IVAN BLOMQVIST – ROHEY

Ivan Blomqvist is a Swedish pianist/keyboardist, songwriter/composer based in Oslo, Norway. Working mainly with jazz and improvised music, he has a bachelor’s degree in improvisation and jazz from the highly respected Jazz department at the University of Science and Technology in Trondheim. He is currently working as a keyboardist and songwriter in the Future Soul band Rohey, as well as running his own Jazz projects: Ivan Blomqvist 3 Feat Hanna Paulsberg and the club sensation, Mozambique!

We chatted with Ivan about how he’s using the Prophet 12.

Ivan, is this your first DSI product? If not, what other DSI products are you using?

“I had a Prophet ’08, which I was really happy with, but I ended up switching to the Prophet 12 because it’s more versatile for live use.”

What made you choose the Prophet 12?

“The Prophet 12 gives me the opportunity to do so many things at once: stacks, splits, mono leads and more. It has a huge variety of sounds, from warm, warbly old-school patches, to more modern-sounding stuff for dance music and things like that. It also has built-in effects with a Character section and four individual delays that you can use to create chorus, phaser, and even tape-like delay that drifts in pitch.

How are you using it?

“I use in my band Rohey where I’m the only chord instrument (it’s a quartet with vocals, keys, bass, and drums). So there’s a lot of space to fill, but the Prophet 12 does the job superbly. The Playlist function has come real handy when I play live, where I can assign four patches (or more) for each song, and easily access them at any time.

What’s one of your favorite things about it?

“Although the prophet 12 is a monster synth and is able to do all sorts of crazy stuff, the layout is simple and intuitive. It’s a really hands-on synth where everything is laid out right in front of me. This is really important, since I create all my patches from scratch and spend a lot of time sculpting the sound for a certain song. The Prophet 12 is a really versatile synth. Instead of bringing a bunch of other synths to try to do the same job, I can just bring one, and this really helps when you’re a touring musician.”

Any interesting tricks or techniques you’d like to share?

“There is a lot you can do by modulating the oscillators with noise as a source. It’s beautiful. Lowering the volume of the oscillators and increasing the Program volume makes the patches warmer. I also love the Drive effect, but just use it slightly to boost the patches a bit and add some low end. The Prophet 12 has almost endless modulation possibilities, so it’s great to really dig deep there. I start modulating the filter with an LFO, then control the frequency of that LFO with another one, and control the amount of the first one with a new one, and so on! You can certainly make the instrument live if you just spend enough time with it.

LINKS

Ivan’s website

Rohey website

Rohey on Facebook


MORE ABOUT THE PROPHET 12

For more information, check out the Prophet 12 product page here.

Find your local dealer for Prophet 12 pricing here.

If you’re using your DSI gear in interesting ways, tell us about it. Contact us at .