American keyboards have always been pretty expensive around here. If a Pro-1 was a bit of an ouch, the Pro-5 was tears of laughter as no one I knew was ever going to spend that much. Probably it wasn’t even likely back in the US as Sequential Circuits sold a cut down version called the Pro-600. Which by the way was the first MIDI synthesiser. That had a few problems in the computing department which you can read about most anywhere. Suffice to say a hardware fix came about and this retrofit version is the one that’s been squeezed into Behringer’s little Eurorack case.
The creative strategy is much the same as for the Pro-1 but quite a few general settings sit behind the squishy buttons at the left.
(Hell, those squishy buttons bring back lots of memories from the 70s. That and the cryptic red LED displays. You kids don’t know how excited we could get for a few squishy buttons. The first digital watch I ever saw was real gold, squishy buttons and red LEDs.)
Their use makes sense… once you have found the right page in the manual which is in about 20 something languages… and they keep changing the button assignments every update… anyway I’ve lost some patches not knowing which squish is what. But – the main control panel is very familiar to that of the Pro-1. Not exactly the same, and the noise is not exactly the same either (nor like the Mopho if you’ve used that one). Not so much a screeching dentist drill, a little more calm. But it’s definitely a Sequential family member.
Here’s the thing: I’m twiddling my way through a patch, trying for a bit of beefcake. Making it big and important with pulse width. And I realise it’s sounding pretty close to something I’d create with the Super Jupiter MKS-80, the same kind of bold thump. This Pro800 cost me $594AUD. The MKS-80 currently goes for roughly $10,000 with the controller. This of course is more about human greed than anything sensible measure – but shit poorer musicians really can have the same quality of sound for far less.
It’s not quite the same as the Roland, you would have be very dedicated to nearly match the tone. But in terms of music it’s capable of the same orchestration. It’s wham-bam, no effects, not like anything sold this side of the DX7. Younger people would find it a little rough and ready. Try adding an effects pedal, it’s a good deal.
I’m going for 4 toilet rolls because it’s really good but not quite a thing apart from all my other things. At this point I can see that it’s not quite as exciting as the Pro-1 and probably the Pro-5. I would still think to sample the Pro-1 to use on a software instrument.
At this point I haven’t compared it to the software Pro-5. I will when time permits.