Hydrasynth from ASM

The Lounge Other Gear
#1451

none taken here…im synth stupid. its TOTALLY justified. :+1:t6:

any info you offer is welcome! as Ive said before, I ditched my Hydra…but its prob the only piece of gear id get again. it was a pleasure to use. but I just didn’t get good sound. but as time is going on…im finding it my lack of knowledge.

BUT…[forget his name] one of the owners agreed that the one I had had very low output levels. anyways…one day when I have the bucks again, I want a crack at it again. so keep them tips coming. I’m noting ones that I think will help me out.

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#1452

Right on. Yeah the thing is quite expansive and trying to dial it in took me a while, especially since i tend towards more mellow, ambient sounds. My biggest complaint with the Hydra is that it doesn’t immediately have it’s own personality. It’s capable of almost anything, so sometimes it’s hard to get started.

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#1453

Hydra — 1 : a many-headed serpent or monster in Greek mythology that was slain by Hercules and each head of which when cut off was replaced by two others. 2: not capitalized : a multifarious evil not to be overcome by a single effort.

#1454

Yeah, one thing I’ve noticed here (based off one of the better factory patches) is that the WavStack modifier can create quite a lot of warmth/softness, making the wavetables (which can sound quite harsh) much smoother even before you get to the filter/chorus/etc

3 Likes
#1455

Ive wanted a Yamaha AN1X, its SO great sounding. but im never gonna buy “vintage” again. my track record with old gear is the shits. they are usually a nightmare. so researching the Hydra…I felt like it was a modern AN1X. totally moldable. im a bass whore, and was really hoping to get some made bass. but lack of skills inhibited me.

so, learning more from you guys over the last year reading this thread.

throw some money at me and ill get one right out the gate.

#1456

Slowing down the movement in wavetables, and lingering more in the in between helps too.
There is an awful lot of space between the cracks.

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#1457

Oh good call, I’ll give that a shot.

#1458

Yep, also very true! The PPGChoir preset (early on in the first bank) I thought demonstrated how to get softer sounds out of it nicely, mainly down to using the WavStack and as you say, the blended wavetables. Being able to see how the modulation affects a parameter in real time would be quite neat when trying to understand these densely modulated patches!

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#1459

It’s an odd thing, with how incredibly powerful this synth is I haven’t heard any cool bass patches, like the liquid bass type.

It’s basically serum in a box but I haven’t heard anything “serumy” whatever that is…

It’s just “can it sound like an analog” and honestly that sounds kind of stupid to me, why would you buy this synth if you want analog sound? Just buy a analog synth…

Sorry rant over…

Ps. This will probably be my next synth purchase and I intend to make “serumy” bass patches… so watch out :rofl:

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#1460

Hahah yep I have thought the same. So many threads about it talking about how to make it sound more analogue, I thought the whole point was the cold digital wavetable goodness :wink:

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#1461

Yeah my biggest miss about this synth is that it doesn’t have real wavetable interpolation. It’s just crossfading between two different waves.

#1462

That’s exactly the same?

2 Likes
#1463

I guess it would depend on the type of interpolation and how the wave data was stored. But from what I understand, wavetable synths with “real” interpolation are pre-calculated, which would be practically impossible on the hydra since you can morph between any waves you want.

#1464

Yeah Hydrasynth is essentially wavescanning, which is similar, but doesn’t morph between each wave exactly like Serum for example.

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#1465

It is exactly interpolating between waves. Instead of having a table of 128 snapshots though, it’s interpolating in real-time. This is infinitely more powerful.

Not to mention, it’s like being able to interpolate between 8 full tables on something like a Microwave.

This is EXACTLY what it’s doing, only it’s done on the fly, and not segmented into separate small tables.

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#1466

Hmmm I heard that elsewhere that the type of interpolation is different than that, but I am probably wrong. The size you can have in Serum is up to 2048, so I would say there is still a difference in the type of wave morphing going on, but I don’t know how Hydrasynth does that

#1467

I have yet to hear it even do a bass like…

starts at the right spot.

Hydra was really awesome to use. if you could just coax out this kinda bass…id lose my shit.

2 Likes
#1468

That’s alright Zacrous12, i am wrong often enough here myself, despite how hard i try not to be. Welcome to the thread.

For those interested. Check out the Hydrasynth MIDI Implementation Spec, from the download section at the Ashun site. That gives the NRPN codes for changing any of the 8 Wavescan Wavetable Waves for both Oscillator 1 & 2 via an external MIDI source.

ADDED: The manual describes Wavescan as “morphing gradually between” waves in the wavelist, without giving detail on the calculation method used. Instructive is to look at the wave on screen moving between two waves, let’s say square and triangle to be simple, and visually observe the effect, while listening.

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#1469

Challenge accepted. :smiley:

As soon as I’m able, I’ll see if I can make you a squish-bass. Pretty sure it’s no problem.

That bass kinda sounds 12db maybe state variable to me (those are often smooth and bubbly). I’ll start there.

#1470

SHOW ME SHOW ME SHOW ME…you get that sound…and i’ll be so stoked. :+1:t6: