Dave Smith Instruments PROPHET 12 KEYBOARD - Manual (Page 11)

1 Prophet 12 Operation Manual Overview
Overview
This is a brief overview of the Prophet 12’s capabilities and its operation.
More in-depth information about specific parameters can be found in the
reference section of the manual. However, don’t let a lack of familiarity
with either the instrument or synthesis prevent you from turning knobs
and pressing buttons. That’s what they’re there for! You won’t break
anything and you can always get back to where you started, even if you
have no idea what you’re doing. Great things can occur with synthesizers
when you don’t quite know what to expect, so start twiddling and keep
your ears—and mind—open.
Getting Started
The Prophet 12 is a twelve-voice, polyphonic synthesizer. That means
up to twelve distinct notes can play simultaneously. The Prophet 12 is a
hybrid synthesizer. That is, it uses a combination of digital and analog
audio electronics to generate its sounds, called programs.
The Prophet 12 contains 792 programs organized into eight banks of 99.
Half the programs are in four Factory banks and the rest are in four User
banks. When a Prophet 12 leaves the factory, the User banks are an exact
copy of the Factory banks. Program 1 in bank 1 of the User banks is the
same as program 1 in bank 1 of the Factory banks, User program 2 is the
same as Factory program 2, and so on. All programs in either the Factory
or User banks can be edited using the front panel controls, but the edits
cannot be saved to the Factory banks, only the User banks. The Factory
banks are read only, permanent.
Choosing programs is simple. Choose U
ser
B
anks
or F
actory
B
anks
,
use B
ank
s
elect
to choose bank 1, 2, 3, or 4, and then use the numeric
keypad to enter the program number, 01 through 99. Or use P
gm
U
P
and
P
gm
D
own
to step though consecutive programs.
While auditioning programs, it should become obvious that some
programs are split—two different sounds can be played from different
zones of the keyboard—and some are stacked—one sound is layered on
another. The Prophet 12 is bi-timbral. That is, it can play two different
sounds simultaneously and each of those sounds can be routed to its own
stereo outputs, if desired. Each of the Prophet 12’s program memory
locations is capable of saving and recalling two different programmed