NAMM2013: DSI Prophet 12

NAMM 2013: Press Release:

Dave Smith Instruments today introduced a new polyphonic synthesizer, the Prophet 12, at the 2013 NAMM Show. “After 35 years of creating synths, this is simply my best synth yet,” said Smith. “We sort of started from scratch on this one rather than spinning off another product from our previous designs.”

At twelve voices, the Prophet 12 boasts the greatest polyphony of any instrument designed by Smith. Each voice features four oscillators capable of generating classic and complex waveforms, a sub-oscillator, resonant analog low- and high-pass filters, and analog VCAs. The new Character section adds a variety of wave shaping and sound sculpting options, like Drive, Hack, Decimation, Girth, and Air. Additional features include a tuned feedback path, a four-tap stereo delay per voice, expanded arpeggiator functionality, deep modulation capabilities, and bi-timbral operation. The LFOs, delay, and arpeggiator can all be synced, either to the internal clock or an external MIDI clock. Two programmable position- and pressure-sensitive touch sliders take the performance controls beyond the standard pitch and mod wheels (also included).

“We’re already blown away by the sonic breadth of this synthesizer’s new voice architecture,” Smith continued. “It doesn’t sound like anything else and I’m very excited for people to hear it.”

The Prophet 12 is expected to be available Q2 of 2013 and is projected to cost $2999

This is in the 'money to burn' category. Sounds like it'd be good for Horror soundtracks!

I was thinking Sci-Fi…as in the vein of a Flash Gordon remake.

I'll be checking out more videos of this one though, as they come. We'll see if this is really a "synth year" like many are expecting it to be as more products are released.

The first few minutes of that video sounded like John Carpenter!

This will be perfect for some people, but after owning the Andromeda I tend to look for the really simple great sounding synths these days.

I've got the new Moog and MS-20 both pencilled in.

shit i really gotta find a job

this is absurd.

Hardware synths are out of control!
This one is reeeaalllllyy powerful man, maybe it will be used for the Blade Runner 2 OST? ;P (nah, the cs-80 is still cooler)

Is there any word on how much is digital and how much is analogue?

I would guess oscillators (duh), envelopes, LFOs, probably the delays, are digital,
and filters, VCAs, and distortion are analog.
That's how they can get the absurd like 4 envelopes and 4 LFOs per voice and all.

i think i read the oscillators are digital, but i think in the tempest, there are both analog an digital oscillators.. so it could be both

Dave Smith on the Prophet 12. He talks a bit about various components and features of the synth.

4 oscillators per voice (3? can't remember off the top of my head), 12 voices, it's definitely not all analog oscillators.

Maybe it's partly analog though. Perhaps, for example, the suboscillator is analog, based on dividing the main oscillators for the octaving.

I got a nice overview vid on this one. I'm blown away. its def in my top 5 NAMM 2013 list. Roger was pleased that Dave was able to keep this such a secret until the day of NAMM.

four oscillators, one sub, all digital, 12 voices = 60 oscillators

this looks nice as hell but nothing I would ever buy. I'm still gonna go with a tetra/minataur combo or budget willing the tempest, this is more for the serious synth players out there imo....which I am far from being