Prophet 5 vs Jupiter 8

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Been testing different Jupiter 8 and Prophet emus/clones and am kind of torn between Jupiter 8 (roland cloud, arturia) and Prophet 5 (uhe, arturia).

If we try to focus on synths rather than how good an emu is, what is your take on these two synths when it comes to sound? I'm finding Prophet cleaner and more modern than Jupiter 8, but in general I'm more at home with the Roland sound. Jupiter 8 seems to be crunchier and more raw.

What do you think? Do you prefer Prophet 5 or Jupiter 8 and why?

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Looking at them as individual instruments with their own character I prefer the Prophet sound.

The Jupiter was used much more on 80's pop music so when I use my System 8 and the Roland cloud plugin it reminds me more of that.

The Prophet was used in a lot of soundtracks and to me it is more "cinematic".

Among all the emulations in the market I prefer Diva, it can be a very close emulation of many synths but also it can sound very analog and vintage without being so characterful.
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Thats a toughie.

If you stood me in front of them and told me i can take and keep one or the other i would have to flip a coin because i could never make up my mind.

Both are such wonderful machines.

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Both instruments are completely different in both their sound and capabilities. As rod_zero points out, the Jupiter was heard on a lot more of 1980's pop records than the Prophet-5 was.
Both have strengths and weaknesses, it really depends on what type of music you wish to create and if you're prepared to create your own patches, either synth is suitable for you if you're prepared to make your own sounds rather than just tweak the odd preset here and there.
I have both the Pro-5 and Jupiter-8 from Arturia and do tend to use the Jupiter more, but that is only because I used to own a hardware Jupiter-8 a long time ago. :)
:tu: All is good

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I have the same question and so i will follow this closely! 8)

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I've got a Roland System-8 which includes the Jupiter-8 plug-out, I've also got the Arturia collection and RePro-5. The Jupiter sound just isn't my favorite, either Roland or Arturia. I get a lot more enjoyment hearing/playing the Prophet. The Roland sound is tighter versus fat and sounds more stable and clinical to my ear. Meanwhile, the last few weeks, my System-8 has been a glorified Repro-5 controller. Therefore, if I had the choice, I'd go for the Prophet, more specifically RePro-5.

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Apples and oranges. I use them both for different things. In fact, these are two of the few synths that truly don't sound anything alike, kind of like comparing an Oberheim OB-X to a Yamaha DX 7.

They're both good for what they do best. I'll refrain from giving my opinion as to what each synth does best for obvious reasons.

My suggestion? Demo them both and see which one YOU like better based on the kind of music YOU do.

Nobody here can answer that but YOU.

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wagtunes wrote:Apples and oranges. I use them both for different things. In fact, these are two of the few synths that truly don't sound anything alike, kind of like comparing an Oberheim OB-X to a Yamaha DX 7.

They're both good for what they do best. I'll refrain from giving my opinion as to what each synth does best for obvious reasons.

My suggestion? Demo them both and see which one YOU like better based on the kind of music YOU do.

Nobody here can answer that but YOU.
I'm not really looking for a definite answer, just interested in what people think. I've never owned a Roland hardware synth (my hardware era was in the late 90's, early 00's.. access, korg, novation..). I've never owned a SCI, DSI (or Yamaha) either. In the soft synth era I've enjoyed the Roland stuff a lot, so I'm most likely continuing with Roland. I really like the Prophet 5 sound tho, both Arturia and Uhe, but I'm not sure if I want to mix my palette with yet another character synth :).

Anyone think they play along well?

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raymondwave wrote:
wagtunes wrote:Apples and oranges. I use them both for different things. In fact, these are two of the few synths that truly don't sound anything alike, kind of like comparing an Oberheim OB-X to a Yamaha DX 7.

They're both good for what they do best. I'll refrain from giving my opinion as to what each synth does best for obvious reasons.

My suggestion? Demo them both and see which one YOU like better based on the kind of music YOU do.

Nobody here can answer that but YOU.
I'm not really looking for a definite answer, just interested in what people think. I've never owned a Roland hardware synth (my hardware era was in the late 90's, early 00's.. access, korg, novation..). I've never owned a SCI, DSI (or Yamaha) either. In the soft synth era I've enjoyed the Roland stuff a lot, so I'm most likely continuing with Roland. I really like the Prophet 5 sound tho, both Arturia and Uhe, but I'm not sure if I want to mix my palette with yet another character synth :).

Anyone think they play along well?
Do they play along well? Depends on what you mean. Songs CAN have contrasting sounds if they're done right. But on the whole, I'd say no. They don't play well with each other. I find that if I'm doing a song that I want the Roland Jupiter sound, trying to add the Prophet sound to it doesn't work, at least not for me. I'm not saying it can't be done. But the synths are so diametrically opposed to each other that if you're looking for a smooth, seamless tapestry of sound, these two synths aren't going to give that to you without a lot of work. So if you like the Roland sound, stick with the Roland sound.

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As someone who had owned a real Jupiter 8 long ime ago (+ also a MKS-80 Super Jupiter rack) and who loves using U-he Repro-5 besides having owned and/or used most plugin versions of both synths this is a tough decison. At the end i would decide to have both. Overall takking the basic sound (+ filter sound) and feature sets into account they are very difficult to compare besides both being analog polysynths.
Currently i got those plugins that are based on the 2 synths:
Roland Jupiter-8 (Roland Cloud), Arturia Jup-8 V3, U-He Diva (Jupiter 8 + Jupiter 6 modules), U-He Repro-5 and Arturia Prophet V3.

While i had owned those 2 Arturia plugins since they were originally released the other options seem to be superior, especially Repro-5 for the Prophet 5 and the Roland Jupiter-8 (Roland Cloud).
Diva includes the Jupiter-8 modules but is not a full 1:1 emulation of that synth in the way Repro-5 is for the Prophet 5.
Opposing to Repro-5 the parameter ranges in Diva are mostly totally different to the real synths so replicating hardware patches in Diva could be a big PITA...
Repro-5 more or less seems to nail the parameter ranges of the real thing and soon there should be a sysex converter tool (AFAIK it converts a Sysex bank to single h2p files).

On the other hand Diva sounds great, is quite versatile (also due to the modules approach) and the Jupiter 8 there is still close enough to the real thing. In combination with Repro-5 it is even better and this combination offers a lot of options. Not to forget that the Repro package also includes Repro-1, an emulation of the Pro One.
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I've owned the original hardware including a Jupiter 6 and Prophet 10 to. ...Oh for the good old days...

For me, it would be a Prophet. While the Jupiter has a really nice clean sweet clear sound, I prefer the power and fullness and warmth of the Prophet. The Prophet can be made to approximate a Jupiter with some filtering and EQ but the Jupiter can't easily approximate a Prophet.

Not that it matters for software, but for the hardware I also prefer the Prophet because it has a very simple design and is easy to work on (save for the Curtis or SSM chips which are out of production). Also the Prophet has some sweet psychedelic artwork on the circuit boards. Prophets give me the feeling of working with an instrument made by human hands where-as the Jupiter feels like something mass produced by machines (whether this is true or not is not the point).

So for me it definitely be a Prophet 5 over Jupiter 8 if I was given the choice in terms of the hardware.

In terms of the software... lets say u-he Repro vs Arturia Jupiter 8 - again, definitely Repro.

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It's like Elvis vs The Beatles - you're always one or the other... ;)

JP8 for me, for sure. I find it more versatile, and it's the sound of many songs I'm very familiar with. It has a character that other synths don't really do very well.

I'm less of a P5 fan in general, I find it's sound can be quite harsh and thick, and other synths can get into the same territory for a lot of it's range.

I just deeply love the JP8...

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ENV1 wrote:Thats a toughie.

If you stood me in front of them and told me i can take and keep one or the other i would have to flip a coin because i could never make up my mind.

Both are such wonderful machines.
I love how there's almost nothing of substance in this thread so far. It seems that KVR can talk for days about synths without actually saying much that's factual about them.

ENV1's question is rather easy for me. I sold a REV3 P5 because I didn't care much for the sound. I've never had a JP8 but I still have a JP6. However, here's the answer to his question. If it were a Rev 1/2 P5, I'd keep the P5, otherwise, I'd keep the JP8.

A lot of where the character of these synths lies is in the filters. The Rev 1/2 P5s have the SSM2040, the JP8 has the legendary Roland IR3109 filter (JP8, Juno 6/60, SH101). The Rev 3 P5s use a CEM3320.

For the most part, I agree that Diva is the answer. I'm not a purist though. I don't really feel that super precise emulations are anything more than a dip into the pool of arbitrary configurations. I'm always on the lookout for great emulations of components embedded into excellent and modern synthesizers.

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If it were the real machines, I'd take the Prophet, because I don't think I would use it as a production instrument as much as a tinker toy, I would use the Repros in my DAW instead. I say get both softsynth versions you like best, that is the beauty of software, it is relatively cheap and takes no space except on your hard drive. I bought Repro recently but really want yo get Diva again. I'm particularly interested in what comes next for Diva. I would love the Repro components added to her.
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Last edited by egbert101 on Thu Feb 22, 2018 1:34 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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