DSI / Prophet Forum

[twenex]

Depending on where you start, most Prophet-5s can be made into nice playing reliable instruments. The Prophet-T8 is a step above the Prophet-5 manufacturing wise, but is otherwise the Prophet-600 with Prophet-5 routings and then the 'T'ouch features. However, a Prophet-T8 is only as good as it was stored and of course can be restored too. A issue you may have is with the keyboard where the paper blinds that are used in the optics are glued on and heat/cold combos can cause the glue to be brittle and those blinds will fall off.

Power supply and rails all need recapping at this point. You'll also need to replace the battery. The 3.7/3.8 combination of ROMs is also available from Senso and Winecountry.

[Feralchild]

I a bit late im the reply but if its old playing live, mite be a really hard on an old T8 Mine i dont even touch i just use a controller at this point with it the keys have a potental of breaking to easy. Mine sounds great and live would be better but I would my self live with samples of the sounds unless i were just in that status of being ables to support several T8's. So mine is a studio keyboard now. Good luck. They are great I think my self there very much diffent then the 600 and the Five more like two fives with somthing extra and the recall and midi of the 600. There very special

[Feralchild]

You are right on all your points. when the T8 where very new they were not so fragile, now that they are aging there are more so. yet they are not lite in weight like todays synths it taks two peole to move one safely. but they sound great and i agree to sample it is a wast but it is a bigger wast to take a ageing work of electronic art out and have it break on you. just for a gig that you may not be able to use it at. if your giging all the time with a road crew you think there going to be nice to it, i dont think so. but if you the the elect few out there on tour you can afore such a device then you can buy several and 5,000 mean nothing to you. you can buy 10 of them and have them fixed all the time.
I have to say go play it there great keyboards but there older and need special treatment unless you find one thats like new or know how to get all the repairs done on it.

[twenex]

If you have some technical savvy of your own or a friend or tech who can help, I wouldn't worry. Despite some of the short comings of the T-8, I'd personally take one over the Prophet '08 any day. I also see no issue with someone using it sole as a controller. Even though the T-8's engine is two great four voices, its also a great controller as well with a very well done MIDI implementation.

[Feralchild]

yea if the keys are in good shape its a great controller i love the feel of the keyboard one of the best. Mine has just become so old what its now 28 years almost it just very fragile so i use another keyboard to control it. But for the firs 15 years it was my main controller, the t8 has a great keyboard.
i know nothing of the knew synth peole are speaking of i will have to try one some day nor have i tried any of the sofware synths that emulate the pro 5. Some day i would like to try them too.

[torinkrell]

It sounds like you need to locate a good local tech with a quick turnaround if you plan to rely on this Prophet T8 as your main instrument. When I had a T8 for 8 years I appreciated some of its unique features like polyphonic aftertouch and versatile modulation routings but noticed that it certainly did not sound quite as rich or punchy as my Prophet 5s. The envelopes and LFO are noticeably different and in my opinion inferior to my Prophet 5s. It also is very heavy and risky to move as the whole keyboard can flex (from its length and weight if its not moved correctly) possibly influencing its action. It also doesn't respond well to some keyboard racks for the same reason and works best resting on its feet on a rigid flat surface. In fact it is the complex keyboard assembly that may be the most risky as few people know how to repair it and shipping is expensive. However repairs on the main board can sometimes efficiently be made by removing the board and just shipping it to a tech with a working T8. The tech can simply remove his T8s board, install yours and effect repairs.
I personally own two Prophet 5s so I can rely on them as my main keyboard knowing I have a backup. They are also far lighter, take up significantly less space in my studio, are more familiar to techs, and do not have a delicate keyboard assembly (although I sometimes miss the T8s expressive keyboard action)

[Feralchild]

make sure the pitch wheel and mod wheel are in proper location then tune the keyboard you need to tune a t8 a few times they drift a bit untill they warm up, well mine dose always did even new. then play each and every key and listen for missing notes if there is a key you no sound will come out. that key may have to be repaired and check the cation is not sticking that the keys return fast not to slow. and then the normal stull all knobs work and the tuner is set to A440 etc. look at the over all condition has it been droped damaged. thats what i would do. then i would base my price on what its worth to you as a buyer.

[Feralchild]

I felf the 5s were hevery in sound too, but no presets and only half the sets of filter? the 5s wre similar yet diffrent.

[Wiseguy]

So how did it go ?

[Feralchild]

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