Cakewalk announces Rapture

Cakewalk has announced Rapture, which they describe as "the ultimate wavetable synthesizer for igniting the sounds of today's pop, dance, and electronic music". It combines an advanced modulation system with an non-aliasing wavetable resampling engine.

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Rapture Highlights:

• Wavetable synthesizer with "cutting edge" sound manipulation capabilities, well suited for electronica-related music styles.
• Non-aliasing resampling engine.
• Over 500 sound programs.
• Six fully-programmable, stereo sound-generating Elements.
• Multi-waveform Oscillators with ring modulation.
• Two 16-mode filters per oscillator with LoFi and Drive.
• Over 40 Envelope Generators, LFOs, and Step Generators.
• Comprehensive MIDI Modulation Matrix.
• Mix and modulate all Elements through global FX and dynamic Step Generator.
• Graphical envelope generators and LFOs for ease of use.
• Expandable with native support for SFZ sample formats.

Rapture offers comprehensive sound design capabilities with patches that blend up to six different Elements. Out of the box you get a collection of over 500 programs including Basses, Leads, Pads, Arpeggios, Textures, Electronic Percussion and Sequences.

At the heart of Rapture's six-part sound engine are powerful, multi-mode wavetable oscillators. These wavetables provide a virtually endless array of sonic possibilities, plus you can multiply each oscillator up to 9 times across the stereo field with controlled detuning. Rapture's high resolution anti-aliasing rendering engine ensures that every note of every voice will be pure and vibrant.

Rapture offers over 40 Envelope Generators, LFOs, and Step Generators per patch. These Step Generators breathe life into your sound, allowing for dramatic trance gate effects and percussive rhythms. With graphical step sequencing of sound parameters, Rapture provides a modern extension to traditional envelopes and LFOs, allowing you creative control of Pitch, Filters Amplitude, and other parameters.

Rapture's global and per-Element FX stages provide the finishing touches to your sounds. In the Global FX Stage Rapture offers 3 multi effect units with 9 Delay and 3 Chorus types, 3 Parametric EQs, and a dynamic Step Generator for volume with independent L/R control. The per-Element FX stages offer the multi-effect units and EQs mentioned above, plus two 16-mode filters per oscillator with LoFi and a 5-mode Overdrive section for additional control.

A comprehensive MIDI Control Matrix provides for extensive MIDI controllers mapping of all of Rapture's functions, with the added sensitivity over modulation depth and smoothness control. An X-Y pad lets you assign multiple Rapture parameters to X and Y axes, allowing you to intuitively glide between various parameter levels with ease.

Rapture will be available for Mac OS X (AU, RTAS, VST) and Windows (DXi (32-bit & x64), RTAS, VST) and will cost $199 (estimated street price) and will be available at select music and sound retailers around the world February 2006.