REVIEW: Blue II Virtual Synthesizer Plugin by Rob Papen

Rob Papen brings Blue 2, a brand new virtual synthesizer software that comes to complete the first version of BLUE released in 2005. Blue II was first introduced at beginning of this year at NAMM 2014 and features many innovations. Rob Papen and Jon Ayers managed to create a formidable synth that provides more oscillators, modulation options, effects, and filter types than ever.

Featuring six oscillators that can be connected in various ways, together with two analog-style modeled stereo filters with 27 different filter types, 35 effects and tons of processing/modulation options, Blue II offers what Rob Papen himself calls “Crossfusion Synthesis”.

Featuring the XY pad from Papen’s popular instrument: Blade, this can be used for the likes of time-based sound movements and vector pad-style sounds. The interface of Blue II is very nice, clean, and easy to use and brings many innovations such as an Easy Edit page for speedy sound changes and Bank Manager that will allow you to browse through thousands of presets.

Blue 2 is equipped with Pads, Digital and Analog Basses, Arps, Synths, and Leads and can be used in many music styles from Dubstep to Dance, Electro, Trap, and many more. Your creativity will be the only limit.

At a first glance seem to be too many buttons that load the interface, but believe me, each has its role and within minutes you’ll find it very easy to use. The sound of the Blue II offers a huge of amount of sound design flexibility due to the filters included, modulators, and the matrix algorithm used for FM sound design. This combination makes the Blue II to be a great synth for sound design and for a lot of fun.

Available for Mac (OSX 10.6 or higher) and PC (Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows 8) in 32/64-bit VST, AU and AAX formats.

Links: Blue II | Rob Papen Plugins