Rob Papen

Filling what sound and synth designer Rob
Papen describes as a hole in his line of
synths, Go2 places all of its controls in a single
window, with almost no pop-outs or tabbed
pages to be found (apart from the Preset
manager, which ills the whole panel). This, he
says, makes it particularly accessible, although,
rightly, he stops short of suggesting that it’s
notably easy to use in a ‘beginner-friendly’
sense. You might be able to see all of its controls
all the time, and it’s remarkably cheap, but this is
still a full-on synthesiser, with no concessions
made in the name of simplicity.
On the Go2
Go2 is ostensibly a single-oscillator instrument,
but that oscillator is a streamlined version of the
one in Rob Papen’s lagship synth, Predator 2,
outputting two waveforms at once, chosen from
a menu of 128 analogue, additive, spectral and
noise options. Using the Spread parameter and
pitch modulation, you can tune the two waves
away from each other, efectively turning Go2
into a two-oscillator setup. More interestingly,
though, the waves are mixed and morphed in
various ways to create hybrid shapes, with the
Morph Amount slider positively inviting creative
modulation. To that end, Go2’s lagship
modulation source, the XY Pad (see X over Y), is
Rob Papen
Go2 £42
The single-window worklow is being touted as this new synth’s headline
feature, but it’s the sound and price that actually impress the most…
“More interestingly,
the waves are mixed
and morphed in
various ways to create
hybrid shapes”
UNISON MODE
Up to four detuned/spread
voices, or stacked chords
DISTORTION
Saturate the
amplifier stage
for dirty tones
OSCILLATOR
SPREAD
Tune the two
waveforms apart
EFFECTS
Five effects
modules, three
usable at a time
MORPH MODE
Choose one of
several waveform
blending styles
XY PAD
Modulates the
Morph Amount and
other parameters
MOD MATRIX
Assign sources to destinations
over two (!) pages
ARPEGGIATOR
Arpeggiate and sequence
your notes and chords
LFO
You only get one,
but it’s polyphonic,
with lots of waves
FILTERS
Shape the signal with multimode
and high-pass filters
located next to the oscillator controls, complete
with dedicated X/YMorph mod depth knobs,
and a real-time oscilloscope for visualising the
waveform. Alternatively, Wave A can be
deployed as an FM or ring mod source for Wave
B, for edgy, clangourous tones.
Further oscillator tweaking is on hand via the
Symmetry knob, which stretches/compresses
the waveform in either direction from its centre
point (ie, pulse width for the square wave), and
comes with a dedicated LFO running at up to
55Hz. Additionally, a Sub oscillator an octave
down outputs a level-adjustable sine or square
wave, just like that in Papen’s SubBoomBass 2.
Up to four spreadable, detunable unison
voices are on tap, too. That’s not a particularly
impressive number, but it’s partly made up for
by Go2’s ability to snap those voices to the notes
of an extensive range of chords – Major, Minor,
Fifth, Dominant, Diminished, Octaves, etc. Very
cool. In terms of fundamental voicing, the synth
EDITOR’S CHOICE
SYMMETRY
Squash the
waveform with
LFO modulation
88 / COMPUTER MUSIC / August 2018
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CMU258.rev_go2.indd 88 5/23/18 11:58 AM