I am borrowing a Dave Smith Instruments (DSI) Prophet ’08 eight voice polyphonic synthesizer from a local musician and synth builder who read about my interest here on ACB, then offered to lend it to me. I didn’t hesitate to take him up on the offer since I don’t live anywhere near a DSI dealer. It sounds amazing, as I suspected it would, but it also prompted me to write the article Music Technology Soul Searching.

The instrument is completely overwhelming at first contact. The two-hundred-fifty-six internal patches instantly illustrate the chasm I am standing over. If I owned one of these instruments I would have to force myself to delete the factory patches and start fresh. Here’s one of the fairly tame, yet stunning patches I came across. I used Ableton to do the arpeggiation while I used both hands to make adjustments to the filter and envelopes. No processing was added.

Arpeggiated Prophet 08