Prophet 6 Tutorial: Pads Pt 4 (Distortion & Sync)

Find the Sequential Prophet 6 here: bit.ly/3lrE94e
Gain staging on the Prophet 6 is somewhat controversial, so I thought I'd go over some techniques to control the distortion to a point where it's warm and not overbearing in pads, and to give you more control over exactly how much distortion you're adding. I also get into some ideas on using oscillator sync and touch on keyboard tracking.
All the music in this video was created using a Prophet 6.
Looking for more inspiration? Check out my sound packs for the Prophet 6:
synthsoundlibra...

[@feltbody1851]

bought your most recent pads pack and was absolutely amazed at the things you did with the gain staging and distortion in it. this vid just clarifies it further! completely opened up my eyes to even more possibilities within this wonderful + deep synth. thank you for everything xo

[@Sound_ology]

Awesome, thank you so much!

[@auxorion]

Wow I seriously am amazed that every time I watch one of your videos I actually learn something new. I hadn't even considered the effect the Osc mixer was having on the distortion. I almost always have my osc up to 100% so the distortion is always wildly extreme (I always call it the guitar distortion pedal)... with the osc levels lowered it actually becomes softer and more usable...! I also rarely use sync unless I want to do one of those JMJ sync sounds with the pitch of osc2 strapped to the envelope on Poly-mod. I never considered I can use that to make cool, cold pads. Thank you again, keep up the great work!

[@Sound_ology]

Thanks for watching! It took me a super long time to realize the gain staging stuff too haha it really LOOKS like the distortion is just controlled by one knob.

[@barrnycharlton8951]

this might sound like a wierd question what happened if you crank the resonance on the p6 of the filter is complete open. Will it empathasis any high frequency distortion if the mixer is cranked

[@Sound_ology]

hmm it definitely causes distortion. I like the idea of distorting the high frequencies more than the low ones, could be useful for a triangle wave patch. Very interesting idea!

[@shahruzmoshtael]

Nice!

[@NealCaen]

any good articles or forums you’d recommend to understand Synthesis more ?

[@Sound_ology]

These articles are a super valuable resource: www.soundonsound.com/series/synth-secrets I'd recommend reading them slowly so you can digest the information

[@piotr803]

Great series of videos. Q - have you had any experience with Rev2? I wonder how you like it in terms of sound and character compared to P6. cheers

[@Sound_ology]

Thanks! Yes, I love the Rev2, I came very close to buying one! Really the only reason I didn't was I eventually played one back-to-back with the Prophet 6 and couldn't get the P6 out of my head after that. The Rev2 is a great workhorse and can go much deeper than the P6, but the character of the P6 is is slightly better. That being said, the character of the P5 is maybe even better yet, and after effects and mixing, you can probably get all three of them to come within a whisker of one another. So unless your goal is a completely dry signal I think the choice between them comes down to workflow

[@piotr803]

@@Sound_ology That's great you had a chance to compare them back-to-back. It's interesting when you said you couldn't get P6 out of your head...that's often a good sign. I sold a couple of modules over the years that I think about often...the way you think about friends and family. They become part of you and your nervous system. You miss them when they're gone. I'm there with you when listening to demos of P6 vs Rev2. P6 character sounds better and more alive. There's something about the fragile character of the oscillators of the Rev2 in the high-end especially...they have this "spitting" quality, it's like they are breaking up almost. Dunno, maybe I'm imagining things. LOL. Yes, the P5 rev4 is very tempting...but can the vintage knob get you in that territory? Also, have you ever designed sounds on P6 using additional modulation via MIDI (e.g. from the DAW) for extra flexibility?

[@piotr803]

​@@Sound_ology P.S. Rev2 does look like it has many more options, especially with the LFOs and an Aux envelope. Good for making noise/FX/sequenced type sounds and interesting mono-synth sounds that way, but I do also have a modular case sitting beside me for deeper experimentation and out-there-sounds. Routing workflow, as good as it is on Rev2, is even better in eurorack. So, I guess I'm just looking for a solid main poly (plus for the occasional bass, leads, arp sounds.)...

[@Sound_ology]

@@piotr803 The vintage knob on the P6 is absolute magic. I totally feel like it brings you deep into P5 territory, and with the P6 you get tons of effects! Good chorus can redefine a synth... I haven't used DAW MIDI or anything to add in more modulation; honestly I haven't felt like I needed to. The P6 is so thick sounding that I very often only want to use one oscillator at a time...especially for complex patches. And when you're only using one oscillator you can modulate enough other things through poly mod with oscillator 2 as a mod source (which can be an LFO x6 too) that I don't really want more complexity out of it. Well actually I've wished amp modulation was included in poly mod, but that's about it...Also I find super modulated poly patches end up pretty tasteless pretty quickly...excluding straight up multitimbral patches.

[@piotr803]

@@Sound_ology Totally. I really enjoyed your videos comparing Juno and Prophet. And the Chorus really transforms this single OSC synth (by kind of doubling/trippling the voice counts in a special way). I also seem to dig the sound of the DSI distortion as demonstrated by this very video. I have his DSM03 character module in eurorack (straight from P12) and the Drive knob is the best thing ever, you can really take a 808/909 kick to another level, apart from making VSTs shine. Yeah, I think considering both P6 and OB6 have very scarce modulation matrix...that suggests they have considered it unnecessary for the typical poly applications. I'm also a huge fan of knob-per-function designs and just...clarity :-) Also, compared to Rev2 (I've complained about the OSCs on Rev2 demos), I'd be keen to send pure OSCs sound for further processing in euro with VCFs etc... Wait, have I just talked myself into buying P6?

[@rhodes1232]

Many thanks for these excellent videos. Any chance you could do some more covering so Boards of Canada style patches. Like the ones found here: m.kzbin.info/www/bejne/gaXNlICmZ9mkpsU Especially the patch at 1:57.

[@Sound_ology]

Ooh that's a great one, sounds like he's using his arpeggiator with voice panning and delay