Another classic & famous early Analog modelling synth, this time from Korg. Released in 1995 the Prophecy was the first in a line of Korg synths which used their Multi-Oscillator Synthesis System (MOSS) tone generator which was spawned out of Korg's 1990's extensive OASYS (Open-Architecture SYnthesis System) project.
The Prophecy is a monophonic & mono-timbrel synth, originally conceived & marketed primarily to do lead lines & patterns, but which does more than just analog modelling synthesis, with it's DSP engine yielding 13 different types of oscillator allowing the Prophecy to deliver a wide palette of synthesis favours including physical modelling & a Korg created form of FM cross-modulation they titled VPN (Variable Phase Modulation). The Prophecy had quite a long list of named users back in the day from Orbital, Jean-Michel Jarre & Prodigy to Union Jack, The Orb & even Rick Wakeman & other big names.
The MOSS technology created by the Oasys project development also eventually found its way into the Korg Z1 (which was pretty much a 12 note polyphonic & improved engine version of the Prophecy), & also the Korg Trinity & its follow-up blockbuster selling Triton series in the guise of an optional MOSS expansion board.
The Prophecy includes an arpeggiator & in addition to its traditional Pitch & Mod wheels also includes a unique & rather strange combination horizontally arranged barrel controller, with a built-in combination ribbon controller along its length, sort of like a controller chocolate eclair which you can roll back/forward on one axis & simultaneously slide across from left to right on the opposite access in either direction.
Strangely despite it's genuinely historical important in the history of synthesisers, you can pick up a secondhand Prophecy for absolutely peanuts on ebay at around £350 - £500 pounds.
Old Dancetech review from 1998
The Prophecy - Korg's one and only concession to the electronica/dance, real-time control monosynth market place, has in recent months plummetted in price from a previous £900 or so price, to a bargain £450 street price. I personally always felt this unit was ridiculously overpriced, even amongst the generally overpriced synth marketplace, but now it's come down to what seems to be the standard price-bracket for new mono synths. All the competitor products seem to revolve around this typical £450 mark, including the SuperBasstation, Waldorf Pulse, Syntechno Tee-Bee (which itself had a big price drop) & others. So, as one of the priorities of Dancetech is to keep things a bit ghetto & NOT recommend hugely overpriced items, we're now gonna add this product to the listings.
However, note well, the reason for the price drop is that this product is actually discontinued now after a 2 year run! Turnkey in London (www.turnkey.uk.com) having bought the last batch, and they will be at that low £435 price for as long as stocks last, which may be another couple of months from today's date (10/2/98). This also means that the data cards to save edits above the available 128 save positions are also discontinued, in fact, they went out of production before the actual keyboard did, due to some component problems or something....... so you'll have to search around the shops, or get secondhand.
Anyway, if you want a new one, you'd better hurry up, as it'll be secondhand only after that, and secondhand units may actually be more than the low Turnkey new price, as the original purchaser probably shelled out between £900 - £1200 for it. (Turnkey do international tax free mail order, but the units will be 220 volt uk mains)
The Prophecy is a monosynth.... shame, cos it does nice swept analog sounds, but no chords with this baby.... The Prophecy gets it's raw sounds by utilising five different synthesis types for it's 7 raw Oscillators..... all the oscillator waves are generated by a custom DSP modelling chip, so no PCM waves here.
Once the source is selected, the Prophesy then further processes the sound with different 'Blocks', such as filter & amp, waveshaping, fx etc.
Anyhow, you get 2 oscillators plus sub-oscillator and a noise generator.... following that, there are filter and amp, waveshaper, FX and mixer blocks,.... the sound is routed as desired, and the various blocks applied, including controller routing, modulation etc....You can cross-mod the oscillators, or apply ring-modulation, and overall, virtually all the parameters can be assigned to a mass of controllers as well as envelopes, LFO's etc.
The mixer 'Block' allows level adjustment for the different oscillators, noise and feedback routing to filter etc..... so that's where you set up your source balance. The filter section features two multi-mode filters, each switchable between Low-Pass, High-Pass, Band-Pass, and Band-Reject modes. These can be placed either in series or in parallel. The level of each filter's output can be controlled independently, and of course, the filters can be routed to different controllers.
The effects 'Block, has seven separate effects... Distortion, Wah, Dual Parametric EQ, and a choice of Chorus/Flanger and Delay or Reverb.....Fx can also be routed to controller sources: keyboard pressure, mod wheel, or ribbon controller. The Prophesy has stereo or mono out/s, so we'll assume some of these are stereo fx.
So, obviously, there's mucho scope for creating unique, or imitation sounds, and there's then all the control options, plus an arpeggiator with 5 user patterns which can be clocked to midi.... further patterns need a data card for storage, as do created sounds, as you only get a measly 128 storage points.
Outside of the ribbon controller, and wheels, you can add a foot-pedal, and there's a further 6 knobs on the top panel, which can have be assigned to different parameters in 'Performance' mode for further twiddling.
I have only messed around a bit with this keyboard in shops, and it does have a lot of control, and a big fat sound. Obviously it's a great soloists keyboard, but quite how it'll measure up in a typical MIDI set-up, I can't say... that's you're job if you're a user.... add some comments and let us know.
I phoned Korg, and they said that you can specify what controller number is being outputted from the 6 dedicated control knobs and the wheels, ribbon controller etc, so there's also scope for using it to manipulate your other synths.
So.... a contender, now the price is right. I couldn't justify adding it to the site at a £1000 for a monsynth as it was before the price-drop, but now it's something to really look at... especially if you are starting out, and need a squiddly type control synth but also need a master keyboard, then this unit could really score.
You get a 37 note keyboard which outputs velocity and aftertouch, a good handy little master keyboard unit therefore and a big fat sound for your analog impressions... plus more in the form of a dedicated controller unit too.
Anyhow.... Comments please below.
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