Overview
The Prophet VS was released by Sequential Circuits in 1986 and was the first to use vector synthesis. Instead of scanning through one table, each voice plays four digital oscillators at once, labeled A, B, C, and D and arranged in a diamond. A joystick sets how much of each you hear, so moving it crossfades between four waveforms in two dimensions. A dedicated five-stage mix envelope can move that point on its own for every note, which is where the VS’s slowly shifting pads come from. Vintage Synth Explorer lists it as 2-part multitimbral, with 100 patches in memory and another 100, plus 32 user waves, on a cartridge.
The oscillators are 12-bit, and the sound then goes through analog resonant low-pass filters built on Curtis chips (CEM3379/3389), similar to the chips in Sequential’s Prophet-5. Wikipedia and Vintage Synth Explorer list 8 voices, and the VS ran on a Motorola 68000. Yamaha bought Sequential just over a year after the VS appeared and shut the company down in 1989.
The ideas didn’t end there. Dave Smith moved to Korg and worked on the Wavestation, which grew vector synthesis into wave sequencing, and Yamaha built its SY22 and SY35 on VS technology. John Carpenter, Prince, Trent Reznor, and Rush are among the players Wikipedia lists.
How its wavetables worked
The VS isn’t a wavetable synth in the scanning sense. It has a library of 128 single-cycle waveforms: 96 factory waves plus 32 user locations, with wave 127 used as noise. Each oscillator picks one, and the joystick blends four of them. That makes it a close cousin of the 2D wavetable: the four corners of the diamond are like four frames, and the joystick is an X/Y position between them, with the blend done by crossfading levels.
User waves are made on the instrument itself. Sound On Sound describes the process as choosing waveforms for the four slots, setting a frequency multiplier for each, and moving the joystick until the mix sounds right, then saving the result as a new wave. Wikipedia adds that user waves can also be sent over MIDI with the sample dump standard. WaveStack doesn’t write MIDI sample dumps, and the VS can’t read a WAV file, so there’s no route from WaveStack to the original hardware.
You can still build VS-style material in WaveStack. A 2D table with four corner frames, or a 1D table that fades through four shapes, gets you the same kind of movement, and you can morph between them with an LFO or envelope in the synth you load it into. Export for Serum or Vital, or for hardware like the modwave. Arturia makes a software emulation, Prophet-VS V, which it says supports user waveforms; we haven’t confirmed which files it reads.
Specifications
| Waveforms | 128 single cycles (96 factory, 32 user) |
|---|---|
| Bit depth | 12-bit |
| Waves per voice | 4, mixed with a joystick |
| Voices | 8 |
| Filter | Analog Curtis 4-pole low-pass (CEM3379/3389) |
Frequently asked questions
What is vector synthesis?
Vector synthesis blends four sound sources placed at the corners of a diamond, usually labeled A, B, C, and D. A joystick or an envelope sets a point inside the diamond, and the synth mixes the four sources according to how close that point is to each corner. On the Prophet VS each source is a single-cycle waveform, so moving the joystick changes the tone in two directions at once. It’s an early relative of the 2D wavetable, where an X/Y position picks a blend of frames.
Can I load my own wavetables into the Prophet VS?
Not as WAV files. The VS has 32 user wave locations, and you fill them on the instrument by mixing existing waves with the joystick and saving the result. Wikipedia notes that user waves can also be transferred over MIDI with the sample dump standard, but WaveStack doesn’t write that format, and the VS has no way to read audio files. For VS-style sounds from your own waves, export from WaveStack to a modern synth with X/Y or morph controls.
Is the Prophet VS a wavetable synth?
Not quite. A wavetable synth scans through an ordered set of frames with a single position. The VS plays four separate single-cycle waves per voice and crossfades their levels with a joystick or envelope. The result is similar to a 2D wavetable with four frames, one at each corner, but the blend is a level mix rather than a scan. It belongs in wavetable history because it showed how much movement two control dimensions could add.
How do I get Prophet VS-style movement with WaveStack tables?
Build a 2D table with four distinct corner frames, or a short 1D table that fades between four shapes, then export it for a synth that lets an LFO or envelope move the position. Serum and Vital both work. A slow envelope on the position, with a bit of filter movement on top, gets close to the VS’s evolving pads. The VS’s analog filters aren’t something WaveStack can recreate, so use the synth’s own filter for that part.
What came after the Prophet VS?
Sequential was bought by Yamaha just over a year after the VS appeared. Dave Smith then moved to Korg and worked on the Wavestation, which carried vector synthesis forward and added wave sequencing. Yamaha based its SY22 and SY35 on VS technology. Today Arturia makes a software emulation called Prophet-VS V, and Behringer has released hardware clones, the Pro VS Mini and the Victor Eurorack module.