply a case of whatever you dial in, is relevant to all patches across the board until the vintage dial is changed best regards Alan
Hi Alan, thanks for the kind words. Congrats on your Prophet 10! It's an amazing instrument. To answer your question, the VINTAGE knob position is stored per patch.
That is interesting, I have the Prophet 12 and it also has polyphonic glide. However, it behaves differently and doesn't sound as nice as this. I believe it is because on the Prophet 12 each time you press the same note it always cycles through all 12 voice chips. So even if you press the same note it will apply glide for each voice chip every time. It seems like it shouldn't make much difference, but when you hear it, I don't like it as well as this. It makes a woozy seasick sound. This behavior on the Prophet 10 seems more musical and useful. I wish sequential could change the Prophet 12 to this behavior, but they would probably have to change the voice architecture of the voice cards. However for monophonic glide, you can change the behavior of the glide so it only does glide when playing legato, and not glide with staccato which is more musical.
I completely agree. I own a P12 as well and the polyphonic glide is not as musical as on the rev4 probably due to exactly the reason you state; every note press cycles through the voices.
Staccato glide would sound more akin to glissando on a pipe or electronic organ with waterfall keys making it easy to do. While legato glide does indeed sound more musical, it is dependent on the performer and their listeners as to how musical staccato glide will sound, as it doesn't have much time to develop and be heard, therefore is a challenge to when the instrument has to cycle through all 12 voice chips for every note.
There seems to be some pluses and minuses when it comes to rotating voice "cards" when it comes to what we hear in the poly-glide. (the OB6 and P6 actually do have cards which look like SIMM memory modules). The effect is completely different here, as compared to J3PO's P6 video I'll post in a replay to this message. Both very cool. But you need to hold sustain and use all 6 voices. Essentially the P6 doesn't have polyGlide but you're tricking it.
How can you achieve accurate poly gilde on the prophet rev 2? The glide knob on the Rev 2 does not work accurately in Poly mode. Is there another way to achieve poly glide? Thanks
The Prophet 5 has polyphonic glide, yes. Functionally, the Prophet 5 and 10 rev4 are the same except the polyphony. The Prophet 6 does not have polyphonic glide afaik.
@@JimAlfredson thanks for the fast reply. really appreciate it! very tempted to sell my pro 6 module and put it towards pro 5. i have the arturia vst so will try the polyphonic glide on that
@@drthorpe8602 sorry I think I misunderstood your quesiton. The original Prophet 5 (rev 1, 2, and 3) do NOT have polyphonic glide. The Prophet 5 and 10 rev4 do have it. So most likely that feature is not in the Arturia VST if it is true to the lineage of the original Prophet.