Dave Smith Instruments Prophet ’08 Pot Edition

The standard Prophet ’08 primarily uses rotary encoders for its front panel controls, but some customers prefer potentiometers (AKA pots) like those used on the vintage Prophets, particularly for the more performance-oriented parameters like filter cutoff and resonance. The new Prophet ’08 Pot Edition offers an alternative with 38 of the 52 front panel parameters controlled by pots; rotary encoders are still used for the remainder of the controls.

So, what’s the difference? The features and functionality of the non-pot and pot versions are exactly the same, according to Dave Smith. The difference is strictly in the controls themselves. Encoders are said to be “endless”—they have no minimum or maximum limit. The advantage to that is that when you edit a preset parameter, the change begins at the preset value and increases or decreases, depending upon the direction turned. Pots typically have about 270° of travel and have definite limits. The advantage to that is that you know, by feel, where the minimum and maximum limits are and you can sweep through the entire value range in less than one full turn, Dave Smith says.

The Prophet ’08 PE features three edit modes for the pots: Relative, Passthru, and Jump. In Relative mode, the value change is relative to the preset value. In Passthru mode, turning the pot has no effect until after the edited value equals the preset value (that is, until the edited value “passes through” the stored value). Jump mode uses an absolute value based upon the position of the pot when edited; turn a pot and the value jumps immediately from the stored value to the edited value.

Pricing & Availability
The MSRP of the Prophet ’08 Pot Edition is $2,309.00 and it is available now.