Rob Papen​​​​​​​ SubBoomBass 2 £80

Based on the superb Predator 2 and geared up to get those cones rattling, this second-gen synth adds more than one new String to its bow

It’s been almost a decade since Rob Papen‘s low-end-orientated synth, SubBoomBass (8/10, 140), first saw the light of day. While the original is still very popular with dance music producers, a refresh is certainly due – particularly given that the instrument on which it’s based, Predator, benefited from its own v2 update just over a year ago (9/10, 239).

The Sub’ way

SubBoomBass 2 is a two-oscillator (each with a slaved sub oscillator), dual-filter synth with onboard sequencing and effects, and an Easy editing mode for concealing all but the most fundamental controls. The majority of the interface is pretty much the same as that of v1, with everything scaled up to make room for the new X/Y pad, the preset menus and ancillary controls shifted up top, and all text made slightly more legible. Users of high-res displays can keep their opticians happy by availing themselves of the new Big Screen mode, which upsizes everything nicely.

The main area of improvement for the GUI is the central multifunction panel, which now consists of five pages (up from two), catering to the all-new physical modelling String engine (see Mr Strong) and X/Y pad, and the expanded Mod Matrix, which we’ll come back to. Each section also now incorporates a utility menu, housing various editing functions (Copy, Paste, Sequencer Transpose, etc) and facilitating saving and loading of section presets. So, whenever you come up with a Filter, effects or Sequencer setup that you want to reuse independently of the rest of the patch, you can save it into the preset library for that section. Very nice, too.