Native Instruments Pro-52/Pro-53


Native Instruments Pro-52/Pro-53
by Jack Conrad
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Good news music lovers! Here's that nice fat analog synth sound you've been missing in your life ever since you gave that heavy, noisy and cantankerous old Prophet 5 to the Goodwill and took a hefty "charitable" income tax deduction. Fear not old philanthropist! This one sounds just as good as its demonic forebear without all the glitches of yore. This virtual instrument can be run as a sequencer plug-in within any VST 2.0 system or as a standalone synthesizer on a Mac or Windows PC. Recommended system requirements: Mac OS 8.51 or higher, PPC 604, 233 mHz, 64 mB RAM and Windows 95/98 or NT 4.0, Pentium 233 mHz, 64 mB RAM, 16-bit sound card.

On my 400mHz, Pentium II PC, Pro-52 loaded right into Cubase 3.7's VST instrument rack in a painless display of digital wizardry. In other words, I didn't have to read the manual to get started. After selecting Pro-52 in the output window and returning to "edit", I was ready to cruise down memory lane. The interface, a nearly authentic picture of the Prophet 5 appeared sans keyboard. Click on the Pro-52 logo on the right side and the interface extends to include a mouse-playable keyboard with pitch and mod wheels. The knobs are also mouse-adjustable with an up and down motion over each control. There are 512 preset memory locations with 250 classic analog patches all ready to go! (It's also fully compatible to Prophet-5 MIDI-SysEx program data). There are all the front panel controls needed to modify, store and customized your own sounds. Polyphony is unlimited and I ran up to eight instantiations at once in my current 3.7 VST/24 system.

Starting out, I immediately noticed a major latency problem, a result of CuBase's "options/sync/pre-roll" setting being too high. I reset the pre-roll to 50 and that corrected all but the tiniest bit of delay. I remember an original MIDI'd Prophet wasn't anywhere near this accurate! On playback (with the synth reading MIDI data from the sequencer) the Pro-52 is right on the money...sample accurate so to speak.

I had the good fortune to have my friend, keyboardist and former Prophet-5 owner, Tom Hensley on hand to help me navigate the stock sounds with the appropriate keyboard licks. We marveled at the way the new Prophet sounded without the disappearing channels, stuck on notes and general buzzes and noises that old synth use make. Problems that brought tears to the eyes of so many innocent musicians in the "good 'ol days".

All those great sounds are back to enhance your horn sections, set the mood for that spacey intro, or provide a fat bottom end and funk arpeggios for a groove tune. The Pro-52 sells for $199 and Steinberg US is at 21354 Nordhoff Street Suite 110 Chatsworth CA 91311 Phone them at: 818-678-5100 or Web to: www.us.steinberg.net or www.cubase.net There is are demos available at: www.native-instruments.com

Jack Conrad, retired studio musician and former touring member of bands including The Doors and The Beach Boys has been hiding out in his Hollywood Hills abode for years writing hits with some really outstanding co-writers for groups such as Three Dog Night, The Babys and Heart. A home studio advocate who is definitely having too much fun in the digital domain!

Edited by: Barry Rudolph

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