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Average rating:
4.6 out of 5
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First thing to do when you get one of these is to throw the wood panels on the
side in the fireplace. What, the keyboard doesn't work right, 5 out of ten don't.
Did you set it down to hard and hear a snap, there goes your power supply. Don't
worry not all Pro-ones are made alike. SC fixed these problems later on. Testing
your unit out before buying is very recomended. Otherwise this is a must have
ultility keyboard. A very thoroughly designed mono from a technical standpoint.
Beginners beware this is not your 101 but can be had for the same price.
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I traded in an Ibanez 8 string bass and about 300 bucks for a Pro One - this was
probably 1981 or so? Sure, I got ripped off at the music store, but it didn't
end there! I was in a band called "Camoflage", and the keyboard player offered
me 300 bucks for it...I didn't want to sell it, but I figured what the hell...
I was going to be in a band with this guy for a long time, right? Wrong! Soon
after he paid me off, the whole band (except for one guy) was fired by the
keyboard player. From what I remember, it was a fun synth. I especially enjoyed
the factory suggested patches like "single engine crop duster"! I wish I still
owned it. The Moog Rogue that controls my Taurus pedals just can't compare.
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Yes, I'm an idiot. I once had a Pro One and I sold it to finance the purchase of a midi
workstation, (an ESQ 1 so I'm not that mad). I loved this synth, the modulation possibilities were endless and hence the sonic
capabilities seemed endless also. The filter was also noteworthy and the envelopes
could be really quick and snappy if you wanted them to be. The 40 note sequencer
was very basic but a lot of fun. There was a 3rd party upgrade that expanded the
sequencer capabilities and gave you more memory locations so that you could take
various seqeunces into the studio/stage rather than just A seq & B seq. Various
companies have offered midi retrofits but any noteworthy cv/midi interface will do. The Audio input that fed into the filter was extremely funkey on Bass and Drums.
I just wish I still had my Pro One so I could feed my sampled loops through it. Second Hand prices in the UK hover around �300 - �400. So It's quite a good investment.
I bought mine 2nd hand from a shop for about �299 in 1988 and sold it to an individual
for �325 in 1990!
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The Pro-One is a great analogue synth, offering more modulation possibilities than most others in its class. Three modulation sources (Filter CV, Osc. B Freq. and the LFO) can each be routed to either the oscillators or the filter frequency. Very nice, especially modulating the filter frequency with Osc. B with Resonance at full. I noticed someone warned off newbies, but I disagree. The front panel layout is very intuitive, grouping the sections (Oscillators, Mixer, Filter, Amp, Modulation, etc.) in a clear, sensical fashion that makes perfect sense after a little tweaking. Newbie advice: turn the sequencer to Seq. A, flip the record/play switch to record, play an 8 note riff, and flip back to play. Now just twist knowbs and listen to what happens. You'll have most things figured out within a single evening of playing around. The sound of this synth is outstanding, as distinctive in its way as Oberheim or Moog. It's a lot of fun to play with, especially for strange sounds. The external input is good not only for filtering other sounds through the Pro-One, but for trigering the Sequencer clock as well. Since it's not MIDI (at least not without a retrofit or CV/MIDI converter), you couldn't otherwise slave it to the MIDI clock signal. The trick I used, which I'm sure has other variations, was to have the drum machine's rim shot pulsing 16th notes, panned left and sent to the external input. The rest of the drums were panned right and sent to the mixer. This way, the drum machine ran off the MIDI clock and in turn drove the Sequencer. Caution - this may be how my Pro-One fried, as it was during one of these sessions that it stopped functioning, apparently due to a burnt-out power regulator component on the circuit board. Oops. Final note - the keyboard gopt a disparaging comment on the main page here. I disagree with that as well, my keyboard was always crisp and responsive, a typical springy synth keyboard. I'm pretty sure that my Pro-One was one of the last revisions released, maybe the problems only apply to the early revisions. My Pro-One was the floor model in a Sam Ash store in NY, bought in '82, and it took years of hard labor (constant moving, banging, smoke-filled environments, etc.) without ever letting me down (till I fried it myself). Tuning is explained in the manual and easily accomplished with a jeweler's screwdriver, and electronic component spray cleaner always irradicated any dirty pot problems like noise and jumpy incrementation. I'm really looking forward to getting mine back up and running. I'd say who's repairing it, but that might violate the "no commercials" rule here. Feel free to email me about this synth, I have the manual (and an extra, in fact) and the schematic.
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