U-He Repro 5 vs Prophet 5

U-he Repro 5 vs Prophet 5 rev 3.3.

Low keyboard is Repro 5. Higher is P5. They are sounding pretty damn close. It is really matter of if you're synth nerd or not :) Other way there is no reason for spending so much money for real thing. You must just love it like I do.

Differences are in details. It is not about more low end or anything like that. Resonance filter is sounding different. Repro 5 pulse oscillator is sounding like in new Prophet 5. In my Prophet 5 pulse osc didn't sound like pulse anymore. Osc B detuning sounding more aggressive. Also Prophet 5 has something more 3d in it. But Repro 5 is a genius VST. Sometimes I like sound from Repro 5 more as from Prophet. I really wish Urs Heckmann would like to make Jupiter 6, 8, Arp 2600, CS-80, RSF Kobol or any other analog synth which is very high priced or rare.

I using Repro 5 on my album - "Der Weg" where Tangerine Dream meets Boards of Canada:

Check my site if you want to know more about me:

At beginning 2019 will be my new album available where I played only Prophet 5 and Minimoog Model D. Just two great synths.

[UrsHeckmannBerlin]

Hehe, thank you! After all those years, each Prophet is calibrated slightly differently. There's always a little bit ore cutoff here, a little less detune there. But the basic character stays the same :-)

[lundsweden]

I always add a bit of saturation or overdrive to VSTs. It definately can be the "missing link" to the analog sound.

[kostyakonstantinoff]

I've found that while many Vst emulations sound incredibly close to the original, almost all of them lack sub frequencies. Listen carefully to the analogue and digital synthesizer. In analog synths, the low end is incredibly smooth, but in digital it's kind of muddy, even if you compensate for it with an EQ. All of the above does not mean that RePro is a bad synthesizer. On the contrary, it is one of the best vst synth I have heard.

[RayAndre]

Nothing that a lil' bit of saturation can't fix to get closer to the original thing... thanks for this!

[tyromelive]

Reading all those comments is actually funny.
Imagine that digital was first and that we created “analog” afterwards... Everybody would probably say .. “Nooo computer version sounds better” I the 80’s when you put “digital” on a product it was a selling strategy.
It’s like watching technicolor movies, my kids are saying it looks like sh*t, but I like it.... 🤷‍♂️

[Pintosonic]

It’s a good thing that there are good VSTs out there for most classic synths because they were made in the 70s and the 80s and not only their prices are going up but the cost of keeping them in good working order will rise exponentially as they are all way past their useful life expectancy. A lot of them contain integrated circuits that have been discontinued for decades and old stocks are running out quickly. So just for an historical perspective, it’s cool that we have access to those VSTs as one day only museums and really rich peoples will be able to keep them working.

[manny_f]

2:20 When you reilase you just wasted four grand.

[rnedp]

Late to this party, but with the release of the Rev 4 I stumbled on this - it's funny but every time I was watching I was drawn to the P5 but when I was only listening I was drawn to the Repro. I think there's a strong influence of the nostalgia and beauty that influences the ears. Great job, thanks.

[downcode]

The VST (as usual) has more high end, which can easily fool a listener into thinking it sounds better. It sounds more flat & lifeless compared to the real thing. VSTs also have a hard time in the higher registers - it's clearly heard at 5:40 & 8:04.

Hardware has more depth & emotion (at least to me, maybe not to newer generations).

Repro is one of the best soft synths, don't get me wrong :)

Thanks for the demo

[pcuimac]

The filter of the simulation seems to be a tick more open than the "real" thing. More high metalic frequencies seem to come thru.

[RayyMusik]

I don‘t buy Sequential stuff because of their quality issues - but I fell in love with the P5 sound again. So I played around a bit with the Arturia P5. It sounds nice - too nice, like most Arturia VST synths. They lack the grit and bottom end of the originals.
Solution:
- a 21st century hardware synth, the Arturia PolyBrute, which sounds awesome in its own right
- plus the Repro for genuine P5 sound. As others mentioned, there aren‘t two P5s with 100% identical sound anyway.
BTW, this saved me ca. 1000 €! :)

[oziaso]

definitely a low end difference ...the hardware has more bass but mids and highs are identical

[LASERLine.Brasil]

Thanks for the great comparison! Still some differences in favor of the real analog, but lets face it... the fact is that the hardware epoch is coming to an end.

[PRODUCEDBYDOUGLAS]

Could you do one on the Arturia Prophet V vs Prophet 5? How do you feel about the Repro 5 vs Prophet V

[JoeDillingham]

Awesome. Once you tweaked the settings at 2:11ish, I really had a hard time hearing much difference.

[DubElementMusic]

Leute, ihr vergleicht hier absolute Nuancen. Dass DER EINE Prophet 5 nicht gleich klingt wie der Repro, sollte klar sein. Jeder voll analoge Synth klingt etwas anders. Ich persönlich sehe das tatsächlich einfach von einem rein esoterischen Standpunkt aus. Ich will analoge Hardware, weil ich leben in meinem Sound will, ich will diese analoge Zufälligkeit und kein determinierter digitaler Algorithmus. Auf jeden Fall würde keiner hier den Unterschied zwischen einem P5 und dem Repro in einem Mix erkennen, da würde ich viel Geld darauf verwetten. Aber ich muss auch sagen, die einzigen VST`s die mich klanglich bis jetzt jeh überzeugt haben, sind die von U-he.

Aber ich werde mir demnächst einen sequential REV2 kaufen, und keinesfalls einen Prophet5, es gibt heutzutage unglaublich viele, geile, genau so gut (wenn nicht genau so) klingende Hardware Synth`s für wenig Geld. Diese Ramantisierung von alten Geräten stammt vielleicht von denen, die so eines haben und ihr Glück damit rechtfertigen.

[MetaIsland]

Who can hear the difference once in a mix, mastered with fx etc...? Good job U-HE

[Roberto_MR]

Great comparison. I have the U he repro, love it.

[alainthiry]

do you connect audio of prophet to input of your sound module? if no you add a conversion in the computer/plugin circuitry and this has a sound that dis dependant of the dac you use...

[lorenmorgan]

The big difference here, and it is the same with the Roland stuff, albeit nowhere to the same degree, that the plugin is not as dynamic as the real thing. Roland has completely brickwalled the output stages of their plugins, where as this is a pretty hard compression. I have found that using Dominion (free) or Fabfilter (expensive but worth it) vst to do upward expansion makes these plugins almost feel like the real deal.



Thanks for the awesome comparison, and totally agree, Urs should do a Jup 4/6/8 next.