Thx, actually issue solved with factory reset… I’ll never know where it came from but I think that was just a bug
Hmm… I haven’t tried using CV. I know, for example, envelope 2 doesn’t allow external signals, but you said you couldn’t get any to work.
1 Like
I’ll give it a try tomorrow.
1 Like
These are very helpful :
10 Likes
For me, after reading the manual and watching heaps of the Hydrasynth tutorials on You Tube… these vids are ‘next level’ in terms of putting all the ‘knowing how to use it’ to use.
1 Like
These are great, especially the “Rythmic Multilayer Patch” one - has a bit of that Barker (Chord-Arps/-Patterns like "Barker" - HOW?) sound to it…
I ordered a HS Keyboard the other day because I saw a price I could not resist but had been wondering whether I’ll cancel it or not as I also recently bought a Peak (again for a price I could not resist 
) and was feeling a bit… guilty!?.. but some of the vids I’ve seen, and especially that one, demonstrate how powerful the HS is compared to the Peak (which has its own selling points in terms of usabilty/playability, and is no slouch in terms of flexibility). I think I need both in my life so I’ll make peace with GAS 
Thanks for sharing!
1 Like
I also have both. They are both amazing. I don’t feel guilty at all.
1 Like
2020 started with discussion comparing the HS with the Argon. That went away, and there was discussion comparing the HS and the Peak. Now it seems perhaps we are into ideas with those two being separate and complimentary too. Perhaps 2021 will see us discussing something new from ASM ?
I am interested to hear your reactions when your HS arrives tdmusic.
3 Likes
Will be sure to post up my thoughts. I don’t think it will arrive until next year, that was the downside to the crazy price, but I’m in no rush.
Yeah, when I was first looking at the Peak and comparing to the HS, I was thinking of them as being quite similar synths, I guess because they are both pretty flexible… but now I’ve watched more videos of the HS I can see that it’s quite a different animal. What they have in common is that they are both flexible poly synths, but actually they have a lot more different than they do in common.
HS seems like a modulation dream machine with crazy degrees of control over every parameter but I imagine not exactly a “sweet spot” synth, more a “lose yourself for 4 hours making one sound” synth. Peak has elements of that but is much more on the immediate side, like I can turn on the Peak and have a great sound in 2 mins from Init, but I can’t do some of the stuff these HS videos show.
I’m sure they’ll be very happy together 
maybe I’ll even make some music to celebrate
2 Likes
Hi there, I’ve been looking looking for a hardware poly synth for a while now and really interested in the Hydrasynth. I’ve mostly been using Ableton Wavetables and absolutely love it but getting tired with the mouse and feel in the need for twiddling knobs!
I know the Hydrasynth has 2 filters but are these assignable to separate oscillators like the split mode in Ableton Wavetables? Thanks
Yes.
You should watch the 3 vids that I’d posted earlier. You will find the answer that I just gave you.
Oh this is fantastic, I’ll check them out now. Thanks for the reply 
1 Like
Hey wave.funktion –
There is a rather full function mixer between the oscillators plus ring mod/noise generator/external audio and the two filters. The filters can be set to work in parallel or series. So look in the manual for the Mixer Module to see all the ways you can route signals. Also in the manual check out the destinations for the Mod-Matrix, you can modulate almost all the mixer parameters. Since it’s part of the Mod-Matrix you can also set up external control for the mixer too.
2 Likes
Oh this is sounding like exactly what I’m looking for! I’ll check the manual tonight. Thanks mate.
1 Like
Would love to know some of your “a-ha” moments/“must try” things for the HS. I’ve had my HSK a couple of weeks and I’m very impressed with the design and usability of the synth considering its complexity, and am in awe at the depth of its engine… but am struggling a bit to make things that sound that good, if you know what I mean?!
I guess I am comparing to my experience with Peak, which I also got fairly recently, and is the kind of synth that it’s hard to make it sound bad… whereas the HS requires some more thought to make it sound good. Probably the thing I’ve been enjoying most is making crazy modular-esque patches with the Step LFOs etc but I’d love to explore the more melodic side too.
Not looking to be convinced to hold onto it, I definitely plan to do so, but just interested to know some of people’s favourite starting points etc… the presets are mostly relatively unimpressive!
2 Likes
I know what you mean. I also have both peak and hsk and I agree it takes a lot more effort to make the hsk sound good. It does go places the peak won’t ever reach though!
I like to couple both filters to a single macro knob, then experiment with different filter types, different types of routing (serial/parallel, different filter for each osc 1/2, etc) and then tweak 
also I like to then map polyaftertouch to the macro knob as well.
Another thing I like to do is “clone” osc 1 to osc 2, then pan osc 1 hard to the left and pan osc 2 hard to the right. Detune osc 2 just a little bit and you get a really wide stereo sound.
I also like mutants like pwm and sync with a ratio of 0.500, this will usually make the sound a lot buzzier/grittier because it only applies every second wave cycle.
Another thing: if I want the classic “roland” PWM sound, I use a saw wave with PhazDiff mutant, 100% wet and use Depth to control PW. This sounds a lot better than the regular PWM mutant with a saw wave.
3 Likes
Awesome, exactly the kind of thing I was afte, thank you! 
going to try these tips out now, thank you! I had totally forgotten you can “copy” settings from one Osc to the other
Exactly, and this is why I want to persevere and learn it – when I think about the possibilities of all that modulation it blows my mind, but it’s such a blank canvas that it is kind of overwhelming! Both awesome synths, but both with very different designs and goals.
The Hydrasynth really grows on me
1 Like
Here’s a good example of what can be done using the internal 64 steps on the LFO’s to set up a melodic pattern without using a MIDI sequencer. I think Oliver Meyer is just using three separate LFO’s in 64 step mode, with SemiLock ON so that the step settings are all set to semitones values. Each LFO is then sent to a separate oscillator of a held note.
7 Likes
I just ran across this video of Dominic Au setting up an HSD to be played with MPE from a ROLI Seabord Block. He does some playing in the second half of the video, so you can hear things, but this is mostly to show about how to set things up and use the HS Mod-Matrix to map the MPE parameters to various controls. Nothing earth shattering here, an average user probably knows all this already, or could figure it out, but it might be an inspiration to actually see it explained and shown.
It has me thinking about doing the same sort of things, only with the controller being an Osmose, and what that might be like.
ADDED: Sensel just release a set of presets in Express MPE, for the Hydrasynth, played with the Sensel Morph with MPE. That pack includes support for other devices as well. Here’s a video they did as a part of this release, that uses the Buchla Thunder Overlay, an HSD, and a Model:Samples in support.
And this:
You can get the Express MPE from the Sensel website.
If this interests you, you can also look back at this post.