Stimming got some nice sounds out of it. 
and, oddly enough, the sweetwater demo by Daniel got some great sound out of it as well.
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I think you made a solid choice.
Iām not sure how sequencing the Osmose would work but Iād be curious to see what you decide on what to use to sequence the Hydrasynth, if any.
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The ship made it across the Pacific ā mineās on the way now too. (Iām in the USA.)
Wonder how many ASM shipped? ā must be a hot seller. (My retailer tells me so anyways.)
Perfect Circuit changed the status back from In-Stock to Pre-Order again.
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Scheduled for delivery today, here. I am very excited.
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I havenāt had a ton of time, so this is just some quick observations; Iāll try to do a more thorough breakdown when Iāve got a little more experience.
The good:
Patching/navigating a patch is insanely easy for as complicated a synth as this is. It is really fast and clear. All of the demos remark on this, and I donāt think anyone is trying to play it up. Even on the occasions where you have to menu dive (which are few; I adjusted the velocity curve), everything is well-labeled and the display is crisp.
Everything sounds good. High fidelity. Thereās no zippering or aliasing as you adjust anything. Oh, and the bass is very much present and accounted for.
Poly aftertouch is a lot of fun, and it makes for a very dynamic playing surface.
The mixed:
Itās a bright, digital synth. I could wrangle some warmer sounds out of it, but thatās not its native state nor its inclination.
Although patching is easy, the depth is real. There are so many different ways to route things that it can be a little overwhelming. This is mostly a positive, but it can lead to a little paralysis/overthinking.
Iām not sure they nailed the filters. Actually, I think the second filter, that all of the demoers seem to ignore sounds great but the first filter, with all of the typesā¦ some of them work well (I donāt know as the āMS20ā filter sounds a great deal like an MS20 filter, but it sounds good; the LPG, too) but a lot of them feel likeā¦ different slopes for the same sound. I donāt know how well they interact with the oscillators, eitherāand this goes back to the ābrightnessāāthe filters seem to act more as EQ curves than wave-shapers (a saw, for instance, doesnāt sound āsofterā at a low cutoff, just ādarkerā). They are still very useful and usable, but it feels like maybe they missed the mark here some.
The potentially bad:
The pads feel great. Buuuuuuuuuutā¦ you need a lot of force to trigger them. The alternative, where they are jittery and retrigger all the time, would be just as bad. But at least for me, Iām not sure they found the right balance. Playing fast on the pads is, so far, a little hit and miss; sometimes a pad wonāt trigger because I havenāt applied enough force. It can also be a problem with holding chords; if I relax my fingers, they can dip below that force threshold and turn off, then get retriggered, since my fingers are hovering right around whatever that threshold is. Some of that may improve as I adjust to the surface, but itās not a great playing surface for me out-of-the-box. A sensitivity control of some sort would be welcome.
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Oh and Stimming is 100% that ASMālike all manufacturers of synths with on-board effectsāgoes way overboard on the effects. It made me wish there was a master wet/dry control, so I could turn down all of the effects at once.
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Can you set up a macroknob for that?
Sure. You can set up a macro knob for anything.
Itās just a remark on the general overkill of effects on factory patches, which is an industry-wide issue.
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You donāt happen to have a peak? I would like to hear a comparison of the two. I called the store here where I live, they get the hydra mid January. Thatās the earliest I can compare both by myself.
Actually, Iāll add one more hardware critique. I donāt mind the recessed jacks; once itās plugged in, these donāt really require adjustment. But the on/off switch is both recessed AND in a corner and thisā¦ sucks. I canāt reach it without lifting up the entire synth. Iāll end up using an external switch, which is not a big deal, but itās still a lousy design.
I do not, and I have never played one. Sorry, I canāt offer any insight there.
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Cool, thanks for your first impressions. And hopefully they do add a sensitivity control for the pads.
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what I would like to hearā¦would be the Hydra through an AH.
if anyone could do some samples of that, that would be sweet.
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I didnāt realise they did this. Interesting, what are you meant to do if you rackmount it?
I am still hyped to receive mine which should hopefully be next week. If you get a chance can you bob up some videos to keep the rest of us excited?
Generally a rack will have a power strip or power conditioner. You just leave the unit on and switch it on and off from the power supply.
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Hydrasynth seems to be in stock a few places online! Itās enticing but I still might opt for the Modal Argon8
Re: Feeling of Keyboard vs Pads
So iāve had even less time with the keyboard, i waited hours to let the Hydrasynth get to room temp before i took it out of itās bag. (Thank you Sweetwater for express shipping this thing to me!)
Quickly about the Hydrasynth in general, because i agree with chm_jacques overall ā but i was so much in bliss with the sound and the patches i just played around with the synth in wonderment.
As for the keybed itself, and itās feel ā itās really great. The poly-aftertouch is super expressive and tuned just right. And the key motion is silky smooth.
With all the channel-aftertouch keybeds i have, i guess theyāre all Fatar, the key gets to a bottom and then with extra pressure it travels another half centimeter or so. Not with the Hydrasynth ā the bottom is always the bottom, it doesnāt move any farther. What it senses is the force you exert at the bottom. And so it was easy for me to accurately and positively vary the force, without movement, and get preciseness in the individual aftertouches.
Plus it seems to go to eleven (like in Spinal Tap) there is a little extra if you push extra hard (which i can do with my little finger in my non-dominant hand).
I think this is the best synth keyboard i have. (Iāll have to wait near a year to compare it to the Osmose, when that arrives for me.)
Birth_Chord ā Are you sure you want a Argon? Not saying you shouldnāt, but the Hydrasynth is pretty special.
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I like the sound of the Argon8 quite a bit more. My Novation Summit can do a lot of the digital sounds the Hydra seems capable of. The performance aspect of the Hydra is obviously superior. To me itās hands down a trade off between performance and sound. I think a lot of wavetable synths sound magnitudes better than the Hydra, such as my Summit, the Eurorack E370, etcā¦ Itās just my opinion and my ears, canāt argue with anyone about it.
Also the Argon8 I can get for $675 new 
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Wait, is there a reason I should do this as well?
Jukka lives in an igloo in Antarctica.
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