The reference to the Hollywood clash between two of the most famous monsters that the big screen has ever expressed is not entirely coincidental. Released at a short distance from each other, Nexus from the Teutonic ReFx and Predator, the child of the well-known programmer / developer Rob Papen, were launched on the market as solutions mainly dedicated to dance area productions. The clash is made even more interesting by the fact that two completely different design philosophies are confronted on the pitch, with Nexus in the role of the turnkey "rompler", all inclusive while Predator as a classic subtractive synth.
Refx and Rob Papen
The German Refx, currently led by Michael Kleps (currently, as a few months ago Refx lost one of its most talented programmers, such Markus F. Feil, current owner of Tone2) has become famous for a long series of high-level solutions in the virtual synths sector. Impossible not to mention the rich list of bestsellers such as Vanguard (object of pilgrimage to this day among trance lovers), Plasticz, Claw (free, run to download it!), QuadraSid (one of the most successful simulators of the "Sid" chip) and the unfortunate JunoX, virtual clone of the Roland synth, prematurely ended up under the cleaver of one of the numerous lawyers with whom the historic house has been patrolling the market in recent years in search of possible violations of even the slightest patent or trademark. In short, the right number of hits to intrigue the most about the new rompler.
Rob Papen (www.robpapen.com), most famous in the VSTi market thanks to one of the greatest successes ever, in the century Albino, produced in collaboration with Linplug and for centuries among the bestsellers in the sector. Rob Papen's product philosophy could be summed up with the phrase “simple, but super-equipped”. Predator is created in tandem with the ConcreteFx, a talented company that has created good products such as Kubik, Vetrik, Viper o Adder, just to name a few.
Nexus, technical characteristics
Nexus (Fig 1) can be defined a bit 'the "dandy" between the two. It is a classic rompler, with a simple and clear interface, and reveals a particular philosophy: basically it offers ready-to-eat foods. In fact, Nexus, with its allocation of several GB of audio material, is characterized by a wide range of ready-to-use sounds, with little possibility of variation or modification of the presets themselves. Each preset comes with a predefined configuration of modulations / arpeggio / gate / effects, not totally modifiable by the user. Take or leave. However, you can turn off the aforementioned combinations and try to work on the basic sounds using two low pass filters (LPF), a double LFO, arpeggiator, gate and effects. The basic philosophy of the German synth, however, is to offer a series of pre-processed sounds at their best and really ready for fast and targeted use. Yes, because Nexus mainly focuses on the dance market (House, Trance and Techno), with a huge supply of supersaws. The selection of presets is particularly easy, through a menu divided by categories (Fig 2) and an absolutely reasonable loading time.
Nexus: road test
Balanced sound and excellent insertion in the mixes are the sound characteristics of Nexus, which can be understood as soon as you start to “browse” the numerous presets provided. If we limit ourselves to taking the patches of the house “out of the box”, Nexus appears extremely targeted in use. In fact, the abundant use of reverb (the same reverb "a bit like that" of Vanguard) and the primarily supersaw sound make it a real killer in the hands of all those who live by Trance and Techno, genres in which there is no almost comparison between the two synths. The musicality of the sounds offered is really excellent, but it is above all the balance that strikes, without smudging. Not being able to resist our anarchic nature, however, we try to abandon the guided path and disable many of the "default" choices in sounds. The surprise is that Nexus thus regains unexpected characteristics of flexibility and versatility, allowing you to recreate analog and “old school” sounds. Not surprisingly, Nexus has been provided with a "lock" command on reverb and delay (Fig 3), which allows you to systematically and automatically deactivate the two aforementioned effects and makes you appreciate even the simple browse of the patches in a different light. Small drawback, in our opinion, is given by the action of the filters, frankly a bit bland in comparison with most subtractive synths synths. We really liked the management of the arpeggiator and the trance gate, really intuitive, as well as the right choice of equipping both with some presets that can be recalled at will. In short, the feeling we have from Nexus is that of an excellent machine with automatic transmission, a product created to simplify life and for all those who need a result in a short time and with a truly convincing sound. The sounds are contained in banks by categories, such as Arpeggios, Basses, Classical (some pseudo orchestral sounds coming straight from the old cartridges), Leads and Pads, Gated, Piano, Fx and Voices. Almost immediately Refx decided to include a good number of "raw" patches, created to be modified using the filter and effects sections. It should also be noted that Refx immediately put on sale numerous expansions for the synth (kit of samples and patches), new titles that over time will allow to expand the basic features. The current expansions include specific sound packs, for example, for trance, minimal house or ambient genres, as well as banks of and other dedicated sounds.
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Predator: technical characteristics
With an interface as crowded as a bus at rush hour, Predator (Fig.4) starts from a rather simple concept (subtractive synthesis based on three oscillators) and goes much further thanks to a set of frightening “accessories”. Let's try to say them all in one breath, hoping not to have missed too many: filter with 13 possibilities (LP, HP, BP and Comb), second additional filter, ADSR envelope on the main filter, general volume envelope, 2 flexible envelopes (to be allocated with countless parameters), 2 LFOs, 4 modulators assignable to controllers, FX section with 21 effects that can be used three at a time, a flexible arpeggiator with sequencer, unison, 3 sub-oscillators, preset morphing, other interesting functions certainly not least. In short, a real dream for the geeks of synthesis, a little more difficult for those who are not familiar with the subject. The presets selection menu (in our opinion perhaps the most important of the product) is divided between two curtains, one selects the bank and the other the presets (Fig.5). However, the latter are divided into blocks of about thirty each, making browsing a bit cumbersome. Recently released, update 1.1 improves its use a little, leaving the user the possibility of having normal text instead of the default LCD text, red on black.
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Predator: road test
By putting ourselves in the shoes of the average user, in the past we have already expressed our preference for a judgment based on the presets offered by the house. Let's say right away that Predator is officially declared as a "Fat" sounding synth. Fat, for the layman, is a bit the correspondent of the term “cool” in the synthesizer sector, the only world where “fat is beautiful”, and indicates a certain richness and definition in the mid-bass, combined with a good presence. Predator does not disappoint expectations in this sense. It is clear that the balance of the product has been oriented in favor of a certain predominance of the "bottom" component, and this does not hurt. The quality of the oscillators and effects section is excellent and the overall sound is pleasantly crafted. But, looking through the patches, we have the distinct sensation of barely touching the real potential of the machine. The presets offered, in fact, are a bit simple and repetitive, and use the excellent modulation possibilities "narrow gauge". Obviously the synth is young, so it is to be expected in the near future the release of new banks of presets, perhaps by names like Ian Boddy (I can only imagine the result of a Predator in the hands of the visionary sound designer) or Xenox Neumann, Bigtone and others. The current banks range between different genres such as Dance, Trance, Hip Hop, Classic Synths and more. Particular attention deserves the effects section, really rich, and in particular the vocoder, which can be driven in two modes, that is with or without the aid of MIDI ... You can add something, like that works in real time, that can be imported a wave file (for example a drum loop to process it both with the filters and with the vocoder), washing in real time we can recreate particular sounds on the voice like Genesis etc. It is currently one of the very few synths with this feature. The action of the filters is also very good, thanks to the multiple modulations, they allow you to create very dynamic sounds. The sound categories offered range from classical dance to hip hop, with benches dedicated to ambient music and some consisting of replicas of “classic” sounds from the analogue or before the digital era. In our opinion, the most successful sound bank is the Ambient one, which takes advantage of the opportunities for modulation, filters and effects in greater depth.
Conclusions:
We are facing two really interesting products, perhaps among the best of this 2007. Interesting, yes, but really different in philosophy: for geeks and fans of the classic Predator subtractive synthesis sound; authentic mecca of Trance-boys the Nexus. Synths are, in truth, a perfect complement to each other. We would have frankly preferred that the Refx had left more free field to the modification of the sounds by the user, where the supply of basic samples seems of excellent workmanship and would have lent itself to constitute a perfect "starting point" for the creation of new sounds . Excellent arpeggiator, which adds a little point to this product. The less convincing part of Predator is instead constituted, in our opinion, by the presets, too repetitive and often simple at irritating levels. Rob Papen recently stated that sound banks by famous “sound designers” are in the works, so let's suspend the judgment and wait. With all the options present, including multimode over-sampling, we expect remarkable results. The presence in the mix is excellent in both cases albeit in a different way, with a certain balance in the Nexus and a strong aggressiveness in the low mids of the Predator. Producers who need to find the right sound for their mixes in a short time will find a faithful companion in Nexus while, for producers more oriented towards sound design, Predator will offer a hardly disappointing platform.
