New polysynth from ASM - the Hydrasynth (and it has poly aftertouch)

[IAA]

Thanks Eddy for that. I’d really be interested in your take as you explore it, partly because I think you have a Kronos which I find programming wave tables on it a real inspiration drain ,so tend to use Arturia’s pigments. I do like wave tables and we seem spoilt don’t we at the mo?

Cheers

Ian

[Eddy Deegan]

I do have a Kronos, and Pigments too, but I never really got into wavetable synthesis even though I think it's a very cool idea.

That's changing rapidly with the Hydrasynth, because the Hydrasynth makes it a doddle. I've spent a lot of time tonight playing with it and by golly I wish all synths were as well thought out as this thing is.

Having the signal flow, from oscillators to post-FX laid out on the top panel works incredibly well:



Accessing just about anything only requires a press of the button in the Module Select section and the associated parameters immediately map (in pages of 8) to the Master Control section where they can be viewed and changed with the buttons and rotary controls.

It's so obvious, but so friendly.

I've not even glanced at the manual yet, and I've had no problem navigating around it, finding interesting ways to tweak the presets and come up with interesting sounds.

The Mutant functions associated with Oscillators 1 and 2 are superb, implementing a variety of extremely interesting wave-shaping methods. I was able to morph a sine wave into something that sounded not dissimilar to a duduk using a single mutant in the form of linear-FM applying a triangle wave to the sine, with a bunch of feedback set and a wet/dry mix between the two modulated by polyAT.

I wasn't even trying to do that, I was just experimenting with stuff. It took less than 30 seconds, but then I spent 10 minutes playing that sound on the board because it was beautiful.

The external power supply is small and light, has a short cable and there is an octave missing from the keyboard but I don't care about any of those things because of the sheer creativity that pours out of it when I start touching things.

One of the presets is a nice little analogue-y synthesized drum pattern, and when I looked at it all the oscillators are set to 0 volume in the mixer. Looking further, osc 1 is the bass drum, osc 2 is the 'snare' carved out of noise and osc 3 is a 'woodblock' of sorts.

The rhythm is created by 3 of the 5 LFOs modulating stuff all over the place, and I am not sure but I think the other 2 may be modulating the snare and woodblock LFOs to vary the rhythm such that they are not just monotonously repeating at a constant rate.

I've now made more lovely sounding patches in the last 2 hours than I have on any other synth in the last 2 years and I get the strong impression I'm only scratching the surface so far.

It's so usable, and absolutely brilliant. All synths should be designed with as much thought.

I could go on, and on, and on... but I do need to get some sleep.

The Hydrasynth is a keeper. Well done ASM

[IAA]

Wow, that’s my kind of endorsement- now where did I put my wallet???...

[The Elf]

The external power supply is small and light, has a short cable

If I get one this will be the first thing to be sorted by my engineer. I'll let you know when it happens.

[Eddy Deegan]

The external power supply is small and light, has a short cable

If I get one this will be the first thing to be sorted by my engineer. I'll let you know when it happens.

If they can figure out how to make it an internal supply then I'd be interested to know the details.

When I first booted mine up and flipped through the presets my initial thought was 'this is quite interesting', and it made some nice noises but it didn't "wow" me instantly, with the exception of the polyAT part.

Once I started exploring the modules though, everything changed and I found myself scrolling through waveforms in the oscillators and chancing across one interesting combination after another.

I spent all night playing with it progressively falling in love, and I've not even explored the wavescan mode yet (where you can assign 8 waveforms to an oscillator then morph between them using an LFO or any other modulation source in the modulation matrix (which has 32 src/dest/amount slots).

The more I use it the more I like it and there is no question that this unit has found its 'forever home'.

I recommend borrowing/trialling one and spending a little time to get to know it. Just poking around on one in a shop, for example, would unlikely be the best introduction to it.

Hypothetically if I had to choose between the Hydrasynth and the Summit, I'd keep the Hydra. No plans to lose either, I hasten to add!

If pushed for anything to pick on, it "only" has 5 x 128 patch slots. That would be more than enough for pretty much any other synth I own barring the Kronos, but given how ridiculously easy it is to make lovely sounding patches, a few more would have been nice but really, who's complaining?

This is the one synth I'll be regularly using the librarian/editor software for on the DAW PC.

So, yes, I love it. That isn't to say everyone will or would, but for me it's really nailed something special, which is a playable synth that is powerful, easy to program and sounds great.

I'd like to do a more thought-out and structured user review of it once I've had some time to get to know it better. Sadly I'll be away from it for most of the month (though on the not-sadly front I'll have my Yoshimi-Pi with me!) but I want to dive a little deeper before drafting something up.

[resistorman]

The more time I spend with my Hydrasynth module, the more I love it. It feels great with the LinnStrument. I’ve programmed a few patches from scratch using only a part of its capabilities and the sound quality and textures are beyond almost every synth I’ve owned before.

[The Elf]

The external power supply is small and light, has a short cable

If I get one this will be the first thing to be sorted by my engineer. I'll let you know when it happens.

If they can figure out how to make it an internal supply then I'd be interested to know the details.

The details are usually 'find a space inside the case for the external PSU, nail it in and add a power socket'!

Sounds like you're enamoured. I certainly was in the time I spent with it. It really is a tweaker's synth. Most imprtantly it has something 'special'. It's a very organic-sounding digital synth.

I speak as one who really has no interest in wavetables up to present.

If you have any audio going I'd be fascinated to hear it.

[Eddy Deegan]

If you have any audio going I'd be fascinated to hear it.

Here is a quick-n-dirty improv I knocked together in my lunch hour using the Hydra:

https://soundcloud.com/eddy-deegan/hydr ... st/s-Gb5GI

I've enabled downloads if you want the hi-res version for sound analysis or whatever.

This was done with 3 patches on the Hydra, of which only 2 are playing at any one time. The lead ethnic-sounding patch is my own creation (the one I was going on about last night) and is also the organ sound that comes in at 1:30 or so, as the enthnicity/woodwind aspect of it only comes in when polyAT is applied, as can be heard in that section.

The bends were done with the ribbon.

I should add, as far as I know, there are no wavetable oscillators in this. I just used it as a 'normal' synth with the oscillators in 'waveform' mode, not 'wavelist' mode. Experimenting with wavelists is pending.

[Hugh Robjohns]

Very nice. Some quite Vangelis-y sounds in there too.

[Eddy Deegan]

Very nice. Some quite Vangelis-y sounds in there too.

Thanks Hugh. When it comes to one's first encounter with polyAT there are some things that just have to be done

[Hugh Robjohns]

True -- but isn't amazing how those kinds of sounds instantly become available with poly-AT. All that expression under the fingers just screaming to be let out!

[Eddy Deegan]

isn't amazing how those kinds of sounds instantly become available with poly-AT. All that expression under the fingers just screaming to be let out!

It absolutely is. I knew what Poly-AT was on paper, and I've used channel-AT a lot of course but the actual experience of using it is something else altogether.

There is no way I could have put that demo together without it, at least not without spending absolutely ages doing layers, modulations and automations etc. To just have the thing "do it" at will while you're playing is something that I'm now going to hold against other synths a little bit.

It's not that often I'm floored by something so profoundly. I've had a warm feeling since the moment I first played the thing and I'm going to miss it very much while struggling on with a conventional MIDI controller keyboard while I'm away in Holland for the next 2 weeks!

I hope they bring out a MkII with a longer keybed, because I've already bought it

[Hugh Robjohns]

That or the (much hated) Mr B brings out a 5- or 6-octave controller keyboard with poly AT....

[Eddy Deegan]

Ooh, you devil, you!

[N i g e l]

If you have any audio going I'd be fascinated to hear it.

Here is a quick-n-dirty improv I knocked together in my lunch hour using the Hydra:

https://soundcloud.com/eddy-deegan/hydr ... st/s-Gb5GI

I've enabled downloads if you want the hi-res version for sound analysis or whatever.

Excellent, thanks for that Eddy

these are exciting times for digital synths

I must admit taht I discovered the external PSU [watching uTube] quite late and & i think its the only thing that doesnt appeal on the Hydrasynth.

The external power supply is small and light, has a short cable

If I get one this will be the first thing to be sorted by my engineer. I'll let you know when it happens.

If they can figure out how to make it an internal supply then I'd be interested to know the details.
.

That would be good to know -- - with pictures ?

[The Elf]

If you have any audio going I'd be fascinated to hear it.

Here is a quick-n-dirty improv I knocked together in my lunch hour using the Hydra:

https://soundcloud.com/eddy-deegan/hydr ... st/s-Gb5GI

Very nice indeed. My credit card is beginning to eye me nervously!

[Folderol]

If you have any audio going I'd be fascinated to hear it.

Here is a quick-n-dirty improv I knocked together in my lunch hour using the Hydra:

https://soundcloud.com/eddy-deegan/hydr ... st/s-Gb5GI

That really is rather tasty

[BJG145]

...yeah, I can see you're enjoying that...!

[Eddy Deegan]

Cheers guys, glad you liked it.

...yeah, I can see you're enjoying that...!

This thing is as mad as a bucket of frogs!

https://soundcloud.com/eddy-deegan/hydr ... oundtest-2

Soundtest 2, this time messing about with wavestep oscillators.

[Martin Walker]

Wow - these two soundtests of yours have really impressed me Eddy.

I do like my Prophet 12 a lot, but it's been quite hard work creating my own sounds for it, but (in your hands anyway) the Hydrasynth sounds so immediately flexible and inspiring to play.



Martin

[Folderol]

Lovely metallic sounds in that, and I've never heard a synth doing that 'record' slow down before

[The Elf]

Pretty soon you're going to be seeking out other synths that respond to poly AT. Let me nudge you toward your very own Summit, but also such as the Roland XV-5080 and Integra-7, even the JP-80 - these become so much better synths when paired with a PAT keyboard.

[Eddy Deegan]

I do like my Prophet 12 a lot, but it's been quite hard work creating my own sounds for it, but (in your hands anyway) the Hydrasynth sounds so immediately flexible and inspiring to play.

Cheers Martin, I think the Hydra is a sound designer's dream. There is a great deal of extremely cool functionality under the hood, much of it with regards to the oscillators, LFOs and envelopes, none of which are restricted to the usual feature set.

The waveshaping functions in particular are addictive. You can take a waveform, set a number of points within it and then move/separate those points and have the waveform stretch like rubber with them, for example. These stretch points can also be modulated. You can also implement up to two FM blocks in each of the first and second oscillators using Mutators, with feedback and the ability to introduce ring modulation which can take input from a variety of sources including other oscillators or external audio input.

The LFOs have delay and fade-in, arbitrary start points within the waveform, one-shot and, joy of joys, my favourite feature from the Yamaha Motif ES synths, in the form of a programmable 8-step custom LFO shape (which can be slewed for smoothness or left jagged).

The DAHDSR envelopes support variable log or exp curves as well as linear, and run freely or reset with each note. They also support looping (specific number of times or infinite) and the time between each envelope stage can be defined in milliseconds via a kind of tap-tempo feature (or BPM sync'd of course).

Just about everything you can imagine can be modulated and there is a generous mod matrix which is a doddle to use and plenty of mod sources, not least of which are the 5 LFOs, 5 envelopes and the poly-AT.

I could go on but think I'd better shut up now ...

I've got a whole bunch of thoughts on it that I want to write out in the user review forum when I get a little time, including some things I think it could do better or which would make it easier to use.

But overall, the straightforward and intuitive way with which all this stuff can be done via the front panel is absolute genius.

Lovely metallic sounds in that, and I've never heard a synth doing that 'record' slow down before

I deliberately picked something harsher to contrast with the warmth of the first soundtest. I've not done this yet but with a little filtering and mutating, those metallic tones (and of course there are a lot of other waveforms to morph through that are less harsh) can make for some beautiful evolving pads.

The slowdown effect is done using the ribbon, which runs the entire length of the keybed and in actual fact it's acting here as a long smooth pitchbend; the tempo remains exactly the same

As well as pitchbend it also supports a theramin mode, (where one voice of the current patch is reserved for mono playing on the ribbon) and a 'modulate only' mode which doesn't affect pitch by default.

Pretty soon you're going to be seeking out other synths that respond to poly AT. Let me nudge you toward your very own Summit, but also such as the Roland XV-5080 and Integra-7 - these become so much better synths when paired with a PAT keyboard.

I have the Summit adjacent and am going to be doing some poly-AT experimentation with it torwards the end of the month (I'm a bit pushed for time at the moment sadly). Thanks for the heads-up, and yes, I will very much be looking for more of this kind of experience

[Hugh Robjohns]

This thing is as mad as a bucket of frogs!

Great fun!

I think you should be on commission as you're doing a better sales pitch than most of the online stuff I've seen!

[nathanscribe]

Dammit. I was doing so well at pretending I didn't want one. Thanks Eddy

[Eddy Deegan]

Dammit. I was doing so well at pretending I didn't want one. Thanks Eddy

At this rate, my work here might nearly be done

[Eddy Deegan]

https://soundcloud.com/eddy-deegan/hydr ... st/s-Gb5GI

Damn. I just listened to this again and now I'm going to have to make a whole track out of the general ideas in the first half of it.

I am in sonic heaven. I know I've waffled on about it at length and I thank you for your patience, but I can honestly say that the Hydrasynth has affected me more than any synth I've bought since my first SY85 in 1992.

I hate the fan-boy sound of this, but ... just... wow in a way I haven't experienced for nearly 30 years. It's swept me off my feet, obviously, and I'm still struggling to reflect that in words. Until such time as I write up a review of it I'm going to stop trying.

Just every single thing I do on it throws out infinite creativity, inspiration and expression. I am, genuinely, lost for words. Whether that's an inherent attribute of the synth or something specifically synchronous to the way I play it I'm not sure.

Whichever it is, I have found the perfect synth. At least to date. I am in love. It's not just about the poly-AT (though that is a big part of it). The architecture, the sound, the control surface, the inspiration I get playing it and how it responds to tweaking ...it's all proper next level stuff.

Proper. Next. Level. ASM absolutely nailed it

Is it for everyone? I don't know & I don't care. But it is for me!

[Eddy Deegan]

I have found the perfect synth!

Jumping in before the honorable gentleman Elf does. I know, the keyboard is reduced, the power suppy is external and the cable is short. Honestly, speaking as a pianist, having plugged it in I've hardly noticed any of these and I don't care.

I never thought I'd say that but it's true. Although another octave or two would be amazing, putting it in American terms it's already awesome even with the limitations I mention.

I like this so much that I'm getting nervous recommending it to other people, but all I've got to go on is how I find it, and in that regard it's stratospheric*

* Other opinions are no doubt available. Some have returned it to stores on the pretext that it's "too bright in tone". Given the onboard capabilities IMHO these people are lacking in more than one area.

[zenguitar]

...and I'm still struggling to reflect that in words.

Thats academic mate, the whole point is that it's the player's experience that is what matters most. All I can say in my defence is that I refrained from buying the Arturia collection as well as all the hardware I've just dropped a bundle on.

At least I have a potential bargain on the horizon. Parallels software might enable me to get access to my full set of Proteus software modules once more, and the Axon AX50 editor as well.

Andy

[The Elf]

Jumping in before the honorable gentleman Elf does. I know, the keyboard is reduced, the power suppy is external and the cable is short. Honestly, speaking as a pianist, having plugged it in I've hardly noticed any of these and I don't care.

Similarly, I have gear in my studio with PSUs with short, whiskery thin cables. Once it's plumbed in I don't care either - but try gigging with it and I guarantee you will begin to care VERY rapidly!