Pro One Audio Demo

About John Bowen
&
Sequential Circuits

John Bowen started out as the first official Moog clinician in 1973, demonstrating and contributing to designs for Moog Music. In 1976 he met Dave Smith, and started working with Dave to promote his Model 800 sequencer, and then helped specify the Model 700 Programmer. This association led to development of the Prophet 5, and then on to the entire line of Sequential Circuits products. John was responsible for the original 40 factory programs of the Prophet 5, and as Sequential's Product Specialist did 99% of all of the factory sounds and sequences, and contributed to the User Interface (UI) design for the following Sequential products: Prophet 5, Prophet 10, Prophet 600, Prophet T8, Prophet VS, Drumtraks, Six-Trak, Mult-Trak, Tom, Max, Studio 440, and Prophet 2000/3000 libraries.

At the end of 1987, Sequential was acquired by Yamaha. After a brief period, the Sequential design team moved to Korg, where John was product manager for the Wavestation series (keyboard, AD, and SR racks, 1989-1992). In 1993 he became part of the original OASYS keyboard project team, culminating with the first public presentations of the OASYS keyboard at NAMM and Musik Messe. In August '98 John joined Creamw@re to develop the Modular system used in Pulsar/SCOPE. In 1999, John began designing, developing, and producing new synths under the Zarg Music banner for the Creamware DSP platform. In co-operation with Wine Country Sequential, John has now developed a virtual Sequential Circuits Pro One for the Creamware platform that is modeled in painstaking detail after the original 1981 hardware version.

Sequential Circuits Pro One

Hardware & Software
Audio Demo

The WAV file below is a quick comparison of the actual Pro One hardware and
the Pro One Software. 4 notes of each are played alternately.
Can you
determine which notes are made from the hardware and which are made from the software?
Email us with your guess, and we will send you an email with the
correct answer.

Download COMPARE1.WAV file here.
File size 1.39MB

The Sequential Circuits Pro One - Hardware & Software
by John Bowen

During the development of the Sequential Circuits Pro One software survival kit for Creamware's DSP-based systems, I knew that significant effort would be required if the sounds were to be the same as the original Pro One hardware. However, I also knew the sound would never get close enough unless special DSP modules could be successfully created. From the very beginning it was always our intention to keep the Pro One software emulation accurate in order to match the original Pro One hardware version as much as possible in both sound and performance features. While working together with Wine Country Sequential and Creamware, the breakthrough came when we were able to accurately produce an emulation of the Curtis oscillator chip. This CEM3340 Voltage Controlled Oscillator was the key integrated circuit used in all of the Sequential Circuits Analog Prophets designed after 1980. After months of communication back and forth with Creamware's engineering team, an accurate model emerged, which provided the correct phase and amplitude to match the original hardware. It now became necessary to direct our attention to the Pro One's envelope curves, and values were painstakingly determined that matched the curvature and length (time) using several original Sequential Circuits Pro One keyboards as comparative models. The original arpeggiator and step sequencer were also enhanced with cool new features simply by using the stock modules available in the current Scope library. The results of these cumulative efforts are simply AMAZING!

In general, I feel that this software version of the Pro One delivers the "best of both worlds". The Wine Country Sequential Pro One software survival kit can authentically produce ballsy, gut-shaking tones of the 'analog' variety much like its hardware counterpart. But it also provides the benefits of incorporated enhancements and features like complete MIDI control, polyphony, & program memory simply because of the flexible nature of software design. Of course, this software also eliminates the hardware reliability issues associated with very old vintage synthesizers like the Sequential Circuits Pro One keyboard.

Similarly, I invite the reader to investigate some of my new designs that can be found at Zarg Music. Here I have created new software synthesizers that continue to represent the natural progression of the Sequential Circuits design process - culminating in innovative, musical, and great sounding synths for 21st Century musicians and sound designers!

-John Bowen

Visit www.ZargMusic.com for more information about other amazing unique & cost effective software synthesizers currently available for the Creamware DSP cards. All software synths are priced incredibly low with fast delivery via Internet. Software demos are immediately available for owners of Creamware DSP cards.

The Sequential Circuits Pro One Software Survival Kit is now available for
the CreamWare platform via internet devlivery. Visit www.CreamWare.com for
more information.

Email for more information!

Sales@WineCountrySequential.com

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Sequential Circuits Pro One

Hardware & Software Audio Demo

Hardware & Software
Audio Demo