Grendel RA-99 Grenadier - Official synth demo

The Grendel RA-99 Grenadier is new for 2020 and continues boldly into the sound territory of the original RA-9 from 2015. This is an original and excellent all-analog synthesizer from Rare Waves that implements parallel formant synthesis with a triple-VCF filter bank (1x LPF, 2x BPF). Voice-like vowel tones, stabby and juicy alien acid sounds, eerie drone incantations, filtered noise percussion, dark electro basslines, pitched Miami bass drums, wispy analog leads and more are at the producer’s fingertips. This synth uses CV-Gate control and gives you multiple v/oct inputs to creatively stack the CV sources from your sequencers to elevate its melodic potential. The accurate single VCO has voltage-controlled wave shape, a sub-octave square wave, and a pink noise source for furry warmth. RA-99 also features a pair of multi-function modulation sources that change from envelope generator to LFO by pushing a button. As envelopes, they can be either Decay or Attack-Release, with precise exponential curves. As LFOs, they have variable symmetry for triangle-sawtooth shapes, also pulse wave and clock outputs. LFO rate and envelope time can be voltage controlled. A pushbutton lets you assign either modulator to the main volume VCA. Both of RA-99’s modulators include bipolar attenuators to add animation to the filter bank, plus patchable modulation outputs to drive the synth’s other parameters. Its assembled in the USA by Rare Waves LLC (Texas). Grendel RA-99 Grenadier is designed and supported by Eric Archer.

[@stefvanloon8988]

For people in the EU I'm happy to inform you that Schneiders is expecting the RA-99 in about 3 weeks :)

[@denniboger6581]

I love your synths.

[@baronswodeck5068]

Awesome sounds, I love the drones!

[@jasoneskridge6453]

that sub out into mix in option is great, luv the oomph it adds

[@MusicGearNuts]

Cool! Triple filter acid action :)

[@TH3_FURY]

Very interesting synth which sounds pretty good !

[@denniboger6581]

Magnificent

[@serdarsaydan]

amazing 🤩

[@bill77]

This thing sounds great! Definitely going to have to pick one up.

[@VJFranzK]

Wuuuaaaaaa...! Sounds good. 🤖

[@badx001]

Love it!

[@argiletonne]

formant can be great, still limited; any plans to make something that included multiple synthesis methods, I like the build quality and sound quality.

[@hmbrt12]

For those vowel-like sounds, is there any specific synthesis type or model that you're using? Is it just the filter's character?? 🎛️👄🤖🤘🏻

[@EA78751]

Its 3 filters together, in speech modeling its parallel formant synthesis

[@fuzzpope]

Heavy Want.

[@comesect]

is this a stand alone synth or does it need to be paired with other cv units?

[@EA78751]

It can do some droney stuff by itself, but you'll need a CV-Gate key controller, CV-Gate sequencer, or MIDI-CV converter to get the most out of it.

[@eleven_live]

great!
could we have a nice acid demo, RA-9 style with a couple of nice sequences? pretty please :)

[@stefvanloon8988]

lol I like your sense of humour - did we just listen to an entire demo without any acidic sounds? lol #lackofimagination lol

[@ivanlevacic6012]

@@stefvanloon8988 hey, yes there are acidic sounds in the demo and i can imagine. however, it's not exactly a cheap synth so i would really like to hear more before i pull the trigger. i want to use it speciffically for acid patterns with slides, accents and all. cheers :)

[@stefvanloon8988]

@@ivanlevacic6012 Gotcha ;) You may also want to look into the Rare Waves Hydronium, it does feature an accent function while as far as I'm aware the RA-99 doesn't. The Hydronium is also somewhat cheaper and available as DIY...And the new batch of Hydro's comes in some pretty funky colour combos ;)

[@ivanlevacic6012]

@@stefvanloon8988 yes i know, i've been considering a hydronium for quite a while but i already have a nice 303 clone. i believe the grenadier would bring me some new flavours :)

[@DonPritchard1850]

No DIY?

[@stefvanloon8988]

Indeed, which is par for the course for devices under the Grendel brand, devices that are available as DIY are released under the Rare Waves brand - in any case that is my assumption ;)

[@DonPritchard1850]

@@stefvanloon8988 Gotcha. I built the Hydronium last year and when I saw this it got me excited.

[@stefvanloon8988]

@@DonPritchard1850 Understandably so ;) I love my Hydronium but have been looking forward to a successor to the Ra-9 for a loooong time and the RA-99 so far seems to beat all my expectations, truly a masterpiece imho

[@PaulBoos]

Stef van loon I’m hoping to complement my RA-9 (and Hydronium) with an RA-99 because twice the acid can only be beat by three times the acid.

[@lg88-j5d]

psy trance music instrument