Superbooth 2018: Dave Smith Instruments officially announces Sequential Prophet X synthesizer

Superbooth 2018: We’ve had the teaser video, and now Dave Smith Instruments has given us the big reveal of the Sequential Prophet X.

In a nutshell, the Prophet X is a bi-timbral, 8-voice stereo (16-voice mono) synthesizer that combines samples and synthesis. 

Powering this performance and sound-designing beast are two simultaneous 16-bit, 48kHz sample-based instruments and two high-resolution digital oscillators with waveshape modulation. The signal path is then routed through analogue filters.

Dave Smith commented: “The Prophet X is a powerful evolution of the Prophet series. Musicians have been asking for samples through real analogue filters for a long time. We’ve given them not only that, but also all of the synthesis capabilities and awesome sound you’d expect from a Prophet.”   

For the sample side of the P-X, DSI looked to ‘deep sampling’ specialists 8Dio for the job and is throwing in a 150GB sample library of acoustic and electronic material to boot. There’s also a further 50GB of internal storage for importing additional samples.

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Shaping and effecting the samples is achieved through loop manipulation and sample stretching. The many sound-sculpting functions available include four envelope generators, four LFOs and a deep modulation matrix.

A dual-effects engine provides multiple reverbs, two delays (standard and BBD), a chorus, flanger, phase shifter, rotary speaker, high-pass filter, and distortion. In stacked or split voice mode, you can apply two different effects to each layer. 

A nice touch is that both effects parameters and samples can be modulated through the mod matrix, which will, no doubt, make for some rather exciting sonic results.

All of this sound manipulation is wrapped up in the usual premium Dave Smith chassis that we’ve become accustomed to, and we are treated to not one, not two, but three OLED displays. Input is delivered via a five-octave, semi-weighted keyboard with velocity and channel aftertouch. Plus, there's a polyphonic step sequencer which allows up to 64 steps and up to six notes per step, per layer.

It’s little wonder that all of this will amount to a lofty $3,999, but then we have a feeling that it might just be worth it. We’ll have more for you when we meet it the Prophet X flesh tomorrow at Superbooth 2018.

According to DSI, the Prophet X will be available in the summer and several sample libraries will be available from 8Dio at launch, while support for user-created sample content is planned for December 2018. For more information go to the Dave Smith Instruments website.

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