Prophet 2000 chips

[WeAreAs1 at aol.com]

From:  chrisc at zetnet.co.uk (Chris Crosskey) wrote:

<< I've just been sent some Prophet 2000 stuff which explains why a 12-bit
sampler should sound so good, it had analogue VCF/VCA/EG chips following each
DAC! I'm now on the low-level lookout for a P2000 to strip for bits, at least
to have a look, they only fetch a couple of hundred pounds, eight VCF's.
eight VCA's and sixteen EG's is worth more than that to me. They are almost
certainly SSM devices >>

The Prophet 2000 used Curtis IC's, CEM3379's, I believe.  These were
multi-function chips that contained a 4-pole filter, main level VCA, and some
kind of voltage-controlled panning VCA arrangement.  All of the P2000's
envelopes and modulation signals were generated in software - it has no
hardware EG's or LFO's.

It's true that the P2000 sounds especially great for a 12-bit machine, but I
don't think it's solely because of the analog circuitry.  There were a few
other 12-bit machines out at the time that had analog filters and VCA's that
did not sound nearly as good as the Prophet (Korg DSS1, Emulator II, I think
the Ensoniq EPS also had Curtis chips).  I don't have any idea why they
sounded better, but they did.  It's too bad that those older Prophets are
starting become kind of unreliable (for various reasons), because when
they're working, they still sound great.