The modern day Emulator | Making a custom patch bank for my live set with the Prophet X

[@serhiymarchenko8361]

Prophet X sounds great - this must be a great space saver on stage. RIP Dave Smith. I totally agree with your conclusions. Making/sampling your own sounds is always fun.

[@derekbrown7303]

Thank you for sharing this with us. I absolutely love the Prophet X and the ability to have Synth/ Sample sounds especially your own sampled sounds. 🎵🎶😎👍

[@80ssynthfan48]

Very impressive work. Way above any level I'd ever work at, but I can see why this would be good for someone such as yourself.

[@EspenKraft]

Cheers!

[@sasarasa88]

I feel the same way about the Nord Wave 2. I see it as a modern day Emulator II. Some will complain that sample storage is limited, modulation is limited, filters are digital, but the truth is that it's an incredible machine.

[@b3stbuddy]

" ... music and not lab experiments!" Exactly!

[@DarrenJohnMusic]

Espen. Your samples sound much more useable and musical than the 8DIO samples included in the Prophet X. I'm going to buy Sample Robot and give it a whirl. Thanks for the inspiration!

[@EspenKraft]

Thanks! The factory sounds are awful, but in any case I need to have my own sounds in there. SampleRobot is gold due to the auto-loop functionality and ease of setting up the program numbers etc.

[@cortical1]

I think it's great that you're getting to know the X well enough to perform with it! I've been curious about it for a while now. You're just the chap to dive into it, because you'll apply all your knowledge about vintage synths, operating systems, and workflows to properly evaluate it as a modern professional sampling/processing synth. Looks like it's the same old story about the populace and Dave Smith works of art: Pearls before swine. I can't tell you how many times I've read online that the Tempest drum machine "doesn't sound good" or "can't make good kick drums." What an absolute joke. It's a brilliant instrument that will do essentially anything and blows the pads off all my other drum machines, including some of the worshiped vintage classics. People are too lazy to actually learn how to use these fine technologies that have deep architectures. So happy to see that the Prophet X is similarly excellent.

[@EspenKraft]

Exactly. With some elbow grease, patience and skill it's possible to wrestle good things out a almost anything. Too bad most people are lacking one or more of these treats. ;-) I've always liked the Tempest even if I don't have one. As far as I know you still can't import own samples into it? And as such the PX fills that void I guess.

[@cortical1]

@@EspenKraft That's right, still no way to import samples. It's the one big drawback. 😔

[@Mind-your-own-beeswax]

Some wonderful sounds Espen. I wouldn’t know where to start tbh i]but it’s fun watching folk such as yourself do it.

[@EspenKraft]

Thanks!

[@andyjackson3891]

Great video as always, Espen! Now I need to find a Prophet X for myself...

[@EspenKraft]

Cheers!

[@BassFunMusic]

Sounds ♥☺♥love

[@g-muni5855]

This has peak my interest to acquire the Prophet X for sampling usuage similar to what demostrated here. It would be nice to get my older analogs in here and breath new life to their classic sounds.

[@snowleopard9749]

The Prophet X is a great bit of kit, but the main drawback is that it is very expensive.

[@EspenKraft]

It's not cheap.

[@bozziewald]

​@@EspenKraftMake this sample bank available for download! Thanks

[@Shred_The_Weapon]

It’s good to know that, even without a direct sampling input, Prophet X can compare with the Emulator II.

[@EspenKraft]

Functionality wise, as a modern upgrade yes.

[@Less_Average]

I was very leery about buying a PX when they first came out mostly because of the lack luster demo sounds and the very middle of the road reviews. After seeing what you can really do with it I fully intend to grab one for a good price along with sample robot and use it as an emulator!

[@retro-dademusic6403]

I don’t know anyone who deserves to have a Jupiter 8 at their disposal more than you. 😎

[@griiseknoen]

Love these sounds!

[@SeverityOne]

"...you like to make music, and not lab experiments." Ouch! 😀 But that's one reason why I'm not interested in modular systems, and the more esoteric Waldorf products. Cost is another consideration.

[@EverettDudgeon138]

Thank you again for doing this. I would love to have some more D50 and M1 patches in my PX. Oddly enough some of the Factory patches are modelled after these synths. The patch “The Future” is a tribute to the M1 Universe patch with a vocal sample and lopping wooden wind chimes stretched across the keyboard. Also nice they included all the raw Prophet VS samples in the synth section and you just select one and stretch it to create some VS patches.

[@EspenKraft]

Thanks! I've tried them and tested them, but I ended up importing my own VS samples instead. I think the patches I've made with them works better for me. Cool to have though.

[@EverettDudgeon138]

For sure, I just love blending them with another sample and with an LFO it almost mimics a Wavestation.

[@EspenKraft]

Yes, that is a good way of using them.

[@xnonsuchx]

I think some were just confused by the Prophet X. A similar thing happened with the Prophet VS and 2000 where I think people thought they were totally different instruments than what “Prophet” meant to them. I’m kinda that way with “Jupiter” stuff from Roland.

[@mrdali67]

It sounds absolutely Breathtakingly. No doubt that the pricetag also plays a reason why it didn't get an insta hit tho. But if you have access to a lot of classic synths and want to sample them all into an actual gigable modern Synth it's top notch. If Korg is ever gonna give us a new monster showstopper Board like the Kronos, this was what I would want. modernise the UI and give us some Analog filters to shape the samples. Like a modern DSS-1. Would be awsome to have what the Prophet X do together with different synth engines and build in DAW. The Prophet X is great for just hosting the sounds. There are many professional Session keyboardists that would gladly pay the high cost if it actually were a full blown Workstation so you only have to bring "one" Mothership as Jordan Rudess likes to call his Kronos 🙂

[@EspenKraft]

Yes, I bought this instrument for one reason and one reason alone, to be able to play all my custom sounds/patches in ONE synth/sampler, and to access them easily in a live situation. Coming from a keyboard itself, and not a computer. For that, the additional synth engine, specs and all, nothing on the market can touch this. Not ONE thing. ;-)

[@mrdali67]

@@EspenKraft The problem could be that they with the Prophet X mostly think it's up to the user to create sounds. Kinda the same Korg did with the whole Oasys projects. Problem is most users today don't think this way. 98% of possible buyers is "preset users" that want it all for free out of the box. It's absolutely amazing what some can get out of eg. a Kronos, but it also requires you to want to learn every trick about the way it works. The built in sounds from the factory of the Kronos ia also mediocre at best .. the same as you say about those sounds ahipped with the Prophet X. At least Korg realiced with the Nautilus and all their smaller synths today that if they made a cutdown Kronos and put some new exciting sounds for that Tick Tock audience of today is how to make a profit. Also a lot Easier to get people to buy 3 different 1k boards than one 5k board that does it all.

[@EspenKraft]

Very true. Most users today want a bag of usable sounds straight up. Many people today have no interest in sculpting their own sounds at all. Nothing wrong with that really, but it makes selling a PX kind of hard, to most people. ;-)

[@Ancaja123]

@@EspenKraft my only gripe with the PX is the lack of a physical sampling input. I get great results from my MPC Live by multisampling all my hardware from my home studio, and using it as a multitimbral sampling brain during live performance, nothing gets sequenced. I have my Midi Controller able to switch seamlessly between keygroups, as well as layering but that can all be set up on the MPC beforehand. I wish I had the filters of the Px though.

[@Ancaja123]

I would gladly put in the sampling time and hours getting multisampled keygroups if I didn't have to use my computer. That's just not a part of my sampling workflow at the moment. I don't like the MPC Live necessarily, but the stereo multisampling ability on it is great, and reminds me of the S5000 sound.

[@Tidus030990]

You need to make this purchasable. The prophet is has a way of making everything sounds amazing. Sounds more analog than most analog synths.

[@EspenKraft]

Cheers!

[@EspenKraft]

Cheers!

[@coloray]

id love for this to be available to buy :)! sampling takes a long time, and this would be amazing to load into my px

[@EspenKraft]

I have some updates on that later. I will soon wrap the work on a truly epic set of sounds for the PX, from a lot of cool vintage synths, both analog and digital. I've been working on this for a long time now.

[@coloray]

@@EspenKraft this is so good to know! thanks espen, will wait for it

[@markkusmierz3756]

Cool stuff. I recognized the melody from the Dire Straits album.

[@EspenKraft]

Cheers!

[@joee6014]

I’m trying to get that 90’s house sound ~ I cannot tell if the x can help me achieve that grungie sampler style sound. Any guidance would be highly appreciated.

[@Blueberrystop]

Thanks for all the inspiration over the years!

[@EspenKraft]

Cheers!

[@Catonator]

I still really want a Prophet X, but as a broke college student it's just way, *way* too expensive for me... I think it's unfortunate how badly hardware samplers are doing nowadays. I still own an old rack sampler (the E-mu ESI-2000) that I use all the time to make patches out of wacky sounds for fun. It really transformed the way I look at music, you don't need to make a patch out of a synth, you can make it out of a plane's jet engine, or a note played on a TV show. Unfortunately you don't have that kind of immediate "record, mold, play" workflow on soft samplers, where even if you can load your own sounds on it, you still have to record and edit the loop outside the VST. I think the Prophet annoyingly ended up lacking in that department too, there's no way to record samples using it, or edit them on the system for that matter. It's a bummer, really, the tactility would've otherwise made it the best sampler ever made.

[@markgray9861]

Looking forward to your new patch bank for the Prophet X!!!

[@EspenKraft]

Cheers!

[@philippendletonmusic]

Love the Jup Brass patch. I presume you'll be playing and singing at the same time live? If so, does that come naturally or does it require some practice?

[@EspenKraft]

I've always sung and played at the same time so that's no problem, but of course I have to practice as its a long set and much to remember. ;-)

[@sylvainfortin841]

The old software EMU Emulator X made the same thing of Robot software.

[@McTroyd]

Sequential should commission you to do an ad for them, or maybe license those patches. If I had any skill playing a synth, I would want a Prophet X now. 😅

[@EspenKraft]

Thanks for saying!

[@_mickmccarthy]

Nice! Looking forward to the TAL-Sampler pack ;)

[@EspenKraft]

I have all these TAL pack out already. I have 7 different volumes out there.

[@_mickmccarthy]

@@EspenKraft ah I thought this was a new pack out as you'd only started using Sample Robot relatively recently. Looks like my wallet is safe for another while yet! Keep up the great work

[@EspenKraft]

You can't export out to TAL from SampleRobot so I'll continue to make my TAL packs the way I'm used too. ;-)

[@_mickmccarthy]

@@EspenKraft I appreciate the work that goes into them!

[@angelog.spicolaiii8021]

Not break the bank?Huh¿ 8gran for the base almost 10g's for the +model that gave ya 512k more for sampling maybe not bustin'it but blowin' a big giant TNT hole init all the best EK thanx again dude

[@scottmcdiarmid8196]

Korg Modwave/Wavestate are superb for Multi Samples too, as is the MPC one and a lot cheaper

[@EspenKraft]

The purpose of the PX is something very different than the Modwave/Wavestate and it's definitely meant for another type of user. The two Korg's are grooveboxes for the TikTok generation more than anything else. Nothing wrong with that, but not something I consider a suitable instrument for what I'm doing.

[@dubmaverick69]

Sampling on Akai with auto sample is good and easy, however the converter are average, there is no analog filter, the filters that exist are horrible, I own a Akai X, and all Emu stuff. Auto sample on akai does not do the crossfade properly, you have to spend a lot of time if you doing what Espen is doing, I spare you the details on Korg. I know the hard work we did in the 90s with sampling it is much easier now and Espen is right, people are lazy. I finally bought a used prophet x after going back and forth with quantum, it is best thing I have bought since Pro 2. I was running my samples through Pro 2 via computer, so I think Espen has totally hit the nail on the head. Please make your sounds available, ready to support, it’s a lot of work.

[@ghavinga]

Sounds brilliant, have you reached the 50G Byte user sample space limit yet?

[@EspenKraft]

Thanks! Not by far. If I go over 1 Gb for the entire bank I've done a lousy job. These ridiculous libraries with 10s if not 100s of Gb of data are a joke. If we're talking POP sounds. ;-)

[@vegsozoltan5283]

What size sound samples have you worked with? Sample Robot is wonderful, but I'm tempted to use it to create larger samples, so I'm using Reason NN-XT for now.

[@EspenKraft]

Not sure what you mean by that, but I record as much as needed to capture the sound I want.

[@thirstyCactus]

I felt similarly about prophet X; though only hearing it via KZbin, the sound quality seems beyond other gear on the market today. I'm curious to hear your thoughts on the Groove Synthesis 3rd Wave as well. Looking forward to your next video!

[@coyotegeek]

The 3rd Wave is a very different beast than the Prophet X, being a wavetable synth vs. a sampler. I have owned both (though I chose to sell the PX), and while the filters are identical and the workflow is pretty similar (you can really tell that the 3rd Wave was developed by Sequential folks), the sounds they each naturally make end up being quite different. They are both powerful, deep synths that sound fantastic. It is true that you can do some single-cycle wavetable stuff with the PX using the 'stretch' feature, but you can't really then 'walk' the wavetable, which is a critical part of the wavetable sound.

[@EspenKraft]

From what I've heard of the 3rd Wave I like it, but not nearly enough to be interested in buying one. I have more than enough gear to get me into that territory in terms of sound and wavetable patches are only a small fraction of tracks in a production. If I was doing ambient music maybe, but not for pop. It looks cool though.

[@Sunstatemusic]

What is a sense to sample already pre-sampled 8DIO sounds when we can use Troels's libraries in their original condition for NI Kontakt

[@EspenKraft]

What you're saying makes no sense.

[@DaveDaves]

Okay, you've got me convinced! Perfect Africa. Very musical, very modern, this seems much more rewarding than a Roland Fantom, its a synthesizer for sound design that's digital and analog in the right places, this is really what I want. I was intrigued from the release, I just saw the price tag and figured it wouldn't happen for me. But now I want this more than anything else. I grew up on a D-20 and the JX-8P is my favorite synth, I have the JD-Xa now and I always imagined getting the JX-8P (or 10) again, I've got my custom presets, but for how long am I gonna keep doing that same sound? I feel like the Prophet-X allows us to musically keep a foot in the vintage synth years and also use more modern technologies, right in the way I'd want

[@EspenKraft]

Thanks! Good observation. The PX is really a perfect blend of old and new and if you want your own sounds thrown into that mix you really can't go wrong.

[@DaveDaves]

@@EspenKraft I find it VERY easy to believe what you've said about it being underrated / didn't cause much excitement because it would take serious time sampling what you want into it and setting up great sounds - iirc u quoted the famous DX7 state about units that came to the factory for return/repair reasons were like 98% stock memory. One thing about music hasn't changed - really breathtaking, special results takes tons of time, even w pricey gear

[@MM-do5yx]

Modx 6+ can do most of this on a budget. I do alot of the same things sampling gear for it.

[@pfmmodule5144]

Own an X, would be very interested.

[@normalizedaudio2481]

They don't give away that Prophet X. Looks like there are some in Chicago.

[@anderslarsson6149]

Does the X offer the Emu-gritt?

[@EspenKraft]

It doesn't sound the same when time stretching no. It's really not about the grit as you can't sample directly into the Prophet X. It's about assembling sounds and to use the synth engine to shape them if you want to. The analog filters sounds very close as they are Dave Rossums SSM styled analog filters.

[@EverettDudgeon138]

You have drive, bit reduction and hack that you can apply to the samples.

[@EspenKraft]

You have, but to me they sound more like a gimmick. Don't like them and not what the PX is about. For some special effect or something I might use it.

[@EverettDudgeon138]

They are there as modulation destinations. I know you probably won’t use them but having them as modulation destinations in a modulation matrix which takes it far beyond what vintage machines could do. But like you said, it depends on your personal needs as to what the PX is about.

[@briann5001]

Please make these samples available for purchase. Also please do an 80s Big Sample Pack with Classic iconic sounds from 80s song like Michael jacksons thriller, arp 2600 for bass, jupiter for pads etc also "Man in the Mirror" and Human Nature. I wil buy.

[@EspenKraft]

I have all that already out, in my TAL sampler libraries.

[@zdravkodimitrov]

I think the very high cost contributed to this being a flop. If it was maybe 60% of what it sold for, it would've been more successful.

[@Sunstatemusic]

Yep, Very limited 8DIO sounds plus analog synth

[@EspenKraft]

Not so sure based on the internal sounds it ships with, which is a disaster. Borderline unusable. Same for those few sound banks you can purchase and import. Spectacularly bad. So to have your own sounds you have to go through the process like Ive shown in a couple of videos now and that is too much work for most people, which are generally lazy when it comes to sampling non-drums.

[@mrdali67]

@@EspenKraft Not many people actually have neither the Stamina or knowledge to make usable good sounding multi samples. Your absolutely right that it's a combo of lazyness and time constraints. Most of us would like just to be able to find finnished sounds online .. prefearable for free 😉

[@EspenKraft]

Stamina is a feature of the modern man that is sorely lacking these days. ;-)

[@EverettDudgeon138]

Limited 8Dio sounds? There’s loads of VST quality ambient, piano, guitar, ethnic, cinematic, vocal, Orchestral sounds right on board. The problem was it wasn’t explained or demoed properly so no one knew what to make of it.