Rob Papen Predator Reviews

4.9/5.0 based on 13 customer reviews

Sweetwater Advice

Carson McClain

Trance, industrial, EBM, synth-pop, hardstyle, this plug-in is one of the best sounding synths for any of those genres. The immensely long list of features can not begin to describe the sound of this earth-shattering synth. Download the demo, drop it in the mix, and you will be hooked.

Austin Moss

Come for the aggression. Stay for the vocoder. Predator is my favorite soft synth from the legendary Rob Papen.

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Customer Reviews

Michael A Almadova
from Austin
June 28, 2012Music Background:
Audio engineer

Killer Sub Bass

The synth is very powerful and allows you to obtain some really hard solid bass. Using this with a blend of real bass gives you a strong backbone to your songs.

Jon Remy
from Dallas, TX
February 3, 2012Music Background:
Certified Audio Engineer, Music Producer, Composer/Artist

Great softsynth!

ALL the sounds I was looking for! The "Ambient" and "SFX" are stellar.

Adam
from Montreal, Canada
January 14, 2011Music Background:
Amateur Producer

I love Predator

This is probably my favourite synth so far. 20 minutes after starting the demo for the first time, I bought it - simply browsing through the presets convinced me. I love synths that I find intuitive and easy to use, and Predator is still king in that department. If you know the basics of subtractive synthesis, you will probably understand it immediately. It does just about everything I would ever need a synth to do, and it sounds terrific - the sound engine is very clean and "unbiased", IMO. The built-in FX are to die for. MIDI control works beautifully. It's maybe not the synth with the most modulation options in the world, but it still gives you an enormous amount of flexibility. Rob Papen and Jon Ayres (the programmer) own my soul from now on.

from
November 18, 2010

Go To Synth

It's taken me awhile to embrace a softsynth like I have the Predator. Analog feel software advantages. Great for Modern dance music of any genre. This IS where it's at!

Josh Gilligan
from Ocala, Florida
June 19, 2010Music Background:
Electronic Musician

MAMMOTH SYNTH!!!

This synth is capable of so much, and I've only just dug into its feature set. Powerful effects, intuitive interface, and brilliantly huge presets! After purchasing Rob Papen Predator, I used it for four hours straight. It is so inspirational. In addition to helping create new ideas, Predator does wonders for songs that you've already composed. I went back in on a song I was a working on and changed my DAW's included synths out for a few of the Predator presets. Wow. Breathe life into your productions and, purchase Rob Papen Predator.

William A. Mcknight
from Nashville, TN
May 27, 2010Music Background:
Producer, Mix Engineer

HipHop Producers get it

I have so many VST's from free ones to high priced ones to low priced ones, but when I wanna sell a beat quick and get some money I turn to my Rob Papen Synths from the predator with its hip hop presets to the SubBoom and its immediatley usable sub or bass presets I never miss. So if you are doing dirty south beats and you need a synth that will allow you to get it done quick with out having to do alot of tweaks these plugins are what you need. At the price point they are at they are definitely a bang for your buck.

The one negative for me is that they are elicenser plugs which I dont particularly care for but so is my arturia plugs and I use them alot to, so I guess I can live with it. But do yourself a favor and buy a steinberg key it is the only way to move your licenses between various workstations like I do(there goes another USB slot).

Phil
from Oregon
May 23, 2009Music Background:
Old Musician

Very Impressive Sound

I'm surprised this synth doesn't make more lists, as it's one of the most potent, and awesome sounding soft synths out there. It has great analog sound, but doesn't sound overly thick, or hokey. Just great, great presets, and a fairly intuitive GUI.

Arturia and NI get a lot of talk, and they make great machines, but along with the U-He Zebra, Rob's Predator (Albino and Blue), make for awesome quality additions of the highest quality to any set-up.

Brad Bowden
from nashville, tn
September 26, 2008Music Background:
Recording Engineer, Live Sound Engineer, Pro Musician, Hobbyist, Student, etc

EPIC SYNTH FROM LEGENDARY DUTCH SOUND DESIGNER!!!!

hands down the best soft synth on the market!!! clean,detailed,vintage,modern,fat,wide!!!+++many features only found in this synth.
super deep,extremely simple,thousands of presets,killer filters/vocoders for audio.
this synth sits amazing in a mix. ive used it for dnb, hip-hop, ambient,rock, and gospel records. in a week i used it in 2 commercials and most recently, in a theme song for an upcoming reality show airing this fall on mtv/cmt. it goes wherever i need it!! btw, i no longer use 80% of my other soft synths.

Chris
from Ohio
November 30, 2007Music Background:
Guitarist, Hobbyist DnB Production.

SICKNESS!!!

The title says it all, this thing is SICK! While Native Instruments makes some pretty amazing synths, the only problem I have with them is there are a lot of cheesy presets. Predator is simple to make synths with, whether you want a mellow, deep bass, or a beautiful pad, all the way to tweaked arp basslines and nasty effects. The filters are top notch as well, I have yet to find a synth that has such great filters. If you're into DnB and haven't heard of predator, download the demo, and you'll be back here quickly. This thing is a must, and I doubt I'm stretching the truth at all by saying this is one synth that you could use EXCLUSIVELY if you know how to program your own, even just a little bit. GET IT!

Rich Fabrizio
from NY,NY
May 8, 2007Music Background:
Musician/Recording engineer

Super silky 3 osc synth!

I have been impressed by many of the recent software instruments on the market but the Predator takes the prize. The sound, ease of use and price point are amazing. The 128 oscillator waveforms are brilliant for shaping your own unique sound or tweaking a preset to give it your own touch. Top it off with the three multi FX, killer multimode filter with overdrive and a programable arpegiator and you have the most affordable powerfull synth in recent yeras. Oh yeah, try instantiating three or four of them in your session for synth bass, lead and a mysterious swirling pad.

Tommy Zai
from Phoenix, AZ USA
December 11, 2012Music Background:
Electronic musician, producer, and educator since 1985

KILLER SYNTH!

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!

Robert Solheim
from Averøy, Norway
March 14, 2012Music Background:
Composer/Producer/Dj

Stunning!

It's Rob Papen quality, no need to say more. Goes in to the collection of my favorites.

Derek
from San Francisco Bay Area, USA
December 10, 2010Music Background:
Hobbyist

Powerful, Fat, Aggressive, Ominous

The Predator synth is incredible. It is perfect for progressive styles of music with strong leads, sweeps, bass and rhythmic patterns. Predator is a lot of fun to tweak. It comes in both 32 and 64-bit versions, and both single and multi-core. The drawback is there have been installation problems with the multi-core support, and often many Predator owners end up falling back on single CPU versions. That said, if the DAW is multithreaded the synth runs very happily. I've used this with Ableton Live! (32 bit) and Cubase 5 64-bit. It is definitely a synth I keep at front of my arsenal.