RAPID Synthesizer | Rapid 1.8.0 released | Free "SP - Granular Elements"

[phreaque]

Being one of early Rapid owners, I found it the go-to all-in-one VST synth for no any doubt, but you know, there was Avenger standing there too, so I was trying to avoid it, but that temptation couldn't be blocked for good, so back in October 2017, I got it..
After 6 month of using it...... I'm so happy to be a Rapid owner!!!

Things we appreciate in Rapid (What makes Rapid so cool):
1. GUI is self explanatory, which makes no any reason to refer to the manual or a 3rd party video tutorial.
2. Synth engines, everything popular is there, okay perhaps we just need that FM section..
3. Presets are unique and inspiring as well as they are considered a great reference content to reverse engineer them allowing the user to learn the true potential or Rapid.
4. Expansions, well, I didn't buy one yet, but they sound good, modern, a little pricey though.
5. Team support, outstanding.
6. Licensing issues: none. And that's a big plus.
7. Have been using Rapid since October 2016, and till the moment, I've never faced any issue with Rapid, haven't get any installation error, or VST loading error, or licensing issue at all, at least with FL Studio & Ableton Live 9 suite...

So really great job @Parawave, you really succeed to create a unique synth and a successful product. Let's just keep supporting it and get it improved.

[kokotte]

Being one of early Rapid owners, I found it the go-to all-in-one VST synth for no any doubt, but you know, there was Avenger standing there too, so I was trying to avoid it, but that temptation couldn't be blocked for good, so back in October 2017, I got it..
After 6 month of using it...... I'm so happy to be a Rapid owner!!!

Things we appreciate in Rapid (What makes Rapid so cool):
1. GUI is self explanatory, which makes no any reason to refer to the manual or a 3rd party video tutorial.
2. Synth engines, everything popular is there, okay perhaps we just need that FM section..
3. Presets are unique and inspiring as well as they are considered a great reference content to reverse engineer them allowing the user to learn the true potential or Rapid.
4. Expansions, well, I didn't buy one yet, but they sound good, modern, a little pricey though.
5. Team support, outstanding.
6. Licensing issues: none. And that's a big plus.
7. Have been using Rapid since October 2016, and till the moment, I've never faced any issue with Rapid, haven't get any installation error, or VST loading error, or licensing issue at all, at least with FL Studio & Ableton Live 9 suite...

So really great job @Parawave, you really succeed to create a unique synth and a successful product. Let's just keep supporting it and get it improved.

Agree 100%
i hope, one day, Rapid will have full Mpe capacity.

[cowby]

Agree as well. But the pace of development of new features is a bit slow comparing to Avenger. And yes FM will be a welcome addition in the next major release.

BTW, anyone wants it to have a re-sizeable UI?

[recursive one]

I actually think Rapid is probably one of the most underestimated synths, it sounds really very good (most importantly, it doen't only sound "technically" good but has it's own character like such synths as Virus TI, Diva or Spire) and the programming is very intuitive.

I'd really love to see the promised FM engine but I guess it's in the distant plans. As for now, pitchshift, glitch and tonal delay would be great. Personally I don't care much about a resizeable GUI, the size is fine to me but honestly I'd love to see alternative skins.

[parawave]

So really great job @Parawave, you really succeed to create a unique synth and a successful product. Let's just keep supporting it and get it improved.

Thanks for the feedback and kind words. It's always great to find out how users use it and what they expect for the future.

Agree 100%
i hope, one day, Rapid will have full Mpe capacity.

I want to see this too and already researched quite a bit about how to support it. The standard is relatively new and there are multiple ways to implement it. Rapid is the ideal candidate for MPE features, since you could assign each layer to a different expression and similar stuff. Have to get a ROLI Seaboard to see how exactly this will work out. If we implement this, then at least the full specs with all 5D expressions offered by the Seaborad or BLOCKs for example.

To give a timeline. I think our update history will look like this (without warranty):
1. GUI Update
2. FX Update
3. New Synthesis Module
4. Workflow Tools + MPE

And yes FM will be a welcome addition in the next major release.

I'd really love to see the promised FM engine but I guess it's in the distant plans.

Not too distant. Here is when you can expect it:

GUI Update
This is still the most requested feature. Unfortunately also the most effortful one. But it's needed and future proof and will ease up development quite a bit. Due to the bigger panel size, there will be more place for smaller enhancements (e.g. presets and more utilities for Routing).

FX Update
Last time I mentioned a Multi-Band Thing, now I can verify it will be a 4-Band Saturator with various band functions, including Asymmetric Distortion. It can be used for more subtle saturation, compared to the 2-Band Shaper. Generally it's useful for all kinds of colorization and can be applied to make even the simplest sound more interesting.

Synthesis
For a long time it was quite unsure and a back and forth between Granular or FM. At the moment, the requests for FM Operators win. Personally I also thinks it's the easiest ways to give Rapid a whole new palette of possible sounds.

---
If anyone has a specific wish for the FM Module, a must have function for your ideal FM Operators, let us hear. Same for MPE, are you using a specific MPE Instrument or could imagine how you would use the new expression with Rapid, just post it ; )

[counterparty]

Hi Parawave,

I'd just like to say how happy I am using Rapid. It's become the first synth I reach for when making new sounds. The overall sound, the filters, the wavetables - just great, and far more interesting than 99% of subtractive synths.

What I would really like would be expansions with a lot of new wavetables; I don't really care about presets. An easier/more flexible way of editing the sequences would be great (editable multi-point envelopes like the CableGuys ShaperBox plugins?) even if the underlying implementation remained the same, and more synthesis modes will be interesting but icing on the cake for me.

[lvndr]

Despite some GUI suggestions to improve, I find the GUI really straightforward and easily understandable.

I'm looking forward for RAPID to be updated with more expansions from different sound designers.

[zeph]

Thanks parawave. Appreciate the update.

I agree counterparty - An easier/more flexible way of editing the sequences would be great .

FM operators please.

Can you give us an estimate of when GUI update completed?

[recursive one]

If anyone has a specific wish for the FM Module, a must have function for your ideal FM Operators, let us hear.

My wishes to FM may be quite different from the norm as I mostly use FM for various kinds of metallic/agressive leads and textures, not your usual pretty bells. I fact I don't use dedicated FM synths, my preferred synths for FM are Serum and Virus TI (now also Adam Szabo Viper). These have quite straightforward FM implementation, basically they have a possiblity to modulate a main oscillator with a another osc whose pitch can be set independently. I think Rapid could have an FM oscillator FX in addition to those it already has where it should be possible to set the pitch of a secondary ghost oscillator (the FM source) relative to the pitch of the main oscillator (the FM target), the FM amount and the waveform of the ghost osc. I think you have said that you weren't happy with "naive" osc to osc FM and I see your point cause complex osc shapes tend to produce quite noisy results (at least this is what often happens in Serum), so probably it would make sense to use dedicated modulation waveforms instead, like sine, triangle, "positive triangle" (think Virus TI/Viper), carefully selected to provide cleaner sounds.

Very excited about that 4-band saturator, indeed subtle saturation in many cases works much better than an obvious distortion. Btw, as we are talking about FX may I also suggest a transient shaper?

[irism]

Agree as well. But the pace of development of new features is a bit slow comparing to Avenger. And yes FM will be a welcome addition in the next major release.

BTW, anyone wants it to have a re-sizeable UI?

+1 here for re-sizeable UI.

Any ideas what are the next expansion packs going to be? and when would be the release date?

[sircuit]

I’d like a “note retrigger” checkbox under each step on the sequencer. When unchecked, everything as before. When a checked step is reached, the note is retriggered - useful to retrigger attacks in the middle of a sequence or to revive a decaying sound.

[zeph]

Please can we have an update on the timings for the new features??

Can you provide a list of new features!!!

[Synthman2000]

Yeah what'sup ?

[exmatproton]

indeed....truly quiet over here...

[EnochLight]

Assorted musings: I already own Thorn, Serum, and Avenger. Is there anything that Rapid brings that might make me want to drop that sort of cash on it? At over $200 USD, it's certainly one of the most expensive synths out there save for Omnisphere.