Yeah Sweetwater has the desktop version too. I had to pick between them, and the Keyboard version won. (Sweetwater was still scrambling yesterday to get their web listing for these in order, hopefully it’s better today.) As far as i can tell the availability date for the two will be the same. We’ll see.
It’s super that in sound production they function pretty much the same.
On the desktop the colored pads (with poly-aftertouch as well!) with the various musical scale mappings, and added control functions is certainly a plus! And also its compactness and the weight, the keyboard with it’s armor weighs 10 kg (22 lbs). But the keyboard along with the downside of being bigger has the upside of being bigger which means to me it’s easier to control and less cramped. And there are four more arpeggiator encoder controls, and two more filter encoder controls. And of course the CS-80-like ribbon controller and poly-aftertouch standard keybed as we all know. I think there are a few more small things too. (A volume control on the headphones?)
So i went with the keyboard version, but have kept in mind that the two are set up to work together, being able to “spill” voices between them, and give you bi-timbrality, etc.
I agree with Loopop that being only mono-timbral is a short coming of the Hydrasynth.