For some reason I never came across Rob papen synths until recently. I’ve been looking for that 90s digital synth style for a while and I chanced on Vecto which is really impressive.
I’ve heard mixed things about them. Obviously the GUI is pretty old school, but the actual sounds are pretty excellent. For presets, they’re high quality because I mean this is the guy who made the sounds for the Access Virus.
The highest praise I’ve heard is that it’s basically like Omnisphere but more slept on. On the other hand I’ve heard frustrations that the synths involve some odd tech where the AUs are wrapped in a VST (not sure how that’s even a thing mind you?!)
I guess what I found interesting was how little chat there is about them…
Anyone use them round these parts? Thoughts on long term use and compared to other big hitters like Korg, Omnisphere etc?
Yeah i have a few (blade, predator, go2). They sound quite good, can be a tad fiddly or strange to program at times, and i don’t much use them. BUT, i think that’s mostly because when i got them i wasn’t very savvy with sound design yet, and they don’t receive as much hype as other plugins and thus aren’t very focused on by soundbank designers, so shopping around for sounds to use was much easier with other plugins
Punch is a decent sounding drum machine with lots of options and built in sequencer, but the GUI looks like it’s from the 90s. I’d prefer to use it over Microtonic if it was modernised
I have Vecto as well. It can make some very interesting sounds. And I agree, it sounds very good. Outside of Kult, I’d struggle to make comparable sounds in other instruments like in Vecto. Might be my skill, but from what I understand of the synthesis process probably not. The GUI is a little clunky, though in the landscape of VSTs it’s not that horrible. I might pick up Blade one day.
You definitely don’t hear much on them. Maybe because their marketing is pretty low and Access Virus is more or less “vintage” synthesizers at this point?
A comparison to Omnisphere I agree is missing the mark. Omnisphere is way more deep and broad. There’s very little out there like it.
oh wow last time I’ve used Rob Papen Albino 3 was around 2003-2005, can’t remember much of it but I remember always favoring the DiscoDSP Discovery over it for most things, I do remember nice pads but definitely out of Omnisphere territory, but then again, maybe I just can’t remember clearly as it was loooong time ago.
wouldn’t pay (wipes eyes) $100 for it that’s for sure.
Pretty unianimous comments folks, interesting & thanks for chiming in…
Yep, that’s fair, the Vecto one (which sounds nice) is somewhat saved by the fact it’s NKS compatible, and therefore quite easy to use, without having to play with the interface. For presets though, it’s pretty sweet. I believe some of the stuff was designed for Reason
Yeah, I’m not sure re: Omni as I don’t have it. Maybe some Redditors got a bit over excited!
To be fair to Peter at Dawesome, his GUIs are great. They’re amazing to look at, and they lead to interesting results even if you’re not big into sound design, which I feel is the biggest compliment, since it encourages that play. Interesting that Vecto & Kult have some similarities!
Yeah one thing I also spotted is right now they have some mad prices. If you have one plugin there are (admittedly limited) offers to buy the full bundle for around $130.
meh, that’s still quite expensive for bunch of old plugins that I’m not sure if support silicon macs, I’d hard pass unless I was into making something with old software specifically
UI is it’s biggest fault, however I’ve used the Sub bass, and Predator a few times and really liked the sounds I was able to get. If you can get every VST they offer for that price I’d say that’s a fair deal, as long as the UI doesn’t bug you too much. I also think that Papen’s plug-ins cater to some specific styles of music, which is evident by the presets that are included. However, with all things, you can make sounds for any style you want. They’re very capable engines. I think if the UI was given a little bit of a makeover, they’d be a little bit more popular. One alternative I’d recommend is Reaktor. There are 1000’s of free, user created ensembles (instruments, sample players, etc.), that are really awesome and sound great. Sometimes the UI can be a little confusing for some of the more esoteric devices, but with some knob twiddling, you’ll soon figure out what’s going on. If I had to choose just one VST to keep, Reaktor and my library of ensembles would be it. It wears many hats, and can do so very well.
Sometimes Reddit can offer some good insight, and other times it’s a bunch of people talking g out their ass. Comparing Omnisphere (one of the most powerful and lush sounding VSTs available) to Papen plugs is one of those moments. They obviously never used it before, and if they did, not for very long, or perhaps just use the presets.
Rob Papen makes decent plugins. The brand was more popular well over a decade ago, but the quality of products is still there. Since Rob Papen was known as a sound designer, his synths come with lots of possibilities to leverage new patches.
I have the eXplorer-9 bundle, which is a great value for the price. None of Rob Papen products are my first go-to options at this time unlike the past. SubBoomBass 2, Blue 3, and Predator 3 continue to be my favorites and the most often used.
I bought Albino 3 a few weeks ago because I had the original one in the early 2000s and I loved it. Especially the arpeggiator is a lot of fun. It does sound really 90s but in a good way. Barely use it in my music nowadays but I am glad they updated it to Apple Silicon.
Edit: And Rob made a lot of presets for the Virus I believe… and they are the best on that synth.
had his dedicated super low end bass thing and his guitar thing in use, before i started my hw only decade…
back then, those guis were already oldschool, even if i did not saw it that way…
just a few days back, i stumbled over a stem collection of an old unfinished song, where bassline and git lick spended the most prominent parts made with that papen stuff…
whatsoever…by no means, i would ever see me in need for any of his stuff again, i’m afraid…
Years ago when Reason was the only music software I used, Predator was the first Rack Extension I ever bought. I never really got into programming it, but I always loved the sound of it, and there are presets I will still load up a Reason Rack Plugin instance just to have access to.
I still remember, and feel, the controversy over the original Albino 3. I really liked that VST and when Papen announced it would no longer be supported because the development and maintenance contract with the software developer had expired it was a jolt to the KVR community. It quickly became evident that Rob Papen (at the time) was contracting his synths to various developers instead of doing them himself. A worry that any of his synths could expire at any time, along with the seemingly strict copy write protection pushed a lot of customers away. I had four of his VST’s at the time and I chose to move on and leave them behind. With customer friendly developers like U-He and GForce, why bother.
I have not looked at his stuff in years. Maybe things have changed by now. I hear it is now using in house programmers instead of contracting out for synth development.
Agreed. Papen is still around for a reason but I’d definitely look at Uhe or GForce first. Cherry Audio, while maybe more vintage, are good and you’re not wrong about some of Korg’s offerings to be nice updates to some of the similar sounds of the Aughts with nice QOL updates.
This is the truth. Perhaps they’d had a few drinks when putting that idea forward!