Hydrasynth Desktop

Product Information

Their polyphonic pressure implementation is pretty thorough, and includes user tailoring of parameters such as delay, onset time, fade and release, to reduce bounce, jitter and so on. There are also three kinds of pulse width, some extremely unique, plus things like wave stacking for supersaw-like patches. There could be a number of reasons for this, including the filter modelling, effects, and analogue-like touches such as filter drive and the Analog Warm parameter, which unsurprisingly dials in analogue-style warmth. Finally, the Modulation Matrix offers 32 user-definable modulation routings are available for you to bridge 29 modulation sources and 155 modulation destinations. The various ways the synth detunes voices to make them sound lush and drifty in a simulated analog-style way is also nicely done and fully adjustable.

Something between the slower process of creating a wavetable by hand, and the shorter one of going with the possible sequences provided. Rather than fixed tables, the Hydrasynth permits the user to create lists of up to eight waveforms, with gaps and silences available for punctuation and fades. I wouldn't expect anything by Roland or others making digital-only synths these days would be that diff.

Along with immediately shutting off Voice vibrato on every patch, like you (it's completely unusable even at 1. The User Interface has been redesigned with a view to minimizing menu work (paging) and functions are now located just a keystroke away. If you position Wavstack after an FM Mutant, those icy FM tones become something altogether more lush.

The specially developed Polytouch Keybed is a 49-Note Keyboard with Polyphonic After-Touch that can be played with dynamic touch. Having 5 mini step sequencers gives you an amazing amount of possibilities for further shaping your sound. The macro knobs are genius, and so it is the mod-matrix assignment method (though there's no way to know about it without reading the manual, so don't expect to get that part just from groking the front panel). The second big UI issue that isn't apparent at first go is the trick about how to make easy mod-matrix assignments: hold down the module button for a source, and while keeping this held, hit the button for the destination module, and hydra just makes a mod-matrix assignment for you, and takes you to the mod matrix page to tweak it. Velocity, Mono and Poly Aftertouch, Modwheel) Something like hitting a key to select velocity, moving the modwheel to select the MW maybe while holding a button.It’s not a huge amount of money to spend on a great synth…but since the engines are absolutely identical in those two…it is going to come down to build quality and most importantly FEEL…I would definitely try to get my hands on them first.

I kind of agree with your UI comments, but my biggest issue with my HS is not the UI, it is simply justifiying another pretty-good synth in my room.But no matter the reason, the result is the same: this is an astonishingly beautiful-sounding synthesizer.