I have read a couple of posts from people who praise the Prisma synthesizer, and I just don't get it. What's so good about it? I even read that some guy thinks it's way better than a Virus. I got a Virus and I can't say the Prisma is better - but on the other hand I must confess I haven't pushed the Prisma to it's limits.
The bottom line: is it worth it? If so... why?
Cheers,
Carl.
Prisma: the mystery
I think I'm "that guy". Here's the gist of the post:
<i>I'm happy to put my Prisma sounds up against my friend's Virus - and funny thing is I can usually get a much better sound. but I think this comes from knowing the machine, whereas my friend usually just scrolls the presets and gets a bit lost when it comes to tweaking.... </i>
The full topic here:
http://www.planetz.com/forums/viewtopic ... forum=5&30
But that's true with just about any bit of kit whether it's a power tool, a car or a synthesiser: the person who knows their kit will do better than someone with all the "best" gear, but no knowledge of how to use it.
That aside, I do think the Primsa is something special. It does have a very ModV2 sound, but then it was built from CW's winning ModV2 patch competition. And the ModV2 sound is sweet anyway. But it did take me a while to warm to this machine, straight off I thought "a wrapped ModV2" and didn't really appreciate its power.
The Prisma has all the basics in generous measure in terms of oscillators, filters, envelopes, effects, LFOs, etc so that gives it a good start. But the real beauty is in the matrix. You can route anything anywhere. With enough tweaking you can get it to do some amazing things.
If I owned a Virus I'm sure that it would be king-of-the-kit, but I don't. Instead I believe the Prisma is king-of-the-kit in the <b>standard</b> Pulsar range. This doesn't include such things as Zarg synths, the Prophet, Pro One etc... that's another story
<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Spirit on 2002-04-29 03:57 ]</font>
<i>I'm happy to put my Prisma sounds up against my friend's Virus - and funny thing is I can usually get a much better sound. but I think this comes from knowing the machine, whereas my friend usually just scrolls the presets and gets a bit lost when it comes to tweaking.... </i>
The full topic here:
http://www.planetz.com/forums/viewtopic ... forum=5&30
But that's true with just about any bit of kit whether it's a power tool, a car or a synthesiser: the person who knows their kit will do better than someone with all the "best" gear, but no knowledge of how to use it.
That aside, I do think the Primsa is something special. It does have a very ModV2 sound, but then it was built from CW's winning ModV2 patch competition. And the ModV2 sound is sweet anyway. But it did take me a while to warm to this machine, straight off I thought "a wrapped ModV2" and didn't really appreciate its power.
The Prisma has all the basics in generous measure in terms of oscillators, filters, envelopes, effects, LFOs, etc so that gives it a good start. But the real beauty is in the matrix. You can route anything anywhere. With enough tweaking you can get it to do some amazing things.
If I owned a Virus I'm sure that it would be king-of-the-kit, but I don't. Instead I believe the Prisma is king-of-the-kit in the <b>standard</b> Pulsar range. This doesn't include such things as Zarg synths, the Prophet, Pro One etc... that's another story
<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Spirit on 2002-04-29 03:57 ]</font>
Aah... Mr. Spirit. I believe it was you. 
I understand your points and I'll take a look at the modulation possibilites in the Prisma.
One of the best things of the Virus - well... it could in fact be the best - is the arpeggiator. It's easy and it's powerful. How come there is no such arpeggiator function/device on the Pulsar-platform? The Creamware arpeggiators are sooo boring (at least compared with the Virus).
Carl.
I understand your points and I'll take a look at the modulation possibilites in the Prisma.
One of the best things of the Virus - well... it could in fact be the best - is the arpeggiator. It's easy and it's powerful. How come there is no such arpeggiator function/device on the Pulsar-platform? The Creamware arpeggiators are sooo boring (at least compared with the Virus).
Carl.
I use the Arpeg02 which is pretty good, but not great. I also like the 16-step sequencer in the Synchrotron (much like the Pro One), but it's a bit fiddly to change the pitch. I like what Reaktor does - allows you to draw the pitch with the mouse. Even better would be to enter the pitch on a keyboard. Stuffing around with tiny sliders that say -3 or 5 or 9 doesn't mean much to me.