- Product: Rhino 3
- Developer: MAP Audio
- Type: Hybrid FM synthesizer
- Version: 1.3.3
- Format: Standalone, VST3
- Requirements: Windows 10 or later
Six oscillators per voice with FM, additive and wavetable sources, two multimode filters, drawn envelopes, an FM routing matrix, a step sequencer and four effect slots. Play it below, in your browser.
Twenty-three years of Rhino
Rhino began at Big Tick Audio in 2003.
2003 – Rhino 1
Big Tick Audio’s first Rhino: a Windows VST instrument with six FM oscillators, two filters, drawn envelopes, a routing matrix, a step sequencer and effects.
2004 – Rhino 2
Free to every Rhino 1 owner. Added the additive page and a skin engine, came to the Mac in 2010, and grew through version 2.14 with 64-bit builds and a standalone.
2026 – Rhino 3
Made by MAP Audio in collaboration with Big Tick Audio: a new interface, a VST3 plugin for the first time, account activation in place of the key file, and a version that runs in the browser.
The engine
The sources mix inside one voice: an FM pair can sit next to a drawn spectrum, and both run through the same filters and envelopes.
Six oscillators, a full FM matrix
Each voice runs six oscillators. A source is one of the built-in waveforms or one of six wavetables you draw in the additive editor or derive from a WAV. Any oscillator can frequency-modulate any other, including itself, with exponential or linear scaling, and two ring modulators take any mix of the oscillators. Every oscillator has its own waveshaper.
Two filters, 26 modes
Lowpass, highpass, bandpass and notch at 12, 24 and 36 dB per octave, three analog lowpass and highpass models, and comb, allpass, diode, transistor-ladder, Sallen-Key and SEM types. Each oscillator sends to Filter 1, Filter 2 and a dry bus in any mix, each filter can feed back into the other, and a waveshaper sits inside each filter loop.
Envelopes you draw
Thirty-one of them: level, waveshape, pitch and phase per oscillator, cutoff, resonance and waveshape per filter, and a global pitch envelope. Up to 128 segments each, with curvature, a loop region and tempo sync. Keyboard tracking, velocity and aftertouch each have their own curve.
Effects
Four effect slots with 24 types: two delays, six choruses, three ensembles, a flanger, a quad phaser, four reverbs, a granulator, CrazyComb, autopan, rotary speaker, ring modulation, overdrive and a three-band EQ.
Every page, rebuilt
Every Rhino 2 page is here, redrawn, and every control shows its value.
Oscillators
Six per voice. Level, waveshape, pitch and phase envelopes, keyboard tracking, velocity and aftertouch curves, and the shape itself.
Filters
Two filters with 26 modes, from 12 to 36 dB slopes and analog models to comb, allpass, diode, ladder, Sallen-Key and SEM.
Additive
Draw a spectrum, or import a WAV, and play it as an oscillator source.
Matrix
The FM grid: every oscillator modulates any other, or itself, and feeds the two ring modulators, the filters and the dry bus in any mix.
Sequencer
Sixteen steps with note, velocity and length per step, a loop length, speed and a random mode.
Effects
Four slots, 24 effect types, six routings between them.
New in Rhino 3
- A new interface in a resizable window.
- Edit while it plays: drawn partials reshape held notes as you draw, and switching a waveform, filter mode, effect or preset fades instead of clicking.
- VST3 and Standalone on macOS and Windows, and AU on macOS.
- Two colour themes: MAP, and Heritage Teal.
- Randomize a page, one section or the whole preset by a chosen amount, keeping any locked sections. Each roll is one undo step.
- MAP Audio account activation, online or offline.
- Four effect slots, where Rhino 2 had two, and six routings between them. Drag in Rhino 1 and Rhino 2 presets, and Rhino 2 .fxb banks.
- Rhino 3 drops the VST2 build and the key-file copy protection. Rhino 2 stays installed beside Rhino 3 and keeps working.