The Sound Board

Interesting development https://8dio.com/instrument/prophet-x/

$3999 on the 'Add to Cart' button

Huh - what's the story here? Dave Smith releases under his own name now, but the Sequential name was owned by someone else and I guess that 8dio have now licensed that?

And as for the thing itself... it's a genuine analog synth but with a 150gb sample library that loads "instantly". Right-o.

Yeah I dunno, it's hard to figure out what it is - playing digital samples back though a bunch of pots and filters?

It's not for me as I could do a lot more with the money, but interesting 8dio moving into hardware, software saturated...?

Ah, there's a video page. So it's samples + analog filters. Jolly good.



https://8dio.com/instrument/prophet-x/

Guy Rowland wrote: ↑May 01, 2018 4:16 pm Huh - what's the story here? Dave Smith releases under his own name now, but the Sequential name was owned by someone else and I guess that 8dio have now licensed that?

Hi Guy, the deal with the Sequential Circuits Name/brand was, the company ceased to be back in 1987. Yamaha scooped up the assets. Fast Forward till a couple of years ago, an enlightened individual at Yamaha decided to give Dave Smith back the Sequential CIrcuits Name and rights to use it again.

https://www.davesmithinstruments.com/20 ... tial-back/

8Dio is "partnering" with Dave Smith on this synth. This is a Dave Smith/Sequential Circuits product.

It appears that Dave Smith is shifting his company name back to Sequential Circuits but it isn't completely clear to me if he will only do this on Prophet synths or his whole product line going forward.

What a curious history that Sequential name has, thanks Andrew. And that's before we consider the Circuits, which has I guess been dropped entirely?

Yup, no more circuits in Dave Smith synths but pure mojo - or snake oil.
Just kidding :-)

I’m not sure about this product. Especially given 8Dio updates history.
Don’t know if you’ve read it : this X would allow you to import your own samples - in december 18.
And there ´s another 50gig to import additionàl 8Dio libs- and pay for them.
Filter is supposed to be brand new but 4 pole only ( a HP digital is included in the fx section)
Atmo, I find the sounds on the cheesy side of music.
Oh, there I go negative and pessimistic again :-((

Yes, I kinda chuckled at the December 18 thing.

Honestly, this is purely of academic interest to me. I'm not considering any hardware synth, doubly so for one that costs £4k and is sample-based, trebly so from 8dio who are a very long way from my favourite developer. But there will likely be a market for it, albeit quite small. For rich gigging musos there's probably nothing else out there like it since many don't like working with laptops.

It's not fully sample based, it has digital (DSP) oscillators as well (like those in Prophet-12). The filters sound absolutely yummy on this one. But yeah it only has 150 GB of samples because 8dio cannot sample things efficiently, haha.

Guy Rowland wrote: ↑May 02, 2018 3:00 am What a curious history that Sequential name has, thanks Andrew. And that's before we consider the Circuits, which has I guess been dropped entirely?

I guess...

EDIT:

I missed that Dave Smith had now switched over to "Sequential" for naming. Pretty clear with this release he is doing that.

EvilDragon wrote: ↑May 02, 2018 9:57 am It's not fully sample based, it has digital (DSP) oscillators as well (like those in Prophet-12). The filters sound absolutely yummy on this one. But yeah it only has 150 GB of samples because 8dio cannot sample things efficiently, haha.

I lost my coffee on that comment.

EvilDragon wrote: ↑May 02, 2018 9:57 am It's not fully sample based, it has digital (DSP) oscillators as well (like those in Prophet-12). The filters sound absolutely yummy on this one. But yeah it only has 150 GB of samples because 8dio cannot sample things efficiently, haha.

Could you elaborate on this comment Mario ?
As I said I’ld be wary to buy anything with 8Dio on it, but that’s just me and my disappointment at some minor libraries - and reading others big disgust at how updates have (not) been managed.

I was a bit tongue in cheek on that one. Dunno, somehow 8dio's sampling never impressed me. I can't quite put my finger on it. To me it feels like the better part of Tonehammer went to Soundiron, not 8dio.

EvilDragon wrote: ↑May 02, 2018 5:16 pm ... the better part of Tonehammer went to Soundiron, not 8dio....

This!... while the selfrighteous preposterous marketing blah blah blah boaster went to...

Totally unimpressed by this announcement. While I would not hesitate to dish out 4k or even twice as much for a serious development - Say for example Spectrasonic would have decided that the OMG-1 was just the prototype for something - this re-branding exercise is as boring as can be.

Hey Troels, you need to produce those videos not in english, wrong target audience, you need to produce them so that the majority of Wahhabi can watch them, and make it 8k instead of 4k, it is 8dio you know.

.... walks off stage mumbling... "Ridiculous, absolutely ridiculous"!....

It will be interesting to hear what the synth crowd have to say about it. Most of them won't have a clue about about 8Dio and this will be the third Prophet branded synth, I believe, since it was resurrected a few years ago.

I'm surprised that you don't have to join an exclusive club to be allowed to fork over your 4k.

(That VIP stuff ended my already tenuous relationship with 8Dio.)

heisenberg wrote: ↑May 02, 2018 11:40 pm It will be interesting to hear what the synth crowd have to say about it. ...

Reserve your order now or contact us for more information. We’ll ship it just as soon as it’s available. ETA Early June.

Interesting to check the Thomann's and Sweatwater's of this world. Will they stock it at all? I think this wil be a dustcollector and total failure, perhaps even the nail in the coffin....

Yes brick and mortar stores will stock these, just like any other DSI synth.

Because I’m a math genius , I realize that if they sell 100 of them, they gross 400k. The bar for profitability is probably pretty low. Heck, there are probably 50 banker/hobbyists at the other place who would like a new toy.

Ok Mario, thanx. Don't own many 8Dio libs, I used to grab some at sales 4 or 5 years ago (Basstard, Wrench, Alien Drum...) before I realized there was other brands (it took me ages to even know there was something else beside EastWest and VSL, mind you !).The biggest one I have is Adagio Viola, which has its moment but it's a tad of a hassle to program its legato lines plus I'm not found of the overall timbre. Guess I'm more a Spitfire kinda amateur.

Soundiron, just 3 or 4 old ones and not very useful, so cannot comment,except that their marketing is less deceptive than 8Dio's.

Lawrence : Well, the crowd at Gearslutz is interested in this X- sure, I haven't count how many, it's just a general feeling. Always amazes me how much these guys seem to be able to fork out. Look at Modal : there's still outputting machines after all. The "user samples" option grabs the interest of many. But it will have to deliver on this side, otherwise it could be a sophisticated and pricey ROMpler.

4000k is also due to DSI, not 8Dio. I'm confident 8Dio is interested in the additional banks it could sell to fill the empty 50 gig slots.

Georg, the nail in whose coffin ?