Brent Mydland | Stage-used Prophet 10

Property of Grateful Dead Productions

Brent Mydland

Sequential Circuits Prophet 10 analog synthesizer, played by Brent Midland onstage with the Grateful Dead, ca. 1980s

Walnut and metal body (41 x 25 x 7”), with blue road case. Serial number: 0426.

Introduced in 1978, the Prophet 5 was the world’s first fully programmable polyphonic synthesizer, the invention of engineer Dave Smith, who also invented (and named) MIDI technology in the 1980s.

Sensing an opportunity to improve on the temperamental, original Smith took the warm and organic analog sounds of his game-changing Prophet 5 and improved upon its three revisions by essentially stacking two Prophet 5 models into a single unit with ten voices—the Prophet 10. The modulation sources include a filter envelope and oscillator, both contributing to the difference in times and frequency responses that impart a sound best described as “alive” and on that players seek to emulate today.

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Photograph © Bob Minkin. To purchase a print, or view more of Bob Minkin’s work, visit https://minkinphotographystore.com