A3
Sequential Circuits Prophet-T8
Year of manufacture
1983
Production period
3(1983-85)
Polyphony
8
Oscillators
2(2 VCO)
Waveforms
3+2(Saw, Variable Pulse, Triangle + PWM + Noise)
Modulation
2(2 LFO)
Filters
1(Low-pass -24dB/octave)
Keys
76
Features
11(Poly-Mod., Pressure-Mod, Velocity, Aftertouch, Unison, Glide, Chord Memory, Pitch-, Mod-Wheel, Sequencer, 3 Keyboardmodes)
Sound-Memory
128
The Rolls-Royce of analog synthesizers
The Prophet T-8, released in 1983, is a super fat sounding, monstrous 8-voice polyphonic synthesizer with full MIDI-implementation and 76 fully weighted keys with velocity sensitivity and aftertouch. The aftertouch can be mapped to modulate pitch, level, filter cutoff or LFO-intensity. Sounds could be set up in “Single”, “Split”, “Double” or “Unison” modes. The T-8’s keyboard must’ve been so good, that it got licensed for the use in New England Digital’s “Synclavier”.
The synth also featured a real-time sequencer. The Prophet T-8 was Dave Smith’s finest and most prestigious development. Unfortunately, it suffered great commercial mishap from the release of the much cheaper Yamaha DX-7 in the same year. Not even 1000 Prophet T-8 were made, making it super rare nowadays and way more expensive than it already was.