DSI / Prophet Forum

[twenex]

Hello, really cool idea with a prophet 5 forum !!!
m a new owner of a Rev 3 with Kenton Midi.
I never played a Prophet 5 before getting this one.
1. On my unit, the pitchbend wheel doesn
t return to center position (no spring?) when moved. Is my unit broken or are all Prophet 5:s like this?
2. Is possible to set the pitchbend range to 2 semitones somehow ("normal" range) as opposed to the the perfect fifth as it is set now?
Thanks
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Those of us who have been watching the sonicstate.com TOP-20 Synths of All Time have been laughing all the way .. I personally only think the P5 a
nd the JP8 are the only synths so far that should even be in their list
But your question reminds me of what the new keyboard player from The Cure commented about on the Prophet 5 .. "I believe it had a spring ret
urn on the pitch wheel" .. this is completely untrue. He does admit that the only SCI synths he had were a Prophet 600 and a Prophet T-8. B
oth of those have the exact same wheel box as the Prophet 5 with just minor changes.
The Prophet 5 pitch wheel has a centering 'tab' .. and over time these tabs get less flexible and depending on the position your pitch wheel spent
most of its life in, you more or less get that statistfying 'lock' when it centers .. Again, there is no spring .. in fact, I don't know any SCI
synths that had a spring loaded pitch wheel.
You can sometimes unscrew the plastic tab and bend it a bit and get more life out of it... so if that is the issue, you'll want to check that out
.. you can get into it
by removing the bottom screws all along the edge of the chassis and the four screws in the back top part of the chassis. Carefully lift the top p
art of the synth so that it rests on the back of side panels (perpendicular to the chassis).
To adjust the pitch wheel, you need a tool to adjust the set screw. This is probably a small allen or it could just be a flat head. But doing t
his means taking the pitch wheel out of the wheel box, because once you losen the set screw, you'll need to get at the 100k pot to determine exact
ly where you want it. Almost all Prophet-5 are different when it comes to the pitch wheel .. but its flexible enough that you can calibrate it ho
w you'd like.
---
Thanks for answering.
I hope I didn
t make too much of a fool of myself for not knowing...(I grew up during the digital era...sorry )
What confused me was seeing...errr...yes indeed, the Cure guy at Sonic State Top 20 talking about the "spring loaded" P5 pitchwheel
The centering "tab" is OK on my unit, but I sound like a total newbie when I try to solo...no spring and the "wrong" range...O
uch...I sound TERRIBLE
ll try calibrate the Pitchwheel pot...
d88882a94dSome keys get "sticky" and some don
t sound at all
1. A couple of keys get "sticky" in the bass octave. It gets a little better when I play, but the problem comes right back.
What can I do to solve this. Never had this problem with any keyboard before.
2. 2 keys started doubletriggering, and after a while stopped sounding at all. This sort of problem I had/have with my D-50, where I cleaned the c
ontacts under the keys with Isopropyl.
Same procedure with the P5`?

---
The J-Wire keyboards don't really need to be cleaned like the carbon contact keyboards. Most likely what is happening is that the J-Wire itself i
s bent upward too much .. this can easily be corrected by just tugging on it (while the keyboard is in service position) until it hits the buss ba
r, but then springs back a bit. If you look at a 'good' prophet 5 keyboard the j-wires are usually not uniform .. its its really impossible.
The sticky keys are due to the bushings just being old and dried out. When the keys are 'resting' there is quite a bit of pressure from the back
of the key where the spring is holding it 'up' as a result, the two bottom flanges on the bushings just get mashed and become flat .. so you get t
his really noisey clacky feel on some keys. Also the bushings can crack and literally fall apart and cause the keys to stick.
Installing bushings is a bit of work .. there is a short cut to doing it without taking the keyboard apart, but I personally don't recommend it.
In fact, if you take the entire keyboard apart you can really clean it up and get it functioning and feeling like new in about 2 hours worth of la
bor. A couple of people had bushings re-made and you can get a set of 61 for about $40. If you want to do this, and I've done it on any Pratt Re
ed keyboard I have to play, contact arcsound@ix.netcom.com (website is http://home.netcom.com/~arcsound/) and tell him you heard about him from prophet5.org

[Acusonic24]

I'm pretty sure you have your answer now but all older synths well almost all doesn't have spring return back to zero on the pitch wheel. I like this better than the spring cause it allows you to do new skills on the pitch wheel. I'm so use to it now I perfer that instead of the spring wheel. I'm pretty sure you can get that mod,, Money speaks. Theres a few mods I love to do on the prophet 08 but money speaks and it can be done.

[soukouss]

Hi all,
It's honor to post my first message in our forum.
A little presentation : I'm living in Paris, France. I play soul, jazz, electronic and pop music. The Prophet 5 is my favorite analog synth.

Just one question about the Pitch bend. Is there a MOD to add some spring, so the pitch bend would go back to his central position automatically ?

Best regards.
Soukouss

ps : I have sometimes been confused with the Pitch bend position in some live situations.

[Acusonic24]

Check synthwood.com,, they do numerous mods and customs. They have new wood for just about any synth plus color mod wheels. Give them a call or email them,, they do a whole lot of mods.

[soukouss]

Thanks Acusonic24 !
I send them an email.
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