Sequential Prophet 6 - Polychain and Vintage

Here's a quick look at the poly-chain and vintage capabilities of the Sequential Prophet 6. As at the time of recording this video the vintage control functionality is still in beta and so subject to change. I have therefore chosen not to do a detailed demonstration of what it sounds like in isolation but instead have incorporated it into all the music and demos that I play.
You can find the main demo track that I play in the video on soundcloud here: / prophet-6-proximity

[@richardtrussell8220]

There’s only one gentleman’s videos I always watch on KZbin. I’m never disappointed. Thanks Tim.

[@roncolem4558]

I agree. Same with Daniel Fisher from Sweetwater and Nick from SonicState.

[@LocaliLLocano]

When I see Tim on the screen cap I got my cigar and bourbon ready

[@Devinedivinity]

Agreed!

[@Devinedivinity]

Never get a headache watching your videos (and that says something about KZbin videos these days)- keep up the good work Tim!

[@wajobu]

It certainly is strange, I walked that bridge in October 2019, going to a nearby concert before heading to Devon. I’ve lost family in the UK and friends here in the US to COVID19. Let’s hope we can get ahead of it soon. As always, a nice overview and great videos and music. Thanks Tim.

[@proxymerchant]

First comment on a new Tim Shoebridge video!!! Cheers I am always relieved to see new content from you and I look forward to absorbing your cadence and wisdom. The pacing and editing of your videos is special in the youtube synth video community and I am grateful for it.

[@Tidus030990]

Second comment, nice try.

[@IanWaugh]

Love your videos, Tim. I don't have a Prophet 6 but your content is always engaging. Love the music, too.

[@synthejim]

Brilliant tune and video. Love your demo of the P-6.

[@wolfpackpresets]

Excellent polychain demo, Tim ✌️ thank you!

[@namenaim1560]

Most KZbinrs make videos. Tim makes well crafted films. You , Tim, are the Mature Vintage Knob in a millennial sea of digital noise. A rare oasis of class , patience and taste. Many thanks.

[@TimShoebridge]

Haha! Many thanks. I'll have to get a t-shirt printed with "Mature Vintage Knob" written on the front! ;)

[@unclemick-synths]

@@TimShoebridge LOL 🤣. I'll take one in XL - it would make a great Brit-detector!

[@namenaim1560]

Go for it Tim! MVK .Best copyright it quick before DSi .I only want 20% ! I expect to see your merch store up and jogging very soon. Keep up the great work.

[@Then.]

Amazing tune at the end! Thank you. Looking forward to your full review of the Prophet 6. I love mine but feel I’ve barely tapped its potential.

[@Bfredproduction]

Great demo ! Amazing synths and sound !

[@AdamTheAd-vanc3d]

Awesome. Just imagine If this was what the prophet 12 had been . Instant classic. Wonderfully presented Tim :-)

[@dancarter5595]

You ever try a P12?

[@Funkbutterfly]

Really beautiful video work here too! You don't give yourself enough credit for that.

[@illustriouschin]

Great overview and tutorials. Makes me wish I caught that P6 deal.

[@RaniOsnat]

The Prophet synths certainly have an illusive quality to their sound that cannot be found elsewhere. Airy, warm, natural. Coupled with their knob-per-function usability and mod matrix they really are fun...

[@RemixSample]

Great interesting stuff as always!

[@keekeefries6298]

Bought my prophet 6 right before the new Prophet 5 and 10 reissue. Thanks for this video, I had wondered if Dave would migrate the Vintage knob onto the 6. I love my 6 and am psyched to get this firmware update!

[@ArchersDreamz]

Great Vid. Would love to hear more of the possibilities of these two. Def got me thinking of adding another along with chaining my OB6.

[@JohnnyMacaw]

Damn! I was saving up for a Juno 60 but this just made me want a prophet 6 even more. ill save up for it now

[@theoliviaarchives4794]

Nice setup. Cool composition at the end.

[@RayyMusik]

What a beautiful song!

[@tonywharton5220]

What a gorgeous sound. I can polychain my Modal Skulpt and Craft Synth 2.0 It really does sound amazing, full and rich.

[@cardboardmusic]

Nice review Tim, thanks. I have to say, I'm never sure what makes modular musicians so wary of synthesizers (like the Prophet). I have along with a some modular pieces a couple of synths including a newer DS Sequential Prophet REV2. They are very interestingly built. Not only do you have immediate access to polyphony, but they also have 'matrixes' built in which can reroute almost anything internally. This makes it (not quite but) almost as flexible as a module(s). I'm sure everyone knows this, but there's a sequence which can either be a straight sequencer, or used to trigger and modulate sounds, the whole thing is fully programmable, and much more. Oh, and Tim says, there's always the Slop control too!

[@erlendmagnussen8922]

Thanks a lot. Yes, it really has a romantic lovely sound, the P6.

[@jon_gee]

Beautiful

[@lashtal]

Outstanding!

[@archiveiteverywhere]

Appreciate I'm 2 years late but would love to see your in depth review of the Prophet 6!

[@unclemick-synths]

Nice video. If I went back to Britain I'd have to live either right on South Bank or in the middle of nowhere!

[@ulrich1741]

You're really an artist.

[@John_Stone_]

Wow, that sounds lush. Now I'd love to hear two OB-6s in unison.

[@carl156]

Now you can Slap both of them on the sides to get that double spring reverb easter egg effect.

[@1vootman]

Honestly the vintage knob is the 20 to 15% the Prophet 6 needed to make it a truly great synth.

[@niclasostergren2699]

Great video Tim! i have just bought my first P6 and this was really heplful,it would be fantastic if you could do a whole tutorial on the machine

[@downpatmusic]

Polychaining the 2 P6's is certainly intriguing. On a lower budget and because of access to 2 Korg Minilogue XD modules, I poly chained the XD modules together and it worked very well and operated as one, 8 voice analog poly. I suspect the Prophet sound would be a little richer with more features, however the Korg Minilogues XD polychained modules is also very useful for half the investment although the result is 8 voices rather than the 12 voices poly chaining of the P6's.

[@ghavinga]

Thanks Tim great idea poly chaining two P6 together. I have been doing something similar with a Mono Evolver Keyboard (MEK) and a desktop Evolver, creating a two voice Evolver beauty. One tip, when you play both synths "as one" it is a bit wasteful to use 4 channels (two stereo) on your main mixer. I purchased a very small, passive stereo mixer, the Rolls MX 41b with two pro snake TPY 2003 JBB Y cables. The MX41b allows four stereo signals (inputs are stereo jacks so you need the Y cable) mixed into one stereo out signal. For my two voice Evolver combination it works great. Please also let us know what you think about the vintage functionality. Does it sound similar to the voice component modelling technique (using the sequencer as a parameter lookup table) of programming a voice?

[@andygillies3086]

I enjoy watching all your videos,, but this one in particular has very beautiful music and a wonderful film to go with it. The section where you do show your keyboard is great. It appears to be improvised, but wit the complexity of the result I wonder if it is. Would you care to comment? The prophet 6 is indeed a lovely sounding instrument. Looking forward to more about it as you seem to suggest you may do. Thank you for all your videos. They’re great.

[@TimShoebridge]

Hi Andy, Very glad to hear you like the video. In terms of the solo, it was played and recorded live with myself squeezed between two camera tripods. I had worked out beforehand what I was going to play, so I did not improvise on the spot, but I'd figured out about 5 or 6 little sequences beforehand and then tried to play them one after the other with a little improvised note playing in between to link them all together...

[@andygillies3086]

@@TimShoebridge Thank you so much for your reply. I'm new to this commenting thing, as evidenced by the extra carriage returns in my original post, and it's thrilling to get a reply from someone I've only watched from afar, so to speak. By the way, if you haven't seen it you may be interested in this video kzbin.info/www/bejne/fWjXlaNrqduiprc from Creative Spiral. In it, he provides a detailed analysis of the prophet 6 vintage knob behavior, and, more importantly , elucidates the underlying principles which apply to making modern synthesizers sound vintage in general.

[@da.chi.]

Thank you Tim, great insight as always. Wonder if Polybrute is on your future list? On paper it's a very different beast would like to hear your opinion.

[@danielpirone8028]

I appreciate the perspective! I was attracted to a P5 10 - but for similar money, two P6 seems like a better fit for me - I want the FX and modulation options.

[@mattthomasoverdrive4514]

The stereo outs and ability to pan voices makes the P6 such a great studio synth. I love mine.

[@EverettDudgeon138]

Really tempted to get a P6 module myself to accompany my P6 keyboard. I also have no interest in the P5 or P10. They are nice and there is a nice heartwarming factor that my dad owned a P5 but the versatility of the P6 is something I really can’t give up simply “because”.

[@casualplay8555]

In depth review of the prophet 6 soon perhaps?

[@isoldeisobelle552]

Excellent video, thank you! I thought that you may have gone the poly-chain route with the OB-6, even though the P6 is more the ''all-rounder''. Are you considering adding the Yorick expander?

[@dianavolte5804]

I have two OB-6 poly chained and they are an absolute joy to play, especially for pads with longer release envelopes. Only have the one Prophet 6 at the moment, but hope to buy another when funds allow. I have been looking into the Yorick and just need to confirm how it works in Poly mode

[@isoldeisobelle552]

@@dianavolte5804 The LFE supports Poly- Chaining. It works really well and opens up many choices for sound design.

[@geertmaertens7372]

Very interesting! I don't own a P6 - are similar polychain possibilities available for P2, P3, or P12? - 'd love to chain these!

[@JRod37]

I just started making a vid on the Vintage mode, nice to have new options! I similarly use my Prophet 6 most days and have been thinking about polychaining at some point (I have the desktop, but would like to have the keyboard one for live once that's a thing). I'm a fan of these videos man, thanks for providing useful procrastination videos! Where in the UK are you?

[@TimShoebridge]

You're very welcome. I live just a few miles outside London

[@FM-kl7oc]

These two Prophets have the most custom wood side panels I've seen. :)

[@RayyMusik]

Would be even more generous by D.S. to supply the vintage knob upgrade for the Rev 2 as well.

[@sasarasa88]

I've read somewhere that there's no room in the rev2 firmware for this feature

[@RayyMusik]

This is sad. One can manually replicate those functions, but it eats up all mod slots. :(

[@jamesdrogers]

Great example of the non-standard fare sound potential of the P6. For some reason, remarkably difficult to find.

[@mattthomasoverdrive4514]

I'm curious about your P6 rack...I only have one desktop version. Looks like you removed your wood end pieces.

[@TimShoebridge]

Yes removed the end cheeks and replaced them with two planks of wood with holes drilled through so I could use the original bolts 😁

[@MusicFed]

Great video. What camera/voice mic do you use? Thx!

[@TimShoebridge]

Sorry for the late reply, I missed the notification. Camera is a GH5s, and the mic I think is an Oktava but can’t 100% remember, I’m trying out a few these days

[@MusicFed]

@@TimShoebridge thanks. The production is pro-level. Didn’t think the GH5 was so good. Audio is great too

[@MusicFed]

@@TimShoebridge trying to decide if I want to go for a P10 or do what you did here.... the P6 is amazing and having 12 voices is fantastic

[@JoelBouchillon]

When PolyChaining, do the first 6 voices always come from the Primary unit first and then the second 6 voices come from the Secondary unit? Is it possible to set the Polychain mode to randomly and/or alternately play voices between the two units?

[@davebellamy4867]

9:17 Looks like yes and no.

[@encrust1]

Imagine how onerous it was getting permission to show all the faces in at around 27:00!

[@budfoon]

Nice use of the kb37

[@stergiost.6246]

Hi! Iam interested of buying a poly synth.After my research i concluded to Peak and prophet 6(desktop).I own some nice synths(supernova2,alesis ion,mks80,waldorf pulse,k2000 and some great vstis(diva,repro,legend etc)..which of those two polysynths you think that can offer me a sound quality better(-different?) than the synths i already own?I think that prophet 6 has more organic sound than peak,ami wrong? (i have not the opportunity to test and play peak or prophet 6,my conclusions are from demos)

[@TimShoebridge]

Hi Stergios, You have some great synths in your collection :) The Peak is a fantastic synth, lots of flexibility, lots of modulation capability, having three oscillators is awesome and the ability to load your own wavetables into it is an amazing feature. The P6 is much more basic in terms of features but there is something about the sound that is really appealing. It is difficult to describe but it has detail, depth and yes an organic quality that you do not hear very often from modern analogue poly synths today. It is a shame you do not have the opportunity to try both out before buying, here in the UK some of the larger retailers have a "no questions" money back option so you can be 100% sure a synth is really for you before committing to keeping it.

[@stergiost.6246]

@@TimShoebridge thanks for your quick response!i was almost ready to buy peak but i have the feeling that it has not much better sound than the vstis i own.Iam mostly interested for the difference in sound :the depth and everything you described.I found some really good quality demos of both peak and prophet 6 and i have the impression that prophet is warmer,very nice in the low mids area with an "organic" type of sound i didn't heard in other modern polys.I was thinking also the ensoniq sq80-esq1 but i decided that i need the knobs. I ve bought many items from UK stores (some years ago i visited London to try and listen monitors at KMR and funky junk-i bought unity the rocks ) but now the extra taxes is a problem..it is not a problemnif you buy products made in Uk though...

[@donovanfisher6945]

I’m unsure as to get a prophet rev2 or prophet x. I have a prophet 6, Moog grandmother, polybrute, arp odyssey fantom 8. I’m looking for huge pads, soundtrack ethereal sounds? Please help

[@TimShoebridge]

I don't own one but I'm pretty sure you can get some huge pads and ethereal soundtrack sounds from your fantom 8? Huge pads tend to be the domain of digital synths due to their polyphony and multitimbrality. As for analogue, you've got two great poly synths there with the P6 and PB, I'm not sure the rev2 is going to give you anything new. As for the PX, it's a unique synth, but imho it's a synth you really need to patch for yourself, experiment, play with the samples. I'd recommend trying one before buying.

[@20thcenturygames]

Never quite got what you thought of the new vintage function? Is it noticeable, is it good ?

[@TimShoebridge]

It's excellent. As it is still beta firmware and therefore subject to change I decided not to do a dry demo but to utilise vintage control in all the music demos I played. The actual slop detune is more subtle in vintage mode which I actually think makes it far more usable. I'm sure someone will do a comparison to the P5 vintage control some time soon...

[@BurkhardusX]

Tim is such a handsome guy.

[@davebellamy4867]

Buy low, sell high! 0:36.

[@Funkbutterfly]

I always tell people the P6 is built nicer than my car. And it sounds better too!

[@lesnorton7384]

When 2 OB-6's are PolyChained, if you create a patch on the "master" synth and then save it, will the patch also be saved on the "slave" synth in the same patch location there.?

[@TimShoebridge]

No, it is up to you to press the save button on both synths and choose where to save it.

[@lesnorton7384]

@@TimShoebridge That will work... Thanks

[@gpr4eva]

Do you get extra LFOs and Envelopes? I have polychained anything before.

[@TimShoebridge]

No you don't get anything extra per voice, you just get extra voices.

[@Unshapenkris]

What happens if you poly chain a Prophet 6 with an Ob6? Would it even work?

[@stanislavdumstorf724]

Did you ever find out?

[@Unshapenkris]

@@stanislavdumstorf724 No I didn’t, I even had the option a few weeks ago when I did in fact own both at the same time, but now I sold the OB6.. it all just slipped my mind lol

[@stanislavdumstorf724]

@@Unshapenkris 😭😭😭 I really can’t find anyone that’s tried it! 😂 oh well I’ll keep searching 🙏🙏

[@Unshapenkris]

@ghost mall obviously it doesn’t make sense if you want one coherent instrument, but did it work? Was there sound coming from both? Could be fun as an experimental project

[@mpmi7588]

Did you get rid.of your ob-6?

[@TimShoebridge]

Never!

[@HiLoMusic]

Does polychaining require 2 or 4 inputs for audio

[@TimShoebridge]

Polychaining just involves midi, to hear both synths you need to handle both their audio outout signals as normal, so 4 channels if you want stereo or 2 if you want to play them in mono

[@mpmi7588]

Wait..... 2 Prophet 6 modules AND an OB6? 18 note polyphony. Sheesh.

[@shaft9000]

Unless I were dragging the P6 to gigs, I'd sell both the One and the P6 for a P10 asap. P10 just sounds so _correct._.....and the P6 and One do not. [disclaimer: my analog polys are JP-8, CS-60, OB-Xa 6v & an A6 for gigs]

[@davidrobertson4301]

Quote "these are all I need" I feel I have to say that's vaguely offensive when you have a moog one in your equipment library

[@DavideCerriGA]

. I don't need this or this. Just this ashtray... And this paddle game.

[@TimShoebridge]

That statement is 100% true, I don't *need* the Moog One, something I only realised after buying one and playing one for some months. I don't use half its capabilities, but of course I do like having it around. The problem with the M1 is its price. People consider it over-priced for what it is. You can see that immediately by looking at the used market and the price people are willing to pay. Just like a new car, as soon as you drive it out the showroom it depreciates by a significant amount. I think there are many people out there who own an M1, realise it is too much synth for their needs, therefore it is tying up too much of their capital they could spend on other gear, but they choose to not sell it because of the significant loss they'll have to endure. That doesn't detract from the fact that it is an amazing synth, just that it really isn't for everyone.

[@davidrobertson4301]

@ghost mallSimple minded troll

[@MJ-tg6wb]

17:46 Vintage

[@filipghiorghi]

how to for 6

[@davebellamy4867]

9:15 The second synth had more phasing / detune.

[@TimShoebridge]

Yes polychaining does not synchronise the detune being applied by vintage control, nor the exact phases of the oscillators and LFO's across synths, so you will hear subtle differences playing the exact same patch. I had vintage control cranked up to 50% on most of the patches I played, so the difference will be more noticeable. Amazing for playing chords but I guess less appropriate for arpeggios....