Rob Papen Vecto RE for Reason – Review
Stating the obvious, part one:
Rob Papen is a bit of a legend in the world of software synthesis.
Stating the obvious, part two:
Vector synthesis is a tried and trusted technique that delivers organic, evolving sounds.
Pop these two things together and you have the basis for Vecto, a “four-oscillator vector synthesizer that allows users to draw in vector paths to shape the sound in many different ways“, so the blurb says. There’s really nothing new there but for many people, the very fact that Mr Papen, a long-time synth head and, unbeknownst to me, Christian music artist, has put his name to it should have you thinking that all will not be as expected here. Papen’s synths have a reputation for being unique, inventive and powerful. There is a very good reason why his stuff is so popular, particularly in the EDM world (ugh… I HATE genre tags, but hey). He has built up an impressive portfolio of instruments, effects and sound sets, many of which are staples in a lot of musician’s sonic arsenals. It’s worth pointing out here, more for the benefit of his team, that Rob isn’t solely responsible for all this stuff. He has a pretty prolific team behind him (including an acquaintance of mine, Richard Hider), but Rob is at the core of this. And one thing that makes Rob stand out amongst other soft synth developers is his commitment to the Propellerhead Rack Extension format.
Rack Extensions are Propellerhead’s way of allowing users of Reason to expand the capabilities of their DAW of choice with plug-ins. Reason is famous for being a closed environment, that is, it was until a few years ago when, with the launch of Reason 6.5, they announced Rack Extensions. Having been berated for years for not opening up their world to the likes of VST plug-ins, and having taken an inordinate amount of stick for it, the Swedish developers decided to develop their own plug-in format, one that would offer the openness and variety that other DAW users had, whilst maintaining Reason’s legendary stability and reliability. It is fair to say that, whilst the Propellerhead store has a large number of plug-ins for sale, the majority of them are from very small developers, save for a few. Korg have a couple in there (PolySix and Mono/Poly), GForce have a version of the M-Tron for sale (ReTron) and there are smatterings from the likes of U-he and Softube, it certainly isn’t teeming with any of the big, popular plug-in names, most of whom haven’t even expressed an interest in the format, and some have even flat out refused to make anything for it. Which is odd, because at the launch, Propellerhead made a big deal about how easy they had made it to convert existing plug-in code to the RE format. Now, I have a few friends who have developed for this format and I’ve heard numerous grumblings about bugs, limitations and some slightly odd requirements, some of which have caused them to cease development until such a time as they are addressed.
But Rob Papen has marched onwards with his RE development, and it is safe to say that he’s probably the most popular developer in the store. Vecto is his 7th Rack Extension, his 5th instrument and his second RE exclusive instrument. At the time of going to press, Vecto is not available outside of Reason. And credit where credit is due. He is to be applauded for continuing to support the platform.
So, what is Vecto? Plain and simple, it’s a vector synth, with 4 oscillators and a control area that allows you to blend and morph their output via a collection of envelopes, filters, LFOs, FX, arpeggiators, one-note chord generators and a modulation matrix. A lot of that might sound like pretty standard fare in a soft synth, but let us not forget that because it is a Reason instrument, it also benefits from a wealth of CV in/out connectivity, allowing for almost infinite patching possibilities with pretty much any other device in the Reason rack. Want to trigger each oscillator from individual instances of a pattern sequencer or arpeggiator? Just patch that shit up. Want to use Vecto to control other devices via its free LFOs or built in arpeggiator? Plug it in, baby. If REs have one major benefit over any other plug-in format, its the power of the Reason rack.
But what also makes Vecto stand out is the clever way in which all the elements interact with each other. I mean, most synths have all of these elements, or most of them at least, but each oscillator not only has the ability to be routed directly to filters and FX but also to each other. So you can modulate one oscillator with a couple of others and start building frequency modulation type sounds. And as for each oscillator’s capabilities, they can all choose from a huge range of waveforms that include classic analogue, additive, spectrum and sampled waveforms, as well as percussive ones. I counted 24 categories with numerous waveforms in each. Each of these can be routed via the FX, envelopes, LFOs and filters, and can also be delayed so that each oscillator can start playing back after the initial note has been struck. There are seven FX types (Chorus, Delay, Reverb, Ensemble, Flanger, Phaser & Widener) across two units and 28 filter types.
As with any vector synthesiser, the true power, and fun, lie in the ability to move between these oscillators. Vecto’s vector control has a number of parameters that give the user a wide range of possibilities. For example, you can have direct control over the blending of the oscillators simply by dragging the dot on the central screen around, much like one would when using the joystick on more traditional vector synths like the Prophet VS, Yamaha SY35 or Korg Wavestation. There is also the option of mapping these X & Y axis to a control surface, allowing for a mouse-free experience. These movements can be recorded as automation data within Reason, naturally. This mode is referred to as Direct mode. Replay mode automates the movement of the dot on the screen over a path of either 4, 8, 16 or 32 points, or dots. The direction can be either forward or reverse and all dots are moveable by the user to create their own, custom path. The path can also be rotated and flipped horizontally and vertically. There is also a range of 8 pre-defined shapes, such as spirals, squares, diamonds, circles and lines for you to choose from. But all of these are merely options and there are numerous permutations to be had and experimented with. There are also interesting quantise, sync and speed modes to further mess around with the way the four oscillators operate together. And many of these can be synced to the main tempo of a track, to provide rhythmic patterns that fit your piece.
The modulation matrix, where most people go to mess around with features, almost feels pointless, given the many and varied ways you can mangle the oscillators together already, but a large amount of mod sources are available to a staggering amount of destinations and so the mod matrix becomes Vecto’s turbo-charger, allowing for a mind-boggling range of possibilities.
So how is it in use? I have to say that I was expecting Vecto to sound like another EDM-style synth but with vector control thrown in, but I was very wrong indeed. That’ll teach me to jump to conclusions! The beauty of Vecto is that it can be so much more than simply blending and morphing waveforms. The under-the-hood connectivity can yield some really powerful patches, simply by routing and connecting the oscillators and not even going any where near the vector element. However, the ease and simplicity of the vector tool, coupled with the many different ways of using it, really do make for a very powerful synth indeed. And of course, being in the Reason rack opens it up to so many more possibilities, even with just the stock Reason modules. Vecto will cater for most peoples needs, whether they’re looking for hard, rhythmic arps, cutting leads, deep basses or luscious, evolving pads and textures. It is a veritable swiss army knife of sound design, and for that reason alone, and above all of Rob’s other RE offerings, this is one I’d recommend.
Are there any drawbacks? My biggest, and it is not the developer’s fault, is the small nature of the controls on the front panel. All REs must conform to Propellerheads size limitations in terms of the rack. This means that for someone like me, using a 27″ monitor, things can get a bit small at the standard resolution. And maybe it’s because I’m getting old and my eyes are getting worse, but I can’t see how it can be worked around without making the instrument vertically long, and then I’d be moaning about the amount of scrolling I’d have to do. I honestly think it’s time Propellerhead addressed the on-screen format of Reason. We’re all using much bigger monitors than we were when Reason first came out, and Reason has been able to have rack modules side by side for a while now, so why not let modules have the option of taking space across two rack widths? Another solution would be the ability for modules to have tabbed pages, so that the entire surface could change to allow for different elements to appear on screen at a time.
But this is not Papen’s fault and aside from this, Vecto is an outstanding and deeply powerful and malleable synth that caters for many styles and tastes. It comes with a stupendous amount of presets that may mean you never create your own patches, but I would urge you to do so. It’s incredibly rewarding and surprisingly uncomplicated.
As a Reason user, I have a similar issue with the racks being too small to see. Since the whole thing looks to be vector graphics anyway, why they can’t implement some sort of zoom capability is beyond me. Just being able to do that would be big, big help – particularly on a laptop screen.