Rob Papen Blue-II Upgrade from Blue

A Sound-designer's Wonderland!

NOTE: This is an opportunity for registered users of Blue to upgrade to the latest version, Blue-II for a special reduced price.

Related Videos: Blue-II Upgrade from Blue

Loaded with six extremely flexible oscillators, dozens of waveforms, 27 filters types, 35 effects, and a staggering degree of modulation capabilities, Rob Papen's Blue-II is a virtual instrument that will thrill even the most jaded synth nut. At Sweetwater, we've seen everything from simple sample players to virtual instruments that are so powerful and complex that they require college-level courses to understand properly, but few strike as elegant a balance between ease of use and sophistication as Rob Papen Blue-II. Its "crossfusion" approach to FM and subtractive synthesis allows you to approach sound design from several different angles, and the powerful onboard X-Y matrix makes manipulating multiple parameters at once fun and intuitive. There's a lot to explore in Rob Papen's Blue-II, but we hope this overview gets you as excited about this monster synth as we are.

• Six freakishly flexible oscillators let you stack up super-fat tones
• Massive modulation capabilities add motion to your sound
• X-Y matrix opens the door for creative real-time sound shaping

To begin with, Blue II offers you six identical oscillator sections which are capable of interacting in a number of extraordinary ways. Each oscillation source offers you a broad choice of waveforms ranging from simple analog shapes to complex samples such as strings, choirs, percussion sounds, and more. In addition to tuning and volume controls, each oscillator also includes a suboscillator, shape controls, pulse width modulation settings, and even analog-style spread and drift. This alone give you an impressive range of tonal possibilities, but where Rob Papen really hit it out of the park is how you can use these oscillators to modulate one another.

First and foremost are Blue II's FM synthesis capabilities, which allow you to use any oscillator or combination of oscillators to modulate the frequency (i.e., FM) any other oscillator. There's a whole matrix (the Alg section) dedicated to this interaction, which lets you set up insanely complex sounds - and that's just one of the modulation settings! Next are the many envelopes you can use to control the expression of each oscillator plus both filters and the volume. In addition to a highly flexible arpeggiator, Rob Papen also outfitted Blue II with an extremely cool step sequencer that lets you assign tuning, velocity, filter amounts, and even each oscillator's waveform for each step. How cool is that? And as if that weren't enough, you also get a LFOs, an assignable multi-envelope, a modulation sequencer, and more.

The single thing that puts the Blue II virtual instrument synthesizer totally over the top is its X-Y matrix. Borrowed from Rob Papen's Blade additive synthesizer, Blue II's X-Y matrix lets you assign up to 16 parameters (plus oscillator and effects mixes) to coordinates on an X-Y field. You can drag a point around this field to blend these parameters, or assign the coordinates to your MIDI controller. What's more, there are tons of ways to automate and quantize this motion, essentially adding another kind of step sequencer to the mix.

• An amazing update to Rob Papen and Jon Ayers's original "crossfusion" synthesis virtual instrument
• A combination of 6 complex oscillators, FX synthesis, and subtractive synthesis provide a world of sonic possibilities
• A rich palette of oscillator waveform span the gamut from basic analog shapes to string and choir samples
• Two analog modeled filters with 27 filter types including ring filtering let you sculpt perfect tones
• Use a multitude of envelopes, step sequencers, LFOs, arpeggiators, and more to create moving and evolving sounds
• Four effects engines with 32 effects types each add even more sonic texture to the mix
• X-Y matrix taken from Rob Papen's Blade additive synthesizer provides even more cool ways to manipulate patches
• Remarkably straightforward user interface makes sound design fun
• Compatible with any AAX, VST, or AU plug-in host