Prophet-5 Classic polyphonic ana

Prophet-5 (Rev. 3)
Classic 5-voice polyphonic analog synthesizer

Here it is...one of the super-classic synthesizers of all times!!! The Prophet-5. This one in particular is a Version 3.2 (which I upgraded to 3.3 by adding the factory MIDI interface and 120 program memories)

The Prophet-5 was an absolute breakthrough when it came out in January 1978, because it could retain 40 patches... and it paved the way for other manufacturers

The resonance on the Prophet-5 filter is incredibly powerful!! It reminds me of the squelch on an overdriven Roland TB-303 (perhaps also with the DevilFish modification) - it absolutely pierces through wall!

The Prophet-5 is a fantastic instrument for sound design also! While it excels at synthesizing "real life" instruments, the Poly-Mod section is one of the best-kept secrets in synthland because it allows the user to create, quickly and precisely, special FX and other-worldly sounds that would be very difficult to recreate on newer machines! I read that the Prophet-5 was used for the special fx in "Star Wars" and I believe it... You can get it to sound like dead androids, like kittens crying for their mom, like video games, like spaceships taking off... and so forth... truly wonderful for sound design.

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Sequential Circuits Prophet-5 audio demos

File 1 Factory Programs audio demos (stream all File 1 demos below)

Patch name with audio demo	My comments
11 Brass	The classic, super-gluey, fat analog synth brass of the 1980s!!
12 Low Strings	Typical digital/analog synth strings, just beautiful
13 Muted Clav.	The famous Prophet-5 analog Clav, which found its way as a classic preset in many newer ROMplers/workstations. The mod wheel adds filter "wah-wah"
14 Percussive Electric Piano	A beautiful, intimate electric piano sound. Isn't the "sonic character" of the Prophet-5 just lovely?? Mod wheel add tremolo.
15 Flutes	Realistic flute sound!
16 Harpsichord	And again, extremely realistic harpsichord sound!
17 Sync I	Classic sound of the 1980s!
18 Percussive Organ	Fantastic, mega-ultra-cool electric organ of the 1960s!!! Just the right amount of key percussion, and you can add more Lounge-coolness by raising the vibrato amount via the mod wheel - great patch!
21 Unison Glide With Resonance	* A n a l o g * power in full effect... just listen how powerful and characteristic the "Unison" feature of the P-5 is...
22 Harmonium	Yep... also useful as some sort of accordion
23 Organ With Resonance	Another cool electric organ from the 1960s, with a bit of "rubbery" resonance on the filter
24 Toy Piano	Charming music box type sound
25 Trumpet-Flute	Highly expressive patch - a trumpet in the middle of the keyboard, hard flutes in the high registers
26 Filter Mod	Analog beauty
27 Reed Organ	Supremely realistic, works as accordion also
28 Brass In Fifths	Classic "Progressive" rock patch
31 Pipe Organ Flutes	Authentic representation of this type of sound
32 Sync II	The quintessential sync patch - the Cars' "Let's Go" patch
33 Electric Piano	Soft Rhodes, very beautiful
34 High Strings	Beautiful analog strings - the mod wheel adds wonderful animation to the sound
35 Octave Sawteeth	Cool analog poly sound - Set it Unison with glide, add TR-909 drum machine, it grooves
36 Release-Repeat	Nice play of envelopes
37 Delayed Harmonic	Cool delayed release
38 Echo-Repeat	Good sound with echo simulation
41 Pulse-Width Mod	Classic late 1970s New Wave type sound
42 Slow Sync Sweep	Powerful oscillators and LFOs
43 Fourths With Resonance	The extremely powerful resonant filters of the Prophet-5
44 Sweeping Harmonics	Contemplative, outstanding long reso-pad
45 Slow Sync	Oscillators slowly syncing
46 Random Arpeggiator	Very cool, different sound
47 Sawtooth Arpeggiator	With sawtooth
48 Clangorous Bells	Five years later, the Yamaha DX7 would arrive on the scene to be the king of "clangorous bells" thanks to FM, but I bet back in '78 these were hard to beat
51 Alien	The fantastic sound design capabilities of the Prophet-5
52 Noise Sweep	Yep
53 Descending Bells	More incredible sound fx
54 Descending Pulse Wave Mod	Great sci-fi fx
55 Helicopter	Realistic, reminds of Pink Floyd's "The Dark Side Of The Moon"
56 Resonance Bells	Hypnotic bells
57 Dupe Prog 11	n/a
58 Dupe Prog 16	n/a

File 2 Factory Programs audio demos (stream all File 2 demos below)

Patch name with audio demo	My comments
11 Percussive Flute With Delay	Charming sound with analog echoes
12 Comping No. 42	Supremely analog, chorused beauty
13 Ensemble With Release	Very early 1980s
14 Cutting Through	Powerful synth sound
15 Quack No. 9	The cool resonance of the filter
16 Camp Argon	Fun, quick decaying synth sound, excellent for accompaniment
17 Reedy Solo	Like a bendable accordion
18 Solo Sync No. 73	Huge solo synth, with wild mod wheel modulation
21 Bass Guitar Unison	Realistic 1960s bass guitar
22 Spitting Organ	Rubbery
23 Slow Orchestral Brass	Stupendous, archetypal analog synthesizer brass - it doesn't get much better than this for this type of sound.
24 Pulse Width Echo	Thick, gluey, beautiful synth patch
25 Dept. Store Clarinet	Noisy, "cheap" clarinet?
26 Slow Strings	Classic analog string pad, with excellent, animated modulation
27 Solo Violin	Not sure about this one...
28 High Violins	Beautiful, realistic violins and string ensemble
31 Clav Slightly Muted	Yep
32 Electric Piano II	Very nice synthesized piano
33 Barking Organ	Organ with puppies in it!
34 1960's Organ	Perfect for many 1960s genres! Can be used as standard console, or Farfisa/Vox type combo organ
35 Jazz Organ	Fantastic, classic Hammond B-3 type
36 Rock Organ	Overdriven organ for Rock
37 Angelic	Ethereal setting on a church organ
38 Fat Solo In Sync	Cool Minimoog type solo sound
41 Painful Solo	Oh yeah!
42 Electrocution	More crazy special effects from the Prophet
43 Launching Spacecrafts	Perfect science-fiction effects!!!
44 Digital Indigestion	Ha ha!
45 Whistle With Glissando	Cool stuff
46 Rubber Knife	Sound design is easy on the Prophet-5
47 Digital Solo	Different, characteristic digital-analog sound
48 Banshee Jets	Add the mod wheel for more fx
51 Descending Resonances	Crazy sounds
52 Cats Meow	Incredibly realistic cat sound!!!!!!!
53 Birds	Beautiful birds singing
54 Dog	Cool
55 Whistle	Realistic human whistling
56 Ascending Bleeps	More sci-fi effects
57 Morning After	Excellent post-atomic sound design effects
58 N.Y.C.	Fantastic, apocalyptic sound fx!!!

File 3 Factory Programs audio demos (stream all File 3 demos below)

Patch name with audio demo	My comments
11 Malleted Marimba	Realistic, woody, happy marimba sound!
12 Trumpet With Spit	Expressive trumpet
13 Oboe	Nice, nasal oboe patch
14 Trombones	Cool analog synth brass
15 Percolating Grunge	Yep
16 Wurlie Electric Piano	The classic Wurlitzer electric piano sound
17 Church Organ	Add some quality large hall reverb to this, and it will sound realistic
18 Slow Brass	Yes
21 Triffid Organ	Bouncy, analog, gluey organ
22 Plucked Harp	Beautiful harp patch
23 Arco Violin	Yep
24 Arco Ensemble	Chamber ensemble, very cool
25 Harpsichord	A variant on the great harpsichord achievable on a Prophet
26 Slow Strings	Large, analog string ensemble
27 Plucking With Brass	VCF controllable via pedal
28 Water Organ	Superb special effect that really sounds like in a dreamy underwater setting
31 Pulse Width Delay	Powerful
32 Dulcimer Organ	Beautiful, melancholic organ patch. Raise mod wheel for that The Who's "Won't fooled again" effect.
33 Banjo	The envelope is a bit short but it works.
34 Du. Keg Solo	I think this is a take on the name of George Duke, who used these types of solo sounds.
35 Sync Comp	Wild sync
36 Flutes In Fifths	At the court of the king
37 Slide Guitar	Nice guitar sound
38 Steel Drums	Very metal-sounding
41 The Nuge R&R Guitar	And I guess this is a take on Ted Nugent's guitar sound.
42 Video Games	Space Invaders
43 Final Frontier	More excellent sci-fi sound fx
44 The Landing	Outstanding spaceship sound fx
45 Dead Droids	Nice unison sci-fi fx
46 Steam Engine	Cool train
47 Detroit Solo	Reminds of certain Zawinul sounds
48 Formula II Race Cars Passing Grand Stands	Powerful engines!
51 Snare	Quintessential analog snare drum :-)
52 Tom-Toms	Realistic toms!!
53 Tympani	Cool orchestral timpani
54 Electric Drums	The classic Simmons hexagonal pads
55 Bombs Dropping	Realistic war zone!!!
56 Gunshots	Yep
57 Wind	Classic sound fx
58 Thunder	Distant thunder...

Additional audio demos with multi-effects (a Lexicon MPX-1 effect processor was used)

'80s Sad Strings Beautiful, quintessential analog strings, with excellent vibrato

'80s with delay Classic early 1980s bouncy sounds, typical of that era. Also, example of detuning the two oscillators

'80s Warm, classic synth from the 1980s

Analog strings beautiful strings

Bell + Atonal more out-of-this-world bells and sound fx

Long Tweak! Long example of sounds that can be achieved on the Prophet-5

One Osc to Two Osc One oscillator is powerful enough? Try two!!

Quacky Sync The typical synth duck

Synth Brass analog brass, quality

Wicked ResoFilter Powerful

Sequential Circuits Prophet-5 video demo

Part 1 of 3

Part 2 of 3

Part 3 of 3

Sequential Circuits Prophet-5 video demo Part 3 of 3

Features at a glance
Year of release:	1978
Polyphony:	5-voice
Presets:	40 (120 in Rev.3.3)
Rhythms:	no
Keyboard:	61-keys (five octaves)
Responds to velocity:	no
Responds to aftertouch:	no
Sound generation method:	analog
MIDI:	available in Rev. 3.3, and also MIDIable via factory retrofit for earlier models
Sound expansion capabilities:	no
Effects:	no
Controls:	knobs, buttons, wheels
Outputs:	mono
Display:	alpha-numeric LED
Misc:	Wooden chassis