Go2-X

Let's get this out of the way first - I want to give this 3.5 stars but I can't do that, so please think of this as a 3.5 star review.

IMPRESSIONS

When I first saw the name "Go2", I didn't do what I was supposed to do and think of "go to synth", I thought of XTC's second album from 1978. Certainly looking at it's gigantic GUI, it doesn't feel anything like a go-to synth, either. That's not to say it isn't a handy addition to my sonic arsenal because it is definitely that. It's the only Rob Papen synth I've used so I can't comment on how it compares but I can tell you that it is very capable and seems particularly good for doing the harder, nastier sounds that I always look for. It is easy to take existing presets and turn them to your will or to start from scratch and make something useful quickly and painlessly. After going through the presets and tweaking them as I went, I ended up with a dozen good patches of my own in an hour or two, plus several dozen presets with favourite icons next to them (a handy feature of the preset browser).

I was really happy with all the patches I'd created and I was excited by the possibilities they presented to evolve our sound. In isolation they sounded rich and full but when I started to try and use them in mixes, I found it really hard to get them to sound as big and aggressive as they sounded on their own. In my first few attempts, I ended up using different synths instead of Go2, which was a little deflating.

I still like what Go2 does, though, so I started trying to find other uses for it. I don't think it's filter is great, it reminds me of the original LinPlug Cronox, so it's probably not going to be a great bassline machine. Eventually I discovered a role for it as a filler instrument, adding lots of grit between the bassline and lead parts. They are the kinds of parts you don't really notice until you mute them and realise how much they were adding to the sound. And for that it's great because it has a very different character to the V/As I normally work with, which complements, rather than competes with, the other parts in the song.

Go2's different way of creating sound is also very inspiring, which makes it good as a synth to play around with when you are looking for ideas for a song. Even if it never ended up in a final mix, I reckon it would still be $49 well spent, just for this. (Who can put a price in inspiration?).

DETAILS

There is a bit on a misnomer that it's a single oscillator synth but that's not strictly true, as there are two distinct waveforms which you morph together to create a richer, more complex waveform. You can also cross-modulate them - ring mod and FM are both possible. In practical terms, that makes it far more like a dual-osc synth and it makes sense to approach it as such. There is also a sub-osc so there is plenty to work with.

The oscillator works hand-in-hand with an X-Y pad, overlaid over the waveform "monitor", which you can record/animate to create big, moving sounds by controlling the morph of the two waveforms. Other parameters can also be assigned to X and Y for even more movement of the sound. This is amply demonstrated in the presets. It's easy to set up and a lot of fun to play with, which is where its inspirational aspect lies.

Beyond the distinctive oscillator, the rest of the synth is familiar and fairly standard. As I mentioned above, I don't think much of the filter but there is a nice distortion you can add at the Amp stage that makes the best of what's there. You get an LFO and three ADSR Envelopes. I like being able to choose between a graphical representation of the envelope and the more traditional knobs (my preference). There is a small mod matrix, a big arp/sequencer and four handy, decent quality effects available to further shape your sounds. Play modes include the usual poly, mono and unison (two or four voices) modes but add a good number of commonly used chords for one finger chord playing. It covers pretty much all the bases, I doubt anyone would feel like they needed more from it, as you can cover for the single LFO with the X-Y pad if you need to.

SUMMARY

Go2 is a good, solid synth with a distinctive character that is well suited to the harder style of music we make but also capable of doing a lot of other things well. It's easy to use, light enough on CPU and cheap for what it has to offer. It will never be my go-to synth, the GUI is way too big to use comfortably, but it's definitely worth having in your arsenal. Remember, it's 3.5 stars.

This is really what the name suggests a goto synth. When I have an idea of a sound I can create it in no time after loading go2 and it just sounds great. It can as far as I have experienced do almost everything.

The presets are fantastic and really shows off it's capabilities but I hardly ever use them as the design invites tweaking your own sounds, it's dead easy and fast from scratch. Since I bought it it's almost the only instrument I use.

I read some reviews that just compelled me to try out the demo and I was just sold, this is very close to my own idea of the perfect software synth. The price is fantastic, depending on where you are in the world you could even beat the MSRP. My best buy so far this year, I just love it! Go try it for yourself I don't think you'll regret it.

Of course Rob Papen realised it was too much of a bargain, added an X to the name, a few minor changes and charges you again.