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

[phreaque]

Hello. I also have to say thanks to Parawave for including me on the list. Having been one of the "critics" of Rapid, this shows that he has a "sportive spirit"

I already downloaded the demo, and will give it attention in the next days. Since I have until the 1st of November, I don't want to rush. Some features that really matter to me are left out, like the possibility to import wave sounds to make new wavetables, and the wavetable editing itself. If I end up buying Rapid, I sincerely hope that these features will be addressed in the future (AFAIK, the wave import is already on the to do list).

Congratulation on the launch.

Those features can be added in upcoming update I believe based on user requests.
For now I believe such stuff are essential for the next update:

GUI scaling needed.
Ctrl+click to reset values of certain parameters for example (Osc. Morph).
Increasing the Matrix Sources. Would be nice to have the Amp output of an oscillator to modulate the morph or frequency of another..

[Elektronisch]

I quickly checked the demo.

Pros:
- sound is really good
- quite easy to use
- well laid out parameters in the GUI
- not very heavy on CPU
- 8 Layers
- ability to split layers to different key ranges

Cons:
- Color/UI/font is ugly as hell (its the biggest con for me)
- if i use arrows to change presets it instantly drags me browser
- if i change the OSC waveform i am dragged back to the synth view

Its not really a con but i think ability to import samples would greatly benefit to the synth.

Overal it seems its a great synth it really compares alot to the Dune 2, but very ugly UI and hard on eyes font is really a missed oportunity (at least for me). In general i think it will be tough to sell it as there is a big competition from these synths:

Dune 2
Spire
Serum
Synthmaster 2.8
Massive
Zebra 2
Omnisphere 2

Since i own all of those except Omnisphere 2 i dont see this synth adding anything new.

[Ingonator]

In general i think it will be tough to sell it as there is a big competition from these synths:

Dune 2
Spire
Serum
Synthmaster 2.8
Massive
Zebra 2
Omnisphere 2

To me also Tone2 Electra 2.1 is quite similar, also due the 4 layers there and that it inclludes both wavetables and sample playback.

Tone2 Icarus is not fully comparable IMO as it is a dedicated wavetable synth with no sample playback etc. and as a powerful wavetable synth Rapid and most other synths do not seem to be a real competitor.

As i am also testing Avenger at them moment and got a bunch of other synths besides that i do not think i really need Rapid. It is also not really cheap, actually it is one of the most expensive plugins at the full price. If i did read it properly even Avenger wil be cheaper while there is no final price announced yet.
Avenger does not have full 8 layers but up to 8 Oscs (with sub osc), upto 4 filter and Amp and a lot more which makes it very powerful besides tons of other features. The oscs offers multiple routing options and key zones could be set too. Importing samples or WAV wavetables as wavetables is possible with the Resample feature.

While Rapid on it's own looks quite poweeful and seems to sound nice i do not see that i would need it based on what i alraedy got here.

[recursive one]

- sound is really good

I think, this is the most important. I'm not sure I'm 100% convniced by the demos already posted, but at least I like what I hear more than anything I've ever heard from Dune2, Zebra or Synthmaster. There is certain warmth and fatness in the sound which I find really appealing.

E.g. in this demo Rapid does very tasty acid, sounds almost as good as Virus TI. The pluck synth on the background is also really nice.



Hope to get my hands on the demo today later.

[parawave]

First, thank you all for the congratulations : D

Awesome. Trying the demo now. Is there an init patch anywhere?

Edit* got it, right click layer and reset

You can also click on the little folder icon in the top bar. There you can initialize "reset" the whole patch.

Ctrl+click to reset values of certain parameters for example (Osc. Morph).
Increasing the Matrix Sources. Would be nice to have the Amp output of an oscillator to modulate the morph or frequency of another..

You can double click the knobs and sliders to reset their value to default.

Just a quick and rather important question, I know that users can't import wavetables, but does this also include wave samples?

Yes, at the moment there is no import feature. We are thinking about that and putting it on our planned feature list. If you don't mind, can you further explain how you would imagine such a feature? We don't want to confuse with unnecessary complexity. So I think at first it will be a simple "oneshot" sample import.

+ This token takes also some time to vanish after the mouse has moved away from the buttons. I like sometimes to read the data obscured under this token after clicking them - it is annoying like this to wait. Wishing the token to vanish very quick or customize this from options maybe. Maybe it is no problem also, I am picky.

Good idea, noted it. We will consider a settable millisecond value.

A VST3 version for future-proofing is planned maybe?
Very nice synth, I will tinker more with it. Testing aliasing, filters, and such things as this later.

A VST3 version is not really necessary atm. I think the AudioUnit for MacOS X has a higher priority.
Looking forward to your test. Interested in your evaluation of sound quality.

On my pc (win7-64) the installer did not use the directory which I entered.

Entered: c:\program files\native instruments\vstplugins 32bit

But it was copied to c:\program files (x86)\native instruments\vstplugins 32bit

So I moved the DLL to the right place and it was successful detected in REAPER (32bit).

I think this is a Windows Installer issue. x86 setupfFiles are not allowed to be installed in a 64-bit directory. So windows changed the path. I know, a bit annoying, but unfortunately I can't change it. It's the recommended way by Microsoft.

Here is a video of my first sound design experiment with RAPID.

Great video. Interesting to see your bottom-up sound design technique.

The envelopes are also very well done, very snappy and tight!
Any chance to ever add mseg's?

Not really a high priority, as you can mostly use a sequence for this kind of scenario.

Rapid demo not working in Reaper, after install not see in plugin list.

RAPID is confirmed by multiple users to work fine with 32-bit and 64-bit plugins in Reaper 64-bit v5.26.
I think this is a VST folder rescan issue.

[pandashake]

Ballsy pricing strategy right out of the gate and (seemingly without a Mac version?)! I applaud you for it. This is a dev who believes in his work!

[sircuit]

Ballsy pricing strategy right out of the gate and (seemingly without a Mac version?)! I applaud you for it. This is a dev who believes in his work!

...or a dev that has a very specific type of customer in mind.

[wagtunes]

[REMOVED]

[frizzbee]

+1 @wagtunes. nicely written.

the plugin itself does not sound outstanding, more standard. the highs are emphased to mask the lp roll off (which is quiet low btw starting at 15kHz). its processing is internally limited to 44.1kHz. also a bad thing to me since i work at least in 48 and i'd like to use whole frequency range.
like avenger it focuses on the "we can do all in one" aspect, which isn't useful to me.

vst2 only, windows only, many features are just small variations, small uninspiring ui, no user wavetables, no user multisamples, only 3 macros, not even a convolver, ... things that may come with an update but without guarantee. this is totally overpriced for its current state and also compared to what you can get/expect in that price range.

i wonder how much to pay for a nexus rapid expansion tbh i have the bad feeling the dev won't implement something like user wt or ms because he could sell expansions with additional sounds instead. the button for the online store in rapid is there for a reason. and tbh again, it really reminds me of the refx selling strategy, plugin + expansions.

i might spend some more time to find features that justify the price.

[parawave]

Having said that, at $235 (which is what this comes out to when you do the Euro to Dollar conversion) the only synths that I own that are more expensive are Omnisphere and Falcon.

That's it.

Well, I'm sorry, but as nice as this synth sounds, it is no Omnisphere or Falcon.

TLDR - Great sounding synth that is, IMO, way overpriced.

Some valid points, don't worry I wont attack your opinion, but what bugs me is that you compare it to the price range of Omnisphere and Falcon. Converting the current prices into $, let us take this comparison:

• Omnisphere 423,09 $
• Falcon 389,60 $
• RAPID 235 $

I think 150 $ is a huge gap. So you mean, the endprice of our synth should be the difference between RAPID and Falcon? That's not really fair. If we should price our software that low, for the content and quality that is delivered, then Falcon and Omnisphere should also be at least be 100$ cheaper. In matters matters of features, they both don't offer stuff thats worth 200$ more than our price. Sure, they offer a bit more content, but don't forget that UVI and Spectrasonics are companies running longer than 10 years. If we had that timespan, RAPID would also include more content and features. We will see what the future brings. I just want to mention: RAPID is not a cold product.
It will be developed further. It's kind of modular. It would be easy to add more fx-slots and synthesis features with the time.

[nineofkings]

Once again WHY in the WORLD are people comparing this synth to Nexus? Just cause it can do a super saw doesn't make it Nexus. Jesus.

[wagtunes]

[REMOVED]

[keel]

Tested it. Gui is s*it, first it was okay, but more you look it, more you hate it. Font is bad. CPU usage ok, could be better. Sound is nice, although nothing super special, Spire sounds better. Quite limited synth too. Somehow not inspirational, maybe because of gui, dunno. But very easy conclusion; wayyyyy too overpriced. There is no way that people will buy this at this price, as there is better alternatives avaible for cheaper. Like wagtunes pointed out, there is no point to sound designers to buy this and make libraries for this. Told ya guys, you made a suicide for overpricing this.. Too bad, because Rapid has some potential, as it still sounds okay. Will check this again, when it is version 2, if your company and Rapid is still alive then.

[fluffy_little_something]

For you as a sound set maker a high-price synth is not so good, I suppose, as you thrive on popular synths rather than mighty ones few people use.

[bite_me]

OK, there are some lucky dudes who got love from the dev.
What about an intro price for all that other crappy begging mob before your frontdoor, parawave?