| Item Number: | 200874898084 |
| Seller: | thomasgt (0) |
| Location: | London |
| Starting price: | £0.99 |
| Postage: | £30.00 Standard Delivery |
| End Date: | 10th January 2013 |
| Image stolen from: | Genuine item 180993756191 |
Synth designs come and go. Analog, digital, sampling, modelling, etc. Once in a while, a synth appears that sets the standard. When the Prophet 5 first appeared, it was an instant classic.
Up for auction here is a rev 2 Prophet 5 (IMHO the best of the versions since it had the SSM filters and was more stable than the rev 1).
As you can see from the pictures, this machine was generally well cared for, but it's not mint. I found extra knobs and SSM chips as well as some wheels and modulation pots and brackets. There's three SSM 2030 VCOs with tempco resistors, three SSM 2020 VCAs, one SSM 2040 VCF, and three SSM 2050 Envelope generator ICs.
This Prophet 5 has been sent out to Greg Montalbano for a complete overhaul. Greg cleaned it up, recapped the power supply, replaced the key bushings, replaced the large multi-pin connector on PCB3, did a calibration and test, removed one of the regulators and updated the EPROMs (this reduces the load on the power supply so it runs cooler and is more stable). In addition, he changed the fixed power cord to a removeable one so switching between US and Euro power is easy (as well as making it easier to transport and set up). Finally, Greg installed a Kenton MIDI kit.
After I got it back, I installed the new Prophet 5 OS from Riku-Sakari Kujanen (his site is at analog.fi). His OS adds a second LFO, goes into edit mode simply by turning a knob or presseing a button, bypasses auto-tune on startup (great for those times when the power flickers) and shows which voice is being tuned when you do press the tune button (no more blank front panel leaving you guessing if the synth is dead), adds new unison modes (all 5 voices, a single voice - monophonic rev2 p-5!, and an option to select one or two voices in that mode), a mode to display the current value of a knob as well as indicating when you move that kknob to the current value in the preset (great for learning how sounds were created or for using the same amount of modulation or resonance of your favorite patches), a playable A-440 reference (tracks the keyboard for an additonal monophonic sine oscillator), and the factory presets are available to be loaded into user memory.
The second LFO in particular is a really nice feature that expands the Prophet 5's sonic abilities into new territories. Of course, you can disbale all the new features and only turn on the one(s) you can about and simply enjoy the ability to directly edit the patch like on the rev 3's (no more pressing the edit button). Although, I would say you are missing out if you don't at least try sequencing a fast note run using the new mono unison mode. Very tasty indeed.
So at this point, it's safe to say this particular Prophet 5 is one of a kind. I don't know anyone else on the planet with a Greg M serviced P-5 that has the Kenton MIDI kit and the new Riku OS installed.
The Prophet 5 (for those that don't know) had 2 oscillators, noise, a low pass filter, 2 ADSR envelopes, VCA, and an LFO. At the time, it had 2 more features that really made it stand apart from the crowd. The first was patch memories. The second, and possibly more important feature, was the poly mod section. This gave you incredible control over the type and amount of modulation that could be routed around the synth. It was really stunning to get this type of almost modular functionality in a polyphonic synth with memories.
Payment accepted: Bank wire transfer. For more details gthomas37@yahoo.com
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