I am considering taking advantage of the $49 upgrade price for Rapture (from LE) and am interested in any opinions about how much better it is than the LE version I got with Sonar. I like a lot of the Rapture patches, so if the new presets are of the same caliber then I'll probably think it's good value. Any views from full Rapture owners?

Yes, it's worth it.
I paid $99 for Rapture, which was a great deal at the time.
The full version has a lot more presets, plus it is more controllable, and versatile, than the LE version.
I like playing Rapture with a controller, because it allows you to work the patches.
Here are two examples:
http://soundclick.com/share.cfm?id=6300120

The drums in this one are from Session Drummer2 (also a worthwhile download at $10), but the rest is one patch in Rapture, with a little keyboard manipulation.
http://soundclick.com/share.cfm?id=6170515

This one is a straight patch, again with some keyboard tickling.
Both of these use unaltered presets.
If you want to dig a little deeper, you have plenty of room, and I have heard some incredible stuff that people have done with it.
At $49, this qualifies as a no-brainer.

it's a great synth at that price.... but the add on packs make it very nice also

http://patcharena.com/index.php?subcat=83&

go there and get muz3um which is free also .. along with other things

but there are pay for expansion packs which are nice also.  fi sound do one, dsf and cakewalk of course

Worth it.  And the best add on pack is Museum @ PatchArena.com.

@

Yeah, the added preset are valuable. (Also, If you try some of the third parties, wow! do they give you a bunch of new twists on the versatility of RP.)

If you use Rapture casually, you may never use the parameters that the full version gives you. BUT, if you start to use it regularly, you'll want to at least be tweaking parameters that only the full version allows, to make things sit better in the mix, even if you don't go so far as to making your own programs. Just being able to dink with the step generator may be enough value to a Rapture convert, heck even just being able to work with portamento (which I, coming from hardware synths, think is pretty basic and required) is reason enough. 

Put simply, with Rapture LE you can get a taste of "deep" (and mighty tasty it is), with Rapture, you can go there yourself.

RobertB


Yes, it's worth it.
I paid $99 for Rapture, which was a great deal at the time.
The full version has a lot more presets, plus it is more controllable, and versatile, than the LE version.
I like playing Rapture with a controller, because it allows you to work the patches.
Here are two examples:
http://soundclick.com/share.cfm?id=6300120

The drums in this one are from Session Drummer2 (also a worthwhile download at $10), but the rest is one patch in Rapture, with a little keyboard manipulation.
http://soundclick.com/share.cfm?id=6170515

This one is a straight patch, again with some keyboard tickling.
Both of these use unaltered presets.
If you want to dig a little deeper, you have plenty of room, and I have heard some incredible stuff that people have done with it.
At $49, this qualifies as a no-brainer.

Thanks for the reply. I had a listen to those examples, and I'm pretty much sold. Really nice work!

Fog


it's a great synth at that price.... but the add on packs make it very nice also

http://patcharena.com/index.php?subcat=83&

go there and get muz3um which is free also .. along with other things

but there are pay for expansion packs which are nice also.  fi sound do one, dsf and cakewalk of course

Thanks Fog. Just wondering...do you have to have the full version of Rapture to use these expansion packs?

Thanks AT and czyky - I am definitely sold. Time to rip the old plastic out of the wallet :)

To answer your question to fog. Rapture LE (and Dim LE) will playback all patches. You just can't edit lots of parameters of the patches (or even see what the parameters are in some cases). I started with Rapture LE and got one of the 3rd party samples sets. Sounded so neat, but I couldn't see what was being modified--or rather, I could see that invisible stuff was being modified--so that sold me on upgrading.

By the way, the full version gets the manual in paper (used to at least), which is fairly complete and a nice reference. I have stickies all over mine.

Absolutely worth it. I love it!