The more hardware synthesizers and studio-essential guides I do, the more I discover that the Prophet Rev 2 is the secret weapon behind some of my favorite productions. This synth, which picks up where Dave Smith’s iconic synth left off, offers so much versatility and originality that it is no wonder top-level producers consistently rely on it.
Paradoks is a producer whose signature sound has graced labels such as Stil Vor Talent, Purified Records, and Parquet. The millions of streams on streaming platforms he has amassed may not have been possible without the powerhouse Prophet Rev 2 in his arsenal and Ableton Live as his canvas.
So as the Swiss-Belgian melodic producer sets out to make new strides in his career by self-releasing his first track on Antinome, we decided it was high time we discovered his secrets on how he uses the Rev 2 in combination with Ableton Live to achieve his signature melodic sound.
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Stream Paradok’s Latest Single Below
The track stands out from the sea of other songs through its emphasis on telling a story through its melody instead of melody for melody’s sake. The vocals and leading synth lines play a bit of call and response together, playing off each other’s phrasing as they each evolve and progress with new heights of emotion and complexity.
Just as the synths and instrumentation expand to their apex in the breakdown, the subdued finale retracts the instrumentation for a raw and emotional climax simply off of its minimalism.
Stream / Purchase: Paradoks – New Beginning
“New Beginning pictures the story of someone’s initial struggle of belonging. As the song progresses, the feeling evolves into acceptance, switching the darkness for the light as they discover a more profound sense of purpose. It’s a song that reflects a part of my life and some difficult moments I have been going through, both in the music industry and my personal life. I had some inner artistic conflicts and faced many paradoxes, but I feel now that I’m embracing what is truly me, both as a person and as an artist.” – Paradoks.
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How do you make the Prophet Rev 2 an essential part of your Ableton workflow?
The Prophet Rev 2 is the centerpiece of my setup. I use it both as the beautiful synth it is and as my master keyboard that controls my other synths or pianos, virtual or analog.
For example, you can see me playing the piano with Rev 2 in some of my videos. Since I make melodic music, I need to have a synth and a keyboard I feel comfortable with as my main central piece, always within reach. The Rev 2 as a synth has the potential to make complex and beautiful sounds thanks to its layering abilities, allowing you to edit the envelopes, sequence, tempo of two separate layers, and many more.
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This is great for pads, atmospheres, leads, and FXs. But even the most straightforward sounds with a bit of built-in Rev 2 saturation sound great on their own, which is what I tend to go for most of the time.
I also particularly like its hardware integration with Omnisphere. My Rev 2 is pre-mapped to control all the parameters of Omnisphere, allowing me to use the Rev 2 both for its synth sound and to control Omnisphere without having to go through the tedious process of midi mapping every knob.
This transforms my Rev2 into the ultimate Omnisphere controller.
I could, therefore, also layer the sound of the Rev 2 itself with the sound of Omnisphere. Not that I do that, though: I prefer to embrace simplicity, but you could if you wanted to. Now that I’m writing this, I might go ahead and experiment more with this.
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Why is Ableton your preferred DAW for recording, editing, and processing sounds from your Rev 2 synth?
Ableton is just my favorite DAW in general. I initially learned music production with FL Studio but switched to Ableton 5 years ago. I am a speedy worker, and Ableton enables that fast workflow thanks to all its shortcuts.
I’m also a fan of the session view; it is just so versatile for recording external instruments or recording anything in general. I use the session mode to start and jam on a new idea and when working on an advanced project in arrangement mode.
Let’s say I feel an element missing in a specific part of the song, a lead, for example, and I want to reach out to my Rev 2. I can then loop that part in the arrangement, switch to session mode, jam, and record that lead in session mode for as long as I want while the arrangement is looped endlessly. This gives me a lot of freedom to experiment, even when working on the arrangement of an almost-finished track.
I then record the Rev 2 in Midi and Audio, which brings us to the next point…
What are your favorite editing tricks to do once you’ve recorded sounds from Rev 2 into Ableton Live?
Once I recorded a part of the Rev 2, I love to duplicate the audio channel.
I keep one clean, and I completely mess up the recorded audio on the other channel. This can be done by using external effects or directly working with the audio. I transpose some notes from the audio up or down with the different Ableton warping algorithms. This gives it a particular grain. I also like to reverse some notes, stretch them, and experiment as much as possible.
You can hear this in my track ‘New Beginning,’ for example.
The main lead was recorded with my prophet Rev2, but I had fun reversing and cutting some notes to give more movement and make the main lead more exciting and alive. Sometimes I keep precisely what I recorded, but sometimes I play so much with the audio that I have something completely different from how I initially recorded. I also like manipulating the recorded audio source to make FXs, atmospheres, and more.
By stretching some audio notes to extremes and adding a lot of reverbs, you can get some great textures to fill up the sonic space of the song. Even though these manipulated audios will sound completely different than the source, they are all part of the same recording, giving the piece a sense of unity between the sounds.
And, of course, I then process the sounds using my favorite virtual plugins, such as EQ, Compression, Saturation, and more. But sometimes, I keep it simple.
In ‘Flying Particles,’ I recorded the main lead by directly playing it on Rev 2, without quantization, and kept it exactly as it was from the first recording. The same happened with my ‘The Prophet’ in the breakdown. Yes, I called it this way because it was the first track I produced with the Prophet Rev 2.
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Share a tip you wish you would have learned earlier about Ableton when working with hardware synths like the Rev 2
I don’t think there is anything specific I wish I had learned earlier about Ableton and hardware integration; it was pretty simple.
However, had I known Omnisphere had such a tight integration with my Rev 2, I would have bought Omnisphere much sooner!
When do you usually start reaching for the Prophet Rev 2 in your creative process?
Sometimes, I like using it first, even before opening Ableton. I would spend time designing a sound on my Prophet Rev 2 and trying melodies and ideas to inspire me.
Once something catches my attention, I open Ableton and start recording it. I like to work this way because sometimes, by opening the program first, you can already feel a slight pressure to produce.
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But when it’s just me and my Rev 2, I feel like I’m just messing around until something happens or doesn’t. It’s just like when I play the average piano: I feel more grounded and inspired without the distracting computer screen, without the infinite possibilities that can overwhelm you with a program like Ableton.
In most cases, I tend to reach out for my Rev 2 when looking for an upfront lead sound. I use Rev 2 as the main lead of ‘New Beginning,’ ‘Sense of Wonder,’ ‘Flying Particles,’ ‘Flourish,’ ‘The Prophet,’ and many more.
\With these tracks, the lead was also the first element, the main hook around which I produced the song. But as mentioned above, I also like to use it for FXs, Atmospheres, or Arps and Chords, which I add later in the process.
Magnetic Mag keeps the lights on through an affiliate partnership with Sweetwater. If you’d like to learn more about this synth and help us out as independent writers, head to this link here.
Will Vance is a professional music producer who has been involved in the industry for the better part of a decade and has been the managing editor at Magnetic Magazine since mid-2022. In that time period, he has published thousands of articles on music production, industry think pieces and educational articles about the music industry. Over the last decade as a professional music producer, Will Vance has also ran multiple successful and highly respected record labels in the industry, including Where The Heart Is Records as well as having launched a new label with a focus on community through Magnetic Magazine. When not running these labels or producing his own music, Vance is likely writing for other top industry sites like Waves or the Hyperbits Masterclass or working on his upcoming book on mindfulness in music production. On the rare chance he's not thinking about music production, he's probably running a game of Dungeons and Dragons with his friends which he has been the dungeon master for for many years.
