Rob Papen

No issues. Easy to install. Easy to use. SUITABILITY/PERFORMANCE Runs smoothly. Good CPU performance. OVERALL OPINION Predator by Rob Papen is an amazingly simple, yet powerfully deep synth. The interface is well organized; knobs and controls are accessible and easy to use. Creating sounds from scratch is fun and rewarding, and for those who are less adventurous, the synth comes with a vast array of presets from the master himself, Rob Papen. One of the most enjoyable features are the randomize buttons, which allow the user to generate new sounds without much effort. This vicious beast has 128 waveforms, not just saw, square, sine, and triangle. There are also many ways to modulate and tons of high quality effects Predator suits any kind of electronic music, and can produce many kinds of sounds — cutting leads, meaty basses, soothing pads, atmospherics, rhythmic soundscapes, etc., but where it really shines is with leads and arpeggios. For this reason, Predator is an electronic dance music producer's dream synth. Tracks created with this synth usually sit well in the mix, standing out just enough, but not getting lost and buried. Grrrrr, a gentle roar. The only area whereby I would suggest improvement is the patch browser it could be more intuitive. Otherwise, it's all there and is an extremely stable plugin. It has never crashed on me, launching smoothly and performing well in Logic, Studio One, and Numerology. Considering the depth of the sound, CPU demand is not bad, and the sound quality of the most recent version is fantastic, without any noticeable aliasing. Customer/User support is excellent. Rob and Jon are active on the threads and respond to emails within a day or two. They are great people creating great plugins — a pleasure to deal with! I highly recommend Predator to any electronic musician or producer looking to add a powerful, killer VSTi to their plugin collection. This synth cannot do it all, but what it can do — it does REALLY well. It's a wonderful soft synth that successfully combines the sonic nuances of analog and digital to deliver a punchy modern sound that you may quickly become addicted and never be able to live without. That's what happened to me! I've been going to counseling and a recovery program for nearly a year, and it hasn't helped. I keep launching every chance I get! Thank you, RPCX, for creating such a ferociously addictive synth. Tommy Zai gives Predator three thumbs up. Love it! BTW, if you search online you will find many threads on electronic music forums comparing synths, i.e. this synth versus that synth. Don't be surprised if Predator is mentioned a lot!

Blue by Rob Papen is another installment from Rob Papen and it is classic. There is no way that you wouldn’t like this vst plug in, there just so many different sounds and patches to choose from and use its really amazing. All of the sounds are pretty well made, and nice and thick. Not those thin weak synths that most vst’s come with now a days. SUITABILITY/PERFORMANCE Installing this took a little longer than I expected from using other Rob Papen plug ins. The other ones that I have used didn’t take that long at all to install, but maybe this one took longer because it’s a much bigger vst with a heck of a lot more patches to load into your computer. I did run into some small issues trying to figure some things out with Blue. But I have downloaded a copy of the digital manual when I purchased the software. The price is pretty high though, so don’t expect to get it for cheap. You can still purchase Rob Papen Blue now and its years after it has come out, I really don’t even think they have done any upgrades or edits to it. Or atleast I never got an email from them saying so , so I guess the first time they put it out it worked great. OVERALL OPINION The patches are definitely the best thing about this software, also the in program effects. There arent a lot of effects or any effects that will really blow your mind but they will go great with some of the sounds that Blue has. I have been using blue for about 4 years now and still continue to use it off and on depending on what style of song I am producing. I am so happy that I purchased this when it first came out. You will have no issues installing it on your system and you will love the workflow of it. It is a must have for any computer musician.

I have not had any compatibility issues running this plugin in Logic 9 and Abelton 8 with my Macbook and Presonus firepod/firebox. In all honesty, I have had trouble with the manuals when I go back to read them. It seems like they are either written by a child or written in another language then translated...poorly. I guess I am picky but when verbs are conjugated improperly and sentences lack real structure, I find myself lost. So no, its not very clear due to that. I can find an answer here and there if I look, but for the most part, it follows standard synth configuration. Its just a matter of getting use to the interface and learning how to use the step sequencer. Yes, the typical functions are all right in front of you, again, you just have to get used to the interface. SUITABILITY/PERFORMANCE It has seemed to perform perfectly so far. Midi goes in, sound comes out and all the options work without a hitch. The software appears to be completely stable, no crashes and no presets ever lost. Like all of Rob Papen's synths, this thing sounds awesome. The plugins are heralded for there wonderful, analog sounding patches. Most if not all of the Presets will get you pretty close to an awesome sound, especially when you get confident with the layout. I have been using this plugin for about 6 months. OVERALL OPINION What I like most about this synth is the step sequencer being right in the main interface. I have seen some plugins where you have to flip back and forth between the actual synth controls and the step sequencer. That can get old quick and hinder creativity, so good job Rob. There isn't anything I don't like about this synth. Good sounds, easy controls and simple step sequencer. The sound is amazing, as you would expect from Rob Papen. Ableton offers some step sequencers that come in handy as well as Native instruments FM8's sequencer. They all do their jobs well enough. Yes, I would buy this again. Rob Papen stuff is always worth the money.

Rob Papen’s SubBoomBass is a VST that has a built in 16 step sequencer and is compatible with both PC’s and Mac’s. the SubBoomBass VST will give your music that much needed low end to fill it out. The interface is very user friendly but can be overwhelming at first due to all the knobs and sliders/parameters that are there for you to mess with and tweak. Also the step sequencer took some time to get the hang of because it was unlike any of the other step sequencers that I was using at the time. It did come with a manual that was easy to understand, and I am glad that it was easy because I had to refer to it several times until I was ready to use SubBoomBass all on my own and fully understand its functions. SUITABILITY/PERFORMANCE Installing it was simple and only took a few minutes. It has never crashed on my Windows XP machine using it with Cubase, Reason, and FL Studio. It has not even made my system slow at all. You can use it simultaneously and it still will not cause any problems as long as you have a Pentium 4 processor or faster on a PC or 1.5GHz or faster on a Mac. You do need to have at least a 10.4 OS on Mac or higher in order for SubBoomBass to work properly. OVERALL OPINION I was looking for an affordable bass VST that can give me different options and the ability to fully edit each Bass sound. I wanted a VST that was made just for Bass purposes and I found this one. It has some really good out of the box presets that you can use right away dry with no effects and be happy with it. But once you dig deep and understand how to work this VST you will have infinite possibilities with your Bass sounds from here on out.