Imagine passing one waveform through Filter 1 with one combination of cutoff frequency, resonance, key–tracking, contour and modulation parameters, and passing a second through Filter 2 with a different profile and a different set of parameters you can obtain two very different sounds, and the possibilities for layering and otherwise combining them are huge. However, the real flexibility lies in the simultaneous use of both. Turning to the filters themselves, you could describe these with no little accuracy as ‘Prophet–y’ (Filter 1) and ‘Oberheim–y’ (Filter 2) and, if you send a simple signal through one or the other in isolation, that gives you a reasonable idea of what to expect. In short, there’s a huge amount of flexibility here. Naturally, the contour rates can be modulated, and there’s also a Repeat mode that loops the HAD stages. From the control panel, you can treat each as a bipolar ADSR, but the menus provide access to a delay before the onset of the Attack (making each contour a five–stage HADSR), plus velocity sensitivity for the contour amount. These are not trivial tricks.Įach filter has a dedicated contour generator to control its cutoff frequency. In addition, you can direct just oscillators 1 & 2 to Filter 1, and just oscillators 3 & 4 to Filter 2. At the two extremes of the routing parameter you’ll find pure ‘in series’ and pure ‘in parallel’, but you can dial in any value you fancy between these, blending the signal filtered by both devices in series with the signals processed by Filter 1 alone and by Filter 2 alone. Next, the Prophet 12’s powerful filter section has been replaced by an even more powerful architecture that consists of a self–oscillating 24dB/oct low–pass filter and a 12dB/oct, resonant but not self–oscillating, state–variable (LP/BR/HP/BP) filter that can be patched in series or in parallel. The fifth effect is Drive, which allows you to create anything ranging from a gentle overdrive to (with appropriate Hacking and Decimation) the sounds of alien hordes invading. Girth and Air accentuate the low and high frequencies (respectively) of the sounds, while Hack and Decimation reduce their word length and sample rate before conversion to the analogue signals that will be fed to the filters. The Pro 2’s front panel measures 74.2 x 32.5 cm.Lying between the oscillator mixer and the filters, there are five waveshaping effects derived from the Prophet 12. Now add Osc1’s sine wave sub–oscillator, noise modulation, and multiple types of portamento that you can apply to each oscillator individually, and it’s clear that the Pro 2 is far more than a modern hybrid pretending to be a traditional analogue monosynth. Add oscillator sync, FM and AM of each oscillator into the equation, and a vast range of chorused, sync’ed and modulated (and simultaneously chorused, sync’ed and modulated) sounds are possible. Because you can modulate the amount of detune (and do so using numerous different modulation sources acting upon a different Superwave in each of the four oscillator slots) you can generate all manner of sounds ranging from the delightfully subtle to extravagant layers of wibbly mayhem. These comprise multiple instances of the sawtooth and each of the special waves, and you can detune these to create chorusing. For example, whereas the 48 primary oscillators in the polysynth offer 12 Special Waves and three colours of noise, in addition to the four standard analogue waveforms, the Pro 2’s four primary oscillators also offer 13 additional Superwaves. In fairness, there are many points of similarity, but there are as many significant differences between the two. Given its appearance, it’s inevitable that people are also going to view the Pro 2 as a monophonic version of the Prophet 12. But it would be a shame if you went for a bevvy now, because there’s lots of exciting stuff to be discovered here. If this bothers you, feel free to read no further. The oscillators and Character effects are digital, as are the LFOs, the contour generators, the modulation matrix and the delay lines. So let’s be clear: the filters, the audio amplifier and the final output stage are analogue. Unfortunately, some people aren’t going to give it a chance to prove this I’ve already read comments (many written, I fear, by people who have never played one) that dismiss it because of its hybrid analogue/digital architecture. Nevertheless, the name is well chosen because it suggests that this is going to be a cut above any previous DSI monosynth. Of course, it’s not its architecture and the breadth of its capabilities make it at best a very distant descendent. When DSI announced the Pro 2, many considered it to be the long–anticipated successor to the esteemed Sequential Circuits (SCI) Pro One from the early 1980s. The depth and complexity of the Pro 2 could make it Dave Smith’s most sophisticated monosynth yet.
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