The Pro 2 is a hybrid monophonic keyboard synthesizer introduced in 2014 by Dave Smith Instruments, later carried under the Sequential name after the company’s 2018 rebrand. Built around four digital oscillators, a sub oscillator, dual analog filters, deep modulation, and an unusually ambitious step sequencer, it was conceived less as a nostalgic tribute and more as a statement about how far a modern monosynth could go. Its importance lies not only in its specification, but in the fact that it treated a mono instrument as a compositional system rather than a single-purpose lead or bass machine.
Sound and character
In practice, the Pro 2 sounds less like a vintage throwback and more like a deliberately expanded hybrid instrument. Its digital oscillators give it a firm, precise core, which means it can move quickly from stable, focused basses to sharp sync leads, glassy FM colors, animated textures, and harmonically dense sequences without losing definition. This is not the loose, naturally drifting behavior associated with classic VCO monosynths. Its voice is more controlled, more sculptable, and more architectural.
What stops that precision from becoming sterile is the analog half of the design. The two-filter structure gives the Pro 2 much of its identity. Filter 1, inspired by the original Prophet-5 filter, provides weight, focus, and a familiar subtractive anchor. Filter 2, inspired by the Oberheim SEM, opens the instrument outward, bringing more shape, movement, and tonal ambiguity through its continuously variable state-variable behavior. Together, the filters let the Pro 2 sound punchy, broad, nasal, smooth, wiry, or abrasive depending on how the oscillators are routed and driven.
The Character section is a major part of why the synth feels so modern. Air, Girth, Drive, Hack, and Decimate are not ornamental extras; they let the instrument move from polished and expansive to broken, dirty, compressed, or almost digitally brutal. Add the tuned feedback, the delays, and the possibility of FM or AM between oscillators, and the Pro 2 becomes especially strong at sequences, aggressive lead lines, industrial textures, evolving drones, and electronic bass work that needs both articulation and instability.
Its paraphonic mode also changes the usual expectations around a monosynth. Because the four oscillators can be triggered independently while sharing the filter structure, the Pro 2 can produce chords, pseudo-poly pads, and surprisingly lush string-like shapes, especially when combined with delay and modulation. It never truly stops being a mono-first instrument, but it extends far beyond mono conventions.
Features and architecture
- Manufacturer: Dave Smith Instruments; later sold under the Sequential brand after the 2018 company rebrand
- Year: 2014
- Production years: 2014 to 2019, spanning the Dave Smith Instruments era and the early Sequential rebrand period before discontinuation
- Synthesis type: Hybrid synthesizer with digital oscillators and analog filters
- Category: Monophonic/paraphonic keyboard synthesizer
- Polyphony: Monophonic by design, with a true 4-voice paraphonic mode
- Original price and current market price: Introduced at a US street price of $1,999; on the current used market, recent sales commonly cluster around roughly $950 to $1,200, though some asking prices sit significantly higher depending on condition and accessories
- Oscillators: 4 DSP-based oscillators plus 1 sine-wave sub oscillator; classic waveforms, 12 complex shapes, 13 superwaves, 3 noise types, hard sync, individual glide, oscillator slop, FM, and AM
- Filter: Dual analog filters; Filter 1 is a 4-pole low-pass design inspired by the original Prophet-5 filter, and Filter 2 is a 2-pole SEM-inspired state-variable filter with low-pass, notch, high-pass, and optional band-pass behavior; serial/parallel routing and oscillator split are available
- LFOs: 4 syncable LFOs with phase offset and slew per LFO
- Envelopes: 5 Delay + ADSR envelopes for Filter 1, Filter 2, VCA, and 2 auxiliary duties; all can repeat/loop
- Modulation system: 16 x 2 modulation matrix with more than 50 sources and more than 140 destinations, running up to audio rates
- Sequencer / arpeggiator: Advanced step sequencer with 16-step x 16-track or 32-step x 8-track modes, real-time input, variable lengths, parameter sequencing, MIDI/CV sync, and a full-featured arpeggiator with multiple modes
- Effects: Character processing with Air, Girth, Hack, Decimate, and Drive; tuned feedback; 3 digital delays plus a separate BBD-style delay; stereo analog distortion
- Memory: 792 programs total, split between 396 user and 396 factory programs, plus playlist functionality
- Keyboard: 44 full-size semi-weighted keys with velocity and channel aftertouch; pitch and mod wheels; 2 assignable position- and pressure-sensitive touch sliders
- Inputs / outputs: MIDI In, MIDI Out, MIDI Thru/Out 2, USB, 4 CV inputs, 4 CV outputs, Gate Out, sustain/footswitch input, expression pedal input, stereo outputs, headphone output, and external audio input
- MIDI / USB: Class-compliant bidirectional USB MIDI; standard 5-pin DIN MIDI; second MIDI port can function as Thru or an additional output
- Display: OLED display
- Dimensions / weight: Approximately 74.2 x 32.5 x 10.5 cm; about 8.5 kg
- Power: Internal power supply via IEC cable; 100 to 240 VAC, 50/60 Hz, 30 watts
Strengths
- It treats the monosynth format as a full compositional environment. The sequencer is not a simple note recorder but a modulation system in its own right, able to animate parameters, interact with clocking, and extend the instrument into something closer to a performance workstation for synthesis.
- The dual-filter design gives it a wider tonal vocabulary than many mono competitors. The combination of a Prophet-style low-pass filter and a SEM-style state-variable filter makes the Pro 2 unusually strong at moving between muscular subtractive sounds and more articulated, contour-rich textures.
- Its hybrid architecture is genuinely musical rather than merely technical. The digital oscillators are not there just for novelty; they allow superwaves, complex shapes, FM, and AM to coexist with analog contouring in a way that makes the instrument broad without becoming generic.
- Paraphony expands the instrument without diluting its identity. The Pro 2 is still best understood as a mono-first synth, but the 4-voice paraphonic mode adds enough harmonic range to make pads, chord stabs, and layered interval work musically useful instead of tokenistic.
- It is unusually performance-friendly for such a deep instrument. More than 50 knobs, dedicated sections, touch sliders, aftertouch, and a relatively shallow menu structure mean that much of its complexity remains playable rather than trapped in setup pages.
- It works exceptionally well as a studio hub. MIDI, CV, gate, external audio processing, and audio-rate modulation routing make it attractive not only as a sound source but as a control center inside a mixed hardware setup.
Limitations
- It is not a true polyphonic synthesizer. Its 4-note mode is paraphonic, not polyphonic, which means it cannot offer the independent per-voice filter behavior and voice architecture of a real polysynth.
- It remains fundamentally mono-timbral. For players who want splits, layers, or broader multitimbral arrangements, the Pro 2 is far more focused than something like the Prophet 12.
- Its sequencer depth does not necessarily mean long-form sequencing freedom. The architecture is sophisticated, but the maximum step length still places limits on certain phrase-based workflows.
- Its oscillator character may not satisfy purists looking for old-school analog looseness. The Pro 2 can sound warm, large, and aggressive, but it does so through a hybrid design that stays more stable and deliberate than a classic free-running VCO monosynth.
- Its compact 44-key format is practical, but not expansive. Players who use wide two-hand performance techniques may find the keyboard span restrictive.
- It is a discontinued instrument. That does not eliminate support entirely, but it does mean acquisition now depends on the used market rather than regular new-stock availability.
Historical context
The Pro 2 arrived in 2014, at a moment when the synth market was heavily invested in analog revival, heritage narratives, and the return of familiar names. Many musicians were openly hoping Dave Smith would produce a modern reissue of the Pro-One. Instead, he took the opposite route. He explicitly framed the Pro 2 as a forward-looking instrument rather than a historical replica, arguing that he preferred making new synthesizers that pushed capabilities further instead of recreating older ones.
That decision matters. The Pro 2 was not simply another premium monosynth entering a crowded field. It was a deliberate attempt to ask what a contemporary mono instrument should be if one stopped treating mono as a limitation. In architecture, it drew some lineage from the Prophet 12 era, but it was not merely a cut-down variant. It introduced its own dual-filter structure, its own sequencing emphasis, its own hybrid personality, and a different balance between performance immediacy and sound-design depth.
It also occupies an interesting place in company history. Because it launched under Dave Smith Instruments and later continued under the Sequential name after the 2018 rebrand, the Pro 2 sits across two identity phases of the same builder. That gives it a subtle historical importance: it belongs both to the late DSI hybrid-experimental chapter and to the beginning of Sequential’s restored modern identity.
Legacy and significance
The Pro 2 matters because it expanded the cultural idea of what a monosynth could be. For decades, mono keyboards were often framed around expressive leads, basses, and tactile immediacy. The Pro 2 kept that immediacy, but added a level of routing, sequencing, CV integration, and hybrid complexity that made it function more like a synthesis platform.
Its significance also comes from its refusal to flatter nostalgia too directly. In an era when the market rewarded reissues and simplified vintage narratives, the Pro 2 proposed something harder to summarize but ultimately more ambitious: a modern instrument with old influences, not an old instrument with modern conveniences. That is part of why it has retained such a strong reputation among players who value depth, structure, and exploratory sound design.
In retrospect, it also reads as an important bridge. It connects Dave Smith’s broader hybrid thinking to later instruments such as the Pro 3, while preserving a personality of its own. The Pro 3 may be the more streamlined successor, but the Pro 2 remains the more expansive argument for mono synthesis as an open system.
Artists, users, and curiosities
One documented official user is composer Ian Hultquist, whose Sequential artist page lists the Pro 2 among his gear. That association makes sense: the instrument’s combination of precision, motion, and broad spectral control suits film and television scoring particularly well, where sound often needs to evolve dramatically without losing focus in a mix.
Just as important as celebrity usage, however, is the Pro 2’s reputation among demonstrators and synthesis educators. It generated an unusually strong culture of deep-dive demonstrations because it rewards explanation. Instruments like this tend to attract players who are less interested in preset nostalgia and more interested in architecture, modulation, and system-level thinking.
One of the most revealing curiosities is that the Pro 2 actually became more capable after release. OS 1.4 added linear FM, explicitly described as bringing a more DX-style form of frequency modulation, along with other sequencer and tuning expansions. That matters because it reinforced the instrument’s identity as a platform that could keep growing rather than a fixed-spec product frozen at launch.
A second curiosity is conceptual rather than technical: the Pro 2 was widely discussed as if it were the Pro-One successor that never quite arrived. In reality, its deeper historical role may be more interesting. Rather than recreating the old Pro-One, it showed what Dave Smith thought a twenty-first-century monosynth should become.
Market value
- Current market position: The Pro 2 sits in a strong niche as a discontinued, high-depth hybrid monosynth that appeals especially to sound designers, modular users, and players who want more than a traditional bass-and-lead machine.
- New price signal: There is no normal new-instrument market anymore because the model is discontinued and Sequential’s current mono focus has moved to the Pro 3.
- Used market signal: The used market shows real variation. Recent Reverb sales have landed around the sub-$1,200 area, while some live asking prices remain notably higher, especially for cleaner units or listings with cases and extras.
- Availability: It is not impossible to find, but it is no longer a common casual store-floor sight. Most acquisition now happens through major used platforms and specialist dealers.
- Buyer notes: The important distinction is not so much between “good year” and “bad year,” but between condition, branding period, and whether the instrument is up to date. The latest official OS remains available from Sequential.
- Support ecosystem: Official operating system files, addenda, and manuals are still hosted by Sequential, which helps keep the synth viable long after discontinuation.
- Ease of finding: Moderately findable online, much less so locally.
- Long-term position: The Pro 2 appears less like a forgotten side path and more like a model whose reputation has matured. It is not a mainstream collectible in the vintage sense, but it is increasingly valued as a serious modern classic of hybrid mono design.
Conclusion
The Dave Smith Instruments Pro 2 is important not because it recreated a familiar past, but because it widened the horizon of the monosynth format. It combined digital precision, analog filtering, modular fluency, deep sequencing, and performance control into a single instrument that still feels unusually ambitious. More than a powerful mono, it was a thesis about synthesis as structure, motion, and interaction. That is why it still matters: the Pro 2 did not simply sound big. It redefined how much intellectual and musical range a keyboard monosynth could hold.