# Pro-53 User library archive?



## chrisphan (Jan 27, 2018)

As a late adopter of Pro-53, I no longer have access to its user library. I think it'd be a cool idea for people who own some user libraries before upload theirs to a fan archive (could be GG Drive or something simple like that) 

I'm sure many people including me want to see what creators have done in the past. What do you think?


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## synthpunk (Jan 27, 2018)

So your asking people to upload intellectual property they purchased (sounds) for free ?


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## chrisphan (Jan 27, 2018)

No. Did you have to pay for it back then, unlike the free Reaktor UL? If so, my bad


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## greggybud (Jan 27, 2018)

chrisphan said:


> No. Did you have to pay for it back then, unlike the free Reaktor UL? If so, my bad



No you didn't have to pay for it. But honestly, IIRC there wasn't much content there at all. As a matter of fact, I think you could get more at KVR and search for the Pro-53 patches. The same applies to Absynth/Kontakt/Guitar user libraries except of course for the hugely successful Reaktor UL.


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## chrisphan (Jan 27, 2018)

greggybud said:


> No you didn't have to pay for it. But honestly, IIRC there wasn't much content there at all. As a matter of fact, I think you could get more at KVR and search for the Pro-53 patches. The same applies to Absynth/Kontakt/Guitar user libraries except of course for the hugely successful Reaktor UL.



Thanks, that made me feel better. I never had a chance to see it so I'm not sure if I was missing out something big like the Reaktor UL


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## EvilDragon (Jan 28, 2018)

synthpunk said:


> So your asking people to upload intellectual property they purchased (sounds) for free ?



Pro-53 user library was all free sounds, man.


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## chrisphan (Jan 28, 2018)

Is there any Pro-53 sound bank that tries to recreate the original Prophet sounds? I'd be curious to see how (in)accurate it is compared to the real thing.


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## EvilDragon (Jan 28, 2018)

Yes, there are. But it's not really THAT good in comparing to the real thing, u-he Repro-5 is much, much better/closer.

Here's all the Pro-53 banks that I have, attached. These include the original Prophet-5 three factory banks.


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## chrisphan (Jan 28, 2018)

Terrific. Thanks a lot ED


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## chrisphan (Jan 28, 2018)

Had a blast A/B-ing Pro-53 and the Prophet 5, based on this: http://www.synthmania.com/Prophet-5 (Rev.3).htm I admittedly didn't have much expectation, but the result was better than I thought, especially for brass patches, and OSC Sync imo. Big thanks to whoever converted the sound bank!! 

One small programming error I found is in Bank 1-15 Flute, where the LFO action isn't right, comparing to what synthmania has.


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## EvilDragon (Jan 29, 2018)

...and now do the same thing with Repro-5.  The difference is pretty obvious.


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## chrisphan (Jan 29, 2018)

I actually tried that a few days ago, and the sound was indeed very authentic. My CPU wasn't happy though, so I think I'll pass


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## EvilDragon (Jan 29, 2018)

In this case, it's well worth the extra price (also, extra functionality compared to Pro-53, plus those FX are luverly). Pro-53 only when you really need to cut back on the CPU, because you can stack dozens of them in a project (and you'll need to, because it sounds comparatively thinner than Repro-1 and has a bit of a struggle to come through in a mix...)


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## greggybud (Feb 3, 2018)

EvilDragon said:


> In this case, it's well worth the extra price (also, extra functionality compared to Pro-53, plus those FX are luverly). Pro-53 only when you really need to cut back on the CPU, because you can stack dozens of them in a project (and you'll need to, because it sounds comparatively thinner than Repro-1 and has a bit of a struggle to come through in a mix...)




When doing comparisons for example Pro-53 to Re-pro 5, or the enlightening comparison I did a couple years ago...Arturia Prophet V factory patches to DSI Prophet 6 (which includes the Prophet 5 factory patches) I always question my own biases when doing the "normal" A/B comparison.

Another comparison method I think can be very enlightening is very simple and revealing:

For example, take a named factory patch of the Arturia Prophet V and take same named factory patch in the DSI Prophet 6. Go ahead and A/B them the traditional way, and make your notes of what you hear. 

Then simply pan the Arturia hard left and the DSI Prophet 6 hard right in your DAW. Assign it the same midi so your keyboard controller plays both at the same time. Play notes, chords, up and down the keyboard.

My results: With the "basic" boring or easy patches there was little difference. But with other more complex factory patches, the more phase you detect reveals the differences. Obviously, when phase transforms into chorus, you know there are bigger differences.

The more complex factory patches, especially ones that involve additional filtering, envelope resonant sweeps etc...forget it. I noted in one factory patch, even the timing of the start of a sweep between an Arturia patch and the Prophet 6 (prophet 5 factory) patch was off.

I don't spend much time doing this stuff because ultimately at the end of the day for myself it's unproductive. 

But my question is, I don't read of other people doing this type of "hard right/left play at same time" comparison. What am I missing because I think the differences are immediately are detected. To me, it seems more easy than a traditional A/B comparison making notes. 

I even used this procedure in a pop track because it manifested a interesting sound that was unique. The sound varied depending on what notes were played up and down the octaves.


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## EvilDragon (Feb 3, 2018)

Prophet 6 is not really a full-blown Prophet-5 reissue, so comparing it to various Prophet-5 emulators is a bit off the mark...


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## synthpunk (Feb 3, 2018)

I think most here are working composers in some way, there is very little time here for comparisons like this, but if something sounds good were going to trust our ears and use it.



greggybud said:


> When doing comparisons for example Pro-53 to Re-pro 5, or the enlightening comparison I did a couple years ago...Arturia Prophet V factory patches to DSI Prophet 6 (which includes the Prophet 5 factory patches) I always question my own biases when doing the "normal" A/B comparison.
> 
> Another comparison method I think can be very enlightening is very simple and revealing:
> 
> ...


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## greggybud (Feb 3, 2018)

EvilDragon said:


> Prophet 6 is not really a full-blown Prophet-5 reissue, so comparing it to various Prophet-5 emulators is a bit off the mark...



No it's not a re-issue, and Dave has said that time and again. But if you start with Prophet 6 Presets 411 through 458, according to the Prophet 6 manual "vintage purists will be interested to know that presets 411-548 are faithful recreations of the original 40 Prophet-5 presets." While I sold my Prophet-5 years ago, I would say the Prophet 6 Prophet-5 "faithful recreations" may be an understatement. But you are correct, if one wanted to do a proper test it would definitely be with the Prophet-5, not 6.

My point is not how close any Prophet emulations are to the Prophet-5. My point is the method of comparing by panning real hardware hard right, and the emulation hard left then playing both at the same time to hear the differences. Maybe people do this, but the comparisons I always read about are traditional A/B's. Listen to one for a moment, then listen to the other, go back and forth then make your decision, hopefully done blind.

I have never heard of playing both patches at the same time where usually some degree of phase, chorus and other issue will manifest themselves demonstrating differences.



synthpunk said:


> I think most here are working composers in some way, there is very little time here for comparisons like this, but if something sounds good were going to trust our ears and use it.


Yes. Not as many here doing comparisons or IMO endless discussions about subtle differences, but instead...achieving a musical objective by the end of the day.


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## EvilDragon (Feb 4, 2018)

greggybud said:


> I have never heard of playing both patches at the same time where usually some degree of phase, chorus and other issue will manifest themselves demonstrating differences.



Of course that's impossible because in vintage analog synths, oscillators are freerunning. So you can't get them phase-aligned ever (unless using oscillator sync, but even that has initial phase differences from note to note).


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## greggybud (Feb 4, 2018)

EvilDragon said:


> Of course that's impossible because in vintage analog synths, oscillators are freerunning. So you can't get them phase-aligned ever (unless using oscillator sync, but even that has initial phase differences from note to note).



Yes I have thought of that too. But I was thinking there is much more happening than only oscillators out of phase that bring forth the issues I can hear. Do you think it's exclusively a sync issue? Also, what about using oscillator sync with 2 digital synths using the same named patch when comparing for example the Arturia vs. NI?

Some simple patches when comparing can appear to have, at least to my ears, very little if any noticeable phase both when summed in mono and panned. Comparing a digital (Arturia) vs. analog (DSI) with a very simple basic patch yields very little difference, but slightly increasing differences when changing a couple octaves either way. 

I don't know much about this. You are the expert. I'm here to learn. And perhaps you answered my question which is why more people don't do this type of play-2-at-a-time hard-panned comparison, but instead stick with the traditional blind A/B tests. And honestly, it's one of those things that can be very distracting if not kept in perspective.


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## EvilDragon (Feb 4, 2018)

Those hard-panned comparisons are really not a good way to compare things. Even between two plugins with the "same named patch" will have differences, due to how algorithms are constructed etc. It's not just a sync thing.


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