This is something that could be happening rather than is happening.
The Hydrasynth Desktop has poly aftertouch pads arranged like a three string guitar. The Diosynth has the wavetable parts, and the LFOs and envelopes, and mod matrix from the Hydrasynth, combined with a two layer multi sample play back part, all battery powered with wireless MIDI output. If they put these parts together with a well done industrial design, and a new collection of sampled sounds, maybe adding a Karplus-Strong section, and this could make a very interesting, and capable, and unique synth / controller.
( I’m a hw sw product designer, so i well know the amount of work involved, beyond the elevator pitch but thought this worthy posting here. )
Neutral Labs who makes Scrooge and Elmyra 2 have a new, device set to be announced March 2nd.
ADDED : Any new word on this ? That announcement date is fast approaching.
ADDED : It’s a patchable CMOS logic board ( fits Eurorack ) made musical, called Luna ( thread ).
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It looks like Oddmentmay be formalizing some binaural effect processing into their ODD-1 granular synth, due out the middle part of this year.
Oddment founder John Woodruff has background in the science of binaural audio and put together this video specifically on that topic, also applying the use of the ODD-1.
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Dreadbox had and maybe still has a keyboard synth in development. @rklemposted about it back in October of 2024, based on an interview, where Yiannis of Dreadbox talked about using a Fatar keybed in a new synth. To my knowledge there has been no new word on this, but i wouldn’t doubt that this could still be under way.
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I posted about this earlier :
There’s a new video out, and they’ve added a lot of new, what i think, are very useful features.
Rob Puricelli of Prosynth Network asked Glen Darcey this question, together with other future product questions, and Glen gave the standard, “will not confirm or deny” answer, though he added he knew the answer to some of the questions.
As i’ve said elsewhere i think a direct follow on to the Hydrasynth is fairly likely. One problem i see is there are four HS products already; do you release four Mk2’s ?
The Hydrasynth has been around for a while, but it’s seems to me it’s no where near EOL.
Another possibility would be to just have something else with a whole new name that inherits some aspects of the Hydrasynth but goes in some new directions too.
I don’t see the Hydrasynth losing its place in the market anytime soon. It’s the affordable and versatile MPE-friendly sound designers synth and they just marketed serious upgrade over it to compete with the other actual upgrades over it. Its IO and interface are perfectly fine and not specifically showing age and to this day nobody else has sold a 600 dollar 8 voice keyboard synth with polyphonic aftertouch, digital or otherwise.
If it isn’t facing manufacturing problems or a real drop in sales the only reason to make a mk 2 would be if they figure out a way to add more voices and layers and a sequencer without making it more expensive.
That said they should just strap a new manufacture but otherwise unchanged access virus Ti2 to their 61 key polytouch board with ribbon and start printing money.
Edit: There’s the Cre8audio logo printed on the device, so we can estimate something along the line of the Boom Chick and Assembler; So cheap and feature packed
An excerpt:
*The Program sequencer features four CV tracks and 8 drum tracks. You can select tracks using the buttons on the left. The step sequencer has 32 pads, which suggests it has 32 steps. However, I suggest there will be multiple pages, and so you have at least 64 steps.
Alongside classic transport controls (play, record, stop), you can find various workflow buttons, including page, octave down, octave up, sequencer, and clear. There are also shift functions like hold, song mode, save, copy, MIDI settings, and more
The Programm sequencer also seems to have a number of creative tools built in, so that you can build very evolving patterns.*