Hydrasynth from ASM

ha! well … my desktop arrives on tuesday. i can’t be all elektron
now … 4 elektron’s and 2 outsiders (mono evolver keyboard)

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Tell us what you think))

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when i get it, i will. i’ll have to quickly access if it’s gonna be used in my current tracks that i’m recording

Benn seems like a very talented bloke (guitar , drums , piano etc)… he’s one of very few YouTube channels I follow…

V.interesting to see how exhausting namm show is.

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Had a play with the Hyrda in my local shop today…

They gotta do something about those jumpy encoders. That sort of thing is enough to drive a person crazy over time. Otherwise, it seems really well-built and sounds great. If they can improve the accuracy of the rotary encoders, what with having such an extensive modulation matrix and the recent addition of MPE, this could be my horse.

Here’s hoping…

Cheers!

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I can’t remember off the top, but you hold a button for finer precision of the knobs. Shift + knob

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I ordered one of these and should get it by the end of the week!

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Ah! Good to know. Thanks. I was wondering if that might be the case. I mean, it was literally impossible to get a change in value less than, say, 3-5 increments. I actually asked the sales rep about it, but he didn’t know and I had to go. That’s a relief.

Cheers!

Picked up the keyboard version last week, and am absolutely loving it. Got the Argon8 a few weeks ago, and was starting to get frustrated by the limits in programming, and inconsistent volume. Still not in love with the encoders either, but still on the fence whether to keep both…

Anyway, I wondered if anyone can check and let me know if this is the same on theirs, and if anyone knows if it’s intended by design, or a bug? I set the keyboard Local control off in settings so I can use it with a DAW, but it resets every time I power cycle. Other settings seem to retain their state, just the Local control that seems to reset.

Also curious if it’s normal that the synth boots up and defaults to patch 001 regardless of where it was before powering off?

Most other synths I have, or used to have would always retain the local control setting, and boot to the last patch played before powering off.

Not a huge deal, just curious if it’s normal.

Otherwise loving the synth very much. I wasn’t expecting to after watching all the videos, but after spending an hour with it at Perfect Circuit, I wanted to take it home. Not a fan of 80% of the patches, but I’ve found that you can get some really great sounds out of it by putting a bit of work into it, and the interface design makes doing so a blast.

Things I particularly like are the ability to route each oscillators to different filters, sync envelop segments and other unexpected parameters to clock, loop envelopes a set number of times as well as infinite, LFO step designer (a la Elektron), the incredible amount of mod destinations, too many favorites to list but including Arp divisions, and even the depth of the mod matrix itself! The Macros are a really nice touch too.

Only gripes I have, are that I wish the Filter and maybe arp controls were encoders - I realize you can use pickup mode or relative, but it still kinda pulls me out of the emersion rather than knowing I can just grab the encoder and it will be at the right place per patch. Even just an LED ring to see where the patch value is in relation to the knob would have been good. I know this would have bumped the price up, but I’d have been happy to pay the extra for at least the filter controls to be encoders. Wonder if this is something that would be supported by the firmware if one was to mod it after the warranty expires?

Wishlist so far is just the ability to be able to program the arp phrases, a la Argon8, and Keystep. And maybe the ability to add our own wavetables? Maybe that’s pushing it a bit too far though :slight_smile:

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Thank you for pointing this out! I just created a patch that mods this with a S&H LFO. I took it further by also randomly modulating the arp octave range. I also routed keytracking to filter decay/release and amp release that results in occasional upward trills that just ring out in a lovely way. What’s more, there’s something special that happens after the trills. It sounds like chords, even though no chords are being input. It might be something to do with the amp still releasing and the filter picking the note back up but I’m really not sure. Love the results anyway.

No hands on the Hydra while recording this:

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That’s really awesome…this just boosted the gas, pretty bloated now :sweat_smile:

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There’s so much that can be done with all the options on the arpeggiator and with the modulation of them. Combine this with the modulation of other parts, and using external things, MIDI and CV as mod matrix sources gives all sorts of options.

Plus i’m frequently using an Expression Pedal as a source into the mod-matrix, i always have a sustain and expression pedal plugged in.

I like to set the arpeggiator mode to ‘Order’ and then put in really long arpeggiator seguences using the additive feature in the arpeggiator. As long as you hold at least one note down you can continue to add more notes to the arpeggiation sequence, including adding duplicate notes. So it’s not like arpeggiating a chord on other synths – it functions like a blend of arpeggiator and sequencer. There must be a limit to how many notes, but i don’t know how many.

I sometimes use the expression pedal, to control the arpeggiator phrase – but i’m thinking about getting a 64 button matrix so i can select specific phrases and bounce around, with midi CC through the mod-matrix. I’d love a utility to create my own phrases – my hunch/wish is this will happen someday.

Another thing i really identify with is not really being sure, when things are made complicated, why something is happening. This happens a lot to me. I’ve had the HS making very distinct vocal sounds, including once that it was distinctly saying: FUX, FUX, FUX, FUX, …

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Anyone experiment with the MPE or NRPN interfaces yet?
I’m interested in hearing your experiences.

You’ve just reminded me in a roundabout way that I need to try MPE with my GR-1!

https://youtu.be/731owfBm604

Nice little interview with Roger Linn hitting upon MIDI 2.0, MPE and expanding expressiveness on electronic instruments in general

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@BruteCoan Thanks for posting this. I can listen to Roger philosophy all day :upside_down_face:

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So… I tried this, and it did work for some parameters; but, for whatever reason, other parameters still insisted on jumping 4-5 increments at a time, only slower with the shift button pressed. What’s stranger yet is that the intervals weren’t consistent: i.e. the parameter would jump 2 increments at a time, then 5, then 4, etc… Odd behaviour. That kind of thing really puts me off, and it’s not trivial. Milliseconds, and more importantly, exact ratios matter in the realm of sound design.

Thanks for the tip regardless.

Cheers!

Ya I dunno why that is. Some have fine tune and some don’t. And I’m not sure if that’s indicated in the manual.

Seems a little inconsistent tho huh!?

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I’m have a Polyend Medusa for sale or trade if you want to take the 64 button/pad idea to the ultimate extreme :slight_smile: you could so some pretty insane things with the two combined. It does MPE too.

Have you tried changing the encoder sensitivity/speed in the settings?

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