Colin Cameron Allrich is a musician, remixer and sound designer based at The Cell Studio now in Portland Oregon. He’s worked under many aliases on projects in genres ranging from club-friendly House and Breaks, to Industrial Rock and Cinematic Electronica with remixes and collaborations with Front Line Assembly, Future Funk Squad, 16Volt/Black December, STEREOSPREAD, John Girgus and more. His music has been licensed to many television and film studios, including FOX, NBC/Universal, HBO, Showtime, MTV and Lionsgate Films. Find out more at www.thecellstudio.com.
We chatted with Colin about how he’s using the Prophet 12.
Colin, what made you choose the Prophet 12?
“Having spent a lot of time with software knock offs over the years, I found every one to be missing the real vibes of the hardware. For a while I was planning on buying a secondhand Prophet ’08 before the Prophet 12 was announced. Much to my delight, I discovered the Prophet 12 and loved its additional capabilities. There’s just something about the Prophet 12 that nothing else out there can give you.”
How are you using it?
“Right now it’s the main keyboard on my desk! I’ve moved the Virus Ti off to the side to focus on relying on the Prophet 12 to not only use as a sound source, but also as my default MIDI controller. The knobs are great for CC assignments of plug-ins in Logic! I’m also using it extensively on a new nostalgic, synth-heavy project called Creature Comfort, where it’s really become the main fixture on the EP.“
What’s one of your favorite things about it?
“It’s a real treat to jam on, and a lot of the music I write with it gets built from these off-the-cuff jam sessions. From a sound design standpoint, the Character section is a lovely thing. Hack and Air are my favorites for designing really low-octave, creepy tones especially now that you’ve released the linear FM update.”
What does it give you that other synths might not?
“From a layout standpoint, I appreciate the full set of robust knobs right there in front of me. This is why it’s my main synth on the desk these days. I dive right in and I’m not scrolling through menus getting lost and losing that creative spark. That’s one of the biggest things for me. It’s a very intuitive synth.“
Any interesting Prophet 12 tricks or techniques you’d like to share?
“Stack up those four delay modules! There are some really nice things that happen when you start building up the feedback across all four of them. Assigning the Aux Envelopes creatively has also given me some great sound design results. I find the best trick is to just let your creativity drive you and try routing things unconventionally and you’ll stumble into some nice happy accidents. I’ve yet to make anything with it that felt like rubbish. I’m always saving presets from these experiments for future use.“
Check out Colin’s website here.
Check out some of Colin’s music here.
MORE ABOUT THE PROPHET 12
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