The Prophet 5 was an analog synthesizer manufactured by Sequential Circuits in San Jose, California between 1978 and 1984. The Prophet 5 was groundbreaking in that it was one of the first analog synthesizers to implement patch memory, a feature which scanned the settings of every paramater on the synthesizer and stored it into internal memory. It is also one of the first polyphonic synthesizers, with a maximum polyphony of 5 voices, meaning that up to 5 notes can sound at the same time. Two "revisions" were produced, one using oscillators manufactured by Solid State Music, the other using chips from Curtis Electronics.

SSM Vs. Curtis

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There is great and ongoing debate about whether the Curtis oscillators produced a richer, more musical timbre. The instability of the early CEM-based Prophets renders this debate moot for all but owners who are either technical enough to tweak/maintain their own V1 instruments, or wealthy enough to pay a dwindling breed of analog synth technicians to do it for them. For an example of the Curtis-based Prophet 5, see; i) Peter Gabriel's soundtrack for The Last Temptation of Christ, ii) Peter Gabriel's Shock the Monkey album (where it is paired to mesmerizing effect with an early Fairlight CMI), or iii) Pink Floyd The Wall Concert in Berlin DVD where a Rev 1 P-5 can be seen in several shots and where its unmistakably wonderful drone/pad sounds can be heard quite clearly.

Users

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The Prophet 5 is prized by amateurs and professional musicians alike for its excellent bass sounds and sound effects, as well as its uniquely warm sound that is characteristic of all synthesizers Sequential Circuits manufactured during its short lifetime. The Prophet 5 has been used by several famous artists including Kraftwerk, Duran Duran, No Doubt, Vince Clarke, the Talking Heads, Gary Numan on his solo albums and his work with Tubeway Army, Thomas Dolby, New Order, Michael McDonald of The Doobie Brothers on the album Minute by Minute specifically for string pads on the song "What a Fool Believes", Annie Lenox on Medusa, the Prodigy, INXS, the Cars, Phil Collins, Richard Barbieri, David Bowie, Hall & Oates, Philip Glass, Jean-Michel Jarre, the Sneaker Pimps, Steely Dan, Tony Banks extensively on various albums by Genesis, Rick Wright, Kitaro, Level 42, the Eurythmics, Pet Shop Boys, filmmaker/composer John Carpenter, and even Men Without Hats in almost all of their albums. One of its best remembered appearances is probably in "Bette Davis Eyes" by Kim_Carnes

Other versions

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Sequential Circuits also manufactured an double version of the Prophet 5 called the Prophet 10, which featured 10 voice polyphony and two keyboards, stacked on top of each other.

Sequential Circuits Synthesizers

Sequential Circuits Prophet 5 | Sequential Circuits Prophet 5