modman

Rob Papen’s RAW is exactly what you’d expect from a synth named RAW.  Edgy, loud, and in your face.  The very first patch you are greeted with upon opening RAW, titled “Agony”, gives you a perfect introduction to the brutal sounds this plug-in can make.  RAW features voice by voice distortion and automatic volume adjustment to keep your distortion in line with a reasonable mix level (which can be toggled on and off).  “'EQ', ‘Waveshaper', 'Distortion' and 'LoFi' have also been added on a voice synthesis level.”  RAW also includes built in FX such as a stereo delay and reverb which won’t make you cringe upon turning on. RAW’s performance is stable and the GUI easy to operate.  Two Oscillators are readily available with basic waveforms but also user generated waveforms using RAW’s waveform editor to create your own shapes and LFOs.  The Arpeggiator/Sequencer is absolutely phenomenal at creating the one note wonders, presets that seem to be a song entirely made from one note.  If you’re familiar with [other Rob Papen synthesizers](https://equipboard.com/brands/rob_papen) this one will be just as easy to pick up. With great power comes great CPU usage.  Voice by voice distortion as you’d imagine can take quite a bit of processing power when many voices are utilized.  It doesn’t mean that one instance of RAW will bring your CPU to it’s knees but your experience may vary based on the specs of your computer.  The distortion can sound a bit “digital” at times but that’s nothing a little EQing and processing can’t fix.   Who is RAW best suited for?  Anyone who needs edgy, distorted, in your face, bass-tastic,  monstrous sounds.  To name a few genres that might benefit, dubstep, drum n’ bass, hardstyle, trap, etc.  That doesn’t mean RAW is limited to this specific sound set but it certainly excels at it.  The price tag is a reasonable $179, which can be purchased and downloaded digitally from Rob Papen’s website.  It runs on both Mac and Windows environments including 32-bit and 64-bit versions.  Almost anyone would benefit from having RAW in their arsenal of production tools.

reFX’s Nexus2 synthesizer is one of the most notable and widely used pieces of software in the production world. The user interface is slick, the sounds are sublime, and the possibilities are so large in number, you would be hard pressed to ever actually use them all in a hundred projects. reFX has clearly done an amazing job with Nexus and has garnered a large amount of success and support from high profile users. I myself use Nexus on a fairly frequent basis. Unfortunately, Nexus has some glaring design flaws that, for me, knock it out of the upper echelon of software synthesizers. When first looking at Nexus, it’s quite appealing. It has a sleek design and focuses your attention clearly on the main window straight in the middle. This window has several tab selections that allow you to flip through the possible parameters and what you’re able to modify within each sound. On either side you can find the ‘Filter Modifier’ and ‘Amp Modifier’ panels that are fairly straightforward and have well labeled knobs. Below all of this is the effects section of Nexus, where you will find the reverb, delay, and filter controls along with the master output knob. Nexus is well organized and easy to grasp, even if it’s your first time using it; all you do is load a preset and go to work. Its ease of use has led to its huge success in the music industry and, coupled with its high quality library, you’d be hard pressed to find a dance music producer that doesn’t have Nexus as part of their arsenal.?? Nexus is more of a comprehensive database of sounds than it is a synthesizer. Nexus comes with a comprehensive native library and a constantly expanding set of preset packs that can be easily loaded into the program. The best part is that all of the sounds are created using the legendary Virus TI2 hardware synthesizer. With that said, Nexus is not the most versatile product when it comes to uniqueness. While it has thousands of handpicked and meticulously created sounds, it gives close to no leeway for creative experimentation. Instead, it seems Nexus was intentionally curated to be a work flow tool for producers. Personally, I use it for the high quality orchestral sounds it provides and other various sounds that are of such high quality there’s no reason to remake them with a different synth. If you spend time exploring Nexus and all of its sample packs it can become a great asset, just don’t be surprised if you end up hearing many of the sounds in other songs.?? As an artist myself, I like to have more control over the sounds I use in my productions. Nexus’ strongest aspect is the real instrument presets that reFX provides and some of the vocal presets are amazing as well. However, Nexus seems to be more of a taste maker than a synth. You basically have to choose from sounds that somebody else has put together and leaves producers little room for adding their own personality. I still think Nexus is a valuable tool to have, especially if you have the money to get all of the preset packs, and I would encourage both experienced and new producers to include it in their studio.