Prophet 8: Prophet 5 reborn by Dave Smith Industries?

Dave Bryce is a DSI staffer who regularly pops up on the Vintage Synth forum to drop rumours about new products (just like he did for the launch of the Mono Evolver Keyboard). At the moment he's holding court with an announcement sure to bring a tear to eye of the most hard-hearted synth geek. DSI is about to release the Prophet 8 - a 30th anniversary re-release/remix of the Prophet 5. Of course, Matrix Synth has a good summary of what we know so far: 8 voice, all analog, patch memory, sequencer, arpeggiator, none of the digital stuff from the Evolver, street price of $1,999. Exciting stuff. There are sound samples from Stefan Trippler here and a teasing video here.
If you need any reminding of how cool Prophet 5s were, I strongly recommend this wonderful YouTube clip of Talking Heads playing in Rome in 1980 with two Prophet 5s, one Prophet 10 and Adrian Belew on strat and RE-201. There's a torrent of the whole show on Trader's Den (some registration required, I think). (Thanks Aaron, picture via BDU, Heads link via BoingBoing)

Posted by Tom Whitwell.

Comments:

yeh, i wet myself

# posted by

Awakened Yeti : 1:15 am

Seems like a great deal for two grand...

# posted by

Dave : 2:32 am

Sounds like the 80's all over again. Analog synths are overpriced and overhyped. There's much better synths available in this price range.

# posted by

Anonymous : 4:50 pm

2 grand for an imitation of a primitive synth. Looks like the keyboard makers got your number -- I think Fender gave to them after they got through making that latest run of fake old guitars they overcharge for.

Have fun, suckers! Make sure they put some wooden end caps on it for ya, so you can rub it and pretend you're in Styx.

# posted by

Anonymous : 11:24 pm

^ enjoy your vsti - make sure they don't include midi learn so you can use your remote sl zero...

# posted by

Anonymous : 2:22 am

Maybe it should be interesting, for all the Prophet V fans, to also mention "Songs for the ten voices of the two Prophets" performance by Terry Riley (on the Descending Moonshine Dervishes album).

# posted by

Unknown : 9:12 am

ive got the se version!
its simply a lovely beast! a wide, thick , fat, sweet and very multifunctional synth! get your hand on the knobs and programming your sounds.. youll be amazed!

thanks dave! :D
stanley

# posted by

Anonymous : 12:53 pm

It maybe overhyped and overpriced, but it shat on EVERY other synth in the store!!! I own one now and I think it's rad.
Have fun future Prophet owners...

# posted by

Anonymous : 1:05 pm

just bought a prophet 8
sounds the way a good analog synth
should, to bad the rest of the other leading manufacturers have not figured it out yet. analog modelling?rom sample playback?
fm?la?and allthat other stuff?
no thanx. my only complaints about the prophet are the knobs
are sensitive. so if you bump them
slightly, they will change the parameter. also i hope the knobs will stand the test of time, i seem
to remember the p5's were a lot
better. and the power supply sux.
but once you start playing this
thing you'll forget all about the
little things. kinda like riding a motorcycle. you forget the world around you when you play the prophet. the way a good analog synth should be. have'nt been this
content since my days with the jupiter 6. no buyers remorse here.
it's a keeper. ignore those other
negative reviews, i think there
trying to convince themselves that
the newer technology is better.

# posted by

Anonymous : 12:20 am

I have to agree, just bought a Prophet 08 SE and its wicked... looks lovely sounds even better. Agree about the buttons but the noises that come out of that machine are true analogue magic... finally a modern day analogue synth.. takes me back to Yazoo days.

# posted by

Anonymous : 6:25 pm

Just bought a Prophet 8. Amazing synth. Truly inspiring. However, that's when it works because it keeps freezing. Seems kind of like it crashes. I have to turn it off for about 10 minutes or so until I can get a sound out of it again. Has anybody else had this issue?

# posted by

Anonymous : 1:43 am