Prophet '08 gets better and cheaper with the REV2!

Believe it or not, the Dave Smith Prophet '08 is now ten years old. So, Mr Smith decided that this year’s NAMM was time to unveil a new and – most excitingly – more affordable version, which he’s calling the REV2. The biggest change is that there are now two polyphony options available, one with eight voices like its predecessor and one which doubles the polyphony count to 16. What’s more, because the REV2 is bi-timbral, independent voices can be stacked or split into different zones on the keyboard.

The synth engine is much the same, offering two DCOs (plus a sub-octave generator on oscillator 1) per voice, with four waveshapes (sawtooth, triangle, sawtooth + triangle, and pulse) and a 2/4 pole low-pass, resonant Curtis filter per voice. New to REV2 is waveshape modulation; you can vary the pulse width of any of the four waveforms by manually dialling in a desired waveshape width or by using an LFO or other modulation source.

The effects section comprises reverb, delays (standard and BBD), chorus, phase shifter, ring modulation and distortion. You can actually apply a different effect to each layer, and effect parameters can be modulated using the expanded modulation matrix.

The polyphonic step sequencer is also new (up to 64 steps and up to six notes per step) and, again, different sequences can be created for each layer. There’s also a gate sequencer and an arpeggiator. The 5-octave keyboard, meanwhile, is semi-weighted and supports velocity and channel aftertouch. There’s also USB support and an OLED display.

The REV2 is expected to arrive in April priced at $1,499 for the eight voice model – a solid $200 less than version one – and $1,999 for the 16-voice version.