Audiopilz: *slaps roof of YT channel* Full Tracks, Extended Jams, Sample Packs: www.patreon.com/audiopilz

How can this channel not have a million subscribers already? It's an absolute crime.

The Prophecy absolutely slayed for leads. Really fun to play as well.

This synth sounds to me te be the best synth ever featured in the series: totally unpredictable yet sonically pleasing.

This falls in the Badass Gear category. This, despite all of its flaws, is still a fantastic sounding and deep piece of kit that I would love to have!

my friend had one of these, and I was playing in the wildest punk band in Hollywood at the time (Twister Naked) and one night around 1997, the singer and I took a 8 hour trip down trips Ville while our friend made that prophecy sound like drops of water falling into an infinite pool of water. In the morning when the sun came up, I was a synth junky nerd. I started selling some of my guitars and stuff and embarked on the synth junkie lifestyle of obsession. I always wanted one but never got one. Great vid like usual.

20 years ago, I was desperately looking for the long discontinued Prophecy when I found a brand new Korg Z1 in an unopened package. It's basically a Prophecy but with 12-voice polyphony. It definitely has a very unique sound. The Trumpet is easily the BEST emulation I've ever heard and with the large ribbon, it's expressive to a degree where it's hard to tell it from the real thing.

All these earlier digi synths with abysmal displays make me ever more thankful to all those unsung heroes creating graphical SysEx editors 👏

The Prophesy was one of my first synths. It’s a very deep machine with a very capable arpeggiator. It also worked great as my master controller for my external gear. Loved it.

Seriously, how do you achieve this productivity? Your throwing out 3 jams in every video, and everything sounds so good. Just how? And of course: just wow!

This is it. We found the most 90s instrument!

I bought a Prophecy. I walked into a music store and somebody was playing it. It was one of those 'wow' moments I rarely experience nowadays. Mine got stolen in a burglary in 2000, but I still maintain that the Prophecy's modulation log and ribbon strip make for one of the most expressive synths you'll find. The closest keyboard players will get to lead guitar - as The Prodigy demonstrated.

the 90s VA synths are beginning to really have a nostalgic sound of their own. the prophecy prices have been escalating in Brazil with no sign of stopping the tide...

The Prophecy is the only piece of gear that I sold at one point (because changes in artistic approach), only to get another one later. True one-of-its-kind thing.

I laugh every week when you include snips of those old Roland video manuals… never gets old!

“I know it’s complicated but I’ll learn it! It sounds so cool! I gotta pick one up!” *sits untouched on shelf for 2 years*

The third jam introductions are always 10/10

Sounds really great ! By the way, congratulations for your collaboration with Alex Ball about Korg history !

That first jam had me out my seat in seconds.

The beauty of the prophecy is that it makes the VA a synthesis style of its own. Like FM, PWM, and so on.

I had one in the late 90’s and it was the most distinct part of my Industrial band’s songs, I simply loved this thing

My buddy bought this back in the day. He made some incredible psy-trance music with it that still sounds legit to this day.

The prophecy was my first synth. In the 9th grade I did an internship at a German province music shop just because they had one there. They even borrowed me the manual. With 14 I did my confirmation (as an atheist I'd certainly go to hell for this) to afford one for 1450 DM. Up to this day I could program the Prophecy with blindfolded eyes. Not every aspect aged well. But there are certain sounds you can hardly achieve otherwise.

This is the best music gear content on KZfaq, no question.

This channel is outrageously good! Love your jams and how artsy the presentations are. You are a talented artist.

I Recently purchased a Korg Z1 which is a polyphonic version of the Prophecy and it's been a blast! A truly powerful machine and a great bang for the buck in today's market. I will admit though, that it is quite difficult and confusing to make custom presets on the tiny LCD screen and limited controls, but it's definitely still doable after a bit of practice.

I have owned two Korg Prophecies. I really wish I still had one. Back in the nineties they were also big with people making industrial and EBM mainly because of the arpeggiator and also the aggressive distorted leads and basses. In fact I remember going to gigs and Camden and it seemed to be di rigueur for the keyboard player in any self respecting industrial band to have a Korg Prophecy and an EMU Audity 2000 in their rigs.

"Can it still hold up today?". Actually the question is, "can today's gear match this?". When i play my Prophecy it feels like I've got the real deal in my hands (and ears) while modern synths are clones trying to imitate its (and others) sounds.

The prophecy was the first great VA synth imo. Honestly, probably my favorite digital synth of the 90s. Sure, hard to create new sounds, but the presets were insanely good for the time.

This review is spot on. I had one of these. Some of my favorite sounds ever were made on it. Back then I had soundiver to program it and it was still a pain point. I haven't really missed it... until I saw this of course. Thanks for the flashback!

Still badass after all these years.

I had this "ticking all the whatever" monster fresh off the boat back then in the last millenium. A suprisingly good lead and the master keyboard.

I owned one back in 2007 , I love it bkz it was like beast , the keyboard is insanely sensitive and smooth , endless choices for sound designs

I seem to recall first spotting the Prophecy sometime around 2000 during my first foray into Vintage Synth Explorer. The moment I realized it was a modeling instrument, after which I got a closer look at some of the other ones that were emerging simultaneously and followed it up, followed by the explosion of interest in original analog products, I discovered that I didn’t care what was under its hood; I just thought it was aptly named.

What an absolute winner… the Prophecy is brilliant and extremely expressive. I got mine in ‘97 and carried it around with me on a date with my then girlfriend… the great thing is that my Prophecy is still in my studio upsetting my neighbours and my girlfriend could see the writing on the wall and married me anyway both are still happy with the arrangement. What took you so long to review this korg gem… I think the last korg you liked was the microkorg so are we to wait another couple of years for the hipster eclipse of another magic korg. It’s getting a bit regular. Hey your keyboard skills are improving probably Because of the bigger keys. I prefer this to the Z1 Great video 👍☢️

Growing up in the Age Of The Workstation, the prophecy was the first synth I played that didn’t sound like Yanni. Rather, the presets sounded like something on a Depechmode, Tangerine Dream, or Hawkwind album. I think that was the moment I truely became a synth enthusiast.

My mate (who I just threw this video at) had one at uni in the late 90s, we spent soooooo long trying to figure it out. I can't even remember if there was a manual - there were definitely a lot of late nights, much head scratching over sysex, a few dodgy copies of Cakewalk, many missed lectures and some really terrible soapbar 🙂 He just told me he gave it to a neighbour about ten years ago 😭

Wow! Prophecy was my first synth, bought it in '95 second hand. I still have it and still use it. Absolutely love its sonic palette, and patching it isn't too bad once you get used to it. Ctrl panel also has a plugin for programming Prophecy.

I remember the Prophecy well. My best friend has one and has used it to great effect. If I remember right, he even went so far as to push the signal flow logic to such a degree that he got it to error out.

Thank you for all these wonderful videos! In the late 90s I had a DX7 (which I loved) and a Roland XP-10. I really wish that I would have purchased The Prophecy instead of the almost useless brick that was the XP-10. At the time I was making Industrial music for fun with an old Fostex 4 track and the XP-10 was almost impossible to get original sounding user patches out of. I absolutely love this video series. It somehow gives me nostalgia for synths from the past I never knew existed.

The synth leads on this are incredible. Wow. Seriously, I might consider picking this up after watching your video.

The Prophecy was my first real synth. It was a lot of fun. Ended up eventually selling it to finance a Z1ex, which I still have today. But there was something about the Prophecy that was a lot more immediate than the Z1 that I still miss to this day.

I love it when you say “ C U Next Time”. It makes me smile. I used to say the same thing to my rude customers in retail sales.🤟

I need to sell my Kawai Spectra, please do a video about it :D

The 90s were full of synths pushing the boundaries digitally and the Prophecy is very much a love/hate instrument. I think we need a Badgear episode on the Yamaha EX5/EX5R, another synth trying to do a lot… great episode!

the Prophecy can generate very complex and fresh sounds, I usually combine it with my modular, or my odysee, it was so ahead of its time that the interface was not ready for its capabilities, it requires patience but it is not bad, it happens that we have become accustomed to the easy thing, to touch two knobs and let the machine do everything for us ...thanks for this review !! 😃😃

Great vid as always. Whatever the shortcomings may be with this thing, I am really liking the sounds coming out of it.

What a pleasure to see u feat this beauty. Thx! I recall when this xame out. We took our weekly drool fest at the local Guitar Center. My buddy and I werr heavy into industrial sounds and he was enchanted by the honkin beautiful Kurzweil in the corner... I saw this little thing looking like a toy atop a synth rig and then pressed a key and my god... We hadnt heard sounds like this before.. They were slightly out of our teeny weeny budget tho... so we went back home and kept making cookie cutter jams on the D50 instead. I have ALWAYS wanted a Prophecy... just fin because. I wanna satisfy that kid back then. If I had only known half of what i know now about making sounds, i think i may have stayed until closing time. BUT the guy at GC at the time was wayyy cool, he told us to come SAMPLE (with our Akais2k) all the gear we wanted. lol... ahh the naive but friendly 90's

I bought one of these in 1997 and I still have it. It’s so complicated, but it opened the world to what you can do with one synth voice. I have the plugin version now, but have to play it with the vintage for full effect. Fun fact: they originally were going to make it a keytar. The odd shape makes much more sense with that in mind.

Hey man, been binging this series and saw the new vid so I thought I'd drop a comment. When I was younger I would watch synth content while not understanding it. Now I know slightly more than absolutely nothing about music. The way you explain this shit is really digestible, even for an audio normie like me. Good work man, I appreciate this channel a lot

I really liked my time with the Prophecy in the late 90's!

One of my favorite all time videos! You're just amazing.

Thank you, AudioPilz, for all the work you put into this video. My Prophecy is bent from someone jumping on it. I love it

You are definitely NOT and "Amateur Knob Twiddler" (lol!) - as you stated on at the 9:10 mark. You are an accomplished musical artist! Another amazing video! Thank You!

The krog proph is one of my favorite syntysizers. That bloke bt used to chuck his on the floor every night when he was touring ESCM, so really whats not to like. Love this channel, carry on!

Man that first jam kicked ass! And the last one still manages to awake some UT memories ;) Great vid as always!

Once again a gear I ever heared about its like a sound/ gear history channel and the best Audio Piltz is already a legend and so good and fun to explain everything to a novise as me. Every friday is my gearday. Love Audio Pilz.

Only a week after the documentary! Have you no shame? 😜

For anyone with a prophecy who didn't know: if you adjust or modulate the noise pre filter in the Comb oscillator and clip the output max, adjusting the comb feedback morphs between gritty random pulses and straight metal head grind noise. Tune the filter to the keys and morph between granular sine with the filter set to near max resonance and cello like bowed string tones. The comb can be set up as a physical modeling oscillator with the right modulation mapping. I've definitely made more convincing distorted guitar leads using combed saw and noise relegated to transient plucking effect and serial filter arrangement. This synth is silly powerful, and I wish I hadn't loaned it out. With a DAW this is practically the only sound design tool needed for every sort of sound, once you've memorized the maze or gotten the right editor, VST plugin you say. That would make this beast a real asset to those who get dizzy looking at the green on green and clicking the red glowing domes. I actually swapped the original nobs out for better older looking things. Didn't improve the looks but made grabbing those slippery rounded hamburger bun assignable nobs obsolete.

catching up on back episodes today while working late-ish on a us friday. Of all of the songs that you have produced for this channel that i have heard...this is by far my favorite! You put the keyboard in a very good light!

Wasn't expecting this one ! Your an absolute genius 🙂 well done audiopilz 👍

Love your content and presentation mate. Entirely addictive.

It's a great instrument, and it really shines through that you tried your best to showcase it! Thank you for the great video!

Love my Prophecy and it has gained additional use as a perfect controller for software modeled instruments like Swarm's 'Cello

Just come back from a long, dark walk in the woods. Perfect for my Friday night viewing. Thank you sir for bringing us this 'holy crap!' bad gear video!

This one was an absolute gem. How have I never heard of this one??

Aaawyeaaaa!! The long-waited episode is finally here! If you want to get your brain short-circuited I strongly recommend this piece. But, if you succeed, it is highly rewarding for ears!

Yet again you bring a smile to my face with your video's! Many thanks.

I’m so glad you capitulated and admitted defeat. This still kicks arse 25 odd years later

the Prophecy is one of the greatest synthesizers Korg has ever built. Very underestimated. You know where you can borrow the big brother Z1 from ;)

Great video, dude! Great sounding synth. Nice sounding filter.

Always thought it looked odd. Just love your entertaining, amusing and informative channel.. Keep up the good work. Take care. Greetings from Sheffield UK.

Dude, I’m so happy you chose the Prophecy! Fun fact: the korg z1 is a polyphonic prophecy

this was one of the first synths i ever played in the mid 90's at a music store in Hannover City when i cut school and i was impressed by it, especially the GM drums i liked lol

That's another mad one, great content as usual!

Wow I was not expecting to like that synth at all but you made it sounds so coooool! Awesome video as always! :)

Ozric Tentacles were big fans of the prophecy

Korg recently released a VST version of this too, I've bought it and its excellent!

I owned one of these. I love this synthesizer. Problem was the jacks on the back were known to break so I had it fixed and I sold it.

Top notch as always and the predator lasers 👍 and video editing you are the best at !

wow, some of those sounds actually made my stomach hurt. excellent job

Got this synth in 96, still think it's one of the most sexy looking. Sounds good too.

So 90's. Love it! Edit: also, those jams you do are always amazing!

AAAAAAAH JAM 1 IS SOOO GOOOD, this is a lot better than i gave it credit for. Excellent video!

This episode was awesome! Definitely a synth I forgot about in its obscurity!!! I would love it if Behringer were to recreate this one but make it a 6 voice poly!!

Auidopilz right in the feels! 🤣 This was my first synth, it's so bizarre and out there. I regret selling it, but I got a trinity with the mossboard prophecy upgrade, I decided it wasn't worth having two similar synths.

Can't believe I never looked twice at this synth back in the day! Epic review as always 😄

Screaming track, as usual, my friend. Wowzers. And to think that anyone with a few grand wants one of these things. Thanks for the true knowledge. 🔥✨

This synth had some amazing tones. I have no idea how this got to be on "Bad Gear." 🤔

Brilliant stuff every time !

The Korg Prophect is my favorite synth from the 90s. I remember buying it on sale in 1996.

This thing was digital 90s badassery. Just bought another Triton after selling my original version 18 years ago - going to stick a (now very pricey!!) EXB-MOSS board in it and rave my face off.

This is actually pretty cool. Of course, Korg opted for it to be monophonic because polyphony required too much horsepower at the time, heh. Great video as always

This was my first synth. The full manual is amazing and its how I learned synthesis . The sounds you can program with this thing are over the top.

I love the humour :D Great review as ever ! The Prophecy really sounds awesome, your tracks are amazing and you're darn right, the features can be cryptic and the UI can be frustrating. I think this synth really stands out in terms of originality and expressivity, like you hear a sound and you think "that must have been done with a Prophecy, no other synth can do that"

The Prophesy was right with the Nord Lead in bringing “ analog “ subtractive synthesis back into the music production zeitgeist. The Korg VST is great and brought back a lot of the joy of its engine. I do miss the ribbon wheel however . It would be fantastic if Korg brought this synth back beefed up a bit in its Wavestate / Modwave /Opsix platform with that ribbon wheel intact .

It looks like an abomination, something a mother would not even love, yet I want one. Why? WHY Florian? WHY! You've brought this unwanted creation to my attention, and I hate it as much as I love it, and now I want one. Ah. Pilz speaking (This is a word for Beer). Have a great weekend and thanks for introducing us all to something we cant possibly want but...have to have.

An absolute banger of a synth ive never heard of.. Also, this episodes jams alone are probably worth the patreon sub, thats how smooth it sounds.

Nice sound! Only two pieces of my gear still don't have review here: model samples & korg ms2000, so waiting. Thank you Florian, the best show

WOW your performance at 7:00 gave me SERIOUS Wipeout (psx) and Powerslide (pc-cdrom) 90's racing game vibes. Bravo! And if you havent heard of Powerslide, look up the soundtrack. It was EPIC :D (Also the physics were amazing at the time).