Rapture: A Work in Progress?

Though Cakewalk touts that Rapture is winning awards I find it the most "unfinished" of the software synths I use. I've posted before about the quirky behavior it exhibits, and am perplexed by the MIDI controller assign page. There are the simple typos in the owner's manual, for example saying that volume is calculated in cents (cents refers to pitch, the division of the semitone into 100 equal parts) on page 61. Then there is the parameter information on the controller page itself, the "smooth" function isn't clear, and it is odd that the usual 0-127 values are not used. Plus the interface is so dark, it gets tiring to look at.

But what really is odd, is how Rapture integrates with Sonar. One would think the integration would be excellent, being that both software packages are made by the same company. But not so. Synths made by Virsyn (Tera) and Native Instruments (Massive, FM8) all integrate better; for example you can change patches in these instruments in Sonar without having to create a new instance, which is not the most elegant way to achieve more timbral diversity, not to mention requiring more CPU cycles.

Rapture sounds great and has some great patches. If only it were not in beta....

Finally, Cakewalk email tech support is dead in the water. Not good.

Jerry Gerber
www.jerrygerber.com

Rapture is different from massive/FM8. Not sure about tera. You can load a sample set in a element.

I suspect mixing single cycle/wavetables/and samples from a single oneshot wave file to a full sfz set could complicate things. FM8 and Massive use simple patch based voices. you can imagine the glitch you might encounter if you attempted a patch change that included a 30 mb set to ram during playback.

Are there any sample based softsynths that support support a patch change in sequence?

You seem to be comparing apples and oranges.

TERA is a multi-timbral, supporting 16- midi channels. Rapture is not (though it can support 1 channel per element, but this isn't really the way to achieve tonal 'diversity').

Learn to use Rapture and you'll change your tune. Examine the sophisticated modulation features available for each element, and how the native file format gives one an extra programming dimension for creating interesting sounds. Then look through the wealth of samples provided in the palette.

When you get to know this program, I think you'll eat your words.

Don't you just love some of these posts.

ORIGINAL: chitwilber
in what ways could someone use a stand lone sound source that doesn't support program changes?

I don't use stand alone instruments for performance. I use them for patch creation and programming.
However, I DO understand that people would want a way to automatically change patches and programs without having to interact with the UI where performance is concerned.

How common are program changes in standalone synths?
For example, all of the following have standalone versions... does anyone know which ones take program change messages:
IK SampleTank
IK Miroslav Philharmonic
IK Sonik Synth
Cake z3ta+
Cake Triangle II
NI Battery 3
NI Massive
NI FM8
NI Pro-53
NI Absynth

Just curious.
Are program changes the rule, or the exception?

- zevo

ORIGINAL: jsg

There are the simple typos in the owner's manual, for example saying that volume is calculated in cents (cents refers to pitch, the division of the semitone into 100 equal parts)Jerry Gerber
www.jerrygerber.com

Jerry, I don't think they consider that a typo, it's actually correct. Pitch is just one of the many things that are measured in cents. Cents simply means hundreth (just as per cent means per hundred). Anything that is measured on a scale of 0-100 is in cents.

I'm new to Rapture, so don't know if this is a common problem or also happens with other hosts.

Loaded Rapturre up as only track/plugin in LIVE 7.07

Lowest CPU usage for 1 rapture program was 35% -45%, and some programs were spiking up to 300% + (which is incredibly painful to listen to, and I didn't even think that was possible).

No other plugins of mine are using resources like that. After re-booting and re-trying Rapture with same results (several times), I loaded KONTAKT3 and went thru a variety of programs, CPU usage was consistently 3% -10% while running single program in K3.

My system is Intel dual core with 2 GB ram, EMU 1212M PCI card. ANybody else seen this behavior, is it a known issue, does it also happen with other hosts, is there a workaround?

Thanks for any tips or info,

in what ways could someone use a stand lone sound source that doesn't support program changes?

violin
trombone
flute
mini moog
snare drum
tea chest bass
banjo
you get the point