The
Korg Prophecy is considered one of the earliest (mid-nineties) "virtual analog" (a.k.a. VA)
synthesizerA synthesizer is an electronic instrument that is capable of producing a variety of sounds by generating and combining signals of different frequencies...
s, although its synthesis capabilities went beyond many of its VA contemporaries.
Along with the
Korg TrinityKorg Trinity is a commercially successful synthesizer music workstation released by Korg in 1996. It was also the first workstation to offer modular expansion for not only sounds, but also studio-grade feature such as SCSI, ADAT, various sound engine processors, audio recording capability, and more...
, this little synth is a direct ancestor of the ill-fated (and sci-fi at the time)
OASYSThe Korg OASYS is a workstation synthesizer released in early 2005, 1 year after the successful Korg Triton Extreme. Unlike the Triton series, the OASYS was implemented on a custom Linux operating system and was designed to be arbitrarily expandable via software updates, with its functionality...
project. It was a small 3-octave
monosynthA monosynth is a synthesizer that produces only one note at a time. This was done due to the size, and expense, of producing a synthesizer that played multiple notes...
, a pioneer of the late 90's "return-to-analog" trend. Offering assignable knobs, a "log controller" (a mix-up of a modulation wheel and ribbon controller assembled like a "sausage") and many other control sources, it invited players to tweak and shape the sound both easily and quickly.
The
Korg Prophecy is considered one of the earliest (mid-nineties) "virtual analog" (a.k.a. VA)
synthesizerA synthesizer is an electronic instrument that is capable of producing a variety of sounds by generating and combining signals of different frequencies...
s, although its synthesis capabilities went beyond many of its VA contemporaries.
Along with the
Korg TrinityKorg Trinity is a commercially successful synthesizer music workstation released by Korg in 1996. It was also the first workstation to offer modular expansion for not only sounds, but also studio-grade feature such as SCSI, ADAT, various sound engine processors, audio recording capability, and more...
, this little synth is a direct ancestor of the ill-fated (and sci-fi at the time)
OASYSThe Korg OASYS is a workstation synthesizer released in early 2005, 1 year after the successful Korg Triton Extreme. Unlike the Triton series, the OASYS was implemented on a custom Linux operating system and was designed to be arbitrarily expandable via software updates, with its functionality...
project. It was a small 3-octave
monosynthA monosynth is a synthesizer that produces only one note at a time. This was done due to the size, and expense, of producing a synthesizer that played multiple notes...
, a pioneer of the late 90's "return-to-analog" trend. Offering assignable knobs, a "log controller" (a mix-up of a modulation wheel and ribbon controller assembled like a "sausage") and many other control sources, it invited players to tweak and shape the sound both easily and quickly. Deep editing, however, wasn't as straightforward, because the sound engine contained no less than 13 DSP-modelled oscillator types, each one offering too many parameters to adjust. Probably, the most valuated and used DSP models were the analog model (based on the classic osc+filter+amp scheme, although with many powerful enhancements), the VPM model (some sort of FM synthesis which cleverly avoided
YamahaThe is a multinational corporation and conglomerate based in Japan with a wide range of products and services, predominantly musical instruments, motorcycles, power sports equipment, and electronics.-History:...
's FM patent) and the "physical modeling" algorithms. The latter deserves special mention; in the mid-late 90's, it was believed that physical modeling, which recreated the sound of acoustic instruments (brass, strings, woodwinds, etc.) using DSP algorithms instead of samples, would eventually replace sample-based version of those instruments, because of its unprecedented realism and expressivity. As time passed, physical modelling seemed to lose its appeal to both manufacturers (because of the cost of investigation and implementation) and final users, who complained about the realism of the models and limited polyphony. Also, more complex playing techniques were required to play the models in a convincing way. Nevertheless, the Prophecy's low cost and broad implementation of sound generation techniques earned it a significant place in synthesizer history.
More technically, the Prophecy offered one-note polyphony, a decent set of effects (including distortion, waveshaping, delay/reverb and chorus/flanger), and 128 locations for user sounds. No disk drive or sequencer was found on it, but its integrated
arpeggiatorAn arpeggiator is a feature available on some hardware synthesisers and virtual instruments. It allows the player to automatically step through a sequence of notes based on the player's input, most often from a keyboard MIDI controller, thus creating an arpeggio...
was a source of "instant gratification", as some magazines pointed it. Standard MIDI features and a pair of audio outputs were also offered.
Korgis a Japanese multinational corporation that manufactures electronic musical instruments and electronic tuners. The company is one of the most widely used and respected names in professional music worldwide.-Company history:...
made a major breakthrough at the time, offering a low cost expansion card for Trinity users, which incorporated the whole sound engine of the Prophecy into the already powerful workstation. Gone was the arpeggiator and some minor features, but the editing was much improved through the Trinity's big touchscreen, and the workstation's effects processing was a huge improvement over the Prophecy's basic set.
A direct descendant of the Prophecy was the much vaunted Korg Z1 (1998). It was the equivalent of a 12-note polyphonic Prophecy, with enhanced models, more physical control, 61-note keybed, bigger screen, 6-part multitimbral, more presets and two powerful programmable twin arpeggiators. However, its higher cost and lack of "sonic identity" to some people (because of the multiple DSP models offered, most players didn't get what the synth was all about) led to a market failure, being discontinued soon. Most musicians decanted for simpler but more immediate "virtual analog" synths, such as the
Roland JP-8000The Roland JP-8000 is an analog modeling synthesizer released by the Roland Corporation in 1997.- Overview :The JP-8000 was released in early 1997 to compete with many other analog modeling synthesizers of the period such as the Access Virus and Clavia Nord Lead...
or the
Clavia Nord LeadClavia Nord Lead is the first virtual analog subtractive synthesizer, which was developed in Sweden, being released to the public by Clavia in 1995....
. However, the Z1 today is, as many past synths, a rare gem and is much in sought by musicians and synthetists. Eventually Korg found a way of integrating the Z1 inside the Trinity in the same way as with the Prophecy (marketing the units as V3 versions) but clipped the polyphony to 6 voices and removed the arpeggiator, as on the previous Prophecy card. Trinity units expanded with this card are highly sought in the used market, often at premium prices.
Options
- DS-1 Damper Pedal
- EC-5 Multi Footpedal External Controller
- EXP-2 Foot Controller
- PHC-11 Analogue & Vintage ROM Card
- PHC-12 Modern Models ROM Card
- PS-1 Pedal Switch
- PS-2 Pedal Switch
- SRC-512 512k RAM Card
- XVP-10 Expression/Volume Pedal
Notable Users
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- Depeche Mode
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- Akira Yamaoka
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- The Crystal Method
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External links & References
- Progenie Korg Prophecy patch editor for Windows
- Korg Prophecy Korg Product Archive
- Brochure for the Korg Prophecy at Korg Brochure Archive
- Korg PHC-11 & PHC-12 ROM Cards Sound on Sound
Sound on Sound is a monthly music technology magazine published by SOS Publications Group, based in Cambridge, UK. The magazine includes product tests of electronic musical performance and recording devices, and interviews with industry professionals....
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