Ravity S

I got Ravity to replace my expanded Roland XP synth, so that's what I'll be comparing it to throughout this review. Ravity doesn't offer as many features as your standard hardware ROMpler, but you can bet it sounds every bit as good as one, and in many cases even better!

GUI: Fabulous GUI! Absolutely wonderful! It's actually FUN to make your own sounds in Ravity! I've made more sounds in Ravity in a week than I did on my Roland in a year. This is the biggest advantage Ravity has over any hardware synth available. Ravity makes you WANT to make your own sounds, which is a first in my book.

Sound: Ooh boy! Ravity has a character unlike any other synth out there. Some of it sounds like a Roland, but it has a cleaner, smaller quality to its sound. In other words, Ravity mixes MUCH better than my Roland did, but still has that "sound module" sound to it. Everything from the effects to the samples sounds great and the sound quality is always consistent. It all sounds the way a ROMpler should.

One thing I hated about my Roland was its looping. My Roland had weird loop errors in it, which made many sounds completely unusable. I'm happy to report that Ravity's samples all loop very smoothly, to the point where I didn't even notice the looping most of the time.

Features: Like I said, not as many features as your standard hardware synth, but everything you need is right there. Ravity also makes up for the lack of features by allowing you to put eight samples together to form one sound. That's twice the amount of samples per patch as my Roland (and most other hardwares). Not only that, but Ravity lets you have 1,260 user sounds. Most Rolands give you 128 or 256! So you can have a field day with this thing.

Documentation: Finally a synth manual that explains everything the RIGHT way. Roland guys could learn a thing or two from Luxonix in this department. ;)

Presets: Most of the presets are good, but not great. Most of the presets just sound "okay." Some of the synth sounds are awesome, but many of the acoustic presets suck. In fact, the acoustic presets are what made me turn away from Ravity in the first place. It wasn't until I really sat down with it and made my own patches that I began to love this beast! And don't kid yourself, it IS a beast.

Customer Support: Luxonix has good customer support. Skycha and Yeap on the forums are very nice people and they do a good job of answering your questions.

Value for Money: 140 dollars for a synth that puts my 1,000 dollar XP to shame! Hah! Luxonix is the best.

Stability: Never crashed. Ever. Rock solid and dependable. A REAL software workhorse!

Conclusion: Ravity is fun, inviting, easy on your CPU and it sounds fantastic. The day I got it I wrote two songs with it without any problems whatsoever. Great! Ravity easily sounds as good, and in most cases better, than my XP-30. It's FAR more usable, too. This was the best piece of software I've ever bought!

So can this replace my Roland? Of course it can! I'd even bet this thing could rival a Yamaha Motif ES if you worked hard enough on the sounds (and I have heard the Motif ES in action *a lot*). Ravity's main weak point is its ethnic instruments. The sitar needs work and there're no kotos or shamisens, but really, when will you ever need those instruments? There're also no drums; you need to buy Ravity R for those, but my XP-30's drums were unusable, so it all works out. Other than that, Ravity can do anything my Roland can, and because it's so fun to use, I'll do more with it than I ever did with my Roland. :)

Great synth, great price, great sound. Luxonix will go far, and I'll be using this baby for years to come.Read Review