Zufällig habe ich mitbekommen, dass die Orgelakademie Stade am Freitag (Allerheiligen) eine Exkursion zu den »3 Königinnen in 3 Bauerndomen« veranstaltet, von denen das Otterndorfer Gloger-Instrument frisch restauriert erst vor wenigen Tagen wieder in Betrieb genommen wurde. Am Samstag sollte es deshalb an letzterem zusätzlich ein Konzert geben. Von den Instrumenten in Lüdingworth und Altenbruch gibt es von Sonus Paradisi (Lüdingworth, Altenbruch) jeweils Samplesets für Hauptwerk, die ich beide für alte norddeutsche Orgelmusik nutze.
Ich bin deshalb am Donnerstag sehr spontan aufgebrochen, um die Instrumente sehen, hören und näher kennenlernen zu können. Der Reiseaufwand war zwar nicht ganz unerheblich, hat sich aber sehr gelohnt. Ich bin den Veranstaltern, insbesondere Martin Böcker, sehr dankbar für ihr enormes Engagement.
About 9 years ago I started to play baroque pipe organ music. I rather focused on french but on german composers, and as a consequence, I also got in touch with iberian composers like Juan Cabanilles. French baroque organs are different than german ones, and iberian baroque organs are different than french ones. Here are the main differences:
Often, the space for the organs is extremely limited. As a consequence, the organs often have no or a very limited pedalboard, and the organs often have only one or two keybeds.
Stops usually are split in the middle of the keybed, so the descant and bass can be registered differently. This compensates for the lack of keybeds, and several iberian baroque organ music expects the instruments to be built like this; the left half of the keybed can be used for accompaniment, the right for solo voices.
Some reed stop pipes are placed horizontally in the facade of the instruments, providing special timbres. Sometimes such stops can also be found on classical french («Trompette en chamade») or 20th century german instruments (»Spanische Trompete«). But still, the typical sound of iberian reeds is unrivaled.
Sometimes, in bigger cathedrals, two organs are placed face to face on either side’s wall (not to mention Mafra, where you’ll find the incredible amount of six instruments).
I have read about those instruments, listened to recordings of them, and played a sample set (I do neither have a relationship with the provider, nor do I get paid for this link) of the Segovia organ. Despite digital tools, there’ s still no thing as the real thing. So I spent a couple of days visiting important instruments in portugal.
Braga, Bom Jesus do MonteBraga, Cathedral. There actually are two such instruments, one on either side.Porto cathedral, two instruments on either side of the choirPorto, Cathedral, modern organPorto, chapel. Seems to be a mock.Porto, Igreja de Nossa Senhora da Vitória. Since pipes are missing in the facade, the instrument is probably not in use.Porto, Igreja do CarmoPorto, Igreja dos Clérigos. A concert is being played every day at noon.Porto, Sao Bento da Vitoria, mock organ……and the real organ on the opposite side of the mock organ.Porto, chapel of S. FranziscoPorto, S. Franzisco. Unfortunately no real image.Coimbra, Sé Nova de Santíssimo Nome de JesusCoimbra, Capela de São Miguel. Concert every wednesday at 9:30 AM.Coimbra, Igreja de Santa Cruz. The small instrument is a medieval mock.The above organ from above.Leiria, two abandoned instruments on either side of the choir, plus a younger instrument of Heintz, 1997.Santa Maria De Óbidos. A very small instrument, but still in use. There’s a vinyl recording of 1981 »O Órgão De Santa Maria De Óbidos« by Joaquim Simões Da Hora.Lorvão, Mosteiro de Santa Maria, first facade without horizontal reeds. The instrument is one of the rare ones providing two facades, one to the public, one to the ecclesiastics. I only know of one other instrument built like this, which was built by Andreas Silbermann for St. Pierre le Jeune in Strasbourg, Alsace, France. The above instrument was restored in 2014. Concerts are being played every now and then, announcements usually can be found via the facebook account »Município de Penacova«.Lorvão, Mosteiro de Santa Maria, second facade with horizontal reeds.Mafra, four of the six organs.Mafra, details of one of the 6 organs.
Obviously, portugal hosts several typical iberian baroque instruments. I had good luck so as to listen to three of them. In case you want to attend some concerts as well, events in Mafra can be found here, and the organ festival will be continued in 2025. There are concerts being organized by Coimbra, Arganil, Cantanhede and Miranda do Corvo. This page also lists instruments found in Coimbra. Concerning concerts at the cathedral of Porto, this page may be helpful. Finally, there’s the »Festival Internacional Orgao & Musica Sacra«.
On sunday, Aude Heurtematte played a concert of this year's Vesper series. The following two days she held a masterclass, organized by the Amis de l'Orgue Dubois, which I couldn't resist to attend. Since my french skills are rather limited, I couldn't follow every discussion, but fortunately, music is independent of any language :) . I learned a lot while others were taught, and Aude told me extremely valuabe insights of interpretation. I'll certainly attend the next master class, and I'd like to encourage others to do so as well.
Thanks a bunch to Aude and the Amis de'lorgue dubois for making this happen.
In two weeks, I’ll attend the masterclass with Aude Heurtematte at the Dubois organ of Sts. Pierre & Paul in Wissenbourg. Here’s what I’ll probably prepare:
Joan Cabanilles (1644-1712) – Tiento Por A la mi re
Abraham van den Kerckhoven (1618-1702) – Versus primi toni – Cocquiel-Manuscript N° 033, 037, 048, 050, 052, 055, 058, 157, 158, 162
Dieterich Buxtehude (ca. 1637-1707) – Passacaglia in d minor (BuxWV 161)
I learned a lot during last year’s course in Kaufungen with Torsten Laux, and so I will do during those two days with other organ enthusiasts.
It uses a kitchen timer to break work into intervals, typically 25 minutes in length, separated by short breaks.
I immediately tried it out during my recent practice sessions and am rather impressed by it’s effect. It massively helps me to focus on the task currently at hand and to ignore any distraction until the end of the pomodoro. The most interesting thing about those distractions is: I do not work on them at the end of the pomodoro. Instead, I enjoy the 5 minutes break and restart practising immediately after it. Obviously most distractions don’t require immediate action.
Admittedly, it is damn hard to practise four pomodoros (roughly two hours) in a row. At the end of the third pomodoro, my concentrativeness decreases significantly. And that’s absolutely OK. The pomodoros grant me much more focused and intense practise sessions than ever before, regardless wether i use three or four in a row.
Almost exactly 13 years ago, I bought a Gudereit LC-R, which a german biking magazine had labeled as “Rohloff rocket”. It served me very well (I’m still using it) and was the perfect bike for the quite flat upper rhine plane. But 18 months ago I moved to a rather hilly region. As a consequence, my biking activities dropped down to near zero. A replacement was mandatory.
The Möve Voyager features a Pinion C1.12, a Gates Carbon Drive, a Neodrives Z20 (40 Nm) and a battery with 36V current and a capacity of 625 Wh. I immediately did a test ride of about 18 km this evening, including 2 inclines I never had taken before. So at first glance, I’m quite content.
Im Rahmen der Silbermann-Tage konnte ich mehrere Konzerte hören, unter anderem gestern Mittag an der großen Silbermannorgel im Freiberger Dom «Le Goût Français à Freiberg» mit Pieter van Dijk sowie heute Mittag an der Silbermannorgel in der Schlosskapelle Augustusburg »Beziehungsweisen« mit Afonso Torres. Bei beiden Instrumenten hat man das Gefühl, dass sie perfekt an den Raum angepasst sind. Pieter van Dijk hat unter anderem eine französische Orgelmesse von Guilain ausgewählt, die sich auf dem Instrument erstaunlich authentisch wiedergeben ließ. Beeindruckt haben mich außerdem die Interpretationen von Afonso Torres, der unter anderem »Mein junges Leben hat ein End« von Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck auflegte (ich kann die Aufnahme von Matthias Havinga sehr empfehlen).
Im Silbermann-Museum Frauenstein findet sich eine Kopie eines einmanualigen Instrumentes von Gottfried Silbermann. Nach mehreren Eigentümerwechseln steht das weitestgehend in den Originalzustand zurückversetzte Instrument heute im Bremer Dom. Das Instrument im Museum kann man spielen, sofern man bereit ist, dafür 20 € auszugeben. Das ist viel Geld (und ich hatte leider nur eine gute halbe Stunde Zeit), relativiert sich aber, wenn man bedenkt, was ein solches Instrument kostet.
Das Instrument hat 8 Register und einen Tremulanten (der 10. Zug ist ein Blindknopf) auf einem Manual ohne Pedal (sic!). Dafür finden sich zwei Quinten (Quinta 1 1/2 und Nasat) sowie eine Terz (“Sesquialtera”). Man hat also einen reichhaltigen Obertonaufbau zur Verfügung. Nachteilig ist, dass der Organist beim Spielen sehr viel Direktschall abbekommt. Andererseits ist das Instrument durch die kurze Traktur sehr leichtgängig und lässt sich fast schon spielen wie ein Cembalo. Erneut hat sich ausgezahlt, dass ich neuerdings viele Werke erarbeitet habe, die ohne Pedal auskommen, wie beispielsweise die von William Byrd.
Dass ich in Frauenstein vorbeigekommen bin, war einem Zufall geschuldet, um den ich im Nachhinein sehr dankbar bin. Ich habe mir vorgenommen, wiederzukommen. Dann aber besser vorbereitet und mit ausreichend Zeit.
About 400 years ago, William Byrd, a contemporary of William Shakespeare, passed away. Together with John Bull and Orlando Gibbons, he published »Parthenia or the Maydenhead of the first musicke that ever was printed for the Virginalls«. Recently I learned to play three of its pieces, the Pavana »The Earle of Salisbury« with its Galiardo and Galiardo secundo, »Mris Marye Brownlo«. Currently I’m learning »The Queenes Alman«, which latest was published as No. 172 of the »Fitzwilliam Virginal Book«. Muriel Groz provides an excellent recording of it.
Almost exactly 14 years after I visited Auschwitz and Auschwitz-Birkenau, I visited Weimar-Buchenwald. A relative was there four years ago and coined this visit as »brutal erschütternd«. There are no other two words that can better express what I perceived during my visit. Incredible and brutally shocking.
What’s even more shocking is that contrast during the visit. I was there since I was visiting several pipe organ concerts, mainly Johann Sebastian Bach being played, one of the greatest composers ever. Furthermore, Weimar was the residence of Franz Liszt, Goethe and Schiller for several years. So, Weimar and the concentration camp Buchenwald are both nearby examples of what humans are capable of – extreme barbarism on the one, extreme cultural attainments on the other hand side.
So I wonder whether we can learn from Auschwitz-Birkenau and Weimar-Buchenwald for recent developments in 2022 and 2023? Yes, I’m pretty sure we can. Barbarism ends rather sooner than later. Culture luckily survives for a very long time.
Zwar war es zu Silvester recht mild geworden, in St. Stephan war es aber noch immer recht frisch. Einige einheimische Besucher hatten sich daher auch mit Decken auf den Weg gemacht.
Ich war schwer beeindruckt vom Klang der fast 400 Jahre alten größten Renaissance-Orgel der Welt selbst als auch davon, wie Olga Minkina sie gespielt hat. Die Auswahl der Werke (etliche davon erst 300 Jahre nach dem Instrument entstanden), die Registrierung (nichts zu dick aufgetragen, sehr transparent und abwechslungsreich), die Interpretation (viele Wiederholungen als Echo gespielt), da machte das Zuhören schlicht und ergreifend extrem viel Spaß. Hier das Programm:
Heinrich Scheidemann (1596-1663) – Magnificat III. Toni (4 Verse)
Pfarrer Jürgen Weinert – Gedanken zum Jahreswechsel
Dietrich Buxtehude (1637-1707) – Wie schön leuchtet der Morgenstern (BuxWV 223)
Hermann Schroeder (1904-1984) – 12 Choräle für die Weihnachtszeit
Auf, ihr Hirten
Singen wir mit Fröhlichkeit
Lasst uns das Kindlein wiegen
John Rutter (*1945) – Toccata in Seven
So ein beeindruckendes Konzert hatte ich am letzten Tag des Jahres jedenfalls nicht erwartet. Dafür allen Beteiligten ganz herzlich gedankt.
Unser heutiges Tonsystem, das eine Oktave in 12 Halbtonschritte unterteilt, ist nicht perfekt. Stattdessen wohnt ihm ein kleiner Fehler inne. Wir hätten gerne, dass jeweils 12 Quinten und 7 Oktaven aufeinandergeschichtet die selbe Frequenz bzw. den selben Ton ergeben. Das ist jedoch nicht der Fall. Es entsteht eine kleine Differenz, die sich speziell bei Instrumenten mit festgelegten Tonschritten (Bünde, Tasten etc.) unangenehm bemerkbar macht. Die Differenz lässt sich mathematisch ausdrücken:
Seit langer Zeit versuchen die Instrumentenbauer, das pythagoräische bzw. syntonische oder auch didymische Komma durch verschiedene Stimmungssysteme möglichst gut auszugleichen. An manchen historischen Instrumenten findet man gar Subsemitonien, das heißt geteilte Obertasten, also mehr als 12 Tasten pro Oktave, wie beispielsweise zu finden an der Tastatur der Waller Kirche oder der Rekonstruktion einer norddeutschen Barockorgel in Örgryte, Göteburg.
Beim Spielen historischer Stücke lohnt es sich, nach Möglichkeit eine zum Stück passende Stimmung zu verwenden. Um die Auswahl zu erleichtern, hier eine kleine Übersicht.
Pythagoräische Stimmung
Die pythagoräische Stimmung bzw. quintreine Stimmung ist im Mittelalter (ca. 850 bis ca. 1550) auch auf Tasteninstrumenten gebräuchlich. Da 12 Quinten etwas größer sind als 7 Oktaven, besteht sie aus reinen Oktaven, 11 reinen Quinten und einer stark verkleinerten Wolfsquinte.
Reine Stimmung
Die reine Stimmung entsteht in der zweiten Hälfte des 15. Jahrhunderts und findet sich in Renaissance sowie Barock. Sie nutzt für die Intervalle Frequenzverhältnisse kleiner ganzer Zahlen. Der Klang ist schwebungsfrei und nutzt neben den reinen Oktaven und Quinten der pythagoräischen Stimmung reine große Terzen. Um dies zu erreichen, werden allerdings zwei verschiedene Arten von Ganztönen in den Frequenzverhältnissen 9/8 und 10/9 eingeführt, die zusammen eine reine große Terz ergeben. Akkorde sind besonders rein, allerdings nicht in allen Tonarten.
Alternative Bezeichnungen sind natürliche oder harmonische Stimmung, englisch “Just Intonation”.
Mitteltönige Stimmung
Die mitteltönige Stimmung war von der Renaissance bis ins 19. Jahrhundert (Blüte ca. 1550-1750) eine vor allem für Tasteninstrumente gebräuchliche Stimmung. Sie besteht aus gleichgroßen Ganztönen, die dem Mittel aus großem und kleinem Ganzton entsprechen, sowie aus vielen reinen großen Terzen. Es handelt sich um eine fast reine Stimmung, allerdings nicht für alle Tonarten.
Mit einer mitteltönigen Stimmung lassen sich beispielsweise Orgelwerke von Dietrich Buxtehude authentisch wiedergeben.
Alternative Bezeichnungen sind Praetorianisch oder englisch Meantone.
Wohltemperierte Stimmung
Die wohltemperierte Stimmung ist eine Erweiterung der Mitteltönigen Stimmung, die ab Ende des 15. Jahrhunderts entsteht. Der Quintenzirkel wird dabei ohne Wolfsquinte geschlossen, wobei die Quinten allerdings gezielt unterschiedlich sauber gestimmt werden. Es entsteht (im Unterschied beispielsweise zu Johann_Georg_Neidhardt 1706) auch bei dieser Stimmung eine deutlich ausgeprägte Tonartencharakteristik. Weit verbreitet ist sie etwa zwischen 1700 und 1870. Bekannt sind beispielsweise eine Reihe von Stimmungen von Andreas Werckmeister, von denen Werckmeister III am bekanntesten sein dürfte. Johann Philipp Kirnberger entwickelt ab 1766 mehrere Stimmungen für Tasteninstrumente, von denen vor allem Kirnberger III an Orgeln häufiger zu finden war.
Englisch: Well temperament.
Gleichstufige Stimmung
Die meisten Instrumente werden heute in der gleichstufigen Stimmung gestimmt, die etwa seit Ende des 19. Jahrhunderts bekannt ist. Die Oktaven werden in zwölf gleich große Halbtonschritte unterteilt, die wiederum in Hunderstel unterteilt werden. Die Quinten sind nur geringfügig (1/12 Komma) verstimmt, was allerdings durch eine stärkere Unreinheit der Terzen (2/3 Komma) erkauft wird.
Alle Tonarten klingen gleichermaßen “unsauber” und können daher, auch innerhalb eines Werkes, vollkommen gleichberechtigt verwendet werden. Sie weisen aber eben auch keine individuellen Merkmale mehr auf.
Alternative Bezeichnungen sind gleichtemperierte oder gleichschwebende Stimmung, gleichschwebende Temperatur, englisch Equal Temperament oder 12-tone equal temperament.
Synth addicts may enjoy Zawinul’s synth rig, including:
Korg Wavestation (e.g. preset “Vocal Highlands”).
Korg Prophecy (early 90s monophonic physical modeling lead synth).
Korg M1 (famous for its cheap Piano sound).
Several samples.
…
The recording includes Dina Cam (Richard Bona), followed by Indiscretions with some weird Prophecy lines, the famous Zanza (enjoy Paco Sery) and once again a weird Prophecy solo in Bimoya.
Ages ago I tried to cope with the EG2 of the Kronos’ software implementation of the MS-20. Meanwhile there are hardware reissues of at least two manufacturers, KORG and Behringer. The behaviour of EG2 is consistent to the original machine, which makes some users scratch their heads.
Many synthesizers provide two ADSR envelopes, one for the VCA (volume contour), and one for the VCF (which most often is a low pass filter).
For the VCA envelope, you’ll not find a parameter “Envelope amount”. The envelope usually starts with the VCA fully closed (except there’s a parameter “Initial gain” and set to something different than 0). After a key press, the envelope will fully open the amplifier at the end of the attack time, then fall down to sustain level and slowly close the amp after the key was released.
The MS-20 features an additional parameter “Hold time”. It essentially prolongs the sustain level after the key was released, similarly to pressing down a hold pedal for a couple of seconds. I’ll leave this parameter alone for now, so what remains is an ordinary ADSR envelope.
EG2 is always coupled to the VCA and behaves exactly as described above. It is not possible to decouple this connection and use EG2 for the filters exclusively, e.g. by patching EG1 to the “Initial Gain” jack. This behaviour may cause the first confusion for many users.
Now for the filters. Either of them provides a knob “EG2/Ext” which allows to control the amount of envelope to be applied to them.
ADSR envelopes applied to a filter by an amount knob usually behave very similar to the envelope applied to the VCA, except for two little differences. The envelope does not open and close the filter completely. Instead, it affects the filter cutoff only by the amount as set by some controls like the ones depicted above. Usually it does so starting at the currently set cutoff frequency as the baseline. Any sustain level greater than 0 thus shifts the cutoff frequency by a certain amount as long as a key is pressed.
The MS-20 behaves differently. From the original manual:
The EG-2 output is internally patched to the VCA so that changes in volume over time will occur to sounds according to the EG-2 control settings. In addition, another EG-2 output is sent to the Filter Modulation controls (EG-2/EXT) so as to modulate the VCF's cut-off frequency. In this mode the filter's "steady state" is the Sustain Level. The filter's cut-off frequency will start below this level initially, will rise above the Sustain level during Attack cycle, will fall to the Sustain level, and then will fall below to the initial level again following trigger release.
This special behaviour still was easy to adopt. What makes it difficult to cope with is the fact, that EG2 still is coupled to the VCA. So here’s a little résumé for all of us who approach the MS-20 with the mental model of our usual comfort zone:
The parameter “Hold Time” prolongs the sustain after the key was released, similar as pressing a hold pedal for a couple of seconds. It does not act as a delay before the attack phase. I recommend to just leave it alone (at least as long you are still not familiar with the machine).
EG2 always controls the amplifier. There is no means to get rid of this connection.
In case that Attack, Decay and Sustain are all set to their minimum, not much will be audible, since the amplifier opens and closes immediately. This is the behaviour to expect from an amp envelope.
A second output of EG2 is routed to the filter’s cutoffs by default, unless a patch cable is plugged in via the patch panel. This second output behaves differently than the amp output, since the sustain level will never be added to the set cutoff frequency.
Raising the sustain level will not raise the filter’s cutoff as one might expect. Instead, it moves the envelope below the cutoff frequency by the amount of the sustain level. This is only audible during the attack and release phases. In case both are set to their leftmost position, it is not audible.
Raising the sustain level reduces the headroom for the decay, just as it does on a common ADSR envelope.
Reducing the sustain level does not lower the cutoff. However, since it closes the amplifier, the sound will loose volume.
To circumvent the issues, EG1 could be used for the cutoff instead. As soon it gets patched via the patch panel, EG2 gets decoupled from the filter. However, EG1 is quite limited, since it is missing decay and sustain.
A further solution is to use an envelope generator of another synth. Maybe some eurorack modules, or another synth wich has CV outputs from its envelopes. So does the Pro-1. I connect both to the MIDI keyboard, turn down the volume of the Pro-1 and use its filter envelope to control the cutoff of the low pass filter, and its amp envelope to control the high pass filter. This gives me much better control over the filter of the K-2 than the device itself provides. Problem solved :) .
On Tuesday Chick Corea, the musician who probably coined my musical taste most, died at 79. I first heard him jamming with his band at Colos-Saal, and the last time with Bobby McFerrin in Baden-Baden.
I have no clue how often I listened to Romantic Warrior, especially the synth solo of the »Duel of the Jester and the Tyrant«, during my youth. I also was deeply impressed by later 70s titles, e.g. »Falling Alice« of the album The Mad Hatter, where Chick excellently combined traditional and electronic instruments. Not to mention all his other work.
With Chick, an extremely influential and unique musician left the planet.
CAIN++ is a user oscillator to emulate plucked string instruments using the Karplus/Strong approach. Since the parameters are not absolutely intuitive, here are some hints by the author for a couple of patches:
C++lavinet Shape: Max Shift Shape: Max Pluck: 1 S Volume: 1 S Color: 1 Frequenzy: 20 Waveform: 1
C++Guitar Shape: Max Shift Shape: Max Pluck: 43 S Volume: 1 S Color: 1 Frequenzy: 20 Waveform: 1
Soft C++ Bass Shape: Max Shift Shape: Max Pluck: 98 S Volume: 32 S Color: 100 Frequenzy: 41 Waveform: 1
A couple of days ago, I had the occasion to directly compare both synths. Since there are more soundsets available for the xd than the prologue, I used Sunny Synths prologue panel, which can import minilogue xd paches. Those files can be extracted from the librarian provided by Korg, or extracted from an xd soundbank using loguetools.
The minilogue xd often gets perceived as a synth with a very interesting sound (which I’d like to confirm). Thanks to the direct comparison of both machines, I can confirm that it’s not the filter that makes both synths sound different. Actually, both are very close, and the filters seem to be identical. Many patches I listened to sound identical on both machines. Though not all.
The secret of the xd are minor, but essential changes in its modulation capabilities. The LFO got a 1shot mode, essentially providing a third envelope generator. Additionally, sync and ring modulation are not XOR as on the prologue, but can be used simultaneously. So consider routing a 1shot sawtooth LFO to the pitch of oscillator 2, syncing it to oscillator 1 while enabling ring and cross modulation. This subtle design change provides a lot of interesting transients. However, this only affects a couple of presets which actually make good use of those features. Most presets sound almost identical on either machine, including lead and bass sounds.
What I noticed was that the oscillators sound slightly different. The prologue’s seems to provide less partials while being more uneasy. The latter issue may be beneficial for pad and string sounds.
So which one is the better machine? Well, they’re almost identical. As a keyboardist, I prefer the prologue due to its better keybed. I still wish, though, it borrowed the modulation design and the joystick of the xd.
Due to a high pressure system from west and a low pressure system from the east, the upper rhine plane got some snow flakes during the last night. Since the temperature was above 0°C all day, the snow was melting quite quickly and is almost completely gone. A nice intermezzo anyway.
A friend of mine sent me an outstanding link – synth addicts may love the physical models of Ronaldo Lopes Teixeira, including even a model of a Minimoog with tiltable panel!
The history of Sequential’s (or temporarily Dave Smith Instruments’) legendary Prophet synthesizers started over 4 decades ago. For details, head over to Youtube.
The REV2 features a fully analogue signal path, though its oscillators are not voltage, but digitally controlled (DCOs instead of VCOs). Compared to its predecessor 08, it is being said that the keybed was improved (Fatar TP/9S). The power supply is now internal instead of a wall wart. USB-MIDI was added as well as eight banks of preset memory (instead of two). The REV2 can load presets from the 08, though they might not sound absolutely identical due to subtle changes in its design. All waveforms now obey to wave shaping, and a sub oscillator was added as well as a digital effects unit. The modulation matrix now provides eight (instead of four) entries. The REV2 actually appears as a polished 08 and is, despite its complexity, very accessible due to its great user interface.
The machine is available in eight and sixteen voice flavours. Eight voice users can purchase an extension board, which is not available at a bargain, though. 16 voices are recommendable, since sounds with notable release times are one of the strenghts of the REV2. During startup, the Rev2 displays the amount of voices available. Since the board can be easily removed, this message is of special interest for s/h buyers.
The timbre is coined by Dough Curtis‘ filter design and reminiscent of the typical ’80th sound of other synths (like Waldorf‘s Microwave I) and several music productions of that time. The factory presets provide a good overview of its capabilities. It is being said, though, that they don’t really unveil the instrument’s potential. Several third party soundsets are available, e.g. the Pad Collection or the 80’s soundset by Roberto Galli, Synthwave or Vintage Classic by Luke Neptune, the Voice Component Modeled Patch Bank by Jason Cooper, or Prophet Classics respectively Exploring Prophet by AnalogAudio1, just to name a few.
Unlike the Deepmind, the REV2 does not depend on its digital FX engine. For home or stage use, it’s a welcome addition anyway. Studio users may use an already present external processor.
The 1024 presets on the unit cannot be categorized or searched by certain criteria, and unlike the Korg logue synthesizers, no official sound librarian is provided. Recently, Knobkraft Orm, an open source tool, appeared, which lets the user load presets in SysEx format and easily browse and audition its content.
One of the strenghts of the machine is its massive modulation capability. It provides four LFOs with five waveforms each, which can be routed directly to several destinations. The top right hand section provides a third envelope generator, so modulating some oscillators pitch does not limit the automation of the filter’s cutoff contour. The top left hand section provides a modulation matrix with eight general purpose entries and five additional entries. The latter ones grant direct access to controllers like the modulation wheel, aftertouch, breath controller, foot controller or velocity. Evolving pads and living strings are one of its natural domains.
The oscillator section provides sync, but no ring– or cross-modulation. However, the top right hand corner of the filter section provides an interesting audio mod pot, a feature seldom to find.
There’s a lot more to be said, since the Prophet Rev2 is quite deep. Just search the web for more details about this outstanding synth.
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