Joe Landers has released Profligacy, an early alpha version of its newly developed emulator for the Korg Prophecy physical modeling Synthesizer.
This morning, I reported on the Elektron Monomachine and Machinedrum emulators that Joe Landers developed using a Gearmulator fork. While looking through his GitHub, I found a second emulator project.
Joe Landers is currently also working on a second Synthesizer project.
Joe Landers Profligacy
The Profligacy is a new emulator software by Joe Landers that runs the original ROM of the Korg Prophecy Synthesizer from 1995.
Unlike the Elektron devices, Joe Landers does not use the open-source project “Gearmulator” by The Usual Suspects here, but rather relies on a new emulator. That is because the Prophecy is not based on the Motorola chip.
The Korg Prophecy hardware uses three Texas Instruments TMS57002 DSP chips, alongside an NEC V55 microcontroller and a Toshiba H8 processor.
For the project, Joe analyzed the chips and developed his own emulator in recent months. Details are on the GitHub page. As with the other ROM-based emulators, Profligacy also requires the hardware’s original ROM firmware.
He writes on GitHub that this project is for people who already own the original hardware and firmware. So, you need the original ROM file to make it work.
Profligacy comes with a UI heavily inspired by the hardware. It has six sections: panel, matrix, program, arp, global, and dev. The software offers the same functions as the original synth, drawing its functionality from the ROM.
Important: this is not a final release, but an experimental or early alpha version. Consequently, there are unfinished areas, bugs, and high CPU usage. He wrote on GitHub that it used about half a core on his Apple M2 chip and 80% on his Intel iMac. Yes, a lot.
What Was The Korg Prophecy?
The Prophecy was a monophonic Synthesizer released by Korg in 1995 with a unique engine. It was Korg’s answer to the Yamaha VL1 and blended physical modeling with virtual analog synthesis.
Two distinct oscillators formed the foundation, one of which was a physical modeling oscillator. They offered various selectable synthesis models: analog modeling, noise + comb filter, variable phase mod, modulation, and physical modeling.
Also onboard were two multi-mode resonant filters, four LFOs, built-in effects, patch storage, and more.
Korg itself released an authentic, great-sounding emulation of the Prophecy in 2021. You don’t need a ROM, and the synth is polyphonic.
First Impression
Another exciting project from Joe Landers. Here, too, a word of caution: this is an experimental release, not a finished plugin.
If you want to use the Prophecy in projects without the risk of major issues, opt for the official emulation instead. Korg has done an excellent job with that one.
Joe Landers Profligacy is available now as an experimental/early-alpha release. It runs as a VST3 on macOS (native Apple Silicon + Intel) and Windows.
More information here: GitHub
Korg Prophecy emulation is available here:
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