Prophet-6 V OB-6 ?

[knolan]

Anyone own or tried out both the Prophet 6 and the OB-6? How do they compare / contrast?

The price difference is quite large - I wonder why?

Thanks!
Kevin.

[Ashe37]

The price difference here is $100 or so.

[Tidda]

More than €500 difference. Very strange.
Funny thing is, a while back it was the other way around:
Now: Prophet~6 €3099, OB-6 €2555
A while back: OB-6 €2644, Prophet~6 €2333

[Z]

I haven't tried the Prophet 6, but I've got an OB-6.

The P6 has traditional 4 pole low-pass filter whereas the OB-6 has 2 pole variable state filter. What sold me on the OB-6 is the ability to modulate the filter state via LFO or after touch. You hear a little bit of LFO modulating the filter state in this improv video I made:
[youtube][/youtube]

[Sawteeth]

I've tried both. A few friends have them. I've also played original Prophets, Sequentials and some old Oberheim keyboards like the 4voice, the OBXa and the Matrix 12. The difference between the OB 6 and the Prophet 6 is most noticeable in the filters. The OB6 has a nice sweetness when the filter resonates while the Prophet 6 overall is more gritty and dark. They both don't sound as big and lush as the older OB and Prophets (I'm guessing due to less noise, thd in the whole unit and more stability in the VCOs) but they're both at least half the price. So if you're, hypothetically, gonna buy both... maybe just save up for an older synth? Maintaining a new OB6 would probably be a lot easier though. And with a little help from FX and EQ ect, you could make them sound just as big if you know what you're doing.

Just to add some more personal opinion to this post, I like the sound of the OB6 more than the Prophet 6.

[allogistics]

I've tried both and own a Prophet 6. They're different enough that I'd really consider buying an OB-6 if I had 3k to spare I honestly loved them both and was really torn when choosing between them.

As mentioned before, the OB-6 has a 12db filter, but another difference is that the sub oscillator on it is a square wave. The Prophet 6 sub oscillator is a triangle wave, which is (to me) better for pads, poly patches, and sugary leads, but I'd pick the OB-6's square wave sub oscillator for aggressive monosynth sounds. I already have a monosynth, and I think a 24db filter is more versatile, so I went with the prophet.

I think of the Prophet 6 as more angelic, and the OB-6 as the dark side.

[Pro5]

OB-6.

Had both. Kept OB-6!