Sell Prophet 08 for Eurorack + MF-101 Yes or No?

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Thinking of selling my Dave Smith Instruments Prophet 08 Special Edition (Limited Edition of 300) to buy a basic Eurorack Analog Modular System and a Moog Moogerfooger MF-101 Low Pass Filter…

Any thoughts or suggestions?

The Prophet 08 is absolutely beautiful looking and beautiful sounding. And the capabilities it has is Amazing. Yes, its true and unfortunate that the encoders are shady and jump all over the place. Kind of a pain if you are not (very) patient. But other than that its an amazing instrument.

My point is, I think I wanna get more into modular synthesis. And the Eurorack system is “semi” affordable. And it would be nice to run it through a Moogerfooger MF-101 Low Pass Filter!

I think ultimately, I would have less sound capabilities with the Eurorack system than the Prophet 08 SE… am I wrong about this?

The Prophet 08 SE has 2 banks with over 100 (multi-timbral!) patches in each bank. And of course has 8-voice polyphony!

But still I’m interested in the modular world!

Any advice, points of views, opinions, examples would be much appreciated.

Thank you.

P.S. It would always still be possible to buy a Dave Smith Instruments Tetra module (multi-timbral 4-voice polyphonic analog synthesizer) later for the polyphony aspect.

  • 1 Moog User (Moog Little Phatty Stage II w/ CV/GATE OUT, Moog Moogerfooger CP-251 Control Processor)
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:slight_smile: Are you aware there is an upgrade or the 08 that exchanges the encoders for actual potentiometers ? it’s available from DSI as a user install, or you can ship it to them and they will swap the boards out for a small fee. Not too expensive either way. If you do it yourself it’s pretty simple, the only hard part is if you are under a given serial number, then you have to desolder two parts and add a connection bridge where you removed one part. Not too hard but if you do not have soldering experience it may no be for you. Even with experience it’s pretty tedious since the area is very small. The difference with POT upgrade though is fantastic, it’s like a whole new synth.

Hard call, you can as you said always get a Tetra, but then you lose 4 voices of polyphony. If it were me, I would opt to keep the 08 and save for the A100, the 08 sounds great and has a lot of programming power under the hood. Not the same I know as an actual synth in front of you but maybe look at the virtual modular synth software out there.

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thanks, brian g. Yes, I am aware of the Pot upgrade. But honestly, I’m actually one of the few that appreciates the endless encoders concept and style. I think its lovely. The only thing I would wish to change is the performance of them. Pots can eventually have their faults too. So what I mean is, I wonder if there is an “upgrade” for the users that actually trusted the endless encoder concept to begin with… for the ones that love the encoders but would like them to perform like a GOOD instrument should. Know what I mean? There must be some kind of modification to fix this problem? Also, isn’t it only MOST of the encoders that are replaced with Pots? But what about the other ones? Its a lot of them that are sketchy and jump around value, so what good would it be to spend all this time and money into switching some or most of the encoders for Pots when there would still be other encoders left with the same problem? Know what I mean?

But besides that I understand what you’re saying about perhaps saving the P-08 SE and saving up for the Doepfer system.

Thanks again! : )

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There are a few things to consider.

The Prophet has the nice sequencer, actually multiple nice sequencers.
Unfortunately, sequencers for modulars are Not Cheap, either in cost or rack space.
(of course you can use a computer for this)

Other big difference is tuning - the P8 is basically always in
tune, whereas with the modular tuning can be quite fun, for some range of fun.

The Prophet is polyphonic, the modular will be monophonic, unless you
get multiples of the osc, vca’s, etc, plus hardware to output poly CV. And even with
hardware, modular polyphony is a challenge.

If you add up all the ‘modules’ in the P8 (2x VCO, 3x VCA, filter, 4x LFO, mixer, sequencers, etc)
I think the same number of modular bits would cost quite a lot more than a P8, especially
to duplicate the modulation options.

The big plus on the modular side is the freedom of routing, as the P8 has a fixed
scheme. And of course with Doepfer, the amount of ‘sound capabilities’ is flexible,
if you have lot’s of cash, you can have much more flexibility with the modular - but
compare like to like, the base Doepfer A-100 configs have afaik fewer modulators than
the P8, but of course every A-100 is really a ‘custom’ config.

I am waiting for the pot conversion to be back in stock, afaik it replaces all pots.
In the meantime, i’ve found it better to tweak using MIDI CC’s/NRPNS - I use the
soundtower editor, which removes some of the encoder frustration.

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One other note - the big cost hit with the Eurorack is the case/power supply. Once you have that, it’s
pretty easy to put together a plan and purchase things a little at a time, so you can start with something
simple, and expand it a bit at a time. Consider that vs buying one of the stock A-100 configs.

I’d vote for keeping the P-08 and buying more stuff, of course !

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Thank you for the insight, Cliffman. Very interesting everything you mentioned. Yes, I do realize that the Prophet 08 SE is a powerful system, and has a lot of modulation and routing possibilities. And of course, it looks Beautiful! And you are reminding me even more of this! Including you, that makes 2 so far that have suggested I keep the P-08 SE. I do Love that synthesizer. And I have recorded some of my favorite tracks ever, using it. Thank again for your insight! I just read earlier that you can also have DSI update your encoders for better performance! I think they actually replace the encoders with a new “encoder system”, if you know what I mean. That sounds like a plan!

Still gonna keep the Doepfer A-100 System in mind, though!

Thanks again!

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I would say keep the p08 and use that as a foundation for a small modular system. Get maybe a vco, a filter or two, mod section and a vca this way you can taste the modular world without the possible regret of losing a great synth and not liking the modular thing as much as you thought

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@ColorForm, actually, I do have a DIY eurorack format modular synth. Here are some pictures:

mine is the larger synth on the bottom (not the smaller synth on top):

http://i288.photobucket.com/albums/ll176/blue_lantern320/MODULAR%20SYNTH%202011/100_0094-1.jpg

here is a newer picture of the synth in a darker setting (I painted the wood case a dark gray finish and added an amp handle on top):

http://i634.photobucket.com/albums/uu62/anonymoustwo/-2-1.jpg

I love it. Especially for my first true modular synth. I’ve had some other patchable synths, but this guy is my first true modular that actually requires patching first before getting any sound out of it.

But, still interested in something more “solid” or “professional” like the Doepfer A-100 System, if you know what I mean.

But truthfully, I bought mine for $1,000.00 (from a DIY builder that goes by the name of Blue Lantern), and it has amazing features/capabilities, and is larger than a Doepfer A-100 System and/or a Analogue Solutions Tereshkova, etc.!

Here is whats on my modular synthesizer:

TOP ROW:
(2) BLACK JACK VCO with saw/ramp/square/triangle/sine,
(1) AC MIXER,
(1) DC MIXER,
(1) OB12db VCF,
(1) MS-20 VCF,
(1) LM4250 VCF,
AND POWER SUPPLY WITH MULTIPLE

ROW 2:
DUAL DIGI LFO with S&H ALSO,
DUAL DIGI ADSR,
DUAL LM13700 VCA’S,
(1) NOISE GENERATOR with 4 FLAVORS,
AND POWER SUPPLY WITH MULTIPLE

ROW3:
BABY 10 STEPPER SEQUENCER,
(3)JACK CONVERTERS,
(1) POLYFUSION ENVELOPE FOLLOWER,
(1) PAD PIEZO PERCUSSION GENERATOR,
(1) LINEAR LAG PROCESSOR,
(1) EXPO LAG PROCESSOR.

And here is the builders website in case any of you are interested: http://bluemaquina.weebly.com/index.html

Thank you for your comment!

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They have “improved” encoders that you can also swap out… Both the endless and the pots have their advantages. For it works best with the pots,

Yes, the sequencers are a blast on the 08.

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Have you sold it yet? I have been looking to get an se and cant find any used ones.

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The most important aspect of any synth is the sound, IMO. In this case, the Doepfer wins it. The prophet is way too clean sounding. In my experience, clean is good for effects sounds, but for music raw nasty dirty sounds are better, and that’s what the doepfer will give you. And it has MIdi, so you can sequence gates (maybe more?) with a DAW. I don’t like how small the modules and knobs are (patching can get cluttery) but the sound makes up for it. And the MF-101 is a cool filter as well.

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If you are based in the U.S. you should consider 5U instead (Moog format); and get your hands on some Synth.com components for CV and trigger along with some MOS-LAB for vintage Moog sound, and makers such as STG, Synthetic Sound Labs, and others.

Good mix of bang for buck and super high quality tone. Euro is awesome but the format is a bit cramped from a capabilities perspective (due to limited size per module, the amount of capabilities that the builder can squeeze in is limited and if you are into tweaking while playing, it’s a bit more cumbersome to reach in between the cables for those tiny knobs/pots).

Just my personal opinion. Some builders will do both (including STG and Synthetic Sound Labs).

If you haven’t done so, hop over to Muffwiggler.com and do some good reading on both before committing.

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Why not save up longer and not have to sell one thing for another. Maybe start a modular and learn from it as it grows. A modular doesn’t in a practical way replace a polysynth yet (despite some people trying to cobble something pretty hard to use and pricey with modules).

But if you have made the decision to never use the DSI then by all means sell it.

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It looks like you kindof have your mind made up.

I know from experience though that the modular will always be in your heart. I bought some amateur radio equipment and sometimes I wish that I had spent that money on modules or a cabinet. Now Im down to buying a simple lowly inexpensive module.