u-he Repro
€149
In 1978, a small synth company from California set the music world on its ears with the Sequential Circuits Prophet-5, a gorgeous-sounding polyphonic synthesizer that just happened to have patch memory. It was an instant hit, and Sequential soon followed it with the Pro-One, a monophonic version of the Prophet-5. Both synths are bonafide classics, and both synths have now been replicated in software form by u-he and sold as a bundle called Repro.
Repro-5 may not immediately wow with its options—it’s a recreation of a 1970s synth, after all—but close your eyes and just listen to that sound. It’s bright and punchy and full of confidence, with its keys and brass sounds particularly ear-tickling. Like the hardware it just begs to be played.
While the Repro-5 will satisfy your melody needs, the Repro-1 is all about that bass. Though it may be monophonic, its two oscillators ensure it has a lot of harmonic character. Like its older brother, it’s also a fairly simple affair in terms of architecture, but it really does sound phenomenal. Perfect for bass music, techno, or really any genre with a focus on the low-end.
With two synths for the price of one, you get a lot for the money. And with a selection of great-sounding effects plus useful under-the-hood tweaks, it’s surprising you don’t already own this. These synths are not easy on the CPU, however. Thankfully, both have non-high quality modes to help ease the strain, as well as a multicore mode for the 5, and “sleepy” mode for the 1 so the machine doesn’t tax your computer when idle.