Is it the more pronounced high frequency buzz hearable on the Hydra at for example 30:40 that you are referring to?
Btw, funny comparison Phatty and Hydra. Could hardly be further apart in synth architectures… if i d get one it certainly would not be to create classic analog sounds! I heard interesting digi sounds in the sweetwater demo.
Yeah, not my sound either
My 2 cents: I had the chance to try the synth for almost 2 hours with headphones in my local store.
I did not feel the synth was lacking in bass. In fact as a previous owner of other digital synths (had a Blofeld and keep a Tx81z) and analog ( minibrute 2/ matrix 6) I really enjoyed the versatility of the engine. I mean, I’m really into FM and it felt like having a very capable 4 operator synth…and a wavetable synth, and a VA…
I don’t know if it can produce warm sounds or if it has a buzz.the truth its It worries me a little bit, but I can also see it’s a great machine and at the end it’s a lot of fun to program it.
I’m looking forward to translate some Tx81z patches. Maybe a Lately bass patch?
i am not sure comparing the hydra vs peak is the fairest (peak having analogue filters)…a more leveled comparison would be hydra vs argon or perhaps hydra vs ultranova anyone? i think ultranova is a digital synth also very deep and more or less in the same price range which in my opinion has a decent sound…
so I did saw face of the Hydra, Analog 4 and Monomachine…in that order each loop.
1 - dry
2 - 1/2 cutoff
3 - some chorus
4 - wacky chorus
5 - some reverb
6 - 2 osc, -12 semi
7 - 2 osc, -12 semi, -4 cent
and this one is a randomly picked synth sound and I tried to dupe on Hydra.
chosen sound first then Hydra, then sound, then Hydra.
so I guess I was wrong…its possible to tame the tubular sound. but its a challenge. I think there is more heartache than joy with this one. [for me, anyways]
Arrrg…so painful. The synth is so sweet, makes me wanna play it, own it. But the sound, to me, is so grating.
Good comparison examples phaelam! Nice choice of synths to compare too – Hydrasynth, A4 and Monomachine. That was a chunk of work for you, well done.
Listened through both your samples several times – listening carefully for the differences. It would be interesting to see how well i’d do identifying each synth in a blind test.
I made a post earlier, reflecting on what two other commenters had said, how Hydrasynth eliminates the guard-rails allowing you to make a wider range of sounds, sometimes not so nice sounds.
But my personal experience so far is not that, i’ve been going into patch experiments and changing stuff around and trying strange and drastic things, and going off on extended trips (like Cenk said), and losing myself with all sorts of unexpected adventures and smashing through various guard-rails. Challenging sounds at times but not unpleasant to me (though i know it would likely be agony for you phaelam).
Drastic – i made my own wavescan table (a random one of the 4.65 quintillion of them) and connected both a particular parameter in the arpeggiator, i don’t even remember which one there are lots of options, and the index in the wavescan table to the mod-wheel. I think i had one of the stereo delays with it too. Then i latched some bizarre super rich chord, and was zooming around some astral plane, playing just filter and mod-wheel.
I’ve also had a lot of luck with making up strange Macros and going in and experimenting with all those various combinations.
There’s a steep learning curve with the Hydrasynth for me, but fortunately it all seems to be a down-hill journey with strange new things happening all the time and pulling me forward, rather than the up-hill forced march i’ve been on with other gear. Ideas keep popping up in my head, i need to start making lists, or maybe i’ll just continue to wander.
MM has massive family jewels.
I think there’s lots to do. I just have issue with buzz and the sound recessing into the back.
I’d love to hear what you do with it. Sell me on it 
!
Funny – i’ve actually been taking some of the factory patches and going into the mixer and turning up the noise channel – and liking the new mix. Or i’ll change the noise, if it’s already part of the patch from white (that’s the usual choice) to brown or pink. Like that too.
I don’t think there’s any chance of anyone ever selling you on the Hydrasynth though phaelam and that’s fine, 'cuz it’s definitely not for everyone. Your ears are just in other places.
If there was only a “buzz block” filter setting. Some sort of AI device that would say “that sounds like buzz” and block it. It’s not that easy though.
There’s other digi synths that manage to roll off the buzz. Wonder if its something they could address in a firm update.
I had a quick question for people that have it. I watched some videos mentioning the randomize feature, which I like. My question is, is there an undo mechanism so that you can undo a randomization and return to the previous setting?
My experience with randomizing (in something like Absynth) is that it works best when you can iterate, which requires undoing a lot of bad patches until you find one you like, and then going from there. The recent video featuring randomization (came out on Youtube a few days ago I think) really highlighted this issue as when they guy had a good sound developing, one press of randomize lost it and he was left with a bad sound from then on.
If there isn’t an undo function, then my feature request would be to add one, maybe something like double-tapping the randomization button or something like that.
I don’t think there’s an undo function, but saving/reloading a patch as you iterate is always an option. Or saving in new memory locations as you iterate.
It doesn’t have this, far as i know. But you can randomize separate sections and parameters, so if there are things you like you can keep those, and roll the dice on stuff that you still want to redo.
I assume you saw this video from “Saint Joe” where he takes this randomizing in sections approach and pretty quickly generates a cool patch.
I do this often now with factory patches. It’s real easy with the quick access to various sections to just go in and change one part on an existing patch and see what happens.
Yeah as chm_jacques says save and reload works well too.
An undo sort of function would be something a software editor could handle pretty easily as well – that might be a place to have this, if it’s not added to the firmware.
I think once you get familiar with Elektron’s randomize/undo way of working, any technique that neglects undo feels incomplete.
Thank you for the replies.
Yes at least we can save patches as we randomize and backtrack or branch out from those. It makes for a more hobbled workflow compared to a quick randomize-undo-randomize style. I hope someone from ASM might see this and consider creating an undo function in an update if feasible. All in all it’s a minor thing all things considered though.
Anyone in the UK got one yet?
Thomann still shows a stimated delivery time if 4-5 weeks
Saint Joe in that video on Randomization missed showing a few things.
Pressing and holding the Random button down, will show all the things you can randomize by making those buttons brighter.
You can randomly select a patch, randomize your whole patch, randomize any single module in a patch, or randomize single parameters in a module. You can’t randomize system setup. 
ADDED: Just discovered you can also randomize the Ribbon module or the parameters it contains.
So for instance with a wave list on the screen you can individually randomize any wave in that list – just hold down Random and push one of the eight wavelist buttons. Or you can randomize a parameter in the arpeggiator.
Parameters just change without confirmation. Randomly selecting a Patch, randomizing a whole patch, or randomizing a module requires a confirmation.
You can either randomly select a patch greater than, or less than the one you are on, not both. This is a little annoying. My user patch area is largely empty so an ‘up-arrow random’ often goes to an empty patch. (The solution is obvious, i need to fill this puppy up – i need to make 256 patches.)
ADDED: There is a Random Patch select that is not directional. In Browser you can Random/Button#1 which selects any random patch. I keep discovering little shortcuts.
Typical thing for me, when i am about to randomize oscillators or mutants (meaning anything before the mixer) is to go into the mixer and open up all the oscillator channels. Init sets the mixer to only have Oscillator 1 open, so after an Init i always go to the mixer and open all the Oscillator channels, and set some low amount of Noise. (This is mildly annoying to have to repeat this. I should create a template patch and put it in my favorites.) After a whole patch randomize i also immediately go to the mixer and set it back some more normal settings. I’m using whole patch randomize less and less as the HS becomes more second nature to me.
The workflow is fine for me randomizing the parts i want to change. I either modify a random generated part i sort of like, or blow away stuff that isn’t close and roll the dice again. Then after a while i’l take the few seconds and store the good stuff away.
And lest anyone say randomization is either mindless, or like waiting for lightning to strike – it’s not for me. It’s amazing both how quickly you can get to some mind blowing patch (my mind anyways), and the control you have with it.
So as far as new stuff for the Hydrasynth
I definitely am looking forward to the Editor VST / patch manager when that happens.
Downloadable Patch Banks – like Banjo Breaks ((
)) – i’m having fun making my own for the time being so i’m not in a hurry for that.
Also there’s a spec for the NRPNs that’s still on the way. Looking into ways to use Live with those.
I did experience a bug while using it…
the synth was stuck in MONO mode. didn’t matter what patch I switched to, and if I manually changed it to POLY. OR, a patch that said it was POLY but was playing as a MONO setting, would switch to MONO then back to POLY, but I remained MONO.
only way to resolve it was power cycle the synth.
they didn’t have any way to report that, that I could find.