Waldorf iridium or Hydrasynth

[Trancer]

Good morning,

Waldorf iridium or Hydrasynth?

The iridium seems to be more complete, however there is a problem with the touch screen.

The iridium offers a more extensive and ample sound palette, the hydrasynth has a certain depth which is also very pleasant.

Keyboard or desktop version?

Which of the two will be the most interesting from a sound point of view and which will be the most interesting over time?

Thank you in advance for your answers.

[CoolColJ]

Iridium sounds better and has a tasty nice feeling Poly AT keyboard

But you can get a Hydrasynth explorer for so cheap, that you could get a Iridium Desktop and the HS explorer if you wanted both.

[Trancer]

Thank you very much for your answer.

Indeed, a very interesting solution allowing you to have both models.

On the other hand, I read that there are problems with the Iridium screen, any feedback on the subject?

Quality and reliability of the Iridium as well on the sye keyboard on the desktop, the keyboard, the screen, os is good / excellent or to be avoided?

[zerocrossing]

I don’t know about the screen issues, other than that all instruments can leave the factory with issues, but I found the Hydrasynth to be generally lackluster and the keyboard feels cheap. It doesn’t have a powerful enough processor to do what it’s trying to do well. Any number of good wavetable plugins can give better results. The Iridium sounds a lot better and is way more capable.

[Trancer]

Thank you very much for your answer.

Ah well limited to this point.

So the Serum could be a substitute, equivalent vst to Hydrasynth?

The Iridium really seems to be a great machine with a lot of potential indeed.

[CoolColJ]

Try Vital, it's free and can do a lot of things the Hydrasynth does and more

[Trancer]

Thank you for your reply.

So whether it is Serum or Vital, it is a substitute, see the equivalent in vst if I understand correctly?

[CoolColJ]

Not quite, as the hardware part of the Hydraynth is quite useful.

I use the arp on it a lot, its different to software ones, and the Control voltage from it adds extra LFOs and envelopes to other hardware synths like my matrixbrute

[pdxindy]

Thank you in advance for your answers.

Between those two, I'd get the Iridium. It has a far more diverse sound engine and IMO, sounds better too.

I have the Quantum which is the same sound engine.

[Aliens]

It doesn’t have a powerful enough processor to do what it’s trying to do well.

Yeah, that's a pity, 'cause I remember watching launch reviews and it seemed interesting and clever, whilst looking different and worth exploring.
Maybe one to get for storage and wait for a super dooper user mod in 15 years which prices those escaping the landfill firmly in the hands of lotto winners.

[zerocrossing]

It doesn’t have a powerful enough processor to do what it’s trying to do well.

Yeah, that's a pity, 'cause I remember watching launch reviews and it seemed interesting and clever, whilst looking different and worth exploring.
Maybe one to get for storage and wait for a super dooper user mod in 15 years which prices those escaping the landfill firmly in the hands of lotto winners.

I wonder if they’ll release a version with a faster processor at some point. A “Hydrasynth Pro Deluxe” would be a great synth. They wouldn’t really have to charge anything. Just make what’s there better.

[Aliens]

What the deluxe edition should have been.

[pdxindy]

I wonder if they’ll release a version with a faster processor at some point. A “Hydrasynth Pro Deluxe” would be a great synth. They wouldn’t really have to charge anything. Just make what’s there better.

A much faster processor... then increase the internal sample rate

[zerocrossing]

I wonder if they’ll release a version with a faster processor at some point. A “Hydrasynth Pro Deluxe” would be a great synth. They wouldn’t really have to charge anything. Just make what’s there better.

A much faster processor... then increase the internal sample rate

I actually sent a message to their support with an example of the LFO failing and asked if they’d add a mode where you could lose voices in exchange for cleaner processing. Or better yet lose a Mutator slot. That’s probably impossible at this point, but would be nice. I don’t even think I ever used consecutive Mutators on a sound.

[cryophonik]

Here's my useless and probably unpopular opinion:

I don't own either synth, but have considered each of them on multiple occasions. I see secondhand Hydrasynths for sale pretty regularly and often at tempting prices. But, every time I think I might give it a go, I start watching a few video reviews and instantly find myself thinking, god what a boring sounding synth. Maybe it's better when used hands-on and maybe it's great for the MPE (not a high priority for me), but I've seen enough reviews to convince me that it's not going to add anything that I don't already have in other hardware or software. Also, I have a MiniFreak and, although they're not an apples:apples comparison (even though people treat them like they are), I find it much more unique and with an even better arpeggiator than Hydrasynth's arp (which is one of its strongest points IMO).

Iridium, meh IDK. It's a synth that I want to love, but it's a lot of money for a synth that has many cool features, but IMO doesn't sound as good as my Blofeld. Also, I find synths like this are pretty complex for the hardware realm and are much better from a usability standpoint in software format. I do love hardware for the joy of using hardware, but I'm neither a hardware nor analog snob. I own a few digital hardware synths (e.g., Blofeld, Virus TI2) and have owned many others in the past, but for me to buy anything digital in hardware format, it has to be more usable or sound better/different, or have a better user experience than something equivalent in software. So, I just find that complex digital synths are often better implemented in software format. All that said, if I ever see an Iridium at a no-brainer price, I'd probably pick it up just to see if it changes my mind, knowing I could always resell it later for a profit/break even (I do this very often).

TL/DR: neither. I prefer my MiniFreak, Blofeld, or software synths over these two, but if I had to choose, it would probably be the Iridium.