U-he Repro-5: Released

[Guy Rowland]

http://www.u-he.com/cms/repro-1



This has been long awaited by the fans, the u-he loving emulation of the Sequential Circuits Prophet 5. It will be combined 2 synth deal with the current Repro-1, itself based on the Pro One. Great news for Repro-1 owners - this will be free for them. U-he boss Urs posted this on the firm's KVR support board:

Final release will be in December, we put Dec 12th in our calendar (might shift, dunno)
Upgrade from Repro-1 to Repro: Free! (if you have Repro-1, you have Repro-5)
Retail Price for Repro: 149$, from January 1st 2018, noon CET
(that's right... plenty of time to buy Repro for $99, even after beta testing)

For info downloading the public beta and feedback, go here - https://www.kvraudio.com/forum/viewtopi ... 1&t=494717

The reason for the long delay on getting this far has apparently been sorting the new tag browser, that will eventually roll out across the range. You won't be surprised to hear me say that the delay has therefore all been in a good cause.

[Guy Rowland]

Holy cow, the low end on this thing... it is for sure a CPU monster* but true analogue heaven.

*clicking MC - for multicore - sure helps though.

[EvilDragon]

Average CPU usage over here in Reaper is 10-20% (depending on HQ and MC buttons - 20% is HQ on), all 8 voices at full blast unison and a ton of resonance, on my OC'd i7-6700K at 4.5 GHz. Decent.

[Guy Rowland]

Average CPU usage over here in Reaper is 10-20% (depending on HQ and MC buttons - 20% is HQ on), all 8 voices at full blast unison and a ton of resonance, on my OC'd i7-6700K at 4.5 GHz. Decent.

Good ol' Cubase - I was getting 90-100% routinely on single core, but this dropped to 20-30% on multicore (4 cores). I didn't even dare press the HQ button.

(total honesty - I'm not sure I've ever heard a difference with HQ mode on...)

[EvilDragon]

There is a difference, depending on filter model used and amount of resonance and filter modulation...

[Guy Rowland]

There is a difference, depending on filter model used and amount of resonance and filter modulation...

Ah ok... not so much sonic fidelity as authenticity under certain parameters?

[EvilDragon]

Correct.

[Guy Rowland]

This is a slight tangent. but read on a post elsewhere that Reaper's reporting of CPU is under-representative of real load, whereas Cubase is pretty accurate. I only hear glitches when I hit the red... anyway, made me feel a bit better...

Anyway 2, I can have multiple instances very happily with MC on, AG2 on low in Cubase 9.

People are often in search of the warmest / fattest analogue synth out there. I think that search has come to an end. It's gorgeous.

[woodsdenis]

With MC on its very usable, didn’t hit overload in any patch. Lovely sound.

[tack]

I also have a 6700K clocked at 4.5GHz. I was able to do 4 instances with the HS Little Blue Planet at 8 voices (HQ and MC) in the realtime path (i.e. armed for recording), but started glitching at 5. If they weren't armed for recording, I could do 5 instances. At 6 instances there was much wailing and gnashing of teeth from my entire system.

It doesn't help that the demo generates static which is only distinguishable from glitching if you pay close attention

This is a slight tangent. but read on a post elsewhere that Reaper's reporting of CPU is under-representative of real load, whereas Cubase is pretty accurate. I only hear glitches when I hit the red... anyway, made me feel a bit better.

Yeah, I don't especially trust the numbers either. This is definitely true if you have any of your FX running bridged (whether necessarily because you're using 32-bit plugins, or because you intentionally run them as separate or dedicated processes as I often do for compartmentalization). In this case Reaper's performance meter doesn't even account for them in Total CPU.

The per-track CPU use is also significantly confused for multi-threaded FX. For example, with the Repro-5 test from above, if I run each Repro-5 instance as a dedicated process, CPU use for each track is reported at about 6.7%, but meanwhile Process Explorer shows each of the subprocesses (reaper_host64.exe) using 16.2% CPU, each process comprised of 4 threads using about 4% each. With MC disabled, things fall back into line: Reaper reports each track using 12% CPU which agrees with Process Explorer.

Consequently, I generally ignore the Total CPU, FX CPU, and per-track CPU usage, unless I'm comparing deltas. And when I'm interested in performance, I don't pay attention to the numbers, I actually load up tracks until things start to fall apart. But I think that's good practice no matter how much you trust your DAW's CPU meter.

[EvilDragon]

This is a slight tangent. but read on a post elsewhere that Reaper's reporting of CPU is under-representative of real load, whereas Cubase is pretty accurate.

My figures are from Task Manager, not Reaper's performance meter.



In any case, for severe multitracking with this one, Freeze will become your one and only friend. Until we get 5 GHz 16 cores.

[Guy Rowland]

Fair dos Mario - out of interest, do you get a huge drop using Multi Core in Reaper? Yesterday I installed it on the MacBook Pro in Cubase Elements, and it was a far more modest 20% drop for me. So it must be OS / host dependent as to how much benefit you get from that. I also see Urs says that the CPU use will likely drop a little as new versions of the beta go live.

Anyway, I've sort of stopped worrying about CPU now I've seen the huge difference using MC on the main rig.

[EvilDragon]

It's not a huuuuuge drop, but it's enough to let the CPU breathe more.

[Jaap]

The MC is indeed a breeze. Loaded up the beta in a full project and was suprised to see everything suddenly melting down The MC tuned it down I think a quarter or something. Really digging this sound to be honest. I hadn't tried Repro-1 yet, but after an hour of fiddeling with the beta it was an easy present for myself to purchase this. Really great that you get Repro-5 if you own Repro-1

[Guy Rowland]

Release Candidate 1 is out. KVR thread with download links (open to all, those without a Repro 1 license get low level periodic noise):

https://www.kvraudio.com/forum/viewtopi ... 1&t=496063

Fixed:

* Crash on MIDI learn page
* Crash if plugin installation path contains an apostrophe
* Graphics glitch when using Velvet presets & preset browser at same time
* Copying preset database between Mac and Win did not copy all favourites & junk
* "Show preset info" setting was not persistent
* Text search did not take quotation marks into account
* Overwriting a preset removed its junk/favourite status
* Copying a folder did not copy the junk/favourite status of presets
* Windows only - cursor was always placed at start of text search field
* Windows only - was sometimes showing wrong characters in dropdown menus and search root display
* Bug when importing old favourites & junk during installation
* Dragging multiple presets onto tag smart folder only saved tag in one preset
* If inside a subfolder, wrong preset list was shown after reopening GUI
* Graphics glitches in tag view and in preset inspector (display overflowing)
* Clicking below Noise in mixer section could activate the Noise/FB jumper
* Init preset was not using default author


Improvements:

* Removed Any tag in Categories
* Selecting a main category tag now shows all included presets
* Further improvements to category tag button selection
* Added favourites tag buttons to tag view page
* Directory view scrollbar handling improved
* Improvements in multi-core thread handling (lower overall CPU, fewer spikes)
* 900+ factory presets added to R5


Known Issues (no worries, many of those have been there for years and will be tackled as we go):

* FL Studio - s&h rate in Repro-5 erratic while host is playing (we are working on it, it's a deeper issue)
* Bitwig - possible sound issues (silence or volume overload) when reloading project
* Ableton Live - problem with parameter automation
* MPE issues with Modwheel and Pitchbend
* Bug when using polyphonic Aftertouch
* Not possible to search for text strings containing an apostrophe
* Win only - Gamma setting only changing after reopening GUI
* Switching HQ creates a temporary DC offset (by design...)
* Folder highlighting after saving searches not consistent
* Some small issues with preset restore function
* When working on multiple projects in parallel, a refresh might be needed to sync all instances after making changes in preset browser
* Copy & paste via shortcuts not working in some hosts (mainly on Mac)
* In a few hosts, a "send all keys to plugin" option needs to be used
* Mac only - 32bit VST2 will open floating window for text search field (legacy code, will probably stay...)
* Win only - Sonar hangs when using Tab key in text search field
* Win only - issue with mouse and text search field in ProTools
* Win only - short flickering while entering strings in text search field

[Jaap]

I just received a mail that notified me that Repro 5 is now released and can the 1.1 version can now be downloaded. Gonna be fun this weekend!

[Guy Rowland]

Yes indeed, I see its the same as Release Candidate 1. It's still on offer til Jan 1st for 99 euros (+applicable taxes) for the combo, rising to $149 next year. IMO it's a helluva bargain.

EDIT - it's actually the same as Release Candidate 2, which I missed.

[Jaap]

Yes I think that if you love synths with even only 1% of your whole being, this should be the 1% you should invest in, specially if you belong to the "Justin Bieber? what kind of food is that?" generation

I didnt download the release candidate and was still messing with the version I got a few weeks ago, but loving the new release. Feels more solid and damn what a great amount of awesome patches are now included!

[heisenberg]

Yes indeed, I see its the same as Release Candidate 1. It's still on offer til Jan 1st for 99 euros (+applicable taxes) for the combo, rising to $149 next year. IMO it's a helluva bargain.

Thanks for the reminder!

[Guy Rowland]

Usually skins bore me, but I thought I'd point out some that someone on KVR has done for Repro 1 and 5. They're very tasteful and a little clearer to my eye, and (yes this is nerdy) the knobs on the 5 now look like the Prophet 5. Nice for freebies, I'll be trying them out over the weekend - http://www.kvraudio.com/forum/viewtopic ... 1&t=474883

[Guy Rowland]

(just an errata - I said this was the same as Release Candidate 1, which is incorrect - there was a Release Candidate 2 which I missed, and this is the same as the actual release.)

(Oh, and installed the skin from Funkybot's Evil Twin and it is quite gorgeous).