Effects and virtual instrument plug-in developer Rob Papen Soundware has announced the availability of QUAD, its first Rack Extension synthesizer built for Propellerhead Reason.
The Rack Extension is an expandable, freely routable rack of instruments, effects, and sounds that namesake company founder Rob Papen has pronounced as being “a brilliant concept.”
Continuing, Papen adds: “What we face as a developer is having to have a PC version and a Mac version, and if you run them in your regular host, you can crash your host. That’s a real big battle. People, if they use Reason, learn that things are connected. It’s cross-platform; everything works. It’s a major leap forward for Reason, and productions coming out of Reason will sound totally different. Reason remains Reason, but, now, it’s open.”
Papen was among the first wave of developers take advantage of this open platform, starting by porting over its soft synth Predator as Predator-RE, followed by its SubBoomBass-RE dedicated virtual bass synth, then PR-Verb RE and PR-Distort RE virtual effects, plus PunchBD-RE, a versatile and easy-to-use bass drum synth.
What distinguishes QUAD from its aforementioned RE predecessors is that this time the company has chosen to build a Rack Extension synthesizer from the ground up. “QUAD is still ‘subtractive synthesis’ like you know from Predator and so on, but the oscillator part has some interesting new features that vastly expands the sound options and makes QUAD very different from any other regular ‘subtractive synthesizer’,” Papen says.
QUAD has two oscillators (OSC 1 and OSC 2) at its sonic core, each endowed with a seemingly simple selection of classic waveforms (Sine, Triangle, Saw, White Noise, and Pink Noise), together with a Spread function (adding multiple oscillators with slightly higher and lower pitch to the main oscillators to fatten up the sound), and a Sub oscillator tuned one octave below with two selectable waveforms (Sinus and Square).
Those oscillators can be combined with many cross modulation functions, generating a wide range of harmonics. “This is arranged inside OSC 1, where we also have several interesting modulation types,” Papen explains. “Also, OSC 1 can be shut down for going into the filter, so it can be exclusively used as a modulator for OSC 2.”
These sound sculpting tools are brought to life by the four XY pads on the main screen, giving OSC 1 and OSC 2 their distinctive Phase Distortion and Wave Shaper capabilities — and also giving rise to the QUAD name. Notes Papen: “For each we have several distortion or wave-shaping types. With the XY dials or XY field you can change this dynamic. The very cool thing is that with minimal effort you can quickly create a new sound and preset.”
QUAD comes with wide-ranging Rob Papen-designed presets, and users can also delve deeper courtesy of an extensive Modulation matrix; two effects processors (FX 1/2) that can be automated within the Modulation matrix or via the ‘back panel’-positioned ‘external’ CV; LFO 1/2 and Envelope 1/2 that can be tempo-synced; Amp section for controlling the volume contour; and more.
In addition, QUAD provides 28 filter types via two top-notch analog-modeled filters (Filter 1/2) with various routings, as well as an artistically-inspirational arpeggiator (ARP) with several playback modes.
QUAD can be purchased and directly downloaded for €99.00 EUR/$119.00 USD from the Propellerhead Shop here. (Propellerhead operates a try-before-you-buy service for those wishing to test Rack Extensions.)
