U-He Repro 5 Vs Softube Model 80 – Blind Test Comparisons + Settings to Match Them – Page 6 – Instruments Forum

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.