GForce Sequential Prophet-5

[zvenx]

.....
Latest Logic Pro, Audio Units, macOS 26.5.1, Apple Silicon M1. Well good - I was hoping this was just a bug. And it seems random, but not sure. I'll ask GForce. Thanks!

Please do.
rsp

[enduser282]

GForce and Sequential spent months going back and forth , literally months between stable version and sound design ready version, getting the sound and behaviour just right....Sequential would want some things changed/calibrated/tweaked etc, Gforce would change, and that went on for months back and forth.
yet you could tell this in a few days..
Amazing.
rsp

More marketing lingo. I 've heard that before endless times , copy paste at this point.

No i could tell in few seconds after loading, like i can tell the difference between the 3 synths in the video above listening a few seconds , thing is i know what i like , sry Gforce.

I spent quite some time (wasting time already in the demo) to try and get around what i didn't like from whatever experience i have with synths, although i'm not obligated to do that ofc i could just call it quits, but it didn't work for me. Btw imposcar3 has better resonance (smoother and as loud) in high notes than p5 , although you must only use single mode filter. GF has been releasing lots of goodies but they are not terribly consistent with their quality i think.

Yes Gforce could use all they help they could i guess that's very expected and logical and welcome , but what 's available to buy and use is the end product.
Actually if Gforce didn't nail it , who else will... that's the real bummer. They have better synths imo and i 'll stick to those for now , moreover i feel lucky to have those , i wish i had them earlier, p5 though no bueno for me.

[zvenx]

....

More marketing lingo. I 've heard that before endless times , copy paste at this point.

....

I was a beta tester.
rsp

[SoftSynthLover99]

In a mix, none of you could tell the difference.

I'm getting tired of this influencer lingo.

Buy it, even if you can't tell a difference compared to any other synth out there.

Maybe this is how you mix , you mask everything with 12 plugins so listeners can't tell which synth you used... or you layer everything in which case no synth character is apparent so you can use whatever you have...

Also we can tell the difference comparing with all the rest P5 emulations but vs the hardware no one can the tell the difference, it's magic i tell you , trust me bro!!

And i bet you couldn't tell a difference from GF bass station vs GF P5 , no mix needed.

Btw you forgot to tell us if you can hear the difference , instead you try explain what others hear or not, gee thanks for letting us know!

Look, here's the cold hard truth. If you make music (which is primarily what I've been doing for almost 50 years) none of the listeners out there give a shit what synth you used on your song.

Then why don't you just use all stock instruments and effects then if listeners can't tell the difference? Why buy any 3rd party plugins if the audience doesn't give a shit about what you use? $150 on a plugin should be a huge waste of money from your perspective. After all listeners can't tell the difference between an expensive third party plugin or stock plugin, right?

[abernathy]

More marketing lingo. I 've heard that before endless times , copy paste at this point.

You may not be happy with the results, but I don't think what actually happened would be called marketing lingo.

[IvyBirds]

I don’t know why it’s so hard for some to understand that “close enough” is not always desirable. Not every musician wants to compromise sound and workflow for convenience.

Who said anything about compromising sound or workflow ?

The power of software is low cost and efficiency within the parameters of modern computing. But to get that efficiency and CPU stability, you take a hit in sound quality/accuracy.

If it's indistinguishable in a mixed and mastered deliverable like a CD, MP3, played by end users on their car stereos, home stereos, or phone and air pods you have not taken any hit on sound quality or accuracy. You buy this plugin and the Rev 4 hardware to get the sound of the vintage units and both of them pull it off equally as well

The Prophet 5 rev 4 doesn't sound exactly like the vintage units, something Dave Smith acknowledged which is why he included the vintage knob in its design, so if you are using Rev 4 hardware you have already taken a hit in sound quality and accuracy

So for some players who are actually good at playing, hardware is definitely more convenient at times. Instead of freezing/bouncing tracks I just record straight in with no cost to my CPU.


So no, the $150 plugin (which is awesome btw) will not give you the same experience of a real Prophet rev4 in your studio.

Yet if you are good at playing (and I consider my self good at playing) why would you compromise and lose the MPE capabilities of the plugin? The hardware only has channel after touch that's a giant step backwards

I also don't find hardware more convenient at all, in fact it's extremely inconvenient on stage and in the studio as it takes up physical space and would have to be lugged around, beyond that it eats eats up thousands of dollars and is inconvenient financially.

A Prophet 5 rev 4 costs $3600 and only has a single layer with 5 voices of polyphony and no MPE

The plugin costs $150 has two layers with up to 10 voices and has MPE so why would anyone who considers themselves to be a player want to take the giant step backwards and go backwards with the hardware? You could also go Prophet 10 hardware and spend even more money of course but still as a player you wouldn't be getting MPE no thanks

You want to talk about compromising workflow, how about giving up the ability to use MPE to go hardware? From a sound design workflow perspective the hardware Rev 4 relies on a fixed architecture with one global LFO and a Poly Mod section (routing the Filter Envelope and Oscillator B to three specific destinations). The GForce software adds dedicated LFOs and Envelopes for almost every synthesis parameter on the panel. So by going hardware you are comprising workflow and sound design options

The control surface of the Prophet 5 is pretty basic, and easily fits into a universal subtractive synth layout you can establish with your MIDI Controllers that will provide you with the hands on knobby interface the hardware has if that's your thing

If you want the dedicated layout just get one of these

Screenshot_20260619-122806.jpg

As far as CPU hits that shouldn't be a problem for anyone who can afford a $3600 piece of hardware as you can also afford to get a good computer with a good CPU and lots of RAM. Should be noted that you can use that same computer with all your plugins and it's not dedicated to just a Prophet 5

Beyond that if you are still having CPU issues take some of the $3400 you are saving with the plugins and buy a second computer and optionally an additional interface. You can get good ones of both if you want and still have thousands left over. You can stash that anywhere and run multiple copies of it and any other plugin on the secondary "DSP Server" and send MIDI to it from your DAW and audio back to your DAW through the interface exactly as you would with the hardware. Only you have more polyphony, MPE and it's multitimbral and can be used for all your plugins without any CPU hit. You can also use something like the Audio Gridder software and do it all digitally through a network and not need an interface and you can multiple instances that will all get a separate core. A huge advantage for heavy CPU soft synths

One final thought, I don’t know why it’s so hard for some to hardware users to understand that the compromises you have to make with hardware are not always desirable when it comes to using hardware. Not every musician wants to compromise sound, workflow, money and convenience just to go hardware but you do you and spend thousands more for no real world advantage. I love that for you

If you want hardware awesome use it, no one cares but just know when it comes to the Prophet 5 and wanting the sound of the vintage units paying thousands more for the Rev 4 hardware is a giant step backwards over the software and it's not even close. So be honest that you want hardware and that's the only reason why

[Uncle E]

And take into consideration that there is no controller fitting perfectly unless you put time into assigning/programming one for your own needs...

SFC-5, Pro-800, and Fourm come to mind.

[wagtunes]

In a mix, none of you could tell the difference.

I'm getting tired of this influencer lingo.

Buy it, even if you can't tell a difference compared to any other synth out there.

Maybe this is how you mix , you mask everything with 12 plugins so listeners can't tell which synth you used... or you layer everything in which case no synth character is apparent so you can use whatever you have...

Also we can tell the difference comparing with all the rest P5 emulations but vs the hardware no one can the tell the difference, it's magic i tell you , trust me bro!!

And i bet you couldn't tell a difference from GF bass station vs GF P5 , no mix needed.

Btw you forgot to tell us if you can hear the difference , instead you try explain what others hear or not, gee thanks for letting us know!

Look, here's the cold hard truth. If you make music (which is primarily what I've been doing for almost 50 years) none of the listeners out there give a shit what synth you used on your song.

Then why don't you just use all stock instruments and effects then if listeners can't tell the difference? Why buy any 3rd party plugins if the audience doesn't give a shit about what you use? $150 on a plugin should be a huge waste of money from your perspective. After all listeners can't tell the difference between an expensive third party plugin or stock plugin, right?

Because quality aside, stock instruments cover a very limited range of actual instruments. If I want to emulate a certain sound and my stock instrument doesn't provide it, I have to at least get something.

For example. Say I want to do a Van Halen Jump cover. Good luck finding a stock instrument that has an Oberheim sound.

But that doesn't mean I have to buy the BEST Oberheim emulation. That's my point with these ridiculous conversations. Any decent Oberheim emulation will be more than good enough to play Jump. It doesn't have to sound EXACTLY like the model used on the song (which by the way Van Halen used more than one model) as long as it sounds like Jump.

I don't have one stock plugin that sounds like Jump.

Okay, does that answer your question?

[Albert.VST]

Pass on this one , unless osc sync is on it sounds hollow & flat. Likewise with their bass station , i like the hw but not the GF sw. OB-1 & Ob-x oscs sound better and overall much louder , probably because of the headroom needed for the two layers in P5. It also sounds thinner as you increase voice count, maybe one layer with max 10 voices would be better...

Sound better and overall much louter. Well, first match the volumes before judging. I was involved in loudspeaker tests and we set up 2 identical set, but one just 1dB louder. We told listeners one set was modified and asked which sounder better. 99% chose the louder set. Louder is not better, although percieved that way.

Btw imposcar3 has better resonance (smoother and as loud) in high notes than p5 , although you must only use single mode filter. GF has been releasing lots of goodies but they are not terribly consistent with their quality i think.

Yes Gforce could use all they help they could i guess that's very expected and logical and welcome , but what 's available to buy and use is the end product.
Actually if Gforce didn't nail it , who else will... that's the real bummer. They have better synths imo and i 'll stick to those for now , moreover i feel lucky to have those , i wish i had them earlier, p5 though no bueno for me.

I don’t get it, also in hardware OsCAR and P5 are different. Why should resonance of the VST versions of both be the same? These are different synths so they will sound different. GF models to match the hardware, not taking best sounding parts of various synths and putting these together. If they would do so each synth they release would sound the same. So yes, they are different. One maybe better (to what you like) but it doesn’t mean they not nailed it. You may favour some parts of other synths but imposcar3 and P5 are different and sound different.

[Korg Supporter]

Here is what GForce support said in response to what I told them about tuning across different notes:

Thank you for the feedback, and I am sorry it's not to your taste. The ranges selected for our Prophet~5 were governed by the ranges measured on our three development units. Two Rev4 Prophet 10s and a Rev4 Prophet 5. Our Prophet~5 went through extensive A/B testing against our 3 hardware units internally, as well as two more from external testers. It was signed off by the team at Sequential at three stages throughout the development timeline. Now, I can't claim that there aren't differences between it and other Prophets, that'd be silly. Our three Prophets alone all sounded different to one another, so we tended to treat them more like 25 individual voices, measuring them and setting ours within the ranges found. We firmly believe it to be the single most accurate emulation we've ever done - so far. If you want something different, I respect that. Not all synths are for everything and everyone.

[Lbdunequest]

I have bought a pc 3 years ago with r9 7950x cpu (for a little more then 2000 eu for whole pc). I can run 84 instances of this plugin playing 5 notes with release each without a hassle.

84 prophets would cost me so much more.

P.s. Just for fun i tried to play hive all osc with unison, 400 instances.

[Uncle E]

You really need 85 Prophets to make music, though.

[Korg Supporter]

I read the manual, and it says that the inconsistency between voices in Round Robin Mode is intentional because not every voice is the same. The manual also states that if you want a flat detune between oscillators, you have to bring a semitone down on the second osc and bring up the fine detune on the second osc or use the shift key on the first osc.

[Lbdunequest]

You really need 85 Prophets to make music, though.

That wasnt my point

But my point is I HAVE THE POWER!!!

That means i can use easily 5 prophets that i can't buy without needing to record anything, play in real time along with other plugins

[D-Fusion]

And take into consideration that there is no controller fitting perfectly unless you put time into assigning/programming one for your own needs...

SFC-5, Pro-800, and Fourm come to mind.

SFC-5 is fine for prophet 5 emulations
Pro 800 and the Fourm are not so great since they have different poly mod and modulation options and the Pro 800 does also have a third Oscillator on Oscillator 1 so they will not give a good experience on a prophet 5 Emulation.

The Pro 800 is a good option for Proxima and the Fourm is a good option for Repro 1
+ They have their own sounds as a Bonus