Prophet 5 to Prophet 600 Comparison?

WhinyLittleRunt · Post by **WhinyLittleRunt** » Mon Sep 21, 2009 1:35 pm

I'm sure this has been argued before, and forgive me if I am bringing up something common..

I know the two are vastly different which is obviously why one would command $3000 as opposed to less than $1000, but as far as just patches go, if one were programmed similar to the Prophet 5 (such as the sync patch #17) and you leave out the real-time tweaking, how similar are they in sound? Obviously I'm talking about CEM based Prophets to begin with - I am just curious if you did a side to side on the patch itself if it's pretty much the same...

otto · Post by **otto** » Tue Sep 22, 2009 1:35 am

I've owned both but not at the same time. The prophet 600 is the only synth I can think of that will get you that thick american big-poly sound for under $1000. It does sound a fair amount like a P5, perhaps a bit more metalic and darker. My P600 always made me want to make an horror movie soundtrack. Great value for the money, I think the big issue is related to real time tweaking w/stepping and I know they get a bad rap for reliability from time to time... Go for it, I miss mine sometimes.

Post by **EmptySet** » Tue Sep 22, 2009 2:56 am

Maybe you should post a patch sheet or two and have P600 and P5 owners send you recordings of the same patch being played on both synths.

devetron · Post by **devetron** » Tue Sep 22, 2009 3:28 pm

EmptySet wrote:Maybe you should post a patch sheet or two and have P600 and P5 owners send you recordings of the same patch being played on both synths.

I'd be happy to patch up my P600 for that and post the results. Any P5 owners game?

hageir · Post by **hageir** » Tue Sep 22, 2009 5:45 pm

devetron wrote:
EmptySet wrote:Maybe you should post a patch sheet or two and have P600 and P5 owners send you recordings of the same patch being played on both synths.
I'd be happy to patch up my P600 for that and post the results. Any P5 owners game?

just for the heck of it, I'll program (as close as possible) the patch on my Six-Trak

XpanderXt · Post by **XpanderXt** » Tue Sep 22, 2009 11:02 pm

I'd do a patch thing on my Prophet 5. They won't sound anything alike by putting the knobs to the same place though.

I had both, not at the same time, just like Otto.
I never liked the sound of the 600. I got rid of it about 3 months after I got it. Trying to describe sound with words is near impossible but I would say the P5 sounds more refined, more like a higher end product than the 600. The 600 had a sound more like a poly 6 meets a Juno 106, both of which I never liked the sound of.

out of all the cut down synths of that time, the 600 was the best in my opinion. Much better than the Poly 6/poly 61/juno 106 stuff. It just didn't match up to the sound of the OBXa, Prophet 5 and Jupiter 8.

WhinyLittleRunt · Post by **WhinyLittleRunt** » Mon Sep 28, 2009 12:24 am

Thanks for the responses.
What happened was we got a good deal a few weeks ago on a local Prophet 600 so we grabbed it. Yes, the stepping sucks big time but I was trying to see if you could get close enough just to feel satisfied... At any rate I think it's still a worthwhile little synth. But you're right, in comparison to the OB-8/OB-Xa which we also have, it's not sonically as good.

Post by **nadafarms** » Mon Sep 28, 2009 7:39 am

DUDE THERE IS HELLA STEPPING ON THE PROPHET 5 TOO...

Seriously there is plenty of filter stepping on the p5, yes there is a bit on the p600 but I don't know why people don't mention the super obvious stepping in the p5 filter there is a ton! So don't let stepping be the reason you judge a synth.

If you don't like stepping get something without patch storage otherwise you are having unrealistic expectations of a VCO polysynth with patch storage and midi. There are really only a handful of vco polys that don't have stepping, polysix is one but those suck next to a p600 IMO

All the studio electronics stuff has butt loads of stepping almost as much as a p600.

Sure the envelopes are snappier on the p5 but honestly I like the p600 better call me crazy. Right now I have a p5 rev 3.2 and I can't wait to dump it for a bunch of gear next week including a CS-50 which doesn't have stepping

Just love the p600 for what it is, don't expect real punchy bass or smooth filter sweeps. But everything else is killer! The oscillators sound great and the filter is killer I think.

The p600 is a totally wicked bargain too everyone should have one. For the price of a p5 I would way rather have a p600 and a pro one and a bunch a money left over for hookers

pricklyrobot · Post by **pricklyrobot** » Mon Sep 28, 2009 12:45 pm

Plus, there's a CV input for Filter Cutoff on the P-600, so a cheap-o volume pedal and a 9V battery can easily get you around that stepping problem.

WhinyLittleRunt · Post by **WhinyLittleRunt** » Tue Sep 29, 2009 1:43 am

pricklyrobot wrote:Plus, there's a CV input for Filter Cutoff on the P-600, so a cheap-o volume pedal and a 9V battery can easily get you around that stepping problem.

Really...

Because that's the only one I really care about sweeping without obvious stepping. I have an OB-8 and I know it steps in the oscillator frequencies but that's no big deal at all. Does the P5 actually step through the cutoff filter? I've never heard anything like that spoken about the Prophet, only about the 600 and obviously I've never tweaked a P5 enough to remember this...

pflosi · Post by **pflosi** » Tue Sep 29, 2009 2:53 pm

i'm surprised as well, the p5 has stepping problems? also on the EGs or only when sweeping?

devetron · Post by **devetron** » Tue Sep 29, 2009 3:06 pm

We need to clear this up. The Prophets 5 and 600 only step audibly when you sweep manually with the knobs. This does not happen when the LFO or envelopes sweep parameters.

XpanderXt · Post by **XpanderXt** » Tue Sep 29, 2009 6:14 pm

devetron wrote:We need to clear this up. The Prophets 5 and 600 only step audibly when you sweep manually with the knobs. This does not happen when the LFO or envelopes sweep parameters.

totally agree!
Same goes for the Oberheim Xpander and most other stuff. There is the equivalent of Lag circuits on all of these that smooth out any stepping that would happen.

Post by **nadafarms** » Tue Sep 29, 2009 9:11 pm

yeah that is why people need to stop hating on the p600 like it's some type of red headed stepping child

WhinyLittleRunt · Post by **WhinyLittleRunt** » Wed Sep 30, 2009 12:04 am

devetron wrote:We need to clear this up. The Prophets 5 and 600 only step audibly when you sweep manually with the knobs. This does not happen when the LFO or envelopes sweep parameters.

I've always heard that the reason people dislike the 600 to the 5 is because of the noticeable stepping in the filter cutoff, etc , that it's digitally controlled, slow envelopes...

But you're basically saying that if I sweep the cutoff filter manually on the P5 it will step like the 600? Can anyone post an audio example of this?

Prophet 5 to Prophet 600 Comparison?

Prophet 5 to Prophet 600 Comparison?

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Re: Prophet 5 to Prophet 600 Comparison?

Re: Prophet 5 to Prophet 600 Comparison?

Re: Prophet 5 to Prophet 600 Comparison?

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Re: Prophet 5 to Prophet 600 Comparison?

Re: Prophet 5 to Prophet 600 Comparison?

Re: Prophet 5 to Prophet 600 Comparison?

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