The History of the Prophet Synthesizer

One of the most interesting stories of the synth world is that of Dave Smith and Sequential Circuits. I decided to try to tell some of it via their flagship series, from the Prophet 5 in 1978 to the Prophet X in 2018. With the help of a dozen other people who were incredibly generous and equally excited by their instruments, this film is the result: The History of the Prophet Synthesizer.

Massive and heart-felt thanks to all of these awesome Prophet people, this film would be very short without you!

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Prophet 5 (rev 3) and Minimoog Model D performed and recorded by Alex Ball at Curve Pusher Studios.
http://www.curvepusher.co.uk/

Prophet 10 performed and recorded by Mike TC at 100 Things I do at MESS, Melbourne.
   / @100thingsido  

Prophet 10 rev 1 (only 2 of these have survived!) images provided by David Kean at Audities Studio
https://www.audities.org/

Additional Prophet 10 images provided by Mathew Watson at MESS, Melbourne.
https://mess.foundation/

Pro-One performed and recorded by Alex Ball.

Prophet 600 performed and recorded by JP Geersing
https://jpgeersing.nl/
   • The sound of a Prophet 600 with moder...  

Prophet T8 performed by Alex Ball. Massive thanks to the owner!

Prophet 2000 performed and recorded by Pulsophonic
   / pulsophonic  
http://www.pulsophonic.com/

Prophet VS performed and recorded by Marko Ettlich at Retrosound
http://www.retrosound.de/
   / @retrosound72  

Prophet 3000, VS and Studio 400 images provided by Synth Electro
http://synthelectro-fr.blogspot.com/

DSi Tetra provided by Dave Grant

Prophet 08 performed and recorded by Patrick Gill
http://www.patrickgillmusic.com/
   / patrickgillmusic  

Prophet 12 performed and recorded by Pulsophonic
   / pulsophonic  
http://www.pulsophonic.com/

Prophet REV2 performed and recorded by Alex Ball

Prophet 6 performed and recorded by Mike TC (100 Things I Do)
   / @100thingsido  

Prophet X performed by Alex Ball and recorded by Pendle Poucher. Huge thanks to the owner.
http://dulcitone1884.virb.com/sound-dust

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David Abernethy’s absolute bible on the subject: “The Prophet from Silicon Valley”:
https://www.amazon.com/Prophet-Silico...

Prophet 10 / Terminator time signature article: http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/cu...

External image credits:

All print ads from the incredible Retro Synth Ads archive: http://retrosynthads.blogspot.com/sea...

Dave Smith 1977 image: https://www.matrixsynth.com/2012/07/d...

Model 600 image: https://www.matrixsynth.com/2014/09/s...

Dave Smith late 70s: https://flashbak.com/hail-synthesizer...

Dave Smith Grammy image: https://www.sequential.com/about/

Model 700 programmer image: http://www.troperecordings.de/gear/se...

More model 700 images if you’re interested: https://www.matrixsynth.com/2015/12/v...

SSM schematic images: http://www.synthfool.com/docs/Other_M...

EMU history website: http://www.creative.com/emu/company/h...

NAMM 1983 image: http://www.gearjunkies.com/2012/12/da...

Prophet 2000 "coke can" photo conceived by Paul Gilby and taken by Mark Ewing. It originally appeared in a 1985 edition of Sound on Sound.
https://soundonsound.com

Prophet 3000 screen shots: http://www.muzines.co.uk/articles/seq...

Korg M1 image: http://www.muzines.co.uk/articles/the...

Sequential rebrand: https://www.sequential.com/2018/08/ds...

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I'm also on Instagram:   / alexballmusic  

Photos that accompany this film are here:
https://www.facebook.com/pg/AlexBallM...