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BLUE
by Rob Papen
?
KVR Rank: 369 214 363 [30-Day: 435; 7-Day: 456; Yesterday: 481]
45 members are watching BLUE for news
Product BLUE
Developer Rob Papen
Primary Type Synth (Hybrid)
Price (MSRP) €199
Plug-in Formats
Instrument(s)VSTAudio UnitRTAS
Operating System Availability
Operating
System
Latest
Version
Download Is it
Available?
Windows 1.8.1 Demo / TrialReleased
Mac OS XMac OS X Universal Binary 1.8.1 Demo / TrialReleased
Miscellaneous Information
Copy Protection Soft-eLicenser
Banks & Patches Download Banks
Average User Rating Average rating - 9.875
Fully Compatible
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BLUE

Features:

  • Six Oscillators modules which include Analogue, Additive and Spectral type waveforms. Osc. A and B offer PWM modulation and symmetry control. Oscillators can be combined in several ways using 32 different modulation routings in the Algorithm screen. Oscillators can have FM modulation or Ring modulation and can be oscillator hard synced. Each oscillator can be output to the filters, the effects or output as dry. Dedicated screens available in the LCD screen section for Algorithm selection, Phase distortion / Wave shaping settings and Oscillator Envelopes.
  • Two analogue modelled stereo Multimode filters, offering 6dB LowPass/HighPass, 12dB and 24dB LowPass/HighPass/BandPass/Notch, Ring, Comb and Vox (formant). Filters with panning, panning modulation options and pre-filtering distortion. Easy filter control by pre-defined modulation controllers like Envelope, Velocity, Keytrack and Modulation Wheel.
  • Nine Envelopes, AHDSFR type. Direct connection to the Oscillators volume, Filters frequency and main Volume amp to make sound editing fast and easy. Graphic and fader-control of Envelopes in one go. Dynamic curves and MIDI tempo based features like delay and envelope retrigger.
  • Four Multi-Envelopes, These free highly sophisticated envelopes can be built up using up to 32 sections. Full graphic control and additional menus with presets, load and save functions. Dynamic curves and MIDI tempo based functions.
  • Ten LFOs with various waveforms and are MIDI-syncable. Directly connected to main targets to make sound editing easy and fast. Directly connected LFO's for PWM A/B, Filter Frequency A/B, Tremolo (amp), Vibrato (main pitch) and Three Free LFOs. LFO have adjustable, free/poly/mono modes, keytracking, symmetry, smoothing, attack, decay and humanize functions.
  • Three modulation Step-sequencers with sequence loop start/end, poly/mono/free play modes, speed controls and step smooth function. Copy/paste/clear functions.
  • Modulation Matrix with 2 pages of 10 slots. 12 synth sources & 23 MIDI sources and 103 synth destinations.
  • 32 step mono sequencer, with sequencer length, speed adjust, slide amount, swing amount, volume smoothing. Each step has On/off, Reset, -32/+32 Semitune, Volume, Slide on/off, Filter A, Filter B and Free modulation settings. Clear, load and save functions to exchange sequences in between presets.
  • Poly/Mono/Legato/Seq synthesizer play modes. Portamento featuring legato, switch-able constant time/constant rate. Mono unison mode.
  • Adjustable Precision setting per oscillator to simulate the instability of vintage analogue synthesizers.
  • 16-voice polyphony. Voice amount control.
  • Global settings save with each individual preset like: keyboard velocity response curve, over-sampling settings and filter control smoothing.
  • Easy Edit page for fast new sound results or for easy access tempo changes.
  • External controller hardware (fader-box or synth) settings can be saved and restored.
  • Two effects-blocks with serial and parallel mode. Nine stereo effects available including Mono Delay, Stereo Delay, Chorus, Flanger, Phaser, Distortion, Low Fi, Stereo Widener and Reverb. MIDI tempo based settings in Delays, Phaser and Flanger.
  • Equalizer for total overall sound.
  • Sound banks of 32 presets inside built in browser. Preset handling with copy, paste, clear and compare function. Preset banks are sorted into style-maps for easy search.
  • All settings included the global settings are stored inside each individual preset.
  • Presets in clear categories by Rob Papen.
  • Arpeggiator: 32 step arpeggiator, with sequencer, seq length, speed adjust, slide amount, swing amount and step length control. Each step has On/off, Slide on/off, Reset, -32/+32 Semitone, Step length, Velocity, and Free modulation. Clear, load and save functions to exchange arpeggiators in between presets.

RSS FeedAll KVR Audio news items relating to BLUE.

Sonic Elements releases Sapphire II for BLUE 16th September 2009
Time+Space announces the Rob Papen Power Tools Collection 9th July 2009
Time+Space announces Special Offers for July 2nd July 2009
Le Lotus Bleu releases Avant-Garde FX for Vanguard and Protobank for Blue 30th June 2009
LinPlug updates SaxLab to v2.0.3 and RM V to v5.0.3 (and announces Holiday Specials) 2nd December 2008
Nucleus SoundLab releases Sapphire for Rob Papen's BLUE 23rd October 2008
Rob Papen updates Blue to v1.8.1, Predator to v1.5.1 and RG to v1.0.1. 2nd October 2008
Arksun-Sound releases Blue Soundbank 20th August 2008
Rob Papen updates Predator to v1.5 and Blue to v1.8 19th August 2008
Rob Papen's Predator and BLUE for Receptor updated 28th July 2008
Time+Space launches competition to win Rob Papen's RG (+Albino, Blue and Predator too) 4th April 2008
Time+Space announces Special Offers for April 2nd April 2008
Rob Papen / RPCX updates BLUE to v1.7 17th December 2007
Rob Papen Albino 3, BLUE and Predator all now available for Receptor 27th July 2007
Equinox Sounds releases Book Of Sequences Pro Chapters 1-2-3-4-5 for Rob Papen's BLUE 15th March 2007
Rob Papen updates BLUE to v1.6.3 & releases 3rd party soundset 28th November 2006
Rob Papen releases BLUE v1.6 27th September 2006
Rob Papen releases BLUE v1.5 28th March 2006
Rob Papen updates BLUE to v1.1.1 1st December 2005
Rob Papen releases BLUE v1.1 25th October 2005
Rob Papen releases Blue demo version 26th August 2005
Rob Papen releases BLUE 24th August 2005

User Reviews by KVR Members for BLUE.

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By Feng
On 9th July 2007
Version: 1.6.3

Read all reviews by
Feng


2 of 3 people found
this review helpful.

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helpful to you?
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  GUI
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Blue is an extremely versatile beast. It is able to produce an enormous sonic palette, and it's comfortable with all kind of sounds. Its main strength, in my opinion, is the extreme flexibility, due to infinite modulation possibilities, very flexible routing, the number of oscillators (six) and the waveforms to choose from (hundreds).
USER INTERFACE: Clear, logical, one can spend a lot of time programming without having eye stress.

SOUND: As I said, Blue can cover any sonic world with professional result.

FEATURES: That's where this synth really stands out. It has six oscillators that can be configured in a lot of ways. They can modulate each other with FM or sync(with various configurations possible), their output can be mixed as a normal analogue synth and any in between configuration is possible.There's also the possibility of waveshaping on any oscillator. Then the real strength is the modulation matrix, where you can almost freely set the modulator and the modulated parameter. There are step sequencers, multi point envelope, many lfos. Two filters are included. You can choose freely the routing. For example you can set two oscillators on filter A and other four on filter b. These filters are really responsive and sound good. An extensive effects section, with really good FX completes the picture. A fully customizable arpeggiator is included.

DOCUMENTATION: Although the synth interface is really clear, its enormous possibilities makes you want to have a look at the documentation which is clear and well written.

PRESETS: THey are from Rob Papen. Wonderful!

CUSTOMER SUPPORT: Incredible, Rob and Jon are making a perfect work. Any request is answered really soon.I had all my questions answered tipically within a few hours from posting them .

VALUE FOR MONEY: For 200 $ you have a powerful, wonderful synth. So again I have to give it the maximum.

STABILITY: Never had problems.

One more thing I want to underline is that BLUE has been considered a CPU hog. Obviously it depends on the complexity of the patch, but I find it in line with most of the modern beasts. WIth my athlon FX 4800 most of the patches take around 10% CPU. So it's not light on CPU, but it's definitely not a CPU HOG! What's more, you can reduce CPU by reducing oversampling!
 
Last edited by Feng on 9th July 2007    Report

By Xiritam
On 7th July 2007
Version: 1.6.3

Read all reviews by
Xiritam


3 of 5 people found
this review helpful.

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helpful to you?
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Kind of surprised that nobody reviewed this synth.
BLUE is a very very nice synth, it got nice filters, Sound is clear and clean and it became one of my go to synth if i want lush pads, warm squelchy basses and phat leads ( it really got a lot of good sounding pads basses and leads).
Its well worth the price, just like any other synths from Rob Papen and i recommend that you get this one.
One other thing i love about this synth is its interface.
Blue and White is a very good combination, makes you feel comfortable when you look at it.
About the sound engine, it got 6 OSC with tons of waveforms.
Filters are very nice sounding, having 13 types of filtering including VOX (love it),from 6 to 24db lowpass highpass bandpass notch, ring and comb.
This synth has a lot more features like the Step seq, Arp, FXs, Multi-Envelopes, fm routing, You just cant go wrong with this synth.

--------------------------------------------

User interface - Very cool and clean interface, everything is organized, very userfriendly.Love the colors.

Sound - Breath taking Excellent professional Sound.

Features - A lot features. See above.

Documentation - it has manual anyways you might not need it.
This synth is very easy to use.

Presets - So many good sound presets. It got a lot of banks with tons of presets.

Customer Support - i dont know never had problems with it so i never had the need to ask for their help :p

Value for Money - Very worth it.

Stability - It never crashed my pc and it is very cpu Friendly. A bass presets takes about 2 % cpu load and pads 8 % ( using an amd athlon 3200+ single core cpu )
 
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Products by Rob Papen

Product: Albino
Developer: Rob Papen
Type: Synth (Hybrid)
Price: €199 / $239
OS: WindowsMac OS XUniversal Binary
Formats: VSTAudio UnitRTAS
Key features: Sound Presets consist of 4 separate Layers for rich, complex sound synthesis. 32 note polyphonic (CPU dependent). Unlimited sound programs, Sound Browser. +2100 Rob Papen presets and more. 4 oscillators per Layer, 4 types. Oscillator modules include Analog-type, Digital-type, Noise-type and Audio Input-type. FM modulation and AM modulation. Oscillator Sync in Analog Oscillator 2 and 4. Stereo Filters, 4 types. Filter modules include Silk-type, Cream-type, Scream-type and Comb-type. 3 multimode filters (Silk, Cream and Scream), each with a different basic design thus producing di... [more]

 
Product: BLUE
Developer: Rob Papen
Type: Synth (Hybrid)
Price: €199
OS: WindowsMac OS XUniversal Binary
Formats: VSTAudio UnitRTAS
Features: Six Oscillators modules which include Analogue, Additive and Spectral type waveforms. Osc. A and B offer PWM modulation and symmetry control. Oscillators can be combined in several ways using 32 different modulation routings in the Algorithm screen. Oscillators can have FM modulation or Ring modulation and can be oscillator hard synced. Each oscillator can be output to the filters, the effects or output as dry. Dedicated screens available in the LCD screen section for Algorithm selection, Phase distortion / Wave shaping settings and Oscillator Envelopes.Two analogue modelled stereo M... [more]

 
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Predator includes powerful features such as Preset Morphing, Intelligent Preset Variation, MIDI and Synth Controllable FX, Unison Detune, Chord Memory and a versatile Arpeggiator. Preset banks include: Hip Hop (NY, Club, DirtySouth and Gfunk), Jump, hardcore, breakbeat, various trance styles, DnB banks and more... It also includes PredatorFX, allowing you to use the filters, modulations, effects and vocoder as an FX plug-in within your music host.Features: Oscillators section: 3 Oscillators with 128 waves included Analogue, Additive and Spectral type of waveforms plus pink & white noise ... [more]

 
Product: RG
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Type: Guitar
Price: €149 / $179 / £99
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RG is an innovative software instrument that allows the user to create not just classic rhythm guitar grooves, but also exciting new grooves and sounds which a real guitar could never produce. RG uses a keyboard layout of "major-" and "minor" chords to play the grooves, each with two sequence pattern (A or B) options. Just hit a single note in the major or minor keyboard range and the groove plays. The sound sets are clean sampled guitars, which gives you great freedom and flexibility when using the synthesizer features and effects of RG. Guitar types included are the class... [more]

 
Product: RP-Verb
Developer: Rob Papen
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RP-Verb is an algorithmic, musical, reverb that aims to bring dimension and fullness to your mixes. It has a straightforward, intuitive interface that puts all the most essential parameters right at your fingertips and offers presets that range from intimate venues to abstract, surreal spaces. Main section: Dry / wet control with FX bypass button. HQ Mode on/off. ECS (external controller setup). ? brings up the 'Quick Manual'. Preset section: Uses sound banks composed of 128 presets. Preset handling with copy, paste, clear and compare function. 'Quick Browser', 'Recently Browsed' and 'Favor... [more]

 
Product: SubBoomBass
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Type: Synth (Hybrid)
Price: $119 / €99 / £89
OS: Windowsx64Mac OS XUniversal Binary
Formats: VSTAudio UnitRTAS
SubBoomBass is a dedicated bass synth with presets designed by Rob Papen (and other guest artists) that will supply you with "huge cone-rattling sounds". Based on the Predator engine, SubBoomBass has been carefully crafted to provide you with the tools to create fresh new bass lines for any musical style. Rob Papen displays his innovative style by combining the 'phat' sounding synth engine with tuned drum percussion samples and rare samples. It is great for Hip Hop and RnB but can also be used for Dubstep, Drum and Bass, Garage, Grime and much more. Other features include a groove se... [more]

 
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