Prophet 8

The 2008 NAMM Show wasn’t a great year for new synth and electronic music gear……but it was a good year.

We’ve already mentioned tons of great new gear that we saw at NAMM in the last couple of weeks, but, following in the footsteps of last year’s modular analog synthgasm, here are our picks for 2008’s most synthgasmic gear:

Future Retro XS Semi-modular Analog Synthesizer

We saw the XS in a sort of beta state last year, but this year the Future Retro XS is ready to play.

The XS is a semi-modular synth, with internally normalized routing. Plug it into a MIDI controller and it’s ready to play. Put in a patch cord, though, and you can do some mad science.

Designer Jered Flickinger (interview link) says the XS is designed to be used as either a rackmount or desktop instrument, and its compact size makes it an ideal modular synth for musicians on the go. Read more…

Need more teasing about the upcoming Prophet 8 synth?

Here’s a bit of video temptation:

via Sonic State

Here’s something worth talking about – Dave Smith, one of the pioneers of synths, has announced his latest project – an 8-voice update on the Sequential Circuits Prophet V.

Here’s what has been announced:

The rumors are true. (Well, most of ‘em, anyway.) Dave has emerged from his underground lair (the Dave Cave?) with a fresh take on a classic, the all new Prophet ‘08. It is an eight-voice synthesizer with a 100% analog audio signal path. And it will be shipping very soon. More details will be available here on the Web site in a few days. Following hot on its heels will be the Prophet ‘08 Special Edition, each of which will be hand-signed by Dave and which will feature lighted wheels (RED!) and exotic leopardwood end panels. And for those of you who are wondering what happened to BoomChik, stay calm. Do not panic. Development is progressing nicely. Stay tuned!