Sequential Prophet-6 User manual

Operation Manual

Operation Manual
Version 1.0
June 2015
Dave Smith Instruments/Sequential
1527 Stockton Street, 3rd Floor
San Francisco, CA 94133
USA
©2015 Dave Smith Instruments
www.davesmithinstruments.com

This device complies with Part 15 of the FCC Rules. Operation is subject to
the following two conditions: (1) This device may not cause harmful inter-
ference and (2) this device must accept any interference received, including
interference that may cause undesired operation.
This Class B digital apparatus meets all requirements of the Canadian
Interference-Causing Equipment Regulations.
Cet appareil numerique de la classe B respecte toutes les exigences du
Reglement sur le materiel brouilleur du Canada.
For Technical Support, email: [email protected]

Table of Contents
A Few Words of Thanks ...............................ix
Getting Started........................................1
Sound Banks ...........................................2
Selecting Programs ......................................2
Editing Programs ........................................3
Comparing an Edited Program to its Original State ..............3
Creating a Program from Scratch ............................4
Live Panel Mode .........................................4
Saving a Program ........................................5
Canceling Save..........................................6
Moving to the Next Level ..................................7
Connections..........................................8
Global Settings ......................................10
Globals - Top Row ...................................... 11
Globals - Bottom Row....................................13
Oscillators ..........................................15
Oscillator Parameters ....................................16
Slop................................................18
Mixer ...............................................19
Filters ..............................................20
Filter Envelope.......................................22
Changing the Filter Envelope’s Response Curve ...............23
Amplier Envelope ...................................24
Effects. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .26
Main Parameters .......................................28

Low Frequency Oscillators. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .31
Poly Mod............................................33
Poly Mod Parameters ....................................34
Arpeggiator .........................................35
Arpeggiator Parameters ..................................36
Sequencer ..........................................37
Programming the Sequencer ..............................37
Sequencer Parameters...................................39
Distortion ...........................................41
Hold................................................42
Glide ...............................................42
Unison .............................................43
Using Chord Memory ....................................44
Write ...............................................46
Canceling Save.........................................47
Comparing Before You Save ..............................47
Globals .............................................48
Preset ..............................................49
Pitch and Mod Wheels ................................50
Pitch Wheel............................................50
Modulation Wheel .......................................51
Misc Parameters .....................................52
Aftertouch ..........................................53
Exporting Programs and Banks.........................55

Calibrating the Prophet-6 ..............................56
How and When to Calibrate the Oscillators and Filters ..........56
Calibrating the Pitch and Mod Wheels .......................57
Resetting the Global Parameters ...........................57
Using USB ..........................................58
Appendix A: Alternative Tunings ........................59
Appendix B: Troubleshooting and Support ...............63
Troubleshooting ........................................63
Contacting Technical Support ..............................64
Appendix C: MIDI Implementation .......................65
MIDI Messages.........................................66
NRPN Messages .......................................70
Control NRPN Data .....................................74
The following table lists the Prophet-6’s control NRPN data. It is
received and transmitted but not saved as part of a program. ....74
Sysex Messages........................................74
Packed Data Format ....................................77

The DSI Crew
Ashley Bellouin, Fabien Cesari, Bob Coover, Carson Day, Chris Hector, Tony Karavidas,
Mark Kono, Andrew McGowan, Joanne McGowan, Tracy Wadley, and Mark Wilcox.
Special thanks to Ikutaro Kakehashi and Yamaha Corporation. Thanks also
to Robert Rich for the alternative tunings content. And nally, a shout out to
OMOM (Old Men Of MIDI) for their support, camaraderie, and sound design.
Robert Rich
Matia Simovich
James Terris
Mitch Thomas
Taiho Yamada
Josheph Akins
John Bowen
Richard Devine
Peter Dyer
Tim Koon
Kurt Kurasaki
Kevin Lamb
Jason Lindner
Cord Mueller
Drew Neumann
Credits and Acknowledgements
Sound Design

A Few Words of Thanks
Thank you for purchasing the Prophet-6. We take a lot of pleasure in creating all
of our instruments but bringing the Prophet-6 to life was particularly satisfying.
In many ways it brings my 40-plus years of designing synthesizers full circle. I’ll
tell you why.
In 2014, two events occurred that led to the creation of the Prophet-6. The rst
was a fairly common one around our ofce — our usual informal discussion
about what would be interesting to build next. (We don’t do marketing surveys
around here.) We all agreed that an analog poly synth with true voltage-controlled
oscillators, lters, and ampliers would not only be exciting to design, but would
also almost certainly sound great. So we decided to do it.
Event two transpired when, unknown to me, my old friend and collaborator in the
creation of MIDI, Ikutaro Kakehashi, founder of Roland, asked Yamaha Corporation
to consider returning ownership of my original company brand, Sequential Circuits,
to me. (Yamaha had purchased Sequential’s assets when we closed shop back in
1987.) Yamaha generously agreed and suddenly Sequential was back — almost. All
we needed was an awesome new product to bear the name.
Well, you know how the story ends: with the very synth you’ve just purchased. We
gured that building the best-sounding analog poly synth possible would be a tting
tribute to Sequential’s most famous instrument, the Prophet-5, the poly synth that
started it all.
The Sequential Prophet-6 takes the best qualities of the Prophet-5 and adds some nice
touches that the original never had, such as stereo outputs, velocity and aftertouch
sensitivity, dual digital effects, a high-pass lter, a polyphonic step sequencer, an
arpeggiator, and of course, MIDI. The result is a synth with vintage analog tone and
the reliability of a state-of-the-art, modern instrument.
I hope you enjoy the Prophet-6 as much as we enjoyed designing it for you.
Cheers,

1
Prophet-6 Operation Manual
Getting Started
Getting Started
The Prophet-6 is a six-voice, polyphonic analog synthesizer with
voltage-controlled oscillators, lters, and ampliers. It was designed to
provide all of the warmth and presence of a vintage-era synth with the
added convenience and stability of a state-of-the-art, modern instrument.
The Prophet-6 is rst and foremost a performance instrument. All of its
sound-shaping controls are immediately accessible on its front panel,
packing a tremendous amount of power and versatility into a compact,
easy-to-use format.
You can nd in-depth information about each of the Prophet-6’s parame-
ters in later sections of this manual. But don’t hesitate to dive right in and
start turning knobs and pressing buttons before you begin reading. You
can always get back to where you started, even if you have no idea what
you’re doing. So start exploring and keep your ears and mind open!
PITCH MOD
WRITE PRESET10 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9HOLD GLIDE UNISON BANKSELECT
BANK
SELECT
TENS
PROGRAM
0
DOWN UP
TRANSPOSE GLIDE RATE
P WHL RANGEKEY MODE
FREQUENCY SHAPE PULSE WIDTH
SYNC
OSCILLATOR 1
CUTOFF ENV AMOUNTRESONANCE
LOW-PASS FILTER
FREQUENCY FINE SHAPE PULSE WIDTH
LOW FREQ
VELOCITY
KEYBOARD
OSCILLATOR 2
LOW FREQUENCY OSCILLATOR
OSC 1 OSC 2
SUB OC TAVE NOISE
MIXER
CUTOFF ENV AMOUNTRESONANCE
KEYBOARD
DISTORT HIGH-PASS FILTER
ENV AMOUNT AT TACK D ECAY SU STAIN RELEA SE
AMPLIFIER ENVELOPE
FILTER ENVELOPE
VELOCITY KEY BOARD VELOCITY
FREQ 1
LFO SYNC FREQ 2 P W 1+2 AMP FILTER
INITIAL AMT
SHAPE
FREQUENCY
AMOUNT
SLOP
AMOUNT
MASTER VOL PAN SPREAD
MISC PARAMETERS
AMOUNT
FREQ 1 FREQ 2 LFO AMT AMP FILTER
AFTERTOUCH
OSC 2 PRGM VOLFILTER ENV
FREQ 1 SHAPE 1 PW 1 FILTER
POLY MOD ARPEGGIATOR SEQUENCERCLOCK
OCTAV ESVALUE MODE
TAP TEMPO
BPM
ON/OFF PLAY
RECORD
Half Full
Half Full
EFFECTS
ON/OFF EFFECT SYNC
CLOCK
TYPE
A B
MIX 1
2
GLOBALS
Local Ctrl Seq Jack Pot Mode Sustain +/- Alt Tuning Vel Response AT Response Stereo/Mono PgmDump
Transpose Master Tune MIDI Channel MIDI Clock Clock Port ParamXmit Param Rcv MIDI Control MIDI SysEx MIDIOut
USBMIDI InMIDIOutMIDI ThruPhones Left Right LP Filter Volume Sustain Sequencer AC In On/Of f
ATTAC K DECAY S USTAI N RELEASE
IncrementDecrement
Prophet-6 front panel

2 Getting Started Dave Smith Instruments
Sound Banks
The Prophet-6 contains a total of 1000 programs. 500 are permanent and
500 can be overwritten. Banks 0-4 are User Banks that can be overwrit-
ten. Banks 5-9 are Factory Banks that are permanent. You can edit the
programs of either bank, but you can only save them to Banks 0-4. As
shipped from the factory, presets 000-499 are identical to 500-999.
10 2 3 4 5
6 7 8 9
BANKSELECT
BANK
SELECT
TENS
PROGRAM
Local Ctrl Seq Jack Pot Mode Sustain +/- Alt Tuning
Vel Response AT Response Stereo/Mono Pgm Dump
Transpose Master Tune MIDI Channel MIDI Clock Clock Port
Param Xmit Param Rcv MIDI Control MIDI SysEx MIDI Out
IncrementDecrement
Program bank, tens, and number selectors
Selecting Programs
Use the bank, tens, and program selector buttons to select and recall
programs.
To choose a program:
1. Hold down the bank button then press a program selector button (0-9)
to specify the “hundreds” bank of the program.
2. Hold down the tens button then press a program selector button (0-9)
to specify the “tens” digit of the program.
3. Press a program selector button (0-9) to specify the “ones” digit of the
program.
To choose program 123, for example:
1. Hold bank and press 1. Then release the bank button.
2. Hold tens and press 2. Then release the tens button.
3. Press program selector button 3.

3
Prophet-6 Operation Manual
Getting Started
It’s not always necessary to enter all 3 digits of a program number to
recall it.
For example:
• If the current program is 100 and you want to recall program 101,
simply press “1.”
• If the current program is 100 and you want to recall program 110, hold
down the tens button and press “1.”
• If the current program is 100 and you want to recall program 115, hold
down the tens button and press “1.” Then release the tens button and
press “5.”
Pressing the globals button three times in a row saves the current program as
the default program that appears when you turn on the Prophet-6.
Editing Programs
Because all of the sound-shaping controls of the Prophet-6 appear on its front
panel, editing an existing program is simple: just turn a knob and listen to its
effect. Keep turning knobs and pressing buttons and if you like what you’ve
created, save the program. (See “Saving Programs” on page 5.)
The rotary controls on the front panel are a mixture of “endless” rotary encoders
and potentiometers or “pots.” You can choose between three different modes that
determine how the synth reacts when parameters are edited with a pot. For details,
see “Pot Mode” on page 13.
Comparing an Edited Program to its Original State
When editing a program, it’s often useful to compare its edited state to
its original state to evaluate your edits. Alternatively, before saving a
program to a new location you may want to check the program in the
target location before you overwrite it.
To compare an edited program to a saved version:
1. Edit a program.
2. Press the write button. It starts ashing.

4 Getting Started Dave Smith Instruments
3. Press the global button. Both LEDs on the button light up, indicating
compare mode.
4. Play the keyboard to hear the saved version of the sound.
5. To disable the compare function and return to the edited sound, turn off
the global button. Programs can’t be written while in compare mode.
6. If you want to save the edited sound, the write button is still ash-
ing and ready to save, so enter a location with the program selector
buttons. The sound is saved.
7. Alternatively, if you want to cancel saving and continue editing, press
the write button. It stops ashing and saving is canceled.
Creating a Program from Scratch
An existing program can be very useful as a jumping off point for new
sounds. But it’s also useful (and educational) to create a new sound from
scratch. The Prophet-6 makes this easy by providing a “Basic Preset”
that you can quickly recall at any time. This preset is very simple, with a
single oscillator as its basis.
To recall the Basic Preset:
1. Hold down the preset button.
2. Press the write button.
Live Panel Mode
The Prophet-6 also features a “live panel” mode in which its sound
switches to the current settings of its knobs and switches. In other words,
the current preset is ignored and what you see on the front panel is what you
hear. This is a great mode for learning, experimentation, and instant gratication.
To enter live panel mode:
• Press the preset button to toggle it off. Note that you can’t change
programs or banks with Preset off.
To return to preset mode:
• Press the preset button again to toggle it on.

5
Prophet-6 Operation Manual
Getting Started
PRESET
Toggling off the preset button enables “live panel” mode
Saving a Program
If you’ve created a sound that you like, you’ll probably want to save it.
Saving a program overwrites a previously saved program. Sound design-
ers often save many incremental versions of a program as they continue
to rene it. These intermediate versions often make good jumping off
points for new sounds.
To save a program to the same preset location:
1. Press the write button. Its LED begins blinking.
2. Press a program selector button (0-9) to specify the “ones” digit of the
program.
3. The write button LED stops blinking and the program is saved.
Be careful when write is enabled. You can change banks and tens without
executing write, but once you press a program selector button (0-9) for the “ones”
digit, the write command is executed and the program at that location is overwritten.
To save a program to a different bank location:
1. Press the write button. Its LED begins blinking.
2. Hold down the bank button then press a program selector button to
specify the “hundreds” bank of the program. You can only save to
Banks 0-4.
3. Hold down the tens button then press a program selector button (0-9)
to specify the “tens” digit of the program.
4. Press a program selector button (0-9) to specify the “ones” digit of the
program.
5. The write button LED stops blinking and the program is saved.

6 Getting Started Dave Smith Instruments
Canceling Save
Sometimes you may want to cancel saving a program before you
commit.
To cancel the Save process before you commit:
• If the write button LED is ashing, press it again. The LED stops ash-
ing and saving is canceled. You can return to editing if you want.
Comparing Before You Save
Before saving a program to a new location, it’s a good idea to listen to the
program in the target location to make sure you really want to overwrite it.
To evaluate a program before you overwrite it:
1. Get ready to save by pressing the write button. It starts ashing.
2. Press the global button. Both LEDs on the button light up, indicating
compare mode.
3. Use the program buttons to navigate to the sound you want to compare
and play the keyboard to hear the sound.
4. To disable the compare function and go back to the edited sound, turn
off the global button. Programs can’t be written while in compare
mode.
5. If you want to save the edited sound, the write button is still ashing
and ready to save, so enter a location with the program buttons. The
sound is saved.
6. Alternatively, if you want to cancel saving and continue editing, press
the write button. It stops ashing and saving is canceled.

7
Prophet-6 Operation Manual
Getting Started
Moving to the Next Level
The Prophet-6 is lled with possibilities for sound creation. Although
we realize that you’d rather spend your time exploring its capabilities,
we’d like to point you toward a few things that will help you tailor the
instrument to your needs.
First, check out the Global Settings section of this manual. Read about
Pot Modes and determine which works best for you when you’re editing
sounds. You’ll also nd information about MIDI setup. Read this to more
effectively integrate the Prophet-6 into your MIDI rig. To get the most
out of the Prophet-6’s live performance capabilities, read up on using a
footswitch or expression pedal.
And nally, be on the lookout for tips and notes scattered throughout this
manual to gain a better working knowledge of the Prophet-6. The better
you know your instrument, the more you’ll get out of it. We wish you
many hours of musical exploration!

8 Connections Dave Smith Instruments
Connections
1. AC Power Connector—Accepts a standard, grounded IEC power
cord. Operates over a range of 100 to 240 volts and 50 to 60 Hz.
2. USB—For bidirectional MIDI communication with a computer. The
Prophet-6 is a Class Compliant USB device and does not require addi-
tional drivers when used with Mac OS or Windows. See Using USB on
page 58 for more information.
3. MIDI In, Out, and Thru—Standard 5-pin MIDI DIN connectors.
4. Footswitch-Sequence—Accepts a momentary, normally open or
normally closed footswitch to turn the sequencer or arpeggiator on and
off. Alternatively, an audio signal connected to this jack can be used to
either control sequencer/arpeggiator playback, or to gate the lter and
amplier envelopes while notes are held. See “Seq Jack” on page 13
for more information about choosing the appropriate mode for these
behaviors.
5. Footswitch-Sustain—Accepts a momentary, normally open or
normally closed footswitch to control sustain. See “Sustain +/-” on page
14 for more information.
6. Expression Pedal-Volume—Accepts a standard expression pedal
that has a variable resistor on a TRS (tip-ring-sleeve) ¼ inch phone plug.
Once connected, you can use the pedal to control volume to add expres-
siveness and dynamics to live performance.
1 2 3 4
5 6 7 8 9

9
Prophet-6 Operation Manual
Connections
1 2 3 4
5 6 7 8 9
7. Expression Pedal-LP Filter—Accepts a standard expression pedal
that has a variable resistor on a TRS (tip-ring-sleeve) ¼ inch phone plug.
Once connected, you can use the pedal to control the cutoff frequency of
the low-pass lter to add expressiveness to live performance.
8. Audio Outputs—Unbalanced, ¼ inch audio outputs. The Prophet-6
sounds great in stereo, but can be switched to mono if needed. See
“Mono/Stereo” in Global Settings on page 13.
9. Headphones—A ¼ inch stereo headphone jack. Headphone volume is
controlled by the master vol knob on the front panel.

10 Global Settings Dave Smith Instruments
Global Settings
Global settings are parameters that affect all programs. These include
settings such as Master Tune, MIDI Channel, MIDI Clock, and others.
Global parameters are printed above the numeric program selector
switches (0 - 9). Use the Globals switch to choose between the two sets.
The red LED indicates that the upper row is active. The yellow LED
indicates that the lower row is active
GLOBALS
The Globals button
10 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
Local Ctrl Seq Jack Pot Mode Sustain +/- Alt Tuning
Vel Response AT Response Stereo/Mono Pgm Dump
Transpose Master Tune MIDI Channel MIDI Clock Clock Port
Param Xmit Param Rcv MIDI Control MIDI SysEx MIDI Out
Globals 0-4
10 2 3 4
5 6 7 8 9
Local Ctrl Seq Jack Pot Mode Sustain +/- Alt Tuning
Vel Response AT Response Stereo/Mono Pgm Dump
Transpose Master Tune MIDI Channel MIDI Clock Clock Port
Param Xmit Param Rcv MIDI Control MIDI SysEx MIDI Out
Globals 5-9
BANKSELECT
BANK
SELECT
TENS
PROGRAM
IncrementDecrement
Use the Bank and Tens buttons to scroll forward and backward, respectively, through parameter settings