There is a master EQ which helps boost/cut frequencies as well. Gives a bit more bass when you need it. Mine arrived on the weekend, it is very intuitive. Not dived into the macros yet but I am pretty happy with it so far.
I donāt leave Warm Mode ON in any of my patches (yet), but i always liked the original ācoolā digital sound anyways. Itās good that itās selectable by patch, and perhaps iāll find places where i prefer it. As Jeronan and mharpum said there is more than one way to do this ā which is the Hydrasynth approach to things. I prefer the filter or EQ approach in that you can more easily dial that in or out on the fly.
Iāve been looking into doing a program to set Warm ON/OFF on complete patch banks. It also would do the same for Snap Mode. So far iāve been turning Snap Mode ON in all my new patches.
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I just wanted to write that I donĀ“t like that the Hydrasynth is out of stock everywhere but itĀ“s available at gear4music. Hold me back!
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not a deal breaker but i noticed the chord mode button has been omitted from the desktop version. presumably thereās a way to access this function? looking at the manual, it seems there isnāt!?!
Nope! But you do get to do chord shapes on the pads.
This is one of the differences between the two that getās missed. I didnāt know until after i bought my HSK. I havenāt seen a comparison chart anywhere but it would be useful for those considering the options between the two.
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thanks for the additional clarification. iāve been comparing the two units quite closely, hopefully there arenāt other differences that reviewers have failed to point out. thereās a few knobs missing from the filter and arp i believe, but at least those functions are still accessible! i decided to get the desktop, as iām better suited to that form factor. shame about the cord mode, no biggie, but i do think itās a good feature!
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With regret I have decided to return my Hydrasynth desktop.
Like others have reported, I find the Output levels way too low for a lot of the sounds. Ridiculous for a digital synth like this.
I donāt know the exact architecture of the Hydrasynth, but it almost feels like every waveform is a single cycle waveform sample and that a lot of the samples have a too low volume or something.
With a lot of the sounds, I can crank the volume knob all the way to 100% and still get less than 40-50% volume output in Ableton Live or on my Audio Interface mixer itself.
I have to use the Utility plugin in Ableton and boost a lot of the sounds with at least 20dB to get nominal levels.
This is especially true for sounds that are based on a 1 or 2 Oscilators with the 2nd OSC only mixed in about 50-70%!
Only when using all 3 Oscilators (with OSC2 and 3 at least 80% mixed in) I get a decent level output!
Only way to mitigate it a little is to both crank up the Amp a lot and use overdrive, but that changes the sound which I donāt want.
The funny thing is, that the Headphone Output is much better compared to the Line Out outputs. There its less noticeable and not too bad as with the regular Line-Outs.
But the worst issue I am experiencing and the final drop as to why I return the unit, is the Arpeggiator.
No matter what I tried. I cannot get it to sync correctly on the beat with for example the Digitakt as Master or Ableton even. Even though it reacts to tempo changes initiated from either Digitakt or Ableton, but it wonāt show the tempo change in the Hydrasynth display. It just always shows 120.
It just feels it is always just slightly out of sync and starts to drift a little and itās not latency, since I tested it with a direct midi cable between the Digitakt and Hydrasynth.
I also have to set Clock Sync in System settings to Auto. The moment I set it to Midi in, the Arpeggiator freezes the Hydrasynth completely and it wonāt react to any inputs anymore unless I turn off the Arpeggiator. Not even on the Hydrasynth itself. No buttons, pads, etc react anymore, except the Arp On/Off and Latch buttons.
So I am deeply frustrated, since I really like the Hydrasynth and what it can do. The build quality is also excellent as is the design layout!
Itās just a shame reallyā¦ so I am just going to return it and wonāt try another unit, since these issues have been reported by others and one person even got a response that the low output volume levels is according to spec. Which I find ridiculous.
I donāt have these Volume level outputs on my other devices, like the Digitakt, Circuit and Crave.
both Digitakt and Circuit are digital and I already get clipping with 60-70% Volume output on each device.
Donāt know yet what I am going to trade it in for. I have the Digitone, Moog Grandmother, Argon8 on my future wish list or maybe even the Analog Four MKII. Though I just donāt know if itās worth the extra 500 bucks.
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Is it worth trying a system reset? Sounds like this behaviour isnāt how it should be out the box?
I have tried everything. Factory reset. Upgraded the firmware to latest version. Etc.
If not everyone is experiencing the low output volume issue, then ASM has a serious QA issue with the D/A converters or worse, they just accept very high variation tolerances in typical Chinese fashion.
The main issue is when you want to create Single Oscilator sounds (or simply use some of the presets in Bank A, B or C), where the Amp just doesnāt have enough power to output a high enough volume level! I have to add the Overdrive to almost 100% to get a decent volume output, which changes the sound considerably!
With the Arpeggiator able to freeze up the entire unit when Clock Sync is set to Midi in. If others cannot replicate this (firmware bug), then this is yet another potential hardware related QA issue that troubles me.
Another issue with the Arpeggiator I forgot to mention is that with a lot of the sounds, the volume level drops by almost 50% when enabling the Arpeggiator. It doesnāt react to velocity either nor is there any Velocity setting for the Arp. This is not an issue when using the Arp plugin in Ableton for example.
This means for sounds that are already troubled by very low output levels, the Arpeggiator on the Hydrasynth becomes practically useless on these sounds.
Might be worth posting this about, seeing if anyone else has this issues. GS gets a lot more traffic. Sounds to me like you have a dud, as Iāve heard mostly positive comments. Anyone else here having sync and weird gain staging issues? Presumably the presets are at the right volume? If so, perhaps the gain staging is prepped to have lots of head room as there are a zillion ways to fill it up
Several people have reported this. At least another one in this very topic and also on the facebook group. I have also seen people reporting it in comment section on Hydrasynth videos on youtube.
Problem is that not everyone will notice this as an issue. Especially if they use it 100% in the studio and just compensate for it in the box.
Out of the box however, it becomes a different matter and will be an issue.
The presets in bank A, B and C are either very sloppy done, since the volume levels between patches are staggering and all over the place (except some of them that have it by design since they have Velocity tied to the Poly aftertouch, like the famous and beautiful Bladerunner patch).
A lot of the preset patches have extremely low output volume with the Amp already set really high.
So the preset banks with patches perfectly demonstrate the issue.
But like I mentioned. The headphone output is much better and there itās much less of a problem. Maybe it has a dedicated amp to support High impedance headphones, as I get suprisingly good volume levels with my 250 Ohm headphone.
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I havenāt experienced any of these issues. Can you reference a few patches that youāre experiencing volume/level issues with?
Are you using balanced or unbalanced cables on the outputs? What level inputs are you plugging them into - I.e. +4dbu or -10dbv?
Regarding the volume with arp, is it related to the amp envelope attack time on those patches by any chance? I.e. if the attack time is slower than the gate length of the arp, it wonāt reach full volume before the next note trig.
Unfortunately I have already packed away the Hydrasynth for return. Donāt want to take it out again.
I use mostly balanced cables, but this should not matter on volume output. The main difference between balanced and unbalanced is noise related and itās often recommended to use balanced cables if you need to cover a long distance, but that also depends on the gear you use.
I donāt have a distance issue as all my gear is in close range and most cables are only 1-2 meter in length.
Like I also said earlier. I donāt have these issues on my other gear, like the Crave, Circuit and Digitakt or other gear I had before like Roland boutique stuff and Arturia Minibrute.
I mean, you always have some volume level differences between patches, but it should be subtle, when properly designed and stored as factory presets.
Like on my Novation Circuit for example. I have bought several high quality packs for it, next to the excellent free Novation factory packs and pretty much all samples and patches are perfectly volume nominal.
Just as an example.
I was just trying to understand your setup so I could replicate it and see what might be causing the issues.
Sounds like your mind is already made up to return it.
have you had any issues midi syncing the arpeggiator?
Yes sorry I made up my mind.
I forgot to mention that I tested on two audio interfaces. My old Steinberg UR44 and my new Arturia Audiofuse 8Pre (which is awesome. Super happy with it).
On both units I used Line In. Which is input 5-6 on the UR44 on the back.
I also tested the instrument/line input on the front of the UR44.
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Iāve experienced a few quirks. Iāve been using it with Bitwig more than Live due to Live not supporting PolyAT or MPE, where it seems to sync ok. I have it setup as an external instrument, and the auto latency setting seems to figure it out.
The BMP readout on the synth doesnāt readout out the synced tempo, but it does sync up.
I have noticed a few times where it seems to be delayed by a whole note, or sometimes drifts, but double clicking stop and starting again seems to iron it out.
I wonder if you have a defunct unit.
I have noticed that I rarely have to pull down the output in a DAW, so the gain staging seems to be setup for it to be used in a multitrack setup rather than outputting up to 0db where youād need to pull down as soon as you added another track to the mix, but Iāve not experienced the patch being too low. I actually have mine setup so the volume knob is at a max of 75%. Iāve never needed to crank it to max, but on occasion have had to bring it down.
bpm readout aside, thatās how i imagine it behaving as i think you need a master sync box to clock as DAWs are notoriously jittery. iām going to do some tests this weekend. glad to hear that youāre able to get it to sync, despite not being 100 percent on the money
Yeah, my experience with DAW sync has never been 100%. Not so much of an issue in the studio, but has been a sore point for live gigs.
I havenāt actually tried to sync the Hydra to another synth yet. Iāll try with the Argon8 this weekend and see how the two get along.