Producer’s Guide To | DSI Prophet Rev2
Potential live and stage applications There are many contexts the Rev2 can be used in – it covers a lot of areas both sonically and functionally. In the studio or for live, you could use it as a straight-up lead, bass or poly machine to cover pop, soul, funk or rock vibes. However, it’s equally at home for making more twisted, ambient and epic sounds using noise, filter resonance, deep modulation and the new effects engine. It works particularly well as a deep sound design machine (way more than the Prophet 08 does) and it’s very easy to take the seed of an idea in your head and develop that into an actual finished sound that encompasses your musical thoughts. With eight modulation slots, four LFOs and modulatable effects, plus an auxiliary loopable envelope and gated sequencer (which can be used as a 4-track modulation source), you have a serious number of options to play with to keep your sounds and
tracks interesting. It’s hard to reach the Rev2’s ceiling and run out of places to take your sounds as there’s so much available (except that you can only use one effect per-layer).
two radically different sounds (perhaps for a verse and chorus). This essentially gives you two separate synths, addressable from two separate MIDI channels (via your DAW or the internal/an external sequencer). In addition, each of these two sounds within a patch can be sent out of its own stereo output with its own effect, which is great for tracking/performing with two completely different sounds simultaneously (or for sending out to the FOH engineer for mixing/ processing live). You could also have a poly-sequence on one layer and play over that using a different sound using the B layer (though there’s currently no way to do hands-free sequence transposition). Of course, we only have ten fingers but if you send 16 notes to a single layer on the Rev2 via your DAW, you’re going to be able to have monstrous 16-voice pads happening. Only a few analogues are capable of this level of voice count.
It’s hard to reach the Rev2’s ceiling and run out of places to take your sounds Particularly with the 16-voice model, you have a lot of mileage for live use. For example, you can have two x 8-voice sounds available at any one time using the split function, so each patch you select could contain
Setting up splits and layers With two eight-voice layers available in the Rev2 16, it’d be silly not to build dual eight-voice splits and stacks! Here’s how… As mentioned earlier, splits and layers are a huge deal, and a bonus to have in an analogue synth (particularly when you can have two four-voice or two eight-voice layers available in a split/stack). This allows many permutations for live use and for recording. For example, chords on the left and right, chords on the left, lead on the right, bass on the left, lead on the right, sequence on the left, arp on the right… the list goes on! However, if this was a pain to set up, the appeal of the Rev2 would be diminished; thankfully it’s very quick to do. Here’s a walkthrough showing you how to set up a stack and a split sound easily…
QUICK TIPS
1
Use the indispensable pan-spread feature or per-layer panning for super-wide sounds. Also try modulating panning from an LFO or use chorus and short reverbs/delays.
2
The digital resonant high-pass filter (in the effects menu) is great for scooping out bass/mud from sounds or for adding a distinctive, vibrant texture.
3
If you modulate the reverb mix level with a deep LFO assigned via the mod wheel, you can get some great pumping reverb effects happening.
4
Try recording each side of a split or stacked patch simultaneously into your DAW; each layer has an independent set of stereo outputs/effects engine. Very handy!
5
>
Initialise your sound via option 25 in the Global menu. Next, build your sound on layer A only. Once happy, name and save the sound to any user location. Now hit the Edit Layer B button to work on the second layer.
56
>
While the Edit layer B button remains lit constantly, tweak the second layer (B) to your desire until it works successfully atop layer A. Once you’re happy with your layered sound then save once again. Now let’s turn this sound into a split.
>
Hit the Split AB button. (Layer A goes to the left and B to the right of your split point automatically). Press and hold the split AB button (the split point display will appear) and press any key to set your split point.
Controlling your sounds without taking your hands off the keyboard is liberating. Take advantage of the pedal and MIDI foot/pedal control and by utilising aftertouch too.