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Joined: 14 Nov 2014 Posts: 1046 Location: Orlando, Florida USA
Posted: Fri Sep 13, 2019 3:01 am Post subject:
I meant to ask Flux that question on his livestream the other day.
I'd be surprised if they didn't have upgrades in mind.
I've got a mini wishlist already.
(dual identical filters; saveable FX presets, etc)
And MPE seems to be a popular request.
But Glen has a pretty straightforward view on this:
Buy a product for what it is, and not what it could be.
The Hydrasynth is amazing as it is.
Envelopes that sync to tempo... wow.
A morphing, ratcheting arp with phrase ability.
No audible aliasing.
And of course, a quality ribbon and poly AT board.
I agree that $1299 is a very fair price. I've been watching all of the vids and reading over the specs on ASM's site and there are tons of things I love about this synth. I've decided to pre-order one this weekend. Just not sure from where yet...
I would like to have a look at the manual(s) but of course those aren't available on the site right now, and I haven't seen one vid discuss the manuals (which isn't surprising, really -- I'm one of the last few humans who likes to read user manuals). There is a section on the main site for software/firmware, so future upgrades and/or fixes seem likely. Also a patchbanks section... Do we know if the presets can be written over with custom patches? I think it's fantastic that ASM are releasing a patch manager with their keyboard. I suspect that five banks of 128 patches will get filled up pretty quickly, particularly if others are uploading custom patch banks.
Tempo-synced envelopes are very cool. They can also loop between their AHD stages. Then there is the Step Wave LFO with its eight steps, which means 5 possible step sequencers at once in one patch. Wonderful! :)
Oh, the arp settings are modulation destinations in the mod matrix, which is awesome.
And there's a Random button, which can randomize a whole patch or just specific modules. How fun is that?! Plus, like many, I really want to get my grubby mitts on that poly AT keybed and the 4-octave ribbon controller, which is sensibly placed above the keyboard.
Joined: 14 Nov 2014 Posts: 1046 Location: Orlando, Florida USA
Posted: Fri Sep 13, 2019 5:23 pm Post subject:
I love reading synth manuals too!
I have a PDF folder full of synths I've been interested in.
Flux mentioned that a manual is coming very soon.
But then again, Sweetwater said probably end of next month, closer to release.
I think the factory presets can be written over.
There's also been mention of a patch editor.
But I prefer to create right on the box.
The ENVs also have an initial Delay stage.
And the tempo beat divisions go from 1/32nd triplet up to a dotted measure.
So with 5 ENVs and the Delay stage, you can get pretty specific.
I think this is fairly revolutionary. Crazy detailed.
I'm already hearing tempo-locked multiphasic morphing waves speeding by.
The ARPS also have Order and Phrase options.
Order plays notes in the order you play them. Not too unusual.
There are around (60?) pre-defined patterns that the ARP can play.
I imagine these are a bit like the phrase arps found in the Motif series.
Randomizing modules is way cool.
Flux does this here:
Although I take some issue with the use of the term wave "morphing" here.
Technically speaking, wave morphing involves interpolation.
Given two different waves, you calculate intermediate waveforms.
This produces a continuous chain of evolving, or morphing waves.
This is in contrast to simply scanning through a wavetable.
The video above simply scans between 8 wave forms.
The Blofeld scans through its wavetables. It does not perform morphing.
The Kronos can wavesequence through single cycle waves.
This will sound similar to scanning through a wavetable.
But none of this is interpolation or wavemorphing in the technical sense.
The ARPS also have Order and Phrase options.
Order plays notes in the order you play them. Not too unusual.
There are around (60?) pre-defined patterns that the ARP can play.
I imagine these are a bit like the phrase arps found in the Motif series.
But I wonder: Do the arps output MIDI too? This is one reason why I'd love to get my hands on the manual, so I can see the full MIDI implementation. I'm going to assume the dedicated knobs output the standard MIDI CCs. Dunno about the macro knobs... Every vid is running the Hydra as a standalone (and nothing wrong with that), but I'd love to see how it performs with other synths, either as a controller or receiving MIDI. I don't have any synths with CV inputs, so I'm not so concerned about that side of things. But who knows, I might be interested in Eurorack stuff someday...
Anyway, I have a fairly comprehensive laundry list of things I'm looking forward to trying once I get this synth. Most of those are MIDI stuff, like using KARMA for instance, but also some audio related things, like running the output of the Hydra to drive the vocoder in both my Wavestation A/D and EXB-Radias, or the output into my EMU Morpheus. Alternatively, input any of my synths into the Hydra. For those with a Kronos, I'm sure it will be similar.
Oh, one thing I noticed is that the damper pedal input is polarity sensing. That seems like a trivial thing, but it really makes things easier for the vast majority of people out there -- how many posts do we see about pedals not working? LOL. Plug in any pedal and it should work immediately. Well, that's the theory anyway. :)
Thanks for the vid. Flux's video on creating a pad from scratch is really quite good. Naturally, I'm the one person in the world who wasn't keen on the reverse tape delay effect he chose, but it did create some interesting artifacts in the sound, which if used sparingly would have been a lot better imo. This vid is great to see how easy it is to assign anything to anything else. I'm absolutely in love with this synthesizer and I haven't even touched it yet.
Joined: 14 Nov 2014 Posts: 1046 Location: Orlando, Florida USA
Posted: Fri Sep 13, 2019 9:19 pm Post subject:
HardSync wrote:
Quote:
The ARPS also have Order and Phrase options.
Order plays notes in the order you play them. Not too unusual.
There are around (60?) pre-defined patterns that the ARP can play.
I imagine these are a bit like the phrase arps found in the Motif series.
But I wonder: Do the arps output MIDI too? This is one reason why I'd love to get my hands on the manual, so I can see the full MIDI implementation. I'm going to assume the dedicated knobs output the standard MIDI CCs.
The ARPs do output MIDI.
And you'll see on Flux's or Glen's video that the Hydra also outputs NRPN.
There's a question on whether ARPs output to CV, unanswered as yet.
Quote:
Dunno about the macro knobs...
It's confirmed that *each* Macro knob can have 8 destinations. Woot!
Now if the macro knobs themselves can be automated, look out....
Quote:
Anyway, I have a fairly comprehensive laundry list of things I'm looking forward to trying once I get this synth. Most of those are MIDI stuff, like using KARMA for instance, but also some audio related things, like running the output of the Hydra to drive the vocoder in both my Wavestation A/D and EXB-Radias, or the output into my EMU Morpheus. Alternatively, input any of my synths into the Hydra. For those with a Kronos, I'm sure it will be similar.
I didn't realize the EMU Morpheus had audio in?
I might get one if that is truly the case.
I recently got an EMU Command Station MP7.
But it's defective, so it's going back.
Would love to explore the Z-plane filters,
Dave Rossum has a Eurorack Morpheus filter.
But I'm not about to go down the modular rabbit hole.
I think the Hydrasynth is going to be a fresh tool.
Of course, we'll all be exploring the glassy side.
But I like a challenge, and will see how "warm and analog" it gets.
I didn't realize the EMU Morpheus had audio in?
I might get one if that is truly the case.
I recently got an EMU Command Station MP7.
But it's defective, so it's going back.
Would love to explore the Z-plane filters,
I might have misled you, as well as myself. Sorry. Don't go rushing to buy one for audio inputs. It's been a while since I've done anything deep on my Morpheus other than play through some of its presets and control it with KARMA on my M3. I knew it had audio inputs, but I've forgotten what they do. So I did a quick check of the guide. The Morpheus does have audio ins, via its sub output pairs 1 and 2, but they don't run through the z-plane filters, which sucks because the filters are pretty stunning. Instead the inputs serve as either effect sends and returns or they simply sum the inputs to the main outs. Here's a goofy tutorial vid on the Morpheus, if you're interested. I've set it to start where he talks about the outputs also being inputs... but do feel free to rewind it back to the start.
Anyway, the Morpheus is very cool, very capable, but extraordinarily difficult to program from its front panel. The only software editor I know of is Morphedit... which is probably 20 to 25 years old now...? Furthermore, there are very few user-programmed banks out there, so if you're going to get the most out of a Morpheus, you really have to dive into programming it, because many of the presets are a bit wanting. While programming it might appeal, the front panel interface and super tiny LCD will destroy your soul. Trust me on this. LOL. If you want to have a gentle read of the manual, I've uploaded it here (available for only 2 days): https://volafile.org/r/10yg1dj30
Quote:
The ARPs do output MIDI.
And you'll see on Flux's or Glen's video that the Hydra also outputs NRPN.
There's a question on whether ARPs output to CV, unanswered as yet.
OK! Thank you. That's good. Dunno how I missed that info on the vids.
So... now all we need is a really strong online community for the Hydra...
Joined: 15 Aug 2017 Posts: 635 Location: Australia
Posted: Sun Sep 15, 2019 2:47 am Post subject:
psionic311 wrote:
Would love to explore the Z-plane filters,
Dave Rossum has a Eurorack Morpheus filter.
But I'm not about to go down the modular rabbit hole.
You can pick up Emu e5000 ultras pretty cheap now, and easier to come across than the Morpheus, but it would mean sampling whatever you wanted to run through the filter. The upside is you get 64 stereo filters! I used to have my e5000 inputs being fed by an aux send on my mixing desk and have it armed pretty much constantly. It's not a hard machine to use, but does take a bit of reading to get going. Basically it's an audio workstation in a box and you can pretty much work on an entire song and resample it into a single stereo track, depending on how much ram you have installed and the size and resolution of your loaded sample banks. _________________ Stuff I'm using: Umm right now, well there's a Volca Drum, a Micro Freak, an ADX-1, a Pulse, a Blofeld, a UNO Drum, KeyStep/Beatstep Pro/Keystep Pro (one of each), a Circuit, a LiveTrak L-12 and this nonsense: The Brief-case as it was about a bit over a year ago(the the complete ridiculous GAS monster collection here)and here
Last edited by megamarkd on Sun Sep 15, 2019 10:44 am; edited 1 time in total
Another vid, showing the desktop version connected to a Eurorack module some of the time. I'm not entirely certain, but it does seem like the arp is capable of transmitting out thru the CV/Gate connections, or maybe it's only the clock signal -- really don't know.
So I've never got into the Eurorack gear, mostly because I'm not keen on patch cables all over the place and in the way of knobs, etc. I am generally clueless about this stuff. But I wonder, if the Hydra accepts audio signals in through its CV inputs, can that audio in be from any type of audio source? For example, from like a mixer or PC?
Joined: 14 Nov 2014 Posts: 1046 Location: Orlando, Florida USA
Posted: Fri Sep 20, 2019 1:13 pm Post subject:
HardSync wrote:
But I wonder, if the Hydra accepts audio signals in through its CV inputs, can that audio in be from any type of audio source? For example, from like a mixer or PC?
Yes it can.
Glen Darcey directly addressed this in his Perfect Circuit interview.
Glen Darcey wrote:
One trick you can do is process external audio in the Hydrasynth. Since the Mod ins can take audio range signals, and we have a Ring mod with selectable inputs, you could choose Mod in as Ring Mod source, set the Ringmod depth to 0 and then turn up the Ringmod in the mixer…and you have audio input to the mixer.
Thanks, psionic. I've seen all the vids and read so many things about this synth that I've clearly been unable to process it all and remember it. Glad you're on the case! :)
Well, we are roughly two months away from seeing this thing appear at our doorsteps. I've never pre-ordered a synth before, so this wait is a new and agonizing experience. I suppose I'll just sit back and watch the arguments break out on that other forum. You did warn me though. Thank you. LOL. This forum in comparison is much more easy-going.
Standard MIDI cables will do nicely. If you wanna use only USB, you'll need a host and a MIDI routing program possibly. You won't be able to directly USB the two synths together.
Thank you very much HardSync for your explanation. Please, one more question.
How I has to connect them:
Hydrasynth MIDI Out
Kronos MIDI In
or vice versa?
I wish you all best.
You're welcome.
Yes, that is just one way to connect them. You could do it the other way, too. It depends which keyboard you want to control the other. So if you want to make use of the Hydrasynth's polyphonic aftertouch to play Kronos's sounds with poly AT, then it's HS MIDI OUT to Kronos MIDI IN. (Note: You will have to edit and program any sound in the Kronos to respond to poly AT).
Otherwise, if you want the Kronos to play the Hydrasynth, then you do the opposite connection: Kronos MIDI Out to HS MIDI IN. The Kronos does not have poly AT, so you lose that ability. Everything else is fine. But if you want to have the Hydrasynth respond to the Kronos's aftertouch, then you have to program the Hydrasynth patches to do that.
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