Sequential discontinuing the Prophet 12 Desktop

Very nice demo, this “gurgeling” burbeling/dripping sound i like especially :walking_man:)

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I hated the Curtis filter sound on a Mopho I briefly owned. Sounds great in poly on my P12 though.

Thanks :blush: that one is very lush and evolving in its unprocessed stereo recording. But of course I had to destroy it with a Chase Bliss sledgehammer.

Yea. It’s an odd complaint. Many V/A filters are similar, since they are modeling this behavior.

For polyphonic sounds, I rarely turn the resonance anywhere beyond 25%. So it’s a moot point for me. Monophonic sounds, on the other hand, I’ll use all the resonance. But that’s what mono synths are for :slight_smile:

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Is it though? Some filters sound so great self oscillating that you can play them. I don’t tend to use the resonance on my P12 past about 45% in any use case, as I’m not keen on how it sounds.

And don’t get me wrong. I’m not dumping on the P12 at all. I love it. I’ve owned the module since it was released and have never thought about selling it. But to me, saying the LPF is the weakest element seems fair. There are plenty of synths (including some VAs) where you can run a simple oscillator tone and sweep the cutoff at various resonance settings and think “wow”. That is certainly not the case for me with the P12. It just sounds functional (and at higher resonance, to me at least, fairly unpleasant). That’s not to say it isn’t useful in sound design. It’s just not a selling point in the same way as the filters in my Moog or OB-6 for example.

Depending on how you drive it, you can get a wider usable/pleasant resonance behavior. It should be pretty easy on the P-12 (as opposed to the tricks needed on my Rev2 for example). Maybe you know that already, and still aren’t a fan. However, I find reducing the gain going into the filter allows it to sound better at higher settings. Or more bubbly and less self-oscillationy siney. It’s still not going to sound like a state variable or ladder, but you can make it sound much better. You can get a nice bubbly mono bass out of the Curtis four pole though is my point. Just depends on what you’re going for. Definitely spend some time on the mixing stage though. Another thing is that the effective range of the resonance knob will be different between synths. What is 80% on the Prophet could be 95% on another synth. So cranking the Prophet to 95% would be like 110% on the other synth. That’s just an example though, not based on actual synths. Watching gain, and the actual resonance control are important to find a good mix.

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I find there’s something about the DSI/Sequential Curtis filters that responds really well to audio-rate modulation. All the best sounds I got out of the P12 had either noise or an oscillator subtly roughing-up either cutoff or resonance. Perfect for mildly distressed poly sounds. :slight_smile:

I remember thinking how sterile the same effect sounded on the Prophet 6 and how much I missed that side of the Curtis sound.

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You should be able to tweak the P-6 to get close. Its filter is discrete, but it’s a similar four pole cascaded topology. Might just need a bit more tweaking.

Nice one. Will have a play with the osc levels. Last night I did a sense check with just the basic patch and different osc shapes and sweeping the filter and it was still the same, but I didn’t try taking the osc level down. Good tip. Will give it a bash.

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“precise” is how I would define the Curtis filter sound, together with the detented knobs and the digital Oscs on the P12.
very nice to dial in exactly the sound you are looking for.

EDIT : I found that with this unit’s filters many patches turn to be precisely “defined” and “contoured” (if that makes sense) with the filters. sounds sharp, yet with a characterful thanks to the huge amount of possible modulation, distorsion, digital effects…

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My serial number is 1174 :slight_smile:

Unfortunately I took delivery of it today, had a fantastic time reading the manual and browsing the presets, and then learned my LFO 1 button doesn’t work. I can select any of the other 3 LFOs, including Hold to select all LFOs, but I cannot select the LFO 1 on it’s own. Can someone confirm to me this is not how it’s supposed to be? I put a ticket in with both Sequential and Thomann as documentation already because I’m not really sure what could be the problem other than faulty hardware or buggy software.

Editing the first LFO via the All LFOs hold-select isn’t the worst thing in the world, I guess, but definitely a bigger issue than I expected from a “B stock” model labeled as only having minor cosmetic blemishes (which it did, I guess).

Still really excited to make friends with it. Hoping my issue can be resolved quickly!

B stock should barely even have cosmetic defects. Broken LFO button should be a swap IMO.

Try pressing the button firmly about 50 times. Thats what Sequential has advised people to try with faulty buttons in the past. My delay 1 and osc 1 were a bit unresponsive at first but are fine now.

Source: OB6 Manual Button no response

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Nice, hopefully that’ll do the trick!

The only thing I noticed was the box had been opened prior and the manual bag had been manually resealed! Faint greasy smudge on the top left of the box, like someone might have touched it, but easily wiped off.

Sadly didn’t work for me. Got the LFO 1 button to light up twice, and it almost instantly triggered a hold which lit up all 4 LFOs. After some more firm presses, can’t replicate at all. Looks like I’ll have to get it replaced. Hopefully that’s easy, this is my first purchase with Thomann!

The update is that Sequential will mail me a new board I can install for free, says it only takes a screwdriver, or I can process a return/exchange thru Thomann. I wanna opt for whatever gives me the best warranty coverage, I think, but has anyone done a board swap like the Sequential rep is talking about?

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I have. It’s a piece of cake if you’re not a total disaster with electronics. But if you’re worried about it, just send it back. The buttons do sometimes go bad - especially with disuse, and some of these units have likely been sitting on the shelves for a while now. Honestly, the new board is probably going to be a better bet than another “sat on the shelf forever” unit, but either way you’ll have full warranty and Sequential tends to provide good support even out of warranty for very modest prices.

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I did a board swap on mine and it was really easy.
I’ve heard a couple of stories recently about full price P12s coming from thomann with faulty buttons. One guy returned his and they sent him a b stock unit and refunded him the difference.

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My serial is 000393