U-He Repro 5 Vs Softube Model 80 - Blind Test Comparisons + Settings to Match Them

[Urs]

Just a few minutes was enough to get that it’s a more detailed and probably accurate emulation

Well, hehehe, probably not.

Not if they had used the Prophet 5 we have. Theirs is way to detuned and adds way too much distortion and noise, and I have no idea what's wrong with their envelopes. I'd say it's either super exaggerated in many ways, or maybe their unit simply sounds a lot different from ours. Maybe they used something like one of the current models instead of a vintage one? Dunno - can't explain why their's is so far off from what we know...?

Anyhow, we have decided to make our own comparisons at some point. I experience physical pain from the things that are stipulated about our effort lately.

[hebex]

And I am sure most people that listen to music can't tell that 5% (for me it isn't even as high as 5%), worse of all in a mix.
rsp

I’d love to know how people (including myself) come up with percentages for these things. Like when they say that chimpanzees and humans share nearly 99% of our DNA. That 1.2% is doing a lot of the heavy lifting.

Exactly.

So you mean that Model 80 = human, Repro = chimp? Let´s see what the U-he fanbois say about that...

[Urs]

I’d appreciate being able to up the oversampling on the distortion.

Coming soon!

(way better antialiasing, that is)

[BBFG#]

Did the video say which was which at the end of the blind test comparison?
IMO, "A" sounded brighter and perhaps a little "cleaner" in a couple of those and "B" sounded "rounder" in others.

However, even with the little differences, it doesn't change the fact of what I feel about the two companies and therefore, u-He is the clear and definitive winner. Because 2-5% difference in system resource usage and having to deal with an added second company to use it makes it a NOMS product.

[zerocrossing]

Just a few minutes was enough to get that it’s a more detailed and probably accurate emulation

Well, hehehe, probably not.

Not if they had used the Prophet 5 we have. Theirs is way to detuned and adds way too much distortion and noise, and I have no idea what's wrong with their envelopes. I'd say it's either super exaggerated in many ways, or maybe their unit simply sounds a lot different from ours. Maybe they used something like one of the current models instead of a vintage one? Dunno - can't explain why their's is so far off from what we know...?

Anyhow, we have decided to make our own comparisons at some point. I experience physical pain from the things that are stipulated about our effort lately.

Don’t sweat it, as we’re all basically saying we’re choosing Repro anyway. I do happen to like the character of Model 80, regardless as to its accuracy, but as I said, not enough to buy it, yet I signed up for Repro before it was released, even though I also own a Prophet 6. I imagine the people who are really concerned about accuracy are buying actual Prophet 5s.

[edit] Oversampling! Yay! I’m so excited. Will make one of my favorite plugins even better.

[hebex]

Just a few minutes was enough to get that it’s a more detailed and probably accurate emulation

Well, hehehe, probably not.

Not if they had used the Prophet 5 we have. Theirs is way to detuned and adds way too much distortion and noise, and I have no idea what's wrong with their envelopes. I'd say it's either super exaggerated in many ways, or maybe their unit simply sounds a lot different from ours. Maybe they used something like one of the current models instead of a vintage one? Dunno - can't explain why their's is so far off from what we know...?

Anyhow, we have decided to make our own comparisons at some point. I experience physical pain from the things that are stipulated about our effort lately.

You sound so defensive.

I notice no Softube rep around here talking sh*t about the repro, though. Maybe they are more confident about their case, so they don´t feel the need to.

[Funkybot's Evil Twin]

Not if they had used the Prophet 5 we have. Theirs is way to detuned and adds way too much distortion...

You say that like they're bad things.

My top FR for RePro is definitely more granular control over the slop. I'd love to see a few trimmers added to the Tweaks page to increase tuning slop, envelope slop, and filter slop, where the "Detune" knob on the main page can act as a global depth control. Basically, like it currently does - so no broken preset compatibility - the trimmers would just allow you to further exaggerate the effect. Just a wish. RePro is otherwise near perfect for me.

Definitely look forward to seeing your comparison.

[Urs]

Not if they had used the Prophet 5 we have. Theirs is way to detuned and adds way too much distortion...

You say that like they're bad things.

It isn't bad, necessarily. It's just not how our vintage unit behaves, and thus it would not be "more accurate" if we did that.

My top FR for RePro is definitely more granular control over the slop. I'd love to see a few trimmers added to the Tweaks page to increase tuning slop, envelope slop, and filter slop, where the "Detune" knob on the main page can act as a global depth control. Basically, like it currently does - so no broken preset compatibility - the trimmers would just allow you to further exaggerate the effect. Just a wish. RePro is otherwise near perfect for me.

Yeah, we might work on this eventually. It seems the current Prophets have options for a lot more slop, so maybe it'll be legitimate to look into that.

Definitely look forward to seeing your comparison.

That would be a comparison between Repro and its reference models though.

While other companies have sponsored videos that do comparisons between our stuff and theirs in their favour, we would never go this far.

(But of course I will not have myself cancelled by those spiteful Hebexes of this world and I will continue to voice my valid opinion when people criticise our products based on whatever some other company does right/wrong/differently)

[zvenx]

....

So you mean that Model 80 = human, Repro = chimp? Let´s see what the U-he fanbois say about that...

Are you willing to take my challenge on page 1?
I am doing a little short music bed using softube's factory presets and the ones that plugmon transfered to repro-5.
Will you be able to tell the difference or are you willing to try to tell the difference?
I am not even going to use eq or compressors etc which are used in the music we hear on radio, tv, internet etc.
rsp

[zerocrossing]

OK, I went back and watched his video, and like all commercials for products, I say to take it with a grain of salt. I don’t think it’s possible for someone to make the synth he’s selling presets for sound a bit nicer, and I admit that I chose Model 80 as my favorite example most of the times. I did really enjoy it during the demo period, but without a bit more going on under the hood, it isn’t really worth it to me.

[hebex]

....

So you mean that Model 80 = human, Repro = chimp? Let´s see what the U-he fanbois say about that...

Are you willing to take my challenge on page 1?
I am doing a little short music bed using softube's factory presets and the ones that plugmon transfered to repro-5.
Will you be able to tell the difference or are you willing to try to tell the difference?
I am not even going to use eq or compressors etc which are used in the music we hear on radio, tv, internet etc.
rsp

Thanks but no thanks. No offense, but I have no way of knowing the objective and correct handling of the challenge.

[zerocrossing]

....

So you mean that Model 80 = human, Repro = chimp? Let´s see what the U-he fanbois say about that...

Are you willing to take my challenge on page 1?
I am doing a little short music bed using softube's factory presets and the ones that plugmon transfered to repro-5.
Will you be able to tell the difference or are you willing to try to tell the difference?
I am not even going to use eq or compressors etc which are used in the music we hear on radio, tv, internet etc.
rsp

BTW, I wasn’t commenting on either emulation as being analogous to a chimp or human, just the odd way we seem to arbitrarily measure differences. Humans have their gifts, but if I was hungry and lost in a jungle, a friendly chimpanzee would be a lot more useful.

[chk071]

Just a few minutes was enough to get that it’s a more detailed and probably accurate emulation

Well, hehehe, probably not.

Not if they had used the Prophet 5 we have. Theirs is way to detuned and adds way too much distortion and noise, and I have no idea what's wrong with their envelopes. I'd say it's either super exaggerated in many ways, or maybe their unit simply sounds a lot different from ours. Maybe they used something like one of the current models instead of a vintage one? Dunno - can't explain why their's is so far off from what we know...?

This reminds me of my initial impression of their Minimoog emu. Comparing it to Monark and Diva, I found that the Softube one is a bit "too much sugar". I also found the resonance to be sounding off (the Minimoog's filter sweeps sounded much more pleasant and "creamy"). Sounded as if it was another synth, not just comparing it to said plugins, but also to a sound demo on Youtube.

I like the Juno-106 and the Prophet-5 emus though. Although, frankly, I tend not to use these emulations much compared to the richer featured soft synths in the end... they always tend to motivate me to impulse buy, when I don't really "need" them.

[Funkybot's Evil Twin]

Not if they had used the Prophet 5 we have. Theirs is way to detuned and adds way too much distortion...

You say that like they're bad things.

It isn't bad, necessarily. It's just not how our vintage unit behaves, and thus it would not be "more accurate" if we did that.

I got what you meant, was just having a laugh. I wonder if you have a particularly well preserved/serviced Prophet. Wouldn't put it past you guys to have a golden unit there at U-he HQ.

My top FR for RePro is definitely more granular control over the slop. I'd love to see a few trimmers added to the Tweaks page to increase tuning slop, envelope slop, and filter slop, where the "Detune" knob on the main page can act as a global depth control. Basically, like it currently does - so no broken preset compatibility - the trimmers would just allow you to further exaggerate the effect. Just a wish. RePro is otherwise near perfect for me.

Yeah, we might work on this eventually. It seems the current Prophets have options for a lot more slop, so maybe it'll be legitimate to look into that.

I've got the Rev 4 and it gets so incredibly sloppy with the Vintage knob. At it's best, it's way more stable than RePro then things go downhill quickly from there. Everything tied to a single knob is a bit of a heavy-handed approach though. Sometimes I want the Envelope slop but without knocking voices far out of tune, and the Vintage knob is a bit limited in that regard. I think you guys can improve upon it.

There are a few other nice features from the Rev. 4 that would be interesting in RePro like Poly Unison (basically turns the P10 into two 5-voice Prophets), split and stack modes, and Q-compensation (though it's subtle). Others have requested polyphonic glide, which I wouldn't be against.

Definitely look forward to seeing your comparison.

That would be a comparison between Repro and its reference models though.

Yeah, that's what I meant. I think it'll be great to showcase how similar the two sound, maybe call out some behaviors that others didn't get right (e.g. the envelope shape, etc.)

[zvenx]

....

So you mean that Model 80 = human, Repro = chimp? Let´s see what the U-he fanbois say about that...

Are you willing to take my challenge on page 1?
I am doing a little short music bed using softube's factory presets and the ones that plugmon transfered to repro-5.
Will you be able to tell the difference or are you willing to try to tell the difference?
I am not even going to use eq or compressors etc which are used in the music we hear on radio, tv, internet etc.
rsp

Thanks but no thanks. No offense, but I have no way of knowing the objective and correct handling of the challenge.

Neither does the listening audience who will know less than you of the methodology of the producer of the track they are hearing vs what you will know of my methodology.
your claim was:

"So that the repro would be a "far, far better overall instrument" may be your view, but not for the user that has the sound of the synthesizer as the first priority.

After all, most people that listen to the music made with the synthesizer in question, probably won´t give a toss about how convenient it was for the musician to produce the sound. It´s how it sounds that counts.

And don´t underestimate the subtle differences, they add up and can make the difference between a lifeless boring track, and a fascinating one that is full of character. It may depend of the type of music, of course. If you play tarnce, you can ignore my entire post."


Surely you weren't just giving lip service.
rsp