# Hydrasynth - New Company, New Poly Synth



## fiestared (Sep 3, 2019)

Don't know about the price, availability, but I think it's always interesting to discover a new born synthesiser ! 









Hello Hydrasynth - New Company, New Poly Synth


ASM release Wavemorphing with poly aftertouch (Video)




sonicstate.com













Hydrasynth: the 8-voice mutant Wavestacking wavetable synthesizer - gearnews.com


The Hydrasynth has 3 oscillators per voice, 8 voices with mutant modulators, detunable wavestacking, wave morphing and a surprisingly useful number of knobs and hands-on controls for a digital synth.




www.gearnews.com


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## shawnsingh (Sep 4, 2019)

Looks very versatile, nice interface design to manage so much but still minimize menu diving


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## EvilDragon (Sep 4, 2019)

POLYPHONIC AFTERTOUCH


</thread>


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## rgames (Sep 4, 2019)

I've got my eye on this one also.

I've never owned a hardware synth (other than a cheapo one when I was a kid) and have decided this is the year to add them to my studio. 

I have a Prophet Rev 2 coming and the hydrasynth looks like it might be a good complement. I particularly like the look of the interface.

For those who are in the know about synths - thoughts on the sound? And is there anything else out there with this kind of interface?

Thanks


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## gsilbers (Sep 4, 2019)

rgames said:


> I've got my eye on this one also.
> 
> I've never owned a hardware synth (other than a cheapo one when I was a kid) and have decided this is the year to add them to my studio.
> 
> ...




play with the rev2 a little and then see how you like the hardware/outboard gear setup and your composer workflow. i have the matrixbrute, deepmind12, roland se02 and others dont use them as much.

but i love my virus ti. its amazing to be able to load it up as a plugin and remember the patches i used years ago. be able to add plugin effects and bounce it down in a jiffy. used to be zimmers favorite before zebra2. but im guessing he loves all german stuff 



as for hydra synth , it seems very cool. the lack of sequencer would be a no go for me. but the sounds where cool, my favorite feature was the randomize function. i feel that will get you very fast to some cool sound design. i love that feature on melda soft synth and think it should be on more synths. specially w lots of matrix rountings.
you might wanna wait and see the comparisons between the hydrisynth and other wavetable like waldorfs have. and also vs the rev2 which i think it has wavetable.


i think w the rev2 and something mono like the roland se02 you can get almost everything related to hardware synth. except for modular stuff.. which imo its a hell hole better not get into.


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## shawnsingh (Sep 5, 2019)

I'm not usually one to suffer from G.A.S. and especially not for hardware, but I'm really captivated by this synth.

Is the "mutator" concept a unique thing here, or do other synths have a similar approach? i.e. the idea of having generic slots that you can use to modify oscillators with different algorithms like FM, PWM, Sync. For example, with four total mutators, it seems like this synth is capable of 4-operator FM algorithms - not sure if all of the conventional 4-op routings are possible, but still seems like a more complete FM implementation than most other synths that claim to have an FM component? (that's a question, i'm not such an expert here)

On the web page, one of the FX mentioned is overdrive, but wasn't demonstrated in the comprehensive video review linked above. Instead, looks like the video showed a "lo-fi" resampler effect instead. It would be very cool to see more proper bitcrushing/overdrive/fuzz/saturation fx on this keyboard.

Sequencer would be awesome if ASM might ever create a Hydra v2 - and even better if it could support multiple simultaneous sequences that can also modulate parameters similar to envelops/LFOs.

Also could be cool to have two pre-FX (with options for series or parallel). Use cases I'm imagining are related to imitating guitar pedal rigs - putting a phaser before an overdrive, or an overdrive into chorus, all of which could be before delay and reverb.


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## EvilDragon (Sep 5, 2019)

shawnsingh said:


> Is the "mutator" concept a unique thing here, or do other synths have a similar approach?



Zebra, Massive (X), Serum, Falcon all have similar options to mangle the waveform. Even Kontakt's wavetable mode has some similar options. It's not unique, but it is very well executed.


BTW LFOs have step mode, so you can create up to 5 16-step sequences this way, and route them to wherever. That is pretty cool in itself.



Here's a longer deep dive by Daniel Fisher:


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## shawnsingh (Sep 5, 2019)

Nice. I'm going to get some popcorn and enjoy that video.

ASM website says 8-step LFO. But you're right, what I'm imagining would be perfect as a 64-step LFO.



EvilDragon said:


> Zebra, Massive (X), Serum, Falcon all have similar options to mangle the waveform. Even Kontakt's wavetable mode has some similar options. It's not unique, but it is very well executed.



In software, no surprise there. Actually I meant the question about other nonmodular hardware synths.

Cheers!


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## EvilDragon (Sep 5, 2019)

Well yeah there's waveshaping options possible on many synths. They may not work in exactly the same way, but it's there. For example, PWM on any waveform was done on Kurzweils going as far back as K2000, early 90s.



shawnsingh said:


> ASM website says 8-step LFO. But you're right, what I'm imagining would be perfect as a 64-step LFO.



I bet the LFOs have a Delay parameter, in which case you can use 4 LFOs to create a 64 step sequence.  Need more LFOs then? No problem, envelopes can be looped, which makes them viable as complex LFOs.


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## EvilDragon (Sep 5, 2019)




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## shawnsingh (Aug 7, 2020)

Hydrasynth 1.5 update. I'm itching to buy it but won't have space to put it anywhere (away from a 1-year old kid). Hopefully moving to a larger place soon...


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## EvilDragon (Aug 8, 2020)

Yep, they're on fire. I'm getting one as soon as they make a 5-octave version that is 16-voice bi-timbral (wishful thinking).


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## Pier (Aug 8, 2020)

EvilDragon said:


> Zebra, Massive (X), Serum, Falcon all have similar options to mangle the waveform.



You can mangle the waveform, but AFAIK the only synth with anything remotely similar as the ASM PWM is Waverazor. Continua, the new synth by AudioDamage, also has some wave warping.

For those that don't know (I'm sure @EvilDragon does) the Hydra has a number of mutators to alter the behavior of oscillators, and some of those have warping capabilities and other bizarre stuff. It has one called ASM PWM (or warp mode) that defines some warping points and allows you to move them around (and modulate those positions) to warp/stretch the waveform in realtime. It's pretty sick.

See this video at 35:45


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## ALittleNightMusic (Aug 9, 2020)

Are the mutators similar to the OSC FX slots in Zebra and Rapid?


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## Pier (Aug 9, 2020)

ALittleNightMusic said:


> Are the mutators similar to the OSC FX slots in Zebra and Rapid?



I don't know about Rapid, but there are indeed similarities with some of the OSC FX of Zebra.


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## Ned Bouhalassa (Sep 4, 2020)

I've had this digital baby for a couple of weeks now and, so far, it's nothing but Wowza! Really expressive, musical, versatile, well-designed, solid and so much fun. Here's my first demo, all Hydra except for the beats and the rain:


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## khollister (Oct 6, 2020)

Yeah, I have a Hydrasynth on the way myself to keep my System 8 company. While conventional logic would be to go analog for HW, the System 8 Jupiter/Juno/JX-3P modeling is amazing, so I have that covered for now (it also works as a control surface for Omnisphere). The Dr Mix and Nick Batt review videos are what really sold me on this thing. And poly AT of course.


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