Modulation madness
Rapid’s modulation setup is enormous. Each layer features four LFOs, four envelopes and four step sequencers, all of them assignable to any of (only) that layer’s controls, including those of its loaded effects. You get 32 assignments per layer, using drag-and-drop or menu selection (via the target control itself, or in one of the 32 routing blocks at the bottom of the layer), and the same source can be assigned cumulatively to the same target multiple times, for modulation scaling and accelerating.
The LFOs load two waveforms at a time from a lengthy list of standard and ‘designed’ shapes, with A and B Phase and Bend knobs shifting and skewing each wave, and the X-Fade knob morphing between them. The envelopes are ADSRs, with a Level control for the Attack stage and the ability to apply curvature to the Attack, Decay and Release stages. And the step sequencers are edited using a clever system whereby one of 20 preset curves is entered into each step, and dragging with the left and right mouse buttons adjusts the height of the leftand right-hand ends of the curve respectively. All of the modulators have their own preset libraries, to which you can add your own configurations.
Finally, although the modulation sources in one layer can’t be routed to targets in another, the three Macro knobs at the top of the interface are global, assignable to as many controls from across the whole synth as you like.