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

[zerocrossing]

Kind of curious how the Arturia Prophet stacks up.

Not well. But in their defense, apparently it's a different revision that is modeled.

Arturia emulations are a step down from u-he and Softube. No other way around that one. But, there sure as hell have a lot of them! And they always have some interesting features.

I disagree about this. What they may lack in accuracy (I can’t really say) they more than make up for in interesting additions. I’ve put Prophet 5 V next to my 6 and got them sounding identical in many cases. VS V sounds amazing to me. Good enough for Charlie Clouser to use it instead of his VS. All the recent instruments and effects have been getting a lot of use in my studio. Their old stuff is still in need of some love, but slowly and surely they are getting there.

Repro sounds great, but I love how Prophet 5 V deals with voice dispersion, extra LFOs and envelopes, effects, etc. For the person who wants a vintage vibe with modern upgrades, they’re the best.

[DrGonzo]

I disagree about this. What they may lack in accuracy (I can’t really say) they more than make up for in interesting additions.

I completely agree, and I think Arturia are good with picking out additional features that really takes it to the next level without straying too far away from its core. I do however hear a distinct difference between something like Repro and Prophet V.

Softube are a bit weird in this respect. Sometimes they are going for the purist approach, like with their Prophet or Juno. Then they have something like the Model 82/Roland SH101 which expands with a doubler and distortion, which is like the Uhe/Arturia approach, where a well placed addition makes a huge difference.

I am a huge fan of Softube, I just wish they would do more of small but clever additions to their designs.

[vitocorleone123]

I’d pick Softube every time over Arturia. I’ve never really loved any Arturia synth - they all start well and I end up forgetting about them because they don’t grab me sonically (Pigments was an awful experience- bored me to the point I yawned almost every time I used it, making me sleepy I had so little interest in how it sounded). But I know many love them - I’ve just come to realize there’s some companies I should generally avoid unless there’s some exception. Arturia is one for me, as is Pulsar, Plug-in Allance (I like Lindell), and some others. Softube sound with Arturia features would be a amazing - closest thing to that is uhe and then maybe gforce.

[zvenx]

If I go into a music store and pick up two same model guitars or basses, if I record someone else playing the two, I probably can't tell the difference between them, but, whilst I am playing them they feel different, they sound different and that affects how I play them differently. It is why I would choose to purchase one over the other.

I feel that way about arturia soft synths. I may not be able to tell them if someone puts up an a/b test with that and something else, but there is something with me playing them that is never quite satisfying. And I have tried testing with me blindly a/bing with something else (tal, u-he, synapse audio, softube)

I own pigments, minifreak and got the cs80 v4 for free from a SB promotion. None of them have ever reached into a final version of a project.
I have tried to like their analog emulations (well specifically the roland and the oberheim stuff) quite a few times whenever they have their great $149 sales... they just never do it for me.

That said, Pigments has one of, if not my favourite Gui, and I think their extra features are excellent and wish more developers ( looking at u tal and softube in particular) would follow.

ymmv.
rsp

[PAK]

Re: Arturia. They are consistently underrated, but it's for a reason. Many of their past emulations were lacking. Build a certain rep and it can take a while to undo, and it may never be shaken off with certain users.

Another reason is most users stick to basics. IE They don't open the advanced section and, if they do, fail to appreciate what it offers. Arturia's additional sound shaping options can be used like hardware calibration within their emulations. It tends to offer more options than competitors. And you'd need to use them to emulate a Prophet 5 rev 2, as the real world hardware is lucky to be able to stay in tune across all 5 octaves of the keyboard! (This is the sort of thing emulations tend not to emulate for practical reasons, but might impact the character of the sound.)

They do throw in their little voice trimmer thing, on the main interface to help, but this is far more limited, with the result that users will otherwise consistently under-estimate what's actually possible - Not least because even Arturia's own bundled presets can make limited (or even no) use of advanced options!

Another, more subjective, reason is how I've seen others describe an "Arturia sound".. the gist of which seems to be that the output doesn't provide an "in your face" bombastic sound. IE They might want to look at extra VCA output options which add a bit of "grit" or otherwise compresses the sound, sans FX.

Arturia's Prophet V also has the best CPU usage of the bunch, from what I've seen (though u-he lets you adjust the various quality modes). The fact that Softube's emulation apparently generates full load, even when idle, is a disgrace. Worse, some users seem to entertain using the product when it behaves like that ..which gives them no reason to change such practices. Roland's also not much better in this regard, though in their case it may be down to keeping compatibility with their System 8 hardware.

[Korg Supporter]

No one is talking about Messiah, which is unfortunately Windows-only. I think it is great and uses less CPU than the Arturia one.

[zerocrossing]

I disagree about this. What they may lack in accuracy (I can’t really say) they more than make up for in interesting additions.

I completely agree, and I think Arturia are good with picking out additional features that really takes it to the next level without straying too far away from its core. I do however hear a distinct difference between something like Repro and Prophet V.

Softube are a bit weird in this respect. Sometimes they are going for the purist approach, like with their Prophet or Juno. Then they have something like the Model 82/Roland SH101 which expands with a doubler and distortion, which is like the Uhe/Arturia approach, where a well placed addition makes a huge difference.

I am a huge fan of Softube, I just wish they would do more of small but clever additions to their designs.

In all honesty, the only reason I purchased any of their synths was to use them as part of Modular, which I really love and think sounds the best of all the modular plugins. It’s weirdly incomplete, though, missing some basic features that often put me off. Like, the mixers don’t have CV control for level or pan. What? That’s pretty basic stuff. So that is a bit of the Softube m.o. Can’t deny the sound, though. But another low pass analog filter to add to all the other low pass filters I have in Modular? No thanks. I’m good. Nudge me when they add some more exotic filter types, like the Intellijel Korgasmatron II, which is fantastic.

[zerocrossing]

Re: Arturia. They are consistently underrated, but it's for a reason. Many of their past emulations were lacking. Build a certain rep and it can take a while to undo, and it may never be shaken off with certain users.

I think this is true. For years, I was critical. I remember when I first started using plugins, I made a spreadsheet with notes, pros, cons, price, etc. I remember testing their Model D vs. Minimonsta, and let’s just say, I bought Minimonsta and passed on Mini V with a little note saying, “dull and dead sound.”

But I’m a sucker for second chances. When they said they rewrote the Mini V filter, I gave it a try. Lame. Too little, too late. I can’t remember what the first one where they did a complete re-do, but it was like night and day. It was the first analog emulation from them that I thought was worth buying. I already had V Collection because I wanted the earlier digital releases, and got the upgrade straight off. Since then, they’ve been knocking it out of the park, in both their instrument and effects plugins. They went from my least liked developers to one of my favorites. While you sit and marvel at your Model 80’s accuracy, I’m going to be using Prophet 5 V in MPE mode and laughing manically like a cartoon villain, as is my way.

Anyway, maybe they’re not for everyone, but I feel almost like people don’t like them like they’re a sports team or something.

[DrGonzo]

They went from my least liked developers to one of my favorites. While you sit and marvel at your Model 80’s accuracy, I’m going to be using Prophet 5 V in MPE mode and laughing manically like a cartoon villain, as is my way.

Anyway, maybe they’re not for everyone, but I feel almost like people don’t like them like they’re a sports team or something.

Sometimes I think that Tribalism is the biggest crutch that can help us mature as persons. It's easy to be a fanboy or a hater and it gives you a sense of belonging to something bigger. The outrage against Waves a few weeks back was a lovely example of this. Everybody including their grandmothers came out waving the same flag.

I felt the same way about the Arturia Mini V in the beginning. And although I absolutely don't consider it to be the finest Minimoog emulation around - it's damn amazing by its own right and that you can draw your own modulation curves and let that modulate stuff like oscillators, volume and filter is effing bonkers.

All respect to Arturia. They are one of the few developers that make my pulse go up. I also love the way they shadowdrop their products. No endless teasers.

[zerocrossing]

Anyway, maybe they’re not for everyone, but I feel almost like people don’t like them like they’re a sports team or something.

Sometimes I think that Tribalism is the biggest crutch that can help us mature as persons. It's easy to be a fanboy or a hater and it gives you a sense of belonging to something bigger. The outrage against Waves a few weeks back was a lovely example of this. Everybody including their grandmothers came out waving the same flag.

Yeah. As soon as they said “subscription model only,” I was right there with the, “see ya” crowd, but when they saw the backlash and changed their stance, I was right there with my credit card to update my F6 plugin to the latest. Everyone makes mistakes. Everyone has blunders. It’s like my butler once said to me, “Why do we fall? So we can learn to pick ourselves up.”

But some people seem to be able to skate by as if they’ve never made mistakes. Never promised a modular container plugin for their effects suite and then just didn’t deliver it. Never took 16 years and counting to get an update out. Have legions of fanboys who are prepared to jump on you for any criticism.

[Ah_Dziz]

The difference between these two plugins are as small as building the same circuit twice with the same components on breadboard to my ears. Without some serious digital control and calibration of internal references, an analog circuit can sound very noticeably different each time it's powered on.

All that being said, I like the Repro more personally. It has plenty of options for changing it's behavior that I find useful, it sounds bonkers great, and it performs better on my old system as well as my new system. That's aside from softube's irritating copy protection. I really love all the softube compressors, EQ, reverbs, etc, but they still haven't made any synths that can edge out the competition in any way for me especially as they have been last to market with most of their emulations and haven't made anything from scratch.
Those opinions are based off of using both products as well as using their other synths against similar emulations. To me the comparisons just sound different but not in a "better or worse" way. just slightly noticeably different like they were two different things that someone couldn't make sound the same.

[trusampler]

I think they sound great for plugins, too close to care. The hardware is alot more 3d imo. The plugins seem to have alot of the character, but in reality, when a prophet 5 is in the same building the true sound quality is missing from the plugins. There's an energy in the sound of the real deal that neither of these can replicate alike the hardware. Oddly enough there are people that cannot seem to hear the difference, I wish I had that ability.

[D-Fusion]

I think they sound great for plugins, too close to care. The hardware is alot more 3d imo. The plugins seem to have alot of the character, but in reality, when a prophet 5 is in the same building the true sound quality is missing from the plugins. There's an energy in the sound of the real deal that neither of these can replicate alike the hardware. Oddly enough there are people that cannot seem to hear the difference, I wish I had that ability.

How can the Prophet sound 3d when it is only Mono out and not even stereo?

[vurt]

I think they sound great for plugins, too close to care. The hardware is alot more 3d imo. The plugins seem to have alot of the character, but in reality, when a prophet 5 is in the same building the true sound quality is missing from the plugins. There's an energy in the sound of the real deal that neither of these can replicate alike the hardware. Oddly enough there are people that cannot seem to hear the difference, I wish I had that ability.

How can the Prophet sound 3d when it is only Mono out and not even stereo?

uses quantum electrons to bypass 2d.
science! fiction!

[pdxindy]

How can the Prophet sound 3d when it is only Mono out and not even stereo?

All prophets have a mystical aspect