Softube Model 80 Five Voice Synth

[beely]

Anyone know what rev this is based on? 2? 3?

Rev 3, apparently.

[Funkybot's Evil Twin]

This is definitely what the Brits call whinging, but...

• Aging knob to add additional "wear" to the instrument
• Added Voice Pan Spread to take the sound from a mono to a stereo spread of the five voices
• Invert Voice Mod button for additional modulation possibilities
• Quantize semitone filter cutoff frequency captures the original performance of the hardware, but can also be turned off for smooth performance
• Selectable DAW (Tempo) sync or free running LFO to clock the global modulation section
• Added velocity and aftertouch controls for modern performance expression

...if you're going to add all that suff that wasn't on the original, then why limit the voice count? Even Dave Smith originally tried for 10 voices, before giving up and going to 5 due to heat issues, then released the Rev 4 with 10 voices before his death. The voice count limitations seem bizarre in the context of Invert being added, along with aftertouch and velocity, and the ability to unquantize the filter.

[abernathy]

They could have increased polyphony and been "authentic" by having a Prophet 5 and a Prophet 10 mode....?

[sQeetz]

FFS! I thought my shopping spree was over and now this...

[SLiC]

FFS! I thought my shopping spree was over and now this...

Just out of interest, why would you buy this over (or as well!) as Repro?

[Vortifex]

Sounds good, as you'd expect from Softube. Problem is it doesn't offer anything that makes it worth buying instead of Repro or Prophet-5 V. Would it have killed them to offer a bit of extra polyphony at least?

The aging function is poorly implemented. Pitch variation is fairly subtle even at maximum, but the problem is it affects the filter envelope as well, except the effect on that is more significant, especially when the cutoff is low, causing notes to randomly have a much longer decay than the others. Arturia's voice dispersion system works much better.

Adding one instance takes FL's CPU meter to 30%, and extra instances add around 5% each.

Unfortunately this comes saddled with Softube's godawful preset browser and iLok if that's a thing you dislike. Throw in the gimped polyphony and lack of features compared to the competition and this is an easy pass for me.

[sQeetz]

FFS! I thought my shopping spree was over and now this...

Just out of interest, why would you buy this over (or as well!) as Repro?

Mainly because of the modules for Modular.

[martiu]

Another stupid comment, how surprising.

[BONES]

Unfortunately this comes saddled with Softube's godawful preset browser and iLok if that's a thing you dislike.

I ask this fairly regularly but WTF is wrong with Softube's preset browser? For my money it's just about the best around, in that it opens in its own window, which means you can browse and tweak as you go. That's a pretty special feature you don't often see. It has a customisable interface and all the features of other browsers so what's the problem with it?

Anyhoo, I just worked my way through half the presets and, much to my surprise, the best sounding patch was INIT. I'm not sure who the presets are supposed to impress but they do not impress me at all. Worse than that is that it uses more than double the CPU RePro-5 uses, which is terrifying! I don't much like the Unison sound, either. This is an easy one to pass on, especially at $99.

[Korg Supporter]

Just go with Repro (or Arturia's Prophet 5 V if you want the Rev 2 filter). I prefer the more dynamic oscillator beating and voice drift in the Softube One, and the filter resonance sounds a bit more mysterious. Otherwise, go with Repro-5 (Messiah is also amazing if you have Windows).

[Vortifex]

Unfortunately this comes saddled with Softube's godawful preset browser and iLok if that's a thing you dislike.

I ask this fairly regularly but WTF is wrong with Softube's preset browser? For my money it's just about the best around, in that it opens in its own window, which means you can browse and tweak as you go. That's a pretty special feature you don't often see. It has a customisable interface and all the features of other browsers so what's the problem with it?

Mostly it's the pop-out thing. It feels so clunky. When I'm browsing presets I don't want to do any tweaking until I land on one that has promise. Clicking the plugin interface causes the browser window to minimise anyway, so even if I wanted to tweak and browse at the same time I couldn't because I have to click the browser window again, no different to clicking a browser button on the interface. I much prefer the way u-he and GForce do it.

Agree with you on the presets for Model 80 though, pretty naff for the most part.

[martinjuenke]

I had a weird thought last night that they'd do an OB-X or an OB-8. Probably because I'm not in love with any of the current OB-Xa emulations (Obsession/Arturia). Then today they pop out with a Prophet.

I've got the Rev 4 hardware, RePro, and the Arturia version (which is pretty good in the latest incarnation). I'm not sure we needed another Prophet, but Softube does a good job capturing the sound of synths. And being able to use the filters/oscs in Modular is cool.

Perhaps my only complaint with RePro is that it's not sloppy enough and feels very well maintained or too out of tune (depending on the Detune knob position). Would love more slop controls similar to Div in order to get sloppier envelopes and more filter variation without necessarily knocking the tuning out.

The Softube having only 5 voices is a bit disappointing but consistent for them. But then they do add additional features in the panels, so you wonder why the draw the line at voice count. But c'est la vie!

Anyone know what rev this is based on? 2? 3?

Rev 3 which came out 1980 (therefore the name)

[j wazza]

Sounds really good, and really close to the prophet samples I've used. I'd also like more voices

[starflakeprj]

While everyone else is thinking "one or the other", I'm more like "why not both, I'll getting Model 80 as well"

[martiu]

buy now