All the Hydrasynths can receive and act on the MIDI Note-Off Velocity values. It’s a source in the Mod-Matrix, so what is done is up to the patch, and you, if you roll your own.
But only the keybeds in the Explorer and the Deluxe are capable of generating it. The values sent by the other two are always zero.
Warning Hexadecimal :
The MIDI Note-On byte is 0x9n, ( n is channel nibble ), followed by two bytes, Note Value, and Velocity. If the Velocity byte is zero, then this message also means Note-Off.
There is also a MIDI Note-Off message, first byte is 0x8n, followed by the same two bytes with the same meaning, but in this case the velocity of note off can be non-zero.
There are some very nice effects possible with MIDI Note-Off Velocities, which is also one of the “MPE polyphonic dimensions”. Remarkable also to me is that this all was built in to the 1983 MIDI Spec, the one Dave Smith was involved with.
I don’t own any of the HydraSynth models, but to me the jump in menu diving experiance between the Explorer and the larger models seems small at a first glance but I expect in practice it’s pretty massive - i.e. direct access to 8 parameters vs 4 (with all sorts of paging up & down to compensate). Plus seeing the values at a glance with the lights around the encoders
I own my fair share of very menu dive-ish gear and I’d say I’d happily pay extra for more control.
(Glares at MC-707 and Polyend Tracker and Ultranova)
The curse here is I feel annoyed when tweaking anything not on the first page (eg the envelope curves.) It’s only annoying relative to how accessible most things are. I call out envelopes because I usually tweak the decay time and curve together, so there is constant switching.
That experience seems better on the Deepmind, and it has to be psychological since I still have to switch back and forth while tweaking. In absolute terms it’s even worse because I have the faders on that set to jump, and that sounds like a nightmare saying it out loud. In practice I don’t even notice.
Edit: er, that is to say I don’t think having only 4 encoders is going to be as much of a drawback as it seems, except maybe with building wave tables (but it’s not like you need to populate the whole thing.) It might even lessen the psychological effect for me.
I own the Explorer and have played other models in the past — I don’t find the 4 knobs/parameters to be any more menu-divey or slower in practice. To me it even has some advantages (easier to take in 4 bits of information at a time vs. all 8 at once). This is all personal preference of course, but I’ve heard this view echoed in other reviews as well. ASM did a good job with the Explorer’s UX.
In my GAS addled brain I’d been bigging up the HydraSynth as a “big boy” synth I could treat myself too that justified all the bells and whistles the Keyboard version came with, but increasingly I think maybe not…
I don’t think I’ve ever agonised over a bit of gear (or rather choosing between three versions of a single bit of gear) this much in all my music nerding years
The price difference between the Explorer and other models is hardly to be sniffed at, but I’d put it out of mind as a too much of a compromise option
I hear you, it’s not an easy decision. All the models have their pros/cons.
For me, I was mostly deciding between the Desktop vs. Explorer (because I didn’t have the space or the $$ for the bigger ones). I ended up on the Explorer because I wanted something that felt like a complete instrument, something I could take on its own to a jam or sit and play by itself. I’m not a keys player but I liked the idea of having the keys built right in (I’ve never been a fan of attaching an external controller to gear), especially when they’re as expressive as these Hydra keys.
The Desktop doesn’t have Pitch or Mod controls, and the octave up/down requires a shift function with the pads. These might seem like minor gripes but they helped me in my decision, since it seemed clear that the Explorer would be more playable on its own vs. the Desktop. The Explorer also has rubber buttons which I like more, and I’m not the biggest fan of the LED ring around the knobs so losing that was a positive as well. Maybe I just got lucky that I happen to enjoy a lot of the limitations on the Explorer, but it’s just a really awesome synth — and at $499 it’s an absolute steal.
(Obligatory note that these are just the ramblings of one random synth nerd mind, I’m sure you’ll find the opposite arguments to be just as valid.)
I notice that I completely ignore the LED rings -_-
… little snippet …
And I stumbled today upon this, and I was hoping there would be a shortcut like this: “Press and hold the module button for the desired Modulation Sources - Press the module button for the
destination you want to modulate.” - awesome!
I’ve got a DT and an Explorer. The Explorer has three big plusses - battery-powered, pitch + mod strips. And swapping between the two there’s something fractionally more intuitive about my user experience. The DT has the big plus of the CV ins (more step lfo’s from the the E) and if you’re not particularly trained or interested in the conventional keyboard layout then pads are the way to go, although in an ideal world there’d be another row of them.
Version 2.0 Upgrade – Undocumented changes to clock sync ??
Ran across this video. I don’t know this presenter but he is talking with some knowledge and definition, so i do give this credence. It’s worth some examination.
Video has been queued.
He says that improvements were made to the clock sync, from DAWs and external synths. It is “far more stable” in his words.
I know others have had difficulties with this in the past ( i haven’t ) and so perhaps they can see if these improvements may have made things better for them.
This video has a good summary of V2.0 changes too.
For the Explorer last week, and allowed myself to get through the initial excitement. So, with that said, this is one of my all time, personally owned, favorite synths. It sounds great, is easy to use, well laid out, and plays/feels great.
Now, my question. Is there a way to eliminate the atrocious buzzing sound I get from plugging the USB in? It’s not just the Explorer, more or less most of my synths buzz with usb.
