SCI Prophet-600 "Prophet Strings"

[drumsdrumdrumdrum]

The Prophet 600 may not sound like a Prophet 5 but it does sound like a Juno 60 with an even better filter section.

[Redliner500]

god i miss my 600 :"(

[Erik2Ammo]

wauw! beautiful sound!

[alanwilder81]

hello ! I own a prophet 600 , have read the manual but still haven't understood how to dump the factory sounds , and make my own sounds " from scratch " .

Could anyone please help me with that ?

many many thanks in advance for any suggestion !

[FatSynthDude]

@alanwilder81 See that little button on it that says 'preset'? Press it and whatever the knobs and switches are set at will be what you hear. When you get a sound you like, press record and key in a patch slot.

[alanwilder81]

@FatSynthDude

thanks very much mate !

I managed to fund some " decent " sounds , but it think my Prophet will be checked by a electrical engineer , as som pots and keys don't work at all .

Also , when " preset" button i switched off , I don't get that varability of sound , at all . I hope there's something wrong witch chips , and it get fixed .

should I have any more questions , could i please contact you ?

best regards

[FatSynthDude]

@alanwilder81 Is it all of the knobs and switches, or just some of them? One of the problems plaguing this machine is that if there's enough dust in one of the pots, then the computer freaks out and locks up so that none of the pots work. If it's only a few, take off the knobs and spray the pots with some FaderLube. Work each pot very thoroughly after spraying and then spray the pot again before working the knob again.

[FatSynthDude]

You may also want to open up the casing and clean everything down with cotton swabs and alcohol, namely the chips. If you get into where the keybed is, the mechanism for triggering notes is done with this long metal wire. Clean that wire down with some alcohol (make sure to dry it really good afterward!) Prophet 600's are very easy to maintain. This and the pot cleaning should fix most if not all of your problems. Feel free to contact me if you need to.

[alanwilder81]

@FatSynthDude

hello man ,

i am an italian guy new to Prophet 600 , i purchased one recently , and i would like to ask you some question about it . My board was sent to repair in 1987 ,and had who chips replaced . All i can say is that my synth seems not to be working properly , as despit spending long time to program it , i only get awful sounds out of it . Could it be down to damaged chips? I cleaned all the pots and contacts .

Stil sounds crap . Many thanks for your time . Cheers =)

[FatSynthDude]

@alanwilder81 PM'd you.

[sauermusicDE]

Of course, nothing beats the real thing. But there's a freeware VSTi out there simulating the Prophet 600. Watch my little demo video.

[StaticBrigade]

I remember factory patch 88 was this amazing cross mod resonant sound...massive filter sweep and cross mod thing...insane really. The Mylar touch pads work fine and you can clock the arpegiator to a cv source through the foot pedal jack. And of course midi works pretty good even though this is a very basic implementation.

[StaticBrigade]

I have one of these and would have to agree - underrated. You do have to add some compression and chorus or reverb to make this guy stand out in the mix. It can sound weak and dry otherwise. There was definitely a reason why Roland added a chorus to the Juno 106!

[retrosound72]

only a little bit reverb added, no compression or other fx

[TheSnowballEarth]

@StaticBrigade The P600 lacks a noise source, and the filter envelope should be invertable. Two drawbacks IMO. But it's still capable of some very lush sounds. I like mine. :-]

[Colpocorto]

@StaticBrigade Roland added a chorus to the Juno 106 because the Juno had only one VCO per voice, but the Prophet 600 has two oscillators so you can simulate the chorus by detuning the 2nd osc or using the powerful matrix modulation

[loafdapesholmes]

have you seen the pics on the PCB inside the pro ones? do any other SCI synths have any>

[shycalr]

this was used on most of the whodini stuff.

[Tonewheeldude]

Have had one for several Years.Wont sell it.I also have the Prophet 5,and its realy cabable of some nice different sounds to the P5.

[Twilight1964]

makes me cringe when i think what i could have had years ago and passed them by for other kitt :o(

dont see many of the prophets come up for sale even on ebay.. double :O( :o(

nice sounds maate :o)

[retrosound72]

the Prophet 600 is very underrated to the Prophet 5

sure the P5 is a bit better but the little P600 can make sounds that can the P5 not

thanks

[MARANTZamp]

I had one....sold it because the envelopes are too sluggish...especially next to my p5

[felmoe]

mach mal ein video mit oldschool prophet leads also so horn sounds oder so .. und bisl noise rein mischen usw. ... ich steh da voll drauf

[retrosound72]

Alles zu seiner Zeit ;-)

[wudsiba]

I imagine you have covered this before, but on your 808 is that an overlay sticker that actually came on the 808 when it was new? If so, amazing find. I love your videos and lust after your gear. Thanks for sharing!

[retrosound72]

Yes this is the original overlay sticker.

thank you for your comment :)

[tvfella]

Just a question, did you slow down the attack a little bit? It seemed, in some places like you were a little off the beat. Maybe that is just the video...

[retrosound72]

yes i had a few problems with the video editing software and I must the vid cut and paste.

[DavePerry2012]

It has a decent sound for a chip based analog (with DCO's), but it is too crisp and harsh sounding. I have to dial the filter way back. With the highs filtered it can sound nice, but that limits what you can do with it.

[MadJackUK]

Actually, I seem to remember it having digitally-controlled VCOs. My machine would take about twenty minutes for them to warm up before they'd stay in tune... I've had normal DCO analog synths since (Matrix 1000, Cheetah MS6 and Korg DW8000) that had no such problems with them staying in tune.

[MadJackUK]

I realize that what I said above about it having "digitally-controlled VCOs", might sound like a contradiction. But I was referring to the way the controls for the VCOs and VCFs produce undesirable quantisation/zipper/stepping effects.

[mik300z]

nice analogue strings, another synth I was not aware of. What year is it from?

[retrosound72]

The Prophet 600 is from the year 1982. Real analog VCO´s (Curtis CEM3340) and very underrated.

[DavePerry2012]

I have a Prophet 08 and I wish it sounded this smooth. :-(

[retrosound72]

I speak with Dave Smith in the last year on the frankfurt music fair.

He said: the Prophet08 is better than all earlier Prophets.

Ok, which he is to also another say. ;)

[BRAKESUK80]

all of ur videos are great.wish i had all that hardware

[retrosound72]

thank you

[1SpaceAge1]

very nice pad!

some say Prophet-600 pads are crap?! they don't know what they are saying...

[retrosound72]

yes

thanks :)

[Shadow432643]

Great ! :)

[retrosound72]

thx :)

[sinusgolf]

nice one this is.

when will you have a cs80 in your collection.;)

[retrosound72]

:)

too expensively, too susceptibly, too largely, too heavily...

[mik300z]

lol! yeah right:) by the end of the year I believe we will see "Retrosound CS80 ring modulator .. or CS80 brass sounds" I don't think you care about the weight marco!!!!

[retrosound72]

the CS80 is a dream of synth and I think we would have both gladly one but if one it sees realistic:

too expensively, too susceptibly, too largely, too heavily...

:)