Prophet V

One of the first synths I ever owned was a Pro-5. I had played with NI's Pro-53 and I liked it, but IMO and from what I remember of my Pro-5, this VST is a lot closer to the real thing.

The Prophet 5 was the workhorse of rock/pop bands of the late 70's early 80's and I still have some old Keyboard Magazines in my closet somewhere with the advertisements for the Sequential Circuits line of keyboards. I loved my Pro-5 and this VST redition doesn't dissappoint. I have the V2 version of this VST and Arturia did something really cool, the made this VST two plugins in one. You get the Prophet 5 and the Prohpet VS all in one plugin!

The Prophet 5 is the more famous of the two, but the lesser known VS was a digital wave table synth that produced some sounds that were impossible to get out of any other synth of the day except for the PPG Wave. The VS has wave sequencing capabilities that provide metamorphic sounds that swirl around the mix in a way few other synths are capable of out of the box.

This along with my OPX-PRO plugins are my "go to" plugins for a large variety of music I do that requires analog sounds. This is partly because I am very familiar with how to get the sounds I need out of them, but also because they both sound great! The Prophet 5 was never as thick as the Oberheim but it was as warm as a down jacket on a cold winter day. So if I need a warm expressive pad, or a lead with character, the Pro 5 does the job without muddying up the mix. If you really need lushness and thickness, then the Oberheim plugin probably suits your needs better. That said, you can get thick lush sounds out of the Pro 5 with some outboard EFX VSTs.

The built in EFX are somewhat rudimentary IMO and I've had the occasion to patch the output of this VST into other EFX VSTs to get the results I want, but if you take into account that the original had no EFX in it whatsoever, this is a welcome addition.

The previous reviewer mentions resource issues, but I haven't really seen any in the newer V2 version of this plugin, so maybe Arturia has fixed it. I have this plugin in virtually every VST rack I build for cover bands I play with. This is one of my favorite plugins and I would replace it in a minute if I were to lose it. If you need a workhorse plugin that covers retro analog sounds authentically and you can only buy one plugin, this would be the one to get. I always suggest you download the demo and try it out first to make sure it's what you need. In my other reviews of the Arturia plugins I mention that I bought the Arturia V2 Collection and this plugin was a part of it. I would have bought this one stand alone if I had to. I like it that much.Read Review