The synth appears to be a battery-powered and condensed Prophet-5, featuring four voices, 37 keys and built-in speakers.
In a year that has featured a wide variety of synth clone announcements and releases, the latest to hop aboard the cloning bandwagon is a previously unknown Japanese manufacturer called PikoPiko Factory.
PikoPiko have claimed to have successfully manufactured a smaller version of Dave Smith’s legendary Prophet-5, but they have not made any formal announcements other than a tweet accompanied by four images of the Prophet-mini. It is rumoured that the product will debut at the Tokyo Maker Faire on 3 October.
The Japanese text in the tweet states that the synth will be a four-voice polysynth with MIDI capabilities, built-in speakers and an option to be battery-powered. Another circulating rumour is that the Prophet-mini will feature a shoulder strap, allowing it to be played like a keytar.
Unfortunately, the tweet does not clarify when the synth will be released or whether it will be an analogue or digital emulation. One of the sentences directly translates to, “the circuit of the legendary famous machine is downsized”, leading us to assume that there will be at least some analogue circuitry involved.
PikoPiko will need to act fast if they want to beat Behringer to the punch. The German company has also been caught working on a design based on the Prophet-5. In a 2019 video released by Music Tribe, which is Behringer’s large industrial manufacturing complex in China, an image of the design department had a Prophet-5-esque design on one of the designers’ desktops.
PikoPiko does not yet appear to have a website so their Twitter page should have more updates about the Prophet-mini in the near future.