Rhino

Rhino is one synth that I first regretted purchasing. It had a few good sounds but the CPU load on my P4 was a killer. It also seemed to be pushed out the door a little early. This could be caused by all the ‘Tick followers that were screaming for the synth.

Over the months after release Tick has released frequent upgrades that moved this synth into competition with the big boys. There have also been some program banks released with some amazing sounds. The combination of program updates and new patch banks have pushed Rhino into the must have category. I am definitely glad I bought this synth. It is the only thing I know that can truly compete with FM7, Atmosphere and ABSynth when it comes to amazing pads. It can still be a bit CPU hungry on some patches, but that is ok. Sounds like this do not come from simple synths with low CPU needs. Tick has really created something with a special sound.

Pro’s – The sounds. Oh my. There are other pro’s, but it is the sounds that make this a must have synth.

Con’s – You load a single patch bank into the synth and it only holds 64 patches. I know that many VSTi’s also have this limitation but Rhino is not just another synth. I consider Rhino, FM7, z3ta+ and ABSynth to be a step above any other non-modular synth. Rhino is the only one of these that only loads 64 patches at a time. Yes, it is a small con but I cannot think of anything else.

RobertRead Review