The Korg Prophecy is considered one of the earliest (mid-nineties) "virtual analog" (a.k.a. VA) synthesizers, although its synthesis capabilities went beyond many of its VA contemporaries.

Extended information

Along with the Korg Trinity, this little synth is a direct descendant of the ill-fated (and sci-fi at the time) Oasys project[citation needed]. It was a small 3-octave monosynth, a pioneer of the late 90's "return-to-analog" trend. Offering assignable knobs, a "log controller" (a mix-up of a modulation wheel and ribbon controller assembled like a "sausage") and many other control sources, it invited players to tweak and shape the sound both easily and quickly. Deep editing, however, wasn't as straightforward, because the sound engine contained no less than 13 DSP-modelled oscillator types, each one offering too many parameters to adjust. Probably, the most valuated and used DSP models were the analog model (based on the classic osc+filter+amp scheme, although with many powerful enhancements), the VPM model (some sort of FM synthesis which cleverly avoided Yamaha's FM patent) and the "physical modeling" algorithms. The latter deserves special mention; in the mid-late 90's, it was believed that physical modeling, which recreated the sound of acoustic instruments (brass, strings, woodwinds, etc.) using DSP algorithms instead of samples, would eventually replace sample-based version of those instruments, because of its unprecedented realism and expressivity. As time passed, physical modelling seemed to lose its appeal to both manufacturers (because of the cost of investigation and implementation) and final users, who complained about the realism of the models and limited polyphony. Also, more complex playing techniques were required to play the models in a convincing way. Nevertheless, the Prophecy's low cost and broad implementation of sound generation techniques earned it a significant place in synthesizer history.

More technically, the Prophecy offered one-note polyphony, a decent set of effects (including distortion, waveshaping, delay/reverb and chorus/flanger), and 128 locations for user sounds. No disk drive or sequencer was found on it, but its integrated arpeggiator was a source of "instant gratification", as some magazines pointed it. Standard MIDI features and a pair of audio outputs were also offered.

Korg made a major breakthrough at the time, offering a low cost expansion card for Trinity users, which incorporated the whole sound engine of the Prophecy into the already powerful workstation. Gone was the arpeggiator and some minor features, but the editing was much improved through the Trinity's big touchscreen, and the workstation's effects processing was a huge improvement over the Prophecy's basic set.

Technical specifications

Polyphony - Monophonic Oscillators - Physical Modeling LFO - 4 LFOs, 30 Waveforms, Real-Time Modulation, 0-60Hz Filter - Voice Filter: Resonant Low/Hi/Band/Notch VCA - 4 envelopes Keyboard - 37 keys (with velocity & aftertouch) Arpeg/Seq - Arpeggiator: Programmable, Sends/Receives MIDI Clock Control - MIDI