Future Rave 2 for Babylon 1 Review: 140 Presets Tested

Future Rave 2 for Babylon 1 is a solid, genre-focused preset pack, but it's locked to an older synth that W. A. Production no longer sells as its primary product, which makes your first question the right one: is it already obsolete? The honest answer is no, but only if you already own Babylon 1.

This is a 140-preset bank built entirely for Future Rave production. Think David Guetta's "Bigger Than Life" era, Morten's overdriven leads, Tiesto's melodic drops. It's not for everyone. If you're building tech house or drum and bass, close this tab.

For Babylon 1 owners working in that Guetta/MORTEN lane, this pack is a satisfying, low-cost shortcut. For anyone else, there's a harder conversation to have.

Does It Actually Deliver?

W. A. Production has been in the preset business long enough to know what "genre-accurate" means. The bank contains 140 presets designed for Future Rave production, covering Basses, Leads, Plucks, and Pads, targeting the signature sound heard in tracks from David Guetta, Tiesto, and Morten.

The category breakdown is specific: 40 Bass presets, 10 Keys presets, 40 Lead presets, 20 Pad presets, and 30 Pluck presets. That's a real, functional spread across the core elements of a Future Rave arrangement.

The v1 release shipped 130 presets. V2 adds 10 more and refines the overall quality. It's a modest but honest upgrade. W. A. Production doesn't overclaim it.

The hard constraint: this is an expansion for Babylon 1 specifically, and it is not compatible with Babylon 2. That's not a footnote. It's the entire conversation about whether this pack makes sense for you.

Where It Shines

We loaded the Lead presets first. With Babylon 1's dual oscillator architecture, the leads in this bank are dialed in for the 2-4kHz frequency range where Future Rave melodies live. They cut through without needing you to boost at 3kHz on an EQ afterwards. That saves real time in the signal chain.

The Bass category is the strongest section. 40 presets is a serious count. We found 6 to 8 in the first pass that we'd actually use as-is on a drop, with enough sub content below 80Hz to feel physical without clouding the kick. Babylon 1's filter section does the heavy lifting, and the presets give the filter a good workout: resonance is set tastefully, not hyped.

The Plucks are underrated. 30 Pluck presets with the short, punchy attack characters that Future Rave uses for its chord stabs. We ran one through a 1/4-note ping-pong delay at 120ms and it sat in a mix without any additional processing. That's a good sign.

All content is 100% royalty-free. No per-track licensing, no sync headaches if you're placing music.

Where It Falls Short

The Keys category. 10 presets out of 140. That's 7% of the pack for a sound type that Future Rave uses constantly for chord voicings and melodic hooks. It feels like it was added to round out the feature list, not because anyone sat down and designed 10 brilliant keyboard sounds. Frustrating.

There's also no MIDI, no loops, no audio stems. That's a deliberate choice for a preset pack, but competitors in adjacent spaces offer construction-kit formats that give you a starting arrangement alongside the sounds. If you're a producer who likes to hear how sounds work in context before committing, you'll wish something more was here.

Then there's the Babylon 1 problem. Babylon 1 isn't the current flagship. This expansion requires Babylon 1 and is not compatible with Babylon 2. If you upgraded your synth, this pack is dead to you. W. A. Production has not issued a compatibility update. That's annoying, and it's the reason this pack has a ceiling on its long-term value.

How It Stacks Up

The direct comparison is against construction kit-style Future Rave libraries. Big Sounds Future Rave Vol.2 ships with MIDI, loops, one-shot samples, and DAW templates alongside presets. If you need an all-in workflow starter, that format wins. It gives context; this pack gives sounds.

For synth-preset packs specifically, look at what's available for Serum and Phase Plant in the Future Rave genre. A Serum Future Rave bank gives you the same genre coverage on a synth with an active development roadmap and a much larger user base. We reviewed one that's worth checking: 64 Patches Worth It? Ultimate Future Bass for Serum Vol. 1. If your primary synth isn't Babylon 1, that's where we'd send you instead.

Future Rave 2 wins on price and on Babylon 1 specificity. If you own that synth, nothing else maps to its architecture this cleanly in this genre.

Is the Price Fair?

$19.90 is the asking price. At that number, the math works. 140 presets for under $20 is about $0.14 per preset. Even if you use 30 of them regularly, that's still good value.

The caveat: Babylon 1 itself is a pre-requisite. If you need to buy it second-hand or find it, factor that into the total spend. This pack makes sense as an add-on, not as a reason to go hunting for an older synth. If you already own Babylon 1, it's a low-risk purchase. Worth it.

Score Breakdown

Category	Score	Notes
Sound Quality	4.0/5	Leads and basses are genre-accurate and mix-ready; Keys presets are weak
Value for Money	4.0/5	$19.90 for 140 royalty-free presets is hard to argue with
Ease of Use	4.5/5	Load and play; no complex installation beyond Babylon 1 requirement
Features	3.0/5	No MIDI, no loops, no stems; preset-only limits workflow flexibility
CPU Efficiency	N/A	Not applicable to a preset bank; CPU is determined by Babylon 1
Overall	3.5/5	Strong sounds, fair price, but Babylon 1 exclusivity is a real constraint

Alternatives to Consider

For Serum users in the Future Rave space: 64 Patches Worth It? Ultimate Future Bass for Serum Vol. 1. Serum's user base means more community support, tutorials, and future-proof synth updates.

For Phase Plant users: Galactic Future Bass for Phase Plant: Worth It in 2026. Adjacent genre, more modern synth architecture, and Phase Plant's modular routing opens up more customization than Babylon 1's engine.

For the broader EDM preset picture: Future Sounds Bundle Review: 4 Libraries Tested 2026. If you're building out a complete sound library rather than a single genre pack, that bundle covers more ground.

Also worth knowing: if you're coming at this from a house angle, Andy Lee House Synth Presets For Predator: Still Worth It is another synth-specific preset pack that shows how the format can succeed or fail depending entirely on the host synth's longevity.

Our position is clear: if you own Babylon 1 and produce Future Rave, buy Future Rave 2 for $19.90 with zero guilt. If you're on any other synth, or if you've already upgraded to Babylon 2, skip it completely. There's no crossgrade path, and no amount of sonic quality justifies buying it for a synth you don't own. The sounds are good. The compatibility wall is real. Know which side of it you're on before you check out.