Rob Papen's Quad-2 gives its new ribbon a modulation matrix of its own

The original Quad started life as a Rack Extension, which Rob Papen describes as the first synth built from the ground up for Reason, and only later became a VST3, AU and AAX plug-in. Quad-2, introduced on 7 October, updates the interface and adds to the engine.

The engine keeps its shape. Each oscillator runs through a Phase Distortion stage and a WaveShaper stage, each with its own XY pad, and oscillators 1 and 2 can cross-modulate through ring, phase, four FM modes and several more.

A ribbon that does more than bend

The headline addition is a Ribbon Controller, and Rob Papen has given it more depth than a pitch strip. It has its own 12-slot Ribbon Modulation Matrix, separate from the main 12-slot matrix, so one gesture can move several destinations at once, including the XY pads. It works in unipolar or bipolar mode, can be recorded as a parameter, and has a spring-back that can be tempo based and quantized, so it returns to rest in time with the track rather than at a fixed speed.

The other additions Rob Papen lists are more filter types, among them the Albino-3 Legend “Cream” filter, new effects, per-step ratcheting and a Free row in the arpeggiator, and an updated interface. Quad-2 is 16-voice with more than 1,200 presets.

Price and formats

€49 or $49, and €25 or $25 as an upgrade from Quad or Quad-RE. It is also part of the eXplorer-11 bundle. VST3, AAX and VST on Windows 7 or later; AU, VST3, AAX and VST on macOS 10.15 or later, ARM compatible. AAX needs Pro Tools 12 or later, a licence covers two computers, and it is not NKS compatible.