I add to @Olymoon's post that the Rapid (see attached image) has 8 layers and a keyboard range to draw in.
You can make complete songs with the Rapid.

 

It looks and sounds great, and I read on the Parawave website their future plans for possible updates to the synth, and there are lots of cool useful features, but that list of "maybe's" was last updated a year ago and nothing has been upgraded since 2 years ago. I really wanted to buy it and cant understand why they wouldn't respond to a friendly email. So now I wait like everyone else for a crack. If after a crack magically appears it ends up being my holy grail synth, I will gladly buy it with or without any customer service. The demo doesn't allow enough time to truly test sound design capabilities. I know im not the only one who feels this way, this whole thing is frustrating to say the least!

 

cmon R2R you guys are the olny ones capable of doing rapid PLEASE

 

I totally agree with you.
Customer service is very important, and the fact this "future update" page is one year old and nothing in it have been done does not encourage to buy it.
Also, for people who mainly use presets, they can see that there is not much life in this matter either.

When I bought it , it was more like a bet than a totally logical decision, I was only able to really know it's advantages once I was using it.
And yes, customer support is extremely slow.
And they would not even answer a friendly mail, offering some suggestions.

When you compare with Phase Plant permanent activity, news and updates.... I simply hope that Phase plant will implement resampling (including true granular synthesis) and arpegiator/sequencer, then, for me, it will be by far the best synth.

 

maybe you could hand out your license to R2R oly and they do the magic

 

Copy Protection
Online Activation (Challenge / Response)

 

Even though rapid hasn't updated in awhile, it's a very capable synth and the fact they give you a fx version is amazing to say the least. When they do update, I'm sure it will be a significant one.

 

sometimes I talk too much...

 

Last edited by a moderator: Nov 14, 2022

Let's not change this thread to a request one.

 

Just saw that its now on sale for 50% off (90 $/€).

Hmm......... what to do

 

Last edited by a moderator: Nov 21, 2022

Oh shit! They did an update!

NEW RAPID Version - 1.8.6.
20. November 2022

1.8.6 - 20. November 2022
NEWEST
Additions:

• 
  
  • VST3 Support.
  • Preset Browser: Right arrow key loads the currently selected preset.
  • Routing: Insert/Remove Routing Entries.
  • OpenGL Capability Test, to get information about the used graphics driver, in case of problems with GPU Renderer mode.

Changes:

• 
  
  • Removed framerate options. This is now adaptive.
  • Lastly saved or loaded preset locations are now memorized seperately.
  • Moved the macro +Route drag icon to the right of the knob to avoid overlap.
  • Changed preset information and MIDI import dialogs to internally managed dialogs.
  • Preset browser information is only shown when hovering over entries and holding ctrl or command key.

Fixes:

• 
  
  • Tooltips setting was not saved.
  • Presets with # character in their name couldn't be marked as favorite.
  • Reduced OpenGL surface slowdown in DAWs that couldn't handle multiple open accelerated UI instances at the same time.
  • Improved Glitch time jump declick.
  • Adjusted sample accuracy of Glitch sequences for high PPQ values.
  • Improved smoothing for Multiband Saturator gain modulatiom.
  • Routing selection behavior on load, resize and reopen.
  • Don't grab keyboard focus on layer button label click.
  • Various DAW compatibility additions.

Visual:

• 
  
  • Dynamic colour tint for editor windows and source browser theme.
  • HDR bloom effect added. Normal and Fancy mode.

 

Last edited by a moderator: Nov 21, 2022

I don't know about you, but I pulled the trigger.

 

Not sure is a Nexus killer (because I never used Nexus), but RAPID is an excellent synthesizer.
I'm using it since end of 2016 (launch period) and I'm very enjoyed about it!

The only thing I hate is the installer (yep, it installs all, including unwanted plugin formats, such 32-bit, VST3, etc...). The installer really sucks, the developer must do a effort about its installer, IMHO (checkboxes for wanted formats, and respect about install paths too).

 

Last edited: Nov 21, 2022

Thanks for this info total babe, about the 1.8.6.173 update.

 

They also started their annual Black Friday sale. 50% off Rapid, 30% off Extensions!

 

Rapid is not a Nexus killer. Rapid is a true synthesiser, and it's the only one which actually have smooth granular synthesis as oscillators source. All other synth that include granular synthesis, like VPS Avenger work with the grains, but do not end up giving a smooth wave unless you chose very even samples as sources.
It is due to Rapid resynthesis engine, that allow to play samples without the typical sampling artifacts when changing the pitch. So, Rapid is for now unique in that matter. (VPS Avenger are preparing and update with a second granular engine)
It's also able to do all sort of synthesis, including mutltisamples (which you can then use as sources for granular synthesis).

Last but not least, the effects are very good, specially the reverb which is very lush and clean (opposed to the ones which you can hear the multiple delays) but it also have a room reverb in case you want those early reflections.
There is also a multiband distortion that is very versatile with several distortion types and each band can be modulated (by dynamic or and envelope or an LFO etc...)
The ensemble and chorus effects are also very good with enough parameters to adjust.
There are several ways to use distortions, one of the most interesting ones, is the fuzz that can be placed in the insert, before or after the filter. This fuzz is so wel programed that you can get from soft grainy "analog" life to totally aggressive sound.
The effects can also be used as vst effects on their own, so you can use them on other synths or tracks, and save their combinations and parameters as presets.

One other specific advantage of Rapid, specially if you are not an advanced sound designer, is that you can open 2 sessions of Rapid and copy paste anything from one to the other. Which makes creating your own presets easy using parts of different presets.

All in all, after one year using Rapid intensively, I can tell you that it's easy to use, very intuitive and have a rich and well implemented sound engine. The way the GUI is done you can have fun with it without getting lost in parameters.

It all depends of what YOU need.

 

Last edited: Nov 21, 2022

I have to add the negative points:
This is a one person synthesizer, so the future is more risky, yet you can have a look at the roadmap page here
Customer service is very bad and slow.
Developer does not allow reselling your license (which on the other hand may not apply to Europe)

Each layer have 3 oscillators and 1 or 2 filters, but there are only 4 envelopes, so you can find yourself creating a new layer only to use more envelopes. Same thing with LFOs, only 4 per layer.
Envelopes are ADSR, no free form editable envelopes.

No specific drum sequencer (unlike APS Avenger).

 

Last edited: Nov 22, 2022

VST3 support could be the big reason for the long delay in update. Devs usually don't like it.

 

We released Rapid 1.8.6. It's a minor update and the main highlight is support for VST 3. There are various small improvements. Mostly internal ones. The tooltip bug was also fixed. Or UI slowdown in some DAWs on windows with multiple (+2) open windows. More about it in the version history https://parawave-audio.com/rapid_version_history
As always you can download it on the products page.
https://parawave-audio.com/index.php?route=account/purchased
We also started our annual Black Friday sale. 50% off Rapid, 30% off Extensions!
A new Lo-Fi XT will be released in December.
---
@Development:
New big features will come with 1.9. As previously mentioned, it's all about advanced modulations. Mapping Curves. Quantizing. Procedural Gate Sequences. Additional modular per routing entry operators. More on this as soon as it's near the end of production. It's still a bit of work, since the system is pretty extensive.

 

Seems to sound good, nice price with 30% off now !
But "one man" dev remembers me some horror stories on KVR ...