Moog Expansion Pack for Rapture - Comments, Opinions

released yet?

ORIGINAL: Nick P

Reminds me one more time of what a fantastic sounding synth Rapture is. I need to pretend it cost me $3,500 (the cost of my first Prophet V) and is the only synth I own. Then learn it inside and out.

This Anderton expansion pack is another great addition to the Rapture universe.

Yep, I agree. Rapture just keeps getting better and better. I like using these modern tools!

The live NAMM demo that Craig and Brandon just did was performed entirely in LE. The only hangup they had was when somebody asked Craig to do a step-by-step, feature-by-feature run-through of one of his patches. Because Rapture LE can't fully edit Rapture patches, Craig was unable to show the step-sequencing visuals, etc. The patch still played as intended, but they could not edit it; and hence they could not show off the 'patch guts' in their demo session.

That said, the patch set seemed to work very well and sounded great in Rapture LE.

There are 100 program files included; organized into 12 categories by naming convention.

Bass_(12)
Brass_(6)
FX_(5)
Keys_(10)
Kit_(4)
Organ_(5)
Pad_(7)
Perc_(2)
Seq_(20)
String_(6)
Synth_(16)
Voice_ (3)
Wind_(4)

It's important to note that the 'acoustic' categories here aren't sampled instruments, and they don't pretend to be. These are synthesized emulations of realistic instruments; similar to what you'd have heard in the very late '60s or the 70's. That type of preset construction has a signature sound all its own. The Kit_ patches ... I would describe those as single synth drums.

Anyone who has followed Craig Anderton's work over the years won't be surprised at the number of sequences offered, or at the pad presets. The concept of 'synchrosonics', as applied to Rapture, is most evident here. It's a perfect match, really. {Aside to CA: Next on my own agenda is a AdrenaLinn III adaptation for Rapture. Talk about a match made in Heaven ...}

32 waveforms from the miniMoog occupy just over .1 meg total of Multisample real estate. That is the heart & soul of this expansion pack.
Old school stuff: authentic variations on pulse, square, triangle, sawtooth, noise, etc.

I've swapped out a number of my own presets with the new waveforms. It reminds me of how much any preset relies on the core oscillators for its characteristic sound. That alone may be worth the price of admission here. Rapture has all of the carving tools to take them wherever you may want from there. Is it a Moog? No. Does it come very close, or close enough in the context of a preset or song? In many cases, the answer is yes.

There are even a handful of user-defined LFOs tossed into the package for good measure. I'm happy to see someone tapping that amazing feature. It's woefully under-utilized. The included videos are ... nice. It's cool that they were added to the expansion pack, and I did enjoy watching them a few times. That's just not something that would/should make or break the deal for anyone. Enjoy them, and consider that to be a bonus.

Bottom line:

- It sounds good-to-great.
- You're forking out about 50 cents per-preset, if you never utilize the multisample content in your own presets.
- They're authentically programmed by someone who has been there and back.
- The oscillators are realistic, and very well-recorded/tweaked by professional sets of ears.
- The processing that follows in Rapture is second-to-none, and can take the content far beyond its original container.
- The videos add a nice touch.

That said, the patch set seemed to work very well and sounded great in Rapture LE.

As far as I can see, Mike, there are no dependencies to Rapture (Pro) that prevent anything from working as advertised in Rapture LE. That makes sense: it's a self-contained package with everything that you need. Of course, you can't see how the presets were constructed using LE.

Edit - That almost directly leads to the following request: Will someone please do a comprehensive (like 2-300 patches or so) 1980s synth-hits collection with sounds as close to the original records as possible. For example.....no I'm not going there. Anyone interested already knows the examples to go to!

Try downloading the Muz3um soundset for z3ta+. The waveforms come from various older synths and you can use them in Rapture.

ORIGINAL: squarel7

How does it compare to Minimonsta or the arturia minimoog? I didn't get to see the presentation. Anyone buy it yet?

Well, it does not sound like minimonsta. It sounds like rapture with a lot of Minimoog flavor. Minimonsta is shooting for good emulation via similar controls, while moog expansion pack relies on rapture controls.

I am used to minimonsta and its control layout, so different controls threw me off initially, but having raptures engine opens new possibilities - two filters per "oscilator" is soo cool, not to mention step seqencer. OTOH having LFO/Enveloper for each knob in minimonsta remains unrivaled.

All in all I feel that it is very good complement to Minimonsta. By no means it is competing with Minimoog soundset, but if you like minimonsta, probability is high you are going to love expansion pack.

ORIGINAL: cmusicmaker

Brandon in fine form as usual...Minimoog Tribute Expansion pack Sonicstate Video

Nice hair. Also, nice Cakewalk by Roland tshirt

Seriously, though, good demo. Neat sounding patches. I'm really looking forward to getting Rapture up and running with this.

ORIGINAL: agincourtdb


Nice hair. Also, nice Cakewalk by Roland tshirt

Yes that T- Shirt was a bit of a surprise.

First of all, thanks for the kind comments :) I put a lot of work into those patches so it's very gratifying people are finding them useful. One tip: Please remember that the mod wheel does something useful in all the patches, and we're not just talking vibrato...for example, with the basses, the mod wheel makes a huge difference in the tonality.

The Minimoog Tribute expansion is definitely NOT intended to replace the Minimoog "clone" instruments. Instead, I wanted to take those signature oscillator sounds, and put them in a different context. The end result is something that has a Minimoog "feel," but a contemporary sound.

That said, I couldn't resist putting in some iconic Minimoog patches too: Bass, French horn, vox, etc. Rapture did them so well it seemed a shame not to include them.

However, the overriding issue here is that Bob Moog was a friend and I miss him a lot. I wanted to create sounds that didn't try to reproduce what he did, but adapt them to something different. I feel that he would have considered it more of a tribute that he inspired me to try something new based on his work rather than imitate something old.

Bob gave this industry so much...whether you buy the expansion pack or not, please consider a donation to the Bob Moog Foundation at http://www.moogfoundation.org. We owe him so much. And props to Cakewalk for agreeing to donate a portion of their profits to the Moog Foundation.

An incredible buy.

...great concept Craig! And THANK YOU for thinking of Bob and his family by supporting them financially with this project. I love it when art and music are about PEOPLE. Bob Moog's name had crossed my path many times. It even got mentioned in one of my classical music conservatory's music history courses. But I never considered just how much we all owe to him until I watched your NAMM 2008 webcast. (By the way, I LOVED the story about Bob and the Reason patch cables. ) This is a terrific project, cause and attitude.

Thanks!!

ORIGINAL: squarel7

How does it compare to Minimonsta or the arturia minimoog? I didn't get to see the presentation. Anyone buy it yet?

This comment isn't so much about the Minimoog Tribute Expansion Pack, but I thought you might find it interesting.

When I did a Pro Review of Rapture at Harmony Central, there was some question about how the Rapture filters sounded. I set up the LP filter on Rapture the same as the LP filter on the Arturia Minimoog emulation, swept a sawtooth waveform, posted the resulting samples online, and asked if anyone could identify which was which. No one could with any certainty.

I happen to think Arturia did a good job of modeling the Minimoog filter, so I thought it was interesting that with a little bit of tweaking, the Rapture lowpass filter could achieve a sound so similar to the Arturia that no one could really tell the difference.

I should also add that in case anyone wondered, Cakewalk did not ask me to come up with this patch set. I came up with it for my own music because I really like Rapture and use it a lot. After I did about 50 patches I asked Cakewalk if they would be interested in a patch set, and they said yes. I finished the remaining 50 patches, and they liked the set, so it became a product.

ORIGINAL: Nick P

IMO the best Minimoog clone is the GMedia Minimonsta. To my ears it beats the Arturia.

I think your ears are correct, the Minimonsta has a bit more of the "bite" that some Minimoogs exhibited. I also really like the Creamware emulation; it's kind of old at this point, but it sounds a whole lot like my Mini.

I wish I could join in.

I'm trying to buy the download and I keep getting the message that my email address is not on the Cakewalk database.

This is rather strange when you consider that they bombard me with promo emails on the "unrecognised" address on an almost daily basis, and they have sent a number of registration codes and confirmation details in the past.

Anyone else having similar problems?

I've sent a query to the support team, but I'm not holding my breath. It is also fair to say that on every occasion that I have purchased via download, I have had a number of problems (like many previous posters).

Hi Brando,
Thanks for your comments.

Cakewalk responded very quickly, and the problem was now solved. Thanks Cakewalk.

It came back however when I tried to log in to buy the moog expansion pack. I know the email address is correct, so I simply closed the browser re-opened it and (you guessed it!) no problem.

Its not really a fix, but at leat I have a workaround. I'm currently downloading the software, and I am really looking forward to playing with it tonight.
All the best, and once again thanks Cakewalk for your very quick response.