Dave Smith Instruments’ Prophet 12

PUSHING THE DIGITAL-ANALOG ENVELOPE

Since the 2013 Winter NAMM Show, the keyboard world has been abuzz about Dave Smith Instrument’s latest innovation—Prophet 12. A departure from this analog synth maker’s penchant for vintage analog designs, the Prophet 12 packs serious sonic firepower under the hood, including 48 oscillators (plus an additional 12 suboscillators), flexible routing and warm analog filtering. Thanks to the Character section, tweaking the Prophet 12’s sound with controls such as Hack, Girth, Drive and Air is especially intuitive. Plus, a universe of modulation resides inside this beast, and the real-time controllers are enough to keep any old-school analog synth junkie glued to the keys for days.

–Phil Selman