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The Prophet '08's silver-topped dials are reminiscent of the Prophet 5's

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For the synth geeks among us, Dave Smith's name is synonymous with some of the best analogue synths ever made. The Prophet range of synths, including the Prophet 10, 5, T8 and Pro One made under Smith's company Sequential Circuits, are the stuff of legend due to their ballsy sound and great feature sets, and were the mainstays of many a pro keyboardist in the '70s and '80s.

In a time where analogue synthesis is having a great renaissance and Smith's current company is doing very well with the Evolver range of hybrid analogue/digital synths, it makes sense that the Prophet range is revisited to bring it into the here and now and to introduce a new generation to the sound of polyphonic analogue synthesis.

First impressions

The first thing that strikes you about the Prophet 08 is how compact it is, and this makes it perfect for those with space-strapped studios or even for slinging in the back of the car for gigs. By moving the pitch and mod wheels above the keyboard (they work surprisingly well in this position) and by using the (dreaded) external 'wall-wart' power supply, Dave Smith Instruments (DSI) have enabled the main body of the Prophet 08 to be only a little longer than the five-octave keyboard it contains.

The keyboard is semi-weighted and allows for very fast and accurate playing. It's also great that the keyboard incorporates aftertouch and this is very well implemented here. Often aftertouch can be all or nothing and quite hard to control, but here it's very smooth and reacts musically and predictably.

The interface is well laid out and it's great that the filter controls are slap bang in the middle of the panel - although it would have been better if the cutoff and resonance controls had been placed on the bottom row of dials nearer the keyboard for easy reach. The Prophet 5-style dials are the continuous type and feel sturdy, though there's a little sideward play. One thing that concerns us though is that you can't just look at the front panel and immediately know what your settings are - a major change from the Prophet 5.

In fact, it's not until you turn a dial that its corresponding value comes up in the display. In an ideal world, each dial would have its own ring of LEDs - like the Nord Lead 3 or the Moog Little Phatty - but this would add to the price considerably.

The sound

The sound architecture and sound shaping features are very comprehensive. This is an eight-voice (eight-note polyphonic) polysynth with two oscs per voice (16 oscs total), which also allows splits and layering of sounds. At this price point that's unique.

Prophet '08 has a 100% all analogue signal path that uses stable and drift-free DCOs (the same as in the Evolver range). Available wave shapes include saw, triangle, saw/ triangle mix, pulse (which, at a setting of 50, becomes a square wave) and noise. The Oscs have a wide ten-octave range from 8Hz to 8kHz, which allows for the creation of any type of sound from deep and bassy through bright and cutting.