Small Observation : It’s nice that the Theremin can quantize to Microtonal scales.
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The Deluxe allows you to layer two separate Hydrasynth patches overtop of each other.
As an alternative to that here’s two examples with Sun God RA layering a Hydrasynth Explorer, with an older lo-fi sampler, the AKAI S612.
This first example uses a vibe sound from the S612, with a vocal patch on the Explorer. ( These are both short videos. )
This second example uses some icy samples from the Explorer, combined with a bass played by the Explorer.
This is a way to do interesting layered sounds with the Explorer, without the expense of the Deluxe.
Again notice how well the Explorer fits physically with this synth.
Obviously layering with other synths ( non-sampling ones ) is possible too. There is also a real opportunity, to use a small amount of MIDI processing, between them as well – for instance inverting the velocity, and / or thresholding and such. There are ways to do splits too. ( ADDED : More on this later. ) Also applying output MIDI modulations and Macro control from the HS, and per note aftertouch, adds options too.
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Hi all, I’ve learned and discovered a lot through this thread. So I just wanted to share a link to a patch library I found on youtube the other day that I’m really digging. I tried searching in this thread to see if anyone had posted it yet, but nothing came up. Also, I thought I remembered seeing a post on this thread (from jukka maybe?) that was compiling a list of new patch libraries/sound banks, but I couldn’t find that either. I might just have bad thread-searching skills, lol. So apologies if this has already been posted.
Here’s a link to the demo video. The link to the patches are in the description beneath the video. There is a Part Two video on his youtube page where he demos the rest of the presets. I’ve played a lot of the different patch libraries that are available online and there are some really good ones (the 300 preset Ultimate Patches collection is excellent if you’re looking for recreations of other synths/sounds), but I’m posting this one cause it’s pretty unique. Really creative use of the Macros, Mod wheel, Poly Aftertouch and Ribbon. A couple individual presets were worth the price alone for me (the strings at 1:27, for instance).
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How does everyone feel about the Hydrasynth’s PWM? I’ve played the keyboard version twice now but every time I try to make some Juno-style PWM keys, it sounds a little off to me.
I’m told I should try using the PhazDiff mutant with a saw wave.
I actually just compared the pwm using phazdiff with the Juno-106 emulation on my System-8 and it could come pretty close. You just have to make sure that the duty cycle range matches. Not sure about the exact settings anymore, but I think you get better results by using an LFO unipolar to the depth of the phazzdiff
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Did we have this video already? Sensel Morph controlling a Hydrasynth Desktop.
It’s like „listening“ to an abstract painting. How the hell does she get all those tones out of it at the same time?
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Appareciate that, I’ll try it out.
By the way, was I hearing things, or would you agree that the Hydrasynth’s PWM-Orig setting is interesting but not quite the classic Roland PWM sound?
I’ve watched a couple of her videos. Pretty cool in a westy-Buchla-style sort of way. I thought about setting up something like this, but since I build modulars of this sound-aesthetic anyway, I figured it would be redundant.
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But I think it’s pretty impressive what the Hydrasynth is capable off in the right hands. Modular in a box.
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That’s right. For classic PWM use the phasediff
I don’t think so. Sarah Belle Reid has been working on using the Morph with HS for a while. I posted an earlier video of hers using the same Buchla Thunder overlay with the two. Your video link is later and you can see the progress. She knows both parts of this pair really well.
A small part of the trick for getting such a range of sounds is using the extra MPE parameters in the Sensel Morph interface, beyond those available from the HS key or pad interface. Best to apply those parameters to the per voice factors that you can vary. Sensel developed a series of MPE interfaces for various synths including the HS. I posted about that earlier in the Tips and Tricks thread.
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This is happening to me as well, luckily it is a minor inconvenience.
Jamming on Hydrasynth DT last night, and when playing with the reverb, discovered that if you extend reverb time, at max setting it changes to Freeze and we’re off ‘feeding tones into epic reverbant drones’ territory!
I try to avoid baked in verb on synths as I have better verbs externally, and can’t always predict the final context… but I thought this was a really nice feature & logically accessible… All verbs should do this!
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September 2019 :
=-=-=-=-=-=–=
Two Weeks Ago :
Simple Patch Recipe : Keyboard Splitting
- Start from the Init patch, or if you have them and prefer a simple template patch.
- Go into the mixer and turn Osc 2 up to 128. ( Note : Soloing the tracks from here in the mixer is useful, for modifying this patch later. )
- Go to Osc 1, set it to WaveScan Mode, set the Wavescan parameter just short of 2 at 1.9. Edit the Wavelist tweaking Wav 2 through 8 one notch up to Silence. Set Wav 1 to your preferred bass voice.
- Go to Osc 2. Tune it down an octave, 12 semitones.
- Repeat step 3 on Osc 2, and set Wav 1 to your preferred treble voice.
- Now go into the Mod-Matrix. Set slot 1 — Src to Keytrack, Dest to Osc 1 : WaveScan, and Depth to +128. Set slot 2 — Src to Keytrack, Dest to Osc 2 : WaveScan, and Depth to -128.
- Store this off to a template patch if you’d like.
That’s the basics. The keyboard is now split at Middle C, with two different voice. Move the voices up and down in pitch as you please. You can now go in and add separate Mutants as you wish to each. Also you can use the mixer to pan the two voices right and left, and also in addition to send the voices off to use separate filters. You are free to apply separate modulations to all of this, including things like LFO step sequences to each side.
Is this multitimbral ? I’ll leave that for you to decide.
The secret to this is using the two Oscillators separately, and letting Silence in Wavescan to turn voices ON and OFF, with Keytrack splitting this across the keyboard.
This basic concept can be used in other ways too.
This should also work on the Deluxe, allowing three or four independent voices, though i’ve not tried it obviously. By panning the four voices, you should be able to get four independent outputs.
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Going to try this tonight, thank you very much!!
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You can modify this patch and ( sort of ) get three zones. Change the two Wavescan parameters in Osc 1 & 2 from 1.9 to something around 4. This pushes the split switch zones out approximately an octave either side of middle C. Then turn Osc 3 up in the mixer, and decide on the Wave you want to use for it. Now there are three zones : [ Osc 1 + Osc 3 ][ Osc 3 ][ Osc 2 + Osc 3 ] .
And off we go !
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Any demos out there of the Desktop’s pads being extensively played? I’m between the Desktop and the Explorer right now and am unsure of the playability of the pads.
Flux does a video specifically about using a Hydrasynth ( he has an Explorer, but it’s similar for them all ) to control computer based synths and VSTs.
( Recent. Seven minutes long. )
This end of the HS as a controller has been less explored and Ken has some good ideas here.
( Nothing here that is earthshaking, so advanced users will know this, but it is still a good summary.)
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This is a really nice patch idea! I’ve done similar things using the keyboard to modulate volume of the different oscillators but hadn’t thought to use WaveScan with silence.
That sounds like a good idea too Hinterlands. It’s always good to put ideas together.
One limiting factor in this “multi-timbral” approach is you’re limited to one oscillator per voice. But you can combine this idea with using an external synth together with the HS, like in the Sun RA videos i recently posted. Then you could use two oscillators both playing together, with Silence on part of the keyboard where an external synth ( in hardware or software ) would sound.
You might choose to filter the MIDI out so that the internal and external parts are entirely separate, but blocking voices internally on the HS, saves you from having to use MIDI Local OFF, and looping processed MIDI back to the HS.
Of course the Deluxe has all this sorted out, so you can easily split an internal and zn external part.