Sequential Circuits Pro One synthesiser.
I popped into SRS in Bedford to get something repaired (probably my SH101 yet again) and he had this Pro One sitting there so I just had to buy it. Since my Moog Source died a few years ago there was definitely a gap in my studio for a good monosynth. I love the SH09, SH101 and MS10 but they are all one-oscillator synths so I wanted to have something with more possibilities.
The Pro One is essentially one voice of a Prophet 5, which makes it a two-oscillator monosynth with quite a complicated modulation-routing system, an LFO, two extremely fast envelopes, oscillator sync, white noise, two simple sequencers etc. It's a very cool synth, not really like the Moog I bought it to replace (although my Analogue Systems modular comforts me a bit in that respect because it can sound very Moogy when you want it to) and nothing like the Roland synths I have used for years, but quite individual. It's been used by everybody on so many records that you often find yourself making sounds that you recognise - Cybotron, Drexciya, Vince Clarke all spring to mind. It's great for early Depeche Mode and Kraftwerk-y sounds, wicked for springy funk bass sounds and cool for making some unique special effects sounds. And the sync is really nice too.
There are inputs on the back for CV and Gate as well as a CV input for filter cutoff and an audio input for mangling other sounds.
The only negatives are - the keyboard is pretty crappy and the pitch wheel doesn't centre itself, the overall build quality is very flimsy. But the synth itself is fantastic and mine celebrated its 25th birthday this month and it's still going strong.
EXAMPLE SOUNDS
All these sounds are just Pro One with a little reverb. The first two have some drums as well.
PRO01 - Pro One bass tweaking over TR-909 samples from the K2000.
PRO02 - Tweaking the Pro One whilst playing the internal sequencer.
PRO03 - Some percussion hits.
PRO04 - Pitch envelope bassline, adjusting envelope settings, fading in scond oscillator.
PRO05 - Sync sequence.
PRO06 - Detuned oscillators.
PRO07 - Resonant bass with filter sweep.
PRO08 - Oscillators a fifth apart, adjusting LFO whilst playing.
PRO09 - Sync sweep.
PRO10 - White noise with resonant filter sweep, LFO slowing down.
PRO11 - Resonant bass, adjusting envelope.
PRO12 - Filter FM.
PRO13 - Bell-like FM tones, pitch envelope amount increaing on OSC2.
PRO14 - FM sequence, changing octaves.
PRO15 - Synth bass sound, filter cutoff is modulated by key velocity, backing drums from the K2000.
LINKS
Pro One at Synth Museum here
Unease's Pro One page including some nice demos here
Pro One at Music Machines here
Pro One at Vintage Synth Explorer here
Pro One at Sonic State here
Pro One stuff at Wine Country, including GIFs of the manual here
Manual in HTML format here
Reviews at Harmony Central here