FM Producer’s Guide
Sequential Prophet-5
The keyboard to the stars and first portable synth with memories and polyphony, the Prophet-5 was the star of the late ‘70s and early ‘80s, but also a messiah that’s made a glorious comeback in the 2020s. Here’s why the Prophet-5 is one of the finest synths – in software and hardware – that money can buy
THE SEQUENTIAL
PROPHET-5 is arguably – actually, we’re not even going to say ‘arguably’, it just ‘is’ – one of the three greatest synths of all time (FYI: the other two have the words ‘ARP’ and Moog’ stamped on them). It was used by some of the biggest names of the day when released over three revisions during the late ‘70s and early ‘80s, has a decent right to claim itself as the first-ever polysynth, and made a successful comeback in 2020, with a version 4 model that’s still one of the best polysynths you can buy in 2024.
With a five-voice architecture – or ten on the later Prophet-10 – it was revolutionary, and with features like Poly Mod, the synth had (and has) character by the bucketload to cover every sound, from distinctive and rich emulations, through to atmospheric pads, and often weird percussive sounds and effects. These sounds and the synth’s programmability won it an elite – and, let’s face it, pretty wealthy – user base for itself. And what famous users…