To be fair it’s not that different from programming the Digitone with the knob turning. I can see myself getting used to it pretty quick.
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Had a little sesh this morning before work and got some bumpy basslines going. Sounds phatt! Super nice to sequence it from the DN, p-locking CCs and using the midi LFO. Wish the DT allowed for stereo pass through tho. Also, really happy with how it slides into my setup, aesthetically and ergonomically:
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Nice how your cables colour match the FUNC buttons 
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Whoa. I’m not keeping this one. Didn’t gel with this. At all.
Didn’t see that one coming.
I wish I could make decisions as fast as you 
was it the user interface you didn’t like?
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lets circuitghost that bad boy…
I am curious, could you detail a bit what you didnt like about it ?
That’s surprising!
To be fair, I’m very dedicated to my Prophet 12, so it faced some tough competition. I’m intimately familiar with that one now, so while the Prophet 6 engine does sound richer and fuller, and it doesn’t take an A / B-test to reach that conclusion, it’s right in your face (or in my face, as it were), it’s not a wealth I need for what I’m currently doing.
Hey @nIdaL I think mostly because I’m not wanting for anything and feel pretty good about my rig. With no apparent void to fill, whatever comes around has to more or less be something I didn’t know I wanted but still want once I face it. Any opinions I have on the AS-1 wouldn’t be fair, since I realise now, it never stood a chance. I’m sure there’s much to like or love about it and those who’ve taken it in, should better talk about its pros and cons.
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I get it, ultimately it is the personal relationship with the instrument that makes it stick to the lineup or not.
Most demos I have heard about the as-1, like ‘all presets, no talking’ kind of videos on youtube and such, are on the harsher side of sound, it sounds massive but not that subtle.
I would love to hear someone that has a softer tone approach on such a synth.
That is probably why I went to the Typhon instead, I am more familiar on Dreadbox synths than DSI and I love their soft spots.
I guess that unless I find a decently priced AS-1, I wont get one, the demos are NOT appealing to me.
Although the form factor is perfect for the little amount of space that I have left in the studio.
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How was the integration with the SP-16, if you got that far? i’m not looking to get the SP-16, but I’m kind of curious how well it worked; it’s kind of cool that Pioneer included it.
A bit of a letdown. You could switch between presets from the SP-16, but the midi mapping was the same as on a regular midi track on the Toraiz. Which is pretty good as is, but I was hoping for a more customised layout, so that I could basically warp the SP-16 into controlling the AS-1. Which you can, of course, by simply mapping out your own preference from the CC knobs. But I can do that to any synth, so the integration wasn’t all that, really.
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I would give it some time to get to know it’s own interface, you can get around very fast after a few hours with it (not too many parameters, section-jump press etc…)
Overall sound quality is what matters to me, and that’s what it has in spades. Any other niggles I can work with.
Also, something that I didnt expect is how useful the touch strip is. Since you can assign a bunch of parameters at once, stacking some of the less obvious ones can really make the sound evolve in a subtle (or extreme) way, and you can latch a sweet spot with the hold button for however long then instantly go back to your stored version. Quite powerful in practice.
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I’ll see if I can make a little demo for you in the coming days. Will do if I can find the time.
I find it softer than the Dreadbox sound actually (note: I LOVE the Dreadbox sound also) and it’s one thing that I appreciate about the AS-1 ,compared to DSI synths I tried, namely I find the DSI sound quite harsh (granted: don’t have intimate experience with the Prophet 6 though, only messed around with it in the shop a few times), the AS-1 is not.
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Haha…
See, Circuit, you’ve bought and sold so much gear over the years, people are using your name as a verb now. I just can’t decide whether that’s an honor or a red-flag of sorts. 
Cheers!
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That said, and I don’t know why I feel invested in your decision at all, but it’s a relief to me that you got rid of the AS-1 in favour of the P-12. 
Cheers!
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Isn’t that the curse we live with sometimes. GAS.
But was there anything you thought it might bring in that you needed? At first I was using both of mine as Bass, but once I plugged one into the Ventris reverb I started smashing out accompaniments for everything. It’s odd, because it’s stuff I didn’t come up with on the Prophet~6 which I use all the time.
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Well, I’m a writer by profession so like all stories that break through, it’s a honor that came at the cost of many red flags
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Well, I was mostly curious on how it would integrate with the SP-16, if there was a more fluent workflow between the two, given that the SP-16 had a dedicated AS-1 track. Also, the Prophet 6 has a body to its sound the Prophet 12 can’t match and if I got something that was immediate, designed specifically to integrate with the sampler and sounded great, it would be an interesting option. Since I have some Prophet 6 experience, I was looking for that again.
But I found this. quite quickly -
The integration was about the same as the overall midi implementation, but with a few extra options. They didn’t add much of interest to me.
It’s an easy enough and direct enough instrument to work with, even when you dive into the menu browsing. I just didn’t enjoy it much. That gut feeling is rarely wrong.
But most importantly - as rich as it is in sound, there’s also the other way around to look at this - it’s not a Prophet 12. It can’t do what the Prophet 12 can do. And I love what the Prophet 12 does. Including the fact that it’s not as full always, which means that for a bloke like me, that enjoy layering, resampling, processing and stuffing sounds up before I start cutting away, I can throw more ideas into the mix without the VCO sound just eating up the headroom like them gremlins at christmas. And processing a rich, analogue sound because it takes too much space, feels like why would I even go there in the first place then?
I’ve really taken to heart the mixing advise from some old vets that record your source as pure as you can, if you need to process it just to make it work at all, it shouldn’t be there at all. The Prophet 12 is far better for layering, complex textures, longer evolving and organic stuff, and that’s where I’m at right now.
It helps that I got a specific project going, so it’s also easy to put any new kit into context and just see what it brings. I got a gig late August and got my mind set on it, and I’m good on stuff I need to get it done, so that helps, too.
Whoa. Long post.
But hey. As I mentioned to our good friend John, I am a writer by profession. You ask a question, you might get a talespin answer
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actually I have to admit I made similar experiences. While there was a big wow effect when I turned on the AS1 for the first time and still is when I use it solo, I had problems to get it sit in the mix of several tracks where I used it. Mainly when using it as a bass. While the Digitone and A4 find their place easily, the AS1 eats a whole lot of frequency range. I had to eq it quite a bit, and ended up with quite different sounds than what I intended in the beginning.
It might actually work better for leads and mono pads for me.
It usually helps a lot to turn off the second vco for basses. I prefer those sounds anyway.
But on the Inhalt youtube channel, who did some great demos with the AS1, I read him praising the AS1 for its big mid range which is missing in most modern analog synths according to him. So to each their own I guess I further try to find the spots where the AS1 fits best, cause its pure sound is just too impressive
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