Rhino

This synth has rapidly become my main instrument.

The capabilities, variety and sonic quality blew me away from the start. Load up a long pad and find an oscillator, click through the wave forms and just listen to the variety you get ... you can even create your own which is a real hoot... actually I just counted.. there are about 74 wave forms available, and 6 user defined!!!

As with any 'new' product, there have been a few bugs but 'Tick is constantly updating the software, and adding features. As I write this I notice a new version is out, with two new features, and another patch bank is available. Support is excellent.

I like the GUI - now. It takes a little getting used to as each osc. is on a seperate tab, but once you play with it for a while this makes sense. This thing has so much under the hood that it would be daft (impossible) to try and fit it all into one screen. The only real issue I have is some of the colours but that may be down to the dud screen I have at the moment.

Full automation is supported and a real handy feature are the 'user sliders' on the main 'bank' page. This allows the patch programmer to set up 6 sliders for the main things you might want to tweak while playing, which stops you from having to flip through pages every time you want to assign a control.

I love the long evolving pads, drones and atmospheres you can get out of it however it is not just for this sort of sound. Standard bread and butter sounds are perfectly possible but this synth is built for experimenting. It is a little heavy on the CPU at times if you have all 6 osc's going with effects etc, but an optimised version (SSU ?) is in the works.

$100 is a bargain for Rhino (still don't know why it's called that ;) )

From the limited time I have had to muck about with this, I find the patches sit well in a mix. It has the capability to sit back and fill a track out or come screaming through to the front as and when you want.

A beautiful VSTi... I highly recommend it... and any synth programmers out there should find this a joy to use... if I can program it then anyone has a fighting chance. :) Download that demo, play with it and I'm sure you'll be tempted to buy it...

Thanks 'Tick for a stunning instrument.Read Review