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U-he has a Repro-5 public beta sign up going


ElmerJFudd

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Also, note that it is free to those who already bought Repro-1 (and I think also to those who buy Repro-1 during Repro-5's beta period).

 

I downloaded my free copy this week, along with the Repro-1 update and the preliminary user manuals (not the same as the ones that come with the installer).

 

Looks and sounds great. Do be aware of some documented caveats with Repro-1 if you brave the beta period, as it is shared technology.

 

These will be merged to one product called "Repro" after the beta period ends. Not sure if that means there will be just pone GUI interface at that point, or simply one packaging.

 

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  • 4 weeks later...

You can get a wider variety of virtual analog sounds with Diva, but it's not designed to mimic any particular analog (although a third-party vendor did a great job of programming it to sound like an Oberheim).

 

Repro, on the other hand, is designed to sound like a Sequential Circuits Pro-1 and Prophet-5, adding a few extra features here and there.

 

Best,

 

Geoff

My Blue Someday appears on Apple Music | Spotify | YouTube | Amazon

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I wonder how this stacks up against the Arturia prophet plugin.

 

No contest. Arturia has the "company sound," a homogeneity that makes many of their products indistinguishable from their others. I've got the Analog Lab collection (a very broad overview of their line) and CS-80V. They're complimentary and play nicely with other plugs and hardware. Many times they're the perfect thing. But they've got that sound which I can only describe as soft and slightly grainy.

 

Repro 1 & 5, on the other hand, are big and punchy and leap out of the monitors. That's certainly the case with Diva. I have not tried Repro vs Prophet V but frankly, I'm not going to waste the time. Again, not bashing Arturia--they've got some wonderful instruments--I simply prefer the u-he sound.

9 Moog things, 3 Roland things, 2 Hammond things and a computer with stuff on it

 

 

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One thing about the u-he re-pro's though, is that they aren't likely to satisfy people who don't do their own patches, as the stock presets are a rather small collection and none of them particularly musical to my ears.

 

I hope to have some time soon to put the re-Pro 5 through its paces more thoroughly. So far, I'll take Arturia's, but of course it has the added advantage of including the Prophet VS, which I use more than the Prophet 5 anyway.

 

As I said earlier though, the re-Pro 5 is a step up from the re-Pro 1, and I haven't re-tried the re-Pro 1 again to compare to its previous rev, since doing the update recently, so maybe both have come a long way by now.

 

I'm generally against block chords, which makes me the odd person out on this forum I guess. I only use polyphony to avoid quirks in note cutoff on certain types of patches. Otherwise I split the lines to different sounds and avoid duplicated rhythms and parallel movement of intervals.

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^ I try to make myself do that with block chords, as I think you get a better result...just takes more work :) Just yesterday I was playing fat chords with a lush patch, and it sounded fantastic...until I started adding more tracks, then it was muddy. I split some of the notes using piano roll view and assigned two less-lush sounds to the tracks, it really came alive.

 

I may have to grab Diva. I was thinking I'd save up for Zebra 2 + dark Zebra (then you get Zebra 3 for free when it comes out!)...but it's a bit intimidating to program, at least going by zebralette (cut-down free version). Even with Zebralette I can hear what you all are saying about punchi-ness vs some of my other plugins...there's a clarity there. Ironically I hear a "sheen" that I don't like with Alchemy that I'd describe the way Arturia plugins are being described--am I nuts there? Maybe it's the fx, I'll try taking them off and using other fx plugins.

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One thing about the u-he re-pro's though, is that they aren't likely to satisfy people who don't do their own patches, as the stock presets are a rather small collection and none of them particularly musical to my ears.

That's a good point, Mark. I agree that Diva's factory presets are underwhelming. Thankfully, there are a lot of great third-party sound banks available, and Diva's interface is easy to come to terms with; but yeah, you'll probably want to invest some time and/or money to get better presets.

 

Best,

 

Geoff

My Blue Someday appears on Apple Music | Spotify | YouTube | Amazon

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Good point Geoff, as patch libraries are starting to become available for the re-Pro 1 and probably soon the 5. I forget whether it can load original Prophet sounds via SysEx or not.

 

For those interested in both Oberheim and Prophet, don't forget IK Multimedia's synth collection for SampleTank, but it's primarily sample-based with some MOTIF-like tweaking of LFO's etc.

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Good point Geoff, as patch libraries are starting to become available for the re-Pro 1 and probably soon the 5. I forget whether it can load original Prophet sounds via SysEx or not.

 

For those interested in both Oberheim and Prophet, don't forget IK Multimedia's synth collection for SampleTank, but it's primarily sample-based with some MOTIF-like tweaking of LFO's etc.

 

Yeah, their Syntronik pretty much kicks ass.

 

I just loaded the OBxa library into it. Fat goodness

 

I have that, the full Jupiter 8, and the full MiniMoog libraries.

 

I do use some tones from the SY99 as well.

 

 

I do use the Arturia Prophet 5. A few of their factory presets are dead ringers for the original, and I use them the way Gregg Rolie and Jon Cain did on a few tunes when giggling with the trib band

David

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I agree that Diva's factory presets are underwhelming...

 

Best,

 

Geoff

 

I agree mostly. Howard Scarr's work is very nice in Diva and the Repros. When I scroll through sounds it always ends up being his patches that make me stop scrolling.

 

 

9 Moog things, 3 Roland things, 2 Hammond things and a computer with stuff on it

 

 

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One thing about the u-he re-pro's though, is that they aren't likely to satisfy people who don't do their own patches, as the stock presets are a rather small collection and none of them particularly musical to my ears.

That's a good point, Mark. I agree that Diva's factory presets are underwhelming. Thankfully, there are a lot of great third-party sound banks available, and Diva's interface is easy to come to terms with; but yeah, you'll probably want to invest some time and/or money to get better presets.

 

Best,

 

Geoff

 

This was a misquote that has been repeated so it begs the question: Is it Repro, Diva, or both that have a weak set of factory presets?

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Repro-5 currently has over 950 factory presets.

 

Whether that is a 'small' collection and whether they are sweet sounding depends on each user's expectations.

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Is it Repro, Diva, or both that have a weak set of factory presets?

Of course, beauty is in the eye of the beholder, so YMMV; but Mark was speaking of Repro and I of Diva, so in this case it would be both.

 

U-he is known for outstanding synth plugins but not so much for remarkable synth presets, unlike Spectrasonics, which is known for both. While it's great to be known for both, it also slows down your output to focus on both. Spectrasonics isn't exactly prolific in the area of product releases.

 

Since my experience is with Diva, the point I wanted to stress was that there are great presets available for it; you just have to buy them separately from third-party developers. My guess is that the market will follow suit for Repro, as the platform appears to be up to u-he's usual high standards.

 

Best,

 

Geoff

My Blue Someday appears on Apple Music | Spotify | YouTube | Amazon

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Pretty cool video from Marius Leicht comparing the Prophet 5 and the Repro 5. Btw the Repro 5 and The Repro 1 both have a preset section that have what appears to be the original presets from each board. I bought it a week ago. Sounds fantastic. It's on sale for $99 until January 1st. I've found it to be even more of a resource hog than Diva, but it's backing it up with sound quality.
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Yes, to clarify, I haven't checked Re-pro 5's presets now that it's an official product. The early beta didn't have many.

 

I did just listen to VSP's re-Pro 1 patch libraries tonight (both of them), and they are completely uninspiring to me, as are many of that vendors (though I have some lovely ones from them that passed muster and get used).

 

I'm almost inclined to think they are PROBABLY a consistent vendor and that the quality of the patch libraries (to my ears) reflects more on the host products for which they are designed.

 

For instance, of the ones I don't have (most of them), the ONLY one that really blew me out of the water was the brand-new one for Roland's new PLUG-OUT version of the June-106. Could have sworn it was the real deal!

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I didn't notice that the original presets are included now with re-Pro 5, so that's a good way of comparing directly against Arturia Prophet V. Maybe I'll do that next week after my holiday gigs are done.

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I've always wondered about that myself. Many lodge complaints at Dave Smith along those same lines. And working in audio, it especially mystifies me as we DON'T take that approach and make sure we pump real music vs. just test signals when designing loudspeakers. So for synth developers, how do they know it's good?

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Hard to believe you could kick ass making software WITHOUT good representative presets with which to test and judge your efforts.

Perhaps in the case of subtractive synths, it's because the interface is so widely understood. Part of the joy for many customers is in creating their own sounds. Certainly the boom in modular synths in the hardware world taps into the fun of sound design.

 

And of course, it's not that u-he's presets are rotten. They're certainly good enough to convey an air of authenticity. As for me, I'd rather buy great software with average presets than average software with great presets. However, YMMV.

 

Native Instruments Kontakt is similar in that its factory library is usable, but it doesn't showcase the program as well as most of the libraries developed for it by third parties. Nonetheless, it dominates the software sampler market.

 

Best,

 

Geoff

My Blue Someday appears on Apple Music | Spotify | YouTube | Amazon

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The Prophet-5 was my first polyphonic, followed by a Prophet-600. I've applied added scrutiny to software versions as they appeared, but they always fell short to my ear. Even allowing for the lesser fidelity of Net videos, the Repro-5 is the first to have that subtle creaminess I remember. Its always a matter of subjective feel per player, but my first impression is that Urs has neatly one-upped Arturia. His 'Prophet' is more THERE. I don't really need this, but Poly-Mod is one of the best things to happen to synth design, so, uh, well, maybe under the Xmess tree! :blah:

 

 "I want to be an intellectual, but I don't have the brainpower.
  The absent-mindedness, I've got that licked."
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