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Pro 52 and Pro
53
I have always wanted a Prophet
5 because it was one of the first 2 must have, coolest,
most popular synths of all time along with the MiniMoog.
When I first started getting
into synths around 1989 the Prophet 5 was going
for around $2,000.00 (it originally it sold for
around $4,500.00 in 1978...you could probably get
a new car for that much back then) and all my favorite
bands or artists were using it so I just had to
have one. In the past few years, they have come
down in price to about $1,400.00 but for one reason
or another I never got around to getting one. What
was so great about it was that it was the first
polyphonic synth that was programmable, so you could
make and recall presets instantly and it sounded
amazing for basses, pads and even drums.
Native Instruments have
recreated the Prophet 5 in the Pro 52 and Pro
53 modeled in software as a VST instrument. Yes,
believe it or not all those hardware oscillators,
pots, filters and circuit boards can be recreated
or modelled in software and used on your Mac or
PC inside Cubase VST. There are also a few new
features that were not on the original keyboard,
but best of all, you now have the advantages of
not having to plug in power, MIDI or even audio
cables which are susceptible to noise and take
up more channels in your mixer.
Pro 52 Pro 53 What's
the difference?
I really like the Pro
52 and have been perfectly happy with it for the
past few years. The Pro 53 is exactly the same
plus, it has some improvements and a few new features...it's
not like there was anything wrong with the Pro
52 in the first place.
First, the oscillators were
re-modeled to sound more like the original Prophet
5. They have also added 2 new features that the
original Prophet 5 never had, like a Hipass filter
and the ability to invert the envelopes. The Pro
53 also has a new bank of sounds, so if you already
used the Pro 52 in some older songs, you might as
well leave it in your plug-ins folder and just install
the Pro 53 as if it were a new instrument. There
is no problem using both at the same time. Native
Instruments has also included a Pro 52 sound bank
that you can load into the Pro 53 just in case you
want to use the original sounds back in your song
if you want to use the Pro 53 instead.
Once you have loaded up the
Pro 53 you will hear the new sounds...and it really
sounds like a new instrument with those hipass filters
and some great new presets. It's really funny when
people think a synth sounds more virtual when you
use hipass filters, which have been around for a
while now, but not so commonly used. So, for a lot
of people, the Pro 53 will sound more like those
other virtual synths like a Waldorf Q or Access
Virus.
Cool Tip #1 Load it up and play
the keyboard
The first time you load up the
P5 into your VST Instruments Rack be sure to turn
it on and hit edit so you will see the Prophet 5
front panel, just like the original with all the
knobs and buttons. To see the virtual keyboard,
click on the 'pro-five' logo on the lower right
hand side of the screen and the keyboard will now
pop up. You can play the keys with your mouse, so
start clicking.
To play the instrument from
your MIDI keyboard, go back to the main arrange
page and make a new MIDI track or choose an existing
one that is unused. Next click on the output column
and choose 'Pro-Five (1)'.
You might see another number
in the parentheses like (2) or (3), which refers
to the instrument’s position number in the
instrument rack if you have more than one instrument
loaded at one time. Now you can play the P5 from
your MIDI keyboard...but where it the audio coming
from or going to? Look in your VST channel mixer
and scroll over to the right, just before the groups.
Ta da! You will see a new greenish/gray channel
strip that says Pro-5. This means that you can play
the instrument and run it through all the VST EQ,
FX and Plug-ins.
Cool Tip #2 Playing the knobs
Now that you have loaded up
the P5, you should start tweaking the sounds with
the knobs. You will notice that you have to move
the mouse up and down to play it. If you hold down
shift and click on the NI logo on the lower left
side of the panel and then play a knob, you will
notice that now you can play it in a circular motion,
like the VST EQ. This way feels more natural, plus
the further away you move the mouse from the knob
the more it slows down.
Cool Tip #3 Recording the knob
movements
All those knobs are on there
for a reason. Tweak them! It will make your synth
parts come alive and it is fun. As you know, when
you click on 'Write' in the VST mixer, you can record
all the movements in the mixer, eq, fx sends, plug-ins
(actually the first 16 parameters) etc... With the
virtual instruments it is different probably because
there are more than 16 knobs on the P5 panel and
mostly because the knobs send sysex through MIDI.
The Virtual Instruments are just like any other
MIDI instruments you have as a keyboard or a rack
mount module, so you must record knob and button
movements on to a MIDI track.
To record the movements with
your mouse, first be sure to go to your Options
MIDI Setup Filtering and uncheck Sysex.
Cubase defaults to filtering
Sysex (checked means on so it is filtering Sysex.
Uncheck it so that you do not filter Sysex since
you want to record it). Next make a new MIDI track
and choose the same Pro 5 as your output. Now hit
record in Cubase (the transport bar) to record your
knob movement performance onto this new track. It
is best to keep this automation performance on a
separate track other than the MIDI performance track
since it will be easier to undo, edit or move around
the knob performance parts separately.
Cool Tip #4 Recording the knob
movements with an external MIDI fader box.
It would be much better to use
an external MIDI fader box to tweak the knobs because
you can do 2 or more things at once. Unlike using
a mouse, you can play cutoff and resonance simultaneously
and as many other parameters as your control surface
has or as many fingers you have. To do this you
will need to use an external MIDI fader box or anything
else that is programmable to send MIDI controller
numbers. A lot of modern keyboards have 4 or more
sliders that are programmable to send standard MIDI
controller numbers as well. I have a JL Cooper Fadermaster
and it took me about 1 minute to program the faders
to play the parameters I use most often: Filter
cutoff, resonance, envelope amount, attack and Amplifier
attack, decay, sustain and release. If you look
in the manual on page 10 you will see the table
which tells you which controller number each parameter
responds to. In my case they were numbers 70, 71,
72, 74, 81, 82, 83 and 84 for cutoff, resonance,
etc... You could also use Keyfax Phat Boy or Native
Instruments 4 Control which have rotary knobs, just
like the original keyboard.
Cool Tip #5 Loading and Saving
Banks
Whenever you load up the Pro
52 it will load the def.p5a file located in your
original Native Instruments folder. It contains
the original bank from the Prophet 5 created by
John Bowen. As mentioned earlier, the Pro 53 has
a new bank of sounds that uses the hipass filters.
You could also download more banks from http://www.kvr-vst.com
and then load them up for new sounds. To do this
like the Steinberg VST Instruments, you would think
that you would load it from the Instrument rack,
file, load bank, but no...
Native Instruments synths have
dedicated buttons on the synth's front panel where
you click on to load and save banks. You can save
your preset, bank or all. The type of bank is associated
with the suffix and it is easy to remember...
- A is
for all
- B is
for bank
- P is
for preset
Cool Tip #6 Using Oscillator
B as a Modulation source
One of my favorite effects and
something that is missing from most modern synths
and samplers is the ability to use an Oscillator
like a LFO for modulation. Sending an LFO (low frequency
oscillator) to a filter is pretty cool, but using
an Oscillator instead is fantastic. It has a much
higher frequency than a LFO which will give you
a bright, wobbly, spiky FM like characteristic that
is just amazing. To do this, simply click on the
'Filt' button in the 'Poly-Mod' section in the upper
left -and corner of the front panel and then turn
up the 'OSC B' knob and enjoy.
Hear the P5 in action!
I did a song with the Pro 52
playing the main melody synth part with lots of
cutoff, resonance and envelope amount tweaking.
You can hear it in action in the song 'Visions of
a Perfect World' mp3 on my website: http://www.entropyofchaos.com.
Start tweaking!
About the writer:
Costa Kotselas worked for
Steinberg for many years as a product specialist
and content producer for cubase.net. Costa has
also been working as a consultant to some of the
world’s top film composers and is now offering
intensive weekend “learn cubase” seminars.
For more details check
out http://www.learncubase.com or
you can email him at costa@learncubase.com
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Pro
52 & 53 Tips