first impressions of a new rapture user

As a longtime z3ta user I was very happy to hear that Rapture was available for UB Macs since I switched to a Macbook Pro a while ago and I've been missing z3ta. I've only spent an evening with it so far but here are some first impressions.

1. Sounds great. Has that same clean, cold, sharp character that I like so much in z3ta. I wouldn't want to use it for everything, but for some sounds it's really perfect.

2. Pretty logical interface. I was up and running without reading the manual.

3. There are some ergonomic things I'm not liking so far:
* Having to hold Cmd to get the numerical controls to move in large increments seems backwards. Getting a relatively deep lfo->filter modulation going, for example, takes forever without Cmd and I like doing sound design while playing keys with one hand. I'd love to see this as a reversible option in the preferences dialog at some point.
* I'd like to see the element on/off buttons duplicated or moved up to the toplevel tabs. There's plenty of room up there and switching back and forth between the mixer view on the bottom and the element tabs on top is fatiguing.
* Likewise I'd like to see the chain element menu option replaced or duplicated with a tab-level button. I can tell I'm going to be using this a lot and having it buried in a menu item is confusing and easy to miss.
* I'd like to have the option of chaining in pre-filter to the next element, so I can use a common filter for one or more elements. Otherwise doing something as simple as adding a sub-oscillator element to an existing mix of elements requires duplicating an entire filter section, including modulation. Ideally there'd be a three-state chain toggle button to the right of each element tab to control this.
* It seems I have to scroll through all the sync settings of an lfo to get to the unsynced value so I can use a plain hz value instead. It would be nice if there was an easier way to switch between synced/unsynced lfos.
* It would be a big help if there was some indication on or near the modulator tabs to show which modulators are active in an element without manually clicking and inspecting each one. Maybe some kind of highlight on the tab if it's on?
* It would be great if elements and modulators could be copied by clicking and dragging among their selector tabs. I'll often build up a sound by patching one element, then cloning and tweaking the copy. Manually copying and pasting them now is slightly tedious.

4. I'm not a fan of the visual style. Like the Project 5 UI, it looks like something a big company decided looked hip and futuristic but just wound up looking toylike and plastic. I realize this is totally subjective and it doesn't interfere with my use of the instrument but I'm mentioning it anyway.

Overall I'm very happy to have the RGC sound in a new instrument on my fast & stable intel mac. Thanks to Cakewalk for being one of the first.

I'm very much an agnostic when it comes to hardware platforms and operating systems but I think the new Macbooks represent a step forward in stability, reliability, and power for a very competitive price. My little MB Pro is every bit as powerful as my hulking G5 workstation was and I can just toss it in a bag and take it anywhere.

I realize the Mac intel transition has been painful for a lot of audio developers but the benefits are significant.

Welcome to Rapture. Thanks for your comments. I agree, I think some of the methods for entering numeric values could be made more elegant. What about direct numeric entry? That's the method I always prefer. I wonder why it isn't possible? Or maybe I'm missing something.