Hydrasynth

[deastman]

From playing the Continuum and other MPE instruments, I’ve found that patches designed for those types of controllers really do need to be kind of basic and boring. So much of the expression comes from modulating parameters with your fingers, and so the basic sound without expression needs to be much simpler than you typical find on a sophisticated synth. I don’t have a Hydrasynth (yet) but I’m guessing that might be why a lot of the patches sound kind of bland.

[RobustAmerican]

Hey guys and gals!

Hope you're all enjoying your Hydrasynths. We decided to release the bank we've been working on as a free download. 82 patches in total and nearly all of them have extensive Macros, MW and Aftertouch assignments. (Only Mono Aftertouch or Channel Aftertouch) as we didn't quite get to the Poly Aftertouch assignments due to a few odd experiences we encountered.

The Robust Hydrasynth Page contains all the info as well as a patch list page and you can download the bank file directly from there. Or, you can grab the file right now from the link below.

Volume I for the Hydrasynth - Direct Download

We hope you enjoy this "nearly finished" bank for the Hydrasynth. We plan on returning to the Hydra in the future and next time we will be getting the keyboard version for sure.

Thanks for your time!

[WatchTheGuitar]

Hi all, I'm close to pulling the pin on ordering a Hydrasynth and wondering if someone could answer a question about using it as a MIDI controller. Is it possible to have it receive MIDI from my DAW playing the Hydrasynth’s audio while I use the Hydrasynth keys and controller knobs to control a soft synth on the DAW? Or will the Hydrasynth controls always affect the sound coming out?

[WatchTheGuitar]

Hi all, received my Hydrasynth today and it's great and using the keyboard sending MIDI I can get the Arturia CS-80 plugin to receive Poly AT info, but not the pitch bend info from the ribbon even though it says it's mapped to pitch bend. Is the pitch bend sent only some internal thing because I can only tell it's working on the ribbon when listening to the audio direct from the Hydra?

I know the CS-80 ribbon is mapped to pitch because a position indicator on the ribbon moves on the screen when I move the Hydra's pitch wheel.

nvm, found it - you need to turn on the option RbnPB TX in page 5/12 of the System Setup.

Works nicely!

[Niowiad]

Hi all, received my Hydrasynth today and it's great and using the keyboard sending MIDI I can get the Arturia CS-80 plugin to receive Poly AT info, but not the pitch bend info from the ribbon even though it says it's mapped to pitch bend. Is the pitch bend sent only some internal thing because I can only tell it's working on the ribbon when listening to the audio direct from the Hydra?

I know the CS-80 ribbon is mapped to pitch because a position indicator on the ribbon moves on the screen when I move the Hydra's pitch wheel.

nvm, found it - you need to turn on the option RbnPB TX in page 5/12 of the System Setup.

Works nicely!

Nice. I'm trying to resist but it's very tempting.
How easy is it to switch between PolyAT and MPE?

[WatchTheGuitar]

Hi all, received my Hydrasynth today and it's great and using the keyboard sending MIDI I can get the Arturia CS-80 plugin to receive Poly AT info, but not the pitch bend info from the ribbon even though it says it's mapped to pitch bend. Is the pitch bend sent only some internal thing because I can only tell it's working on the ribbon when listening to the audio direct from the Hydra?

I know the CS-80 ribbon is mapped to pitch because a position indicator on the ribbon moves on the screen when I move the Hydra's pitch wheel.

nvm, found it - you need to turn on the option RbnPB TX in page 5/12 of the System Setup.

Works nicely!

Nice. I'm trying to resist but it's very tempting.
How easy is it to switch between PolyAT and MPE?

I haven’t attempted any MPE yet, will do tomorrow if I remember.
As I’ve never had a MPE compatible controller before it’s not something i’ve thought to try. I bought ROLI Studio cheap in a recent sale so I’ll check if I can get that reacting to MPE.

[twi]

Hi!
Does the Hydrasynth have some effect that you can turn on so that the sound will vary a bit over time? Some fluidity. I mean.. like .. changes in phases, tuning or cutoff. Or a tape effect in the global section, or some varying saturation or so.

Sorry, I have no clue about synths. Want to spend money and needed to ask. I was impressed about subtle changes in sound lately, coming either from analogue or digital. I mean like... just like the usual PADsynth experience or maybe tape simulation experience.

Kind regards

[EvilDragon]

It has a mod matrix and heaps of modulators where you can do a metric shitton of "sound will vary over time".

[WatchTheGuitar]

Hi all, received my Hydrasynth today and it's great and using the keyboard sending MIDI I can get the Arturia CS-80 plugin to receive Poly AT info, but not the pitch bend info from the ribbon even though it says it's mapped to pitch bend. Is the pitch bend sent only some internal thing because I can only tell it's working on the ribbon when listening to the audio direct from the Hydra?

I know the CS-80 ribbon is mapped to pitch because a position indicator on the ribbon moves on the screen when I move the Hydra's pitch wheel.

nvm, found it - you need to turn on the option RbnPB TX in page 5/12 of the System Setup.

Works nicely!

Nice. I'm trying to resist but it's very tempting.
How easy is it to switch between PolyAT and MPE?

I haven’t attempted any MPE yet, will do tomorrow if I remember.
As I’ve never had a MPE compatible controller before it’s not something i’ve thought to try. I bought ROLI Studio cheap in a recent sale so I’ll check if I can get that reacting to MPE.

Sorry I never replied to this as I lost the thread. Switching between PolyAT and MPE is literally a couple of settings on one of the system pages. Takes a second.

From my (not by any means exhaustive) tests with the few plugins I have that react to MPE it seems they all react just as well when the Hydrasynth is set in PolyAT mode and that is my preference as MPE means having to set the receiving DAW track MIDI in to receive on all channels and it makes it a lot harder to work with things like arps or other MIDI effects.

[twi]

It has a mod matrix and heaps of modulators where you can do a metric shitton of "sound will vary over time".

May I ask you, do you think it's a delusion when there should be the impression that it sounds like a wavetable synthesizer? I know, it is one. And it surely does not sound worse or better than others.

But I believe, almost all wavetable synthesizers have reminded me of (earlevel's) wavetable synthesis, which (when I tried to make it produce a square wave) reminded me of trackers. I don't know if I'm the right customer for the product wavetable synthesizer. Because in some situations, it's lacking some authenthicity while seducing me into what it actually is not exactly designed for.

[EvilDragon]

It's absolutely a wavetable synthesizer.

[twi]

It's absolutely a wavetable synthesizer.

Hehe.

[WatchTheGuitar]

Authenticity (to sound like analog synth XYZ) is overrated. Wavetable synths can be awesome.

[himalaya]

Hydrasynth v1.30 get full MPE compliance... (altough I have to wait 2 more months till mine arrives )

Are you saying that it will receive a 'per note CC74 modulation' and per-note polyponic pitch-bend, as well as release velocity note off?

[Niowiad]

Hi all, received my Hydrasynth today and it's great and using the keyboard sending MIDI I can get the Arturia CS-80 plugin to receive Poly AT info, but not the pitch bend info from the ribbon even though it says it's mapped to pitch bend. Is the pitch bend sent only some internal thing because I can only tell it's working on the ribbon when listening to the audio direct from the Hydra?

I know the CS-80 ribbon is mapped to pitch because a position indicator on the ribbon moves on the screen when I move the Hydra's pitch wheel.

nvm, found it - you need to turn on the option RbnPB TX in page 5/12 of the System Setup.

Works nicely!

Nice. I'm trying to resist but it's very tempting.
How easy is it to switch between PolyAT and MPE?

I haven’t attempted any MPE yet, will do tomorrow if I remember.
As I’ve never had a MPE compatible controller before it’s not something i’ve thought to try. I bought ROLI Studio cheap in a recent sale so I’ll check if I can get that reacting to MPE.

Sorry I never replied to this as I lost the thread. Switching between PolyAT and MPE is literally a couple of settings on one of the system pages. Takes a second.

From my (not by any means exhaustive) tests with the few plugins I have that react to MPE it seems they all react just as well when the Hydrasynth is set in PolyAT mode and that is my preference as MPE means having to set the receiving DAW track MIDI in to receive on all channels and it makes it a lot harder to work with things like arps or other MIDI effects.

Thank you