I hope it works easily for you too! I use both of them together all the time and try not to think about how much I’d like to have the HSK now. I didn’t think that much on poly AT when I bought the HSD because I’m not that good of a keyboard player, but now I kinda regret it 
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Hey all,
I know I can assign my (FAVS) for quick access on the Macro knobs however I’m trying to do something else with them but need to know something. Iv’e tried but failed.
What I’m wanting to do is…
Assign x2 Macro knobs say 3 and 4 so that Macro 3 is controlling internal banks on the HSD and Macro 4 is controlling programs within the HSD and maybe use one or two of the LFO’s to change banks/presets so the HSD could work say like the Tip Top Audio Sample module.
Is this possible or are the Midi CC on Hydra for external control only? Be cool if I could just have 1 or 2 quick Macros for fast changing banks and presets playing live.
Thanks
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I don’t think so, but let’s think about this “out loud”.
The three ways i know to change programs on the HS:
- Program change knob, and up down arrow controls.
- Buttons on the Favorites pages.
- Program Change MIDI command with PC RX set to ON in System Setup.
These three are scoped to the System, and are independent of Patch.
There is MIDI CC ( Control Change ) Out from the Mod-Matrix, but there is no Program Change out from the Mod-Matrix.
You could rig an external MIDI processor to send a Program Change in response to receiving a CC. That could theoretically respond to an LFO or Macro on the HS. The LFOs and Macros are scoped to the Patch, not the System, so you could set this Program Change method up in each patch and have them hooked together somehow.
Probably not what you’re seeking but an strange / interesting thing that could be done. Maybe this spurs other ideas.
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Yeah Jukka was just thinking of ideas for live and quick changing of presets via a macro knob assigned to and lfo or something. So much possibilities with this synth it’s unreal… Wish I could program my own Arp Phrases tho however with some trickery I can mix up Phrases, Lengths, Gate with lfo’s etc.
I’m demoted to the kitchen for an all nighter with sound design on HSD… Let the fun begin. Got HSD hooked up with Logic for doing midi and audio demos, happy days I should have a bank out by Christmas 
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Using the LFO in step mode to actively modulate the Phrases is the closest you can come to this. I posted about this not to long back. It’s fiddly to do but eventually does yield interesting results.
I’ve wanted to do my homework, and create some sort of database of the internal Waves and Phrases. The Waves could get grouped by spectral content. Not sure how to classify the Phrases. Think of those 2-D maps of blobs that show a positional relationship between abstract things.
Have fun.
ADDED : Also check out a later post in the regular thread where i discover you can change the Phrase length to wonderful affect. Really short phrases are now my thing.
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Do you think ASM will ever make it possible for users to program or import their own phrases in future? I mean some are ok but there’s a lot of cheesy stuff their whereas I would like to do my own riffs, not a big deal but they could maybe do it via a software so we could roll our own?
I had to switch to Logic with HSD as Ableton has way too much latency, Logic here is spot on everything lines up.
Hydra is by far the easiest synth to do sound design on IMO great for House and Techno. Will post some sound demos a couple of weeks before Christmas.
Rob
I’ve wondered too.
Not your question but others have asked about customized Waves. I think the possibility of that is virtually NIL. That’s hardly needed with the 219 existing Waves, and all the other waves you can make by partially mixing any two of those 219. That pretty much cover most everything.
But as for Phrases, that seems a lot more possible and far more useful. Early on there was some plan by ASM for a computer based editor. If that ever happened then Phrase editing might be part of that. Or not. Would be interesting to know how Phrases are constructed and work, how they interpret any arpeggiator pattern.
They’ve surprised me before, like by adding Microtonal Scales, and doing a great job with that. The nice thing about ASM being, at the present, a one engine company, is they are focused on developments for that one engine.
I think so too. Will look forward to the Christmas-time sound demos.
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Yeah I’m not bothered about wavetables really Jukka although they do come in handy and Hydra has some good ones although I could make a full bank with just basic waveforms if need be. It’s more the Phrase stuff I’d like to be able to have customisable. The FX are ok but would have liked to have say 1/8 on the left and 1/8d on the right etc, basic FX on Hydra but can sound really good.
The mod matrix and macros is where the fun is at here tonight, currently designing some techno stabs on HSD. Fantastic synth spot on timing in Logic but meh with Ableton.
Not sure what you’re talking about of latency in Ableton? Every synth has some latency but you can compensate for it. Just dial in once and save as a preset.
I guess Logic does it automatically?
Just stumbled across this video from Sarah Belle Reid. Great tips for experimental sounds. My favourite are the random one shot modulations…
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Very nice.
- Feedback in Mutants
- One Shot S&H ( Random ) LFO
- Stepped LFO Sequences
- Alternate Envelope Trigger Sources
- Unison Mode Voicing Trick
The last one is new for me.
=-=-=-=-=-=
Something i’ve been playing with lately that she mentions quickly toward the end is using an LFO to vary the rate of a steped LFO. You can set that up to set a rate one time, but you also can have that continuous vary ( note or whatever ) lengths.
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Very inspiring! I have to put those Waldorfs away for a while and get the Hydra out again. She mentions also combining all those techniques. Fun!
These also can be combined with the key splitting i posted about earlier. The self modulation of Mod-Matrix slots is really powerful.
I’ve been using a velocity splitting technique, that has opened my eyes to some things. I’ll try to post a recipe for that sometime.
The Hydrasynth is the infinity machine.
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Looking forward to Osmose as a controller for the HS. The extra MPE parameters will open up new possibilities.
Sarah Belle Reid has used the Sensel Morph ( as have i ) for this but i really look forward to Osmose making that control even more natural.
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About the HS Deluxe ( October 2021 ) :
=-=-=-=-=-=–=
From two days ago:
Simple Patch Recipe : Velocity Splitting
This is similar to the Keyboard Splitting Recipe that i posted earlier. I’ve been trying to create features similar to those available in the new Hydrasynth Deluxe.
The basic principle here is applying the Velocity On parameter to the Mixer.
- Start from the Init patch, or if you have them and prefer a simple template patch.
- Go to Osc 1. Set it to Single Mode Sine Wave.
- Go to Osc 2. Set it to Single Mode Saw Wave.
- Go into the Mixer. Set Osc 1 to 0.0
- In the Mixer set Osc 2 to 128.0
- Go to the Mod-Matrix. Set slot 1 — Src to Velocity On, Dst to Mixer : Osc 1 Vol, and Depth to +128.
- In the Mod-Matrix. Set slot 2 — Src to Velocity On, Dst to Mixer : Osc 2 Vol, and Depth to -128.
That’s the basics. A softly played note will be a saw wave, a note played hard will be a sine wave, and notes played with a velocity in between is a blend of sine and saw. Obviously you’ll want to add to this and modify it to your liking.
Note that poly-aftertouch, gets applied to whatever basic timbre and settings that that note has been created with.
The Mixer can be thought of as having eight channels, one for each note played, and set to the values that are connected to that note.
The Keyboard Splitting Recipe was more successful than this patch recipe. While the Keyboard Splitting Patch very clearly transitioned from one sound to another across one or two keyboard keys, this Velocity Split is a lot less defined and is a more gradual transition rather than a sudden change. A sudden change ( or a gradual change ) is possible on the Deluxe. Perhaps there is a way to tweak this patch to get a more distinct transition. Or perhaps you may prefer the more gradual change.
You do need to practice using this patch, to get the feel of the velocity needed, and the fact that velocity change is not about louder and softer, but is now about different timbre.
Changing the keyboard velocity settings in System Setup will obviously change the playing feel of this patch.
This patch could be used on the HS Deluxe, though i see little reason why you would want to do that.
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Hey everyone 
I just released a 6-hour Hydrasynth course if anyone is interested in taming the beast!
Sign up here: James Orvis Mailing List
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I learned today how to import Scala files into Hydrasynth. I went to this website microtonalsoftware.com: Let’s Convert Scala Files to MIDI Tuning Standard (MTS) files! to convert .scl to .syx file. I dropped the .syx into reaper, set the Hydrasynth system set up microtonal page from ‘receive’ to ‘waiting’ then faffed about in the midi menus in reaper until success.
But no .kbm loading, unlike on e.g. the -logues. For a lot of tunings this doesn’t matter so much, but for something like 31 the default mapping from 0-127 gives you 4 low octaves starting from a very very low note, unlike the preinstalled 31 tuning. There are probably better ways, I used the Monologue librarian to manually change midi note 0 from e.g. c-1 to c#+1 and on up 128 fun times and then re-export.
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Question for the Hydra mavens. I’m thinking of grabbing an explorer this week. Just wondered how you’re all sequencing this thing? I could send notes from the DN but then I don’t get Poly AT. Alternatively if I played notes from HS into live or Bitwig would the PAT midi be recorded in and then retrigger the HS when played back in??
Thanks in advance…
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Since you’re using Bitwig, then you could use MPE with the Hydrasynth. Others can say whether they prefer using Bitwig with polyphonic-aftertouch or MPE.
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