ASM Leviasynth for NAMM 2026

[dayjob]

An FM synth with 16 voices for 2400. Maybe I’m wrong but I just don’t see what’s the deal here. Modx M can be had for 1300, same for the Astrolab which can have 20-40 thousand presets. I can’t count the presets on the Modx M but there are so many to choose from and professionally made that you literally never have to create a patch from scratch. Almost every sonic possibility is already covered. Add a modwave for wavetables and you are still below the price tag and you have hundreds of voices, lots of midi channels.

i spent a lot of time with a Montage and never learned to like it. i thought it was awful to program really and i absolutely hated the screen. didn’t really care for the sound of it either. i had an FS1r for a while and that was more fun to program than the Montage. ymmv of course but i just couldn’t get into Montage. i know people probably do interesting things w/it but to me it was the perfect example of all the specs in the world not adding up to an interesting synth. synth players probably love it.. synth programmers.. less so.

[Jorchime]

Hydrasynth is the worst sounding synth I’ve ever played, I really wanted to like it because their design and functionality is on point. Lifeless and sterile. This seems to be the same to me, too bad as I love these kinds of synths that have so much depth.

I really don't get this. Maybe I'm deaf, but I'm having lot's of fun with the Hydrasynth explorer?
Sure, maybe there are some artefacts, but we are talking about one-digit-% issues here, right? Over all I can create many fun sounds with it and I don't get the "bad sonic character" point at all.

[christian f.]

Hydrasynth is the worst sounding synth I’ve ever played, I really wanted to like it because their design and functionality is on point. Lifeless and sterile. This seems to be the same to me, too bad as I love these kinds of synths that have so much depth.

I really don't get this. Maybe I'm deaf, but I'm having lot's of fun with the Hydrasynth explorer?
Sure, maybe there are some artefacts, but we are talking about one-digit-% issues here, right? Over all I can create many fun sounds with it and I don't get the "bad sonic character" point at all.

HS is a very fun and powerful synth, it just sounds bad compared to other similar (digital) synths and even plug ins. This new one seems to have that same sound signature. I've got the HS twice and found it unusable and much rather use one of the "flagship" plug ins than that.

[bmanic]

Hydrasynth is the worst sounding synth I’ve ever played, I really wanted to like it because their design and functionality is on point. Lifeless and sterile. This seems to be the same to me, too bad as I love these kinds of synths that have so much depth.

I really don't get this. Maybe I'm deaf, but I'm having lot's of fun with the Hydrasynth explorer?
Sure, maybe there are some artefacts, but we are talking about one-digit-% issues here, right? Over all I can create many fun sounds with it and I don't get the "bad sonic character" point at all.

I have stumbled upon a few people that do like it a lot.. but by far the majority say the same thing, no matter what you try to do, the overall sound character is quite unattractive.

It is ultimately subjective but I suspect there are some technical reasons for the HS to sound the way it does. To me it sounds severely "boxed in" and just stuck "at a distance".

Take an old telephone: No matter what the original sound itself is, no matter how complex, it'll still sound like it came out of an old telephone. Same goes for characterful gear, like old transformers, tubes etc.. no matter what you pump through them, they will impart a certain sonic fingerprint onto the sound, no matter what the sound itself is.

That is what I mean with sound character. No matter what you do on the Hydrasynth, it's coming through something that always sounds slightly recessed, rather mid dominant (300 to 1500Hz area) and just generally not all that pleasant. And if you do scoop all that mid away it just feels fizzy and unpleasant. It's like it's whole harmonic structure is "wrong" somehow, like it isn't enforcing the fundamental tones but rather has a huge mix of higher order harmonics and probably a lot of inharmonic stuff happening, even on relatively clean sounds.

That doesn't make the synth useless though. It works just fine for sounds that fill a mix but it's not exactly inspiring to play either. Mid to bad-generic is what I'd describe it as.

[zerocrossing]

Hydrasynth is the worst sounding synth I’ve ever played, I really wanted to like it because their design and functionality is on point. Lifeless and sterile. This seems to be the same to me, too bad as I love these kinds of synths that have so much depth.

I really don't get this. Maybe I'm deaf, but I'm having lot's of fun with the Hydrasynth explorer?
Sure, maybe there are some artefacts, but we are talking about one-digit-% issues here, right? Over all I can create many fun sounds with it and I don't get the "bad sonic character" point at all.

It's like a Ford Pinto. It's fine, until you get rear-ended.

My issues with it are, you can turn up a lot of the parameters to a point where things just sound bad. The filter drive is a good example. It's fine up to a point, and then starts sounding harsh. This is true about a lot of the parameters. Of course, you can avoid this and have it sound perfectly fine, and even good, but for those of us that use software, I guess my question is, why? I buy hardware because it can do some things better than software, or the CPU load of doing those things well is too high to use in most productions. So, if I was one of those people who was allergic to using plugins, I'd have a different opinion of the Hydrasynth, but as it is, I'd rather use Zebra 3. I think it's a better synthesizer in every way but mass.

[zerocrossing]

An FM synth with 16 voices for 2400. Maybe I’m wrong but I just don’t see what’s the deal here. Modx M can be had for 1300, same for the Astrolab which can have 20-40 thousand presets. I can’t count the presets on the Modx M but there are so many to choose from and professionally made that you literally never have to create a patch from scratch. Almost every sonic possibility is already covered. Add a modwave for wavetables and you are still below the price tag and you have hundreds of voices, lots of midi channels.

i spent a lot of time with a Montage and never learned to like it. i thought it was awful to program really and i absolutely hated the screen. didn’t really care for the sound of it either. i had an FS1r for a while and that was more fun to program than the Montage. ymmv of course but i just couldn’t get into Montage. i know people probably do interesting things w/it but to me it was the perfect example of all the specs in the world not adding up to an interesting synth. synth players probably love it.. synth programmers.. less so.

I think you're both missing the point. It's not "an FM synth with 16 voices for $2,400." It's an FM synth with analog filters and 16 voices for $2,400. Whether or not the analog filters means a damn thing to you is a personal matter, but that's where the extra price is coming from. You're putting in not just the analog filter and amplifier, but all the back and forth A-D required. If you don't care about the analog filters, you probably don't care about this synth, as there are plenty of less expensive and versatile ways to get good FM sounds.

[SoftSynthLover99]

Hydrasynth is the worst sounding synth I’ve ever played, I really wanted to like it because their design and functionality is on point. Lifeless and sterile. This seems to be the same to me, too bad as I love these kinds of synths that have so much depth.

I really don't get this. Maybe I'm deaf, but I'm having lot's of fun with the Hydrasynth explorer?
Sure, maybe there are some artefacts, but we are talking about one-digit-% issues here, right? Over all I can create many fun sounds with it and I don't get the "bad sonic character" point at all.

HS is a very fun and powerful synth, it just sounds bad compared to other similar (digital) synths and even plug ins. This new one seems to have that same sound signature. I've got the HS twice and found it unusable and much rather use one of the "flagship" plug ins than that.

The hydrasynth does not sound bad at all. I get people have different synth styles/preferences, but to say it sounds bad screams user error to me.

It’s like blaming the food itself for tasting bad instead of the chef who made the food. Most people just don’t know how to program synths. Even though I know how to get the sounds I want out of hardware I still consider myself a novice at programming synths. The hydrasynth can sound as good or as bad as the player controlling it.

[christian f.]

Hydrasynth is the worst sounding synth I’ve ever played, I really wanted to like it because their design and functionality is on point. Lifeless and sterile. This seems to be the same to me, too bad as I love these kinds of synths that have so much depth.

I really don't get this. Maybe I'm deaf, but I'm having lot's of fun with the Hydrasynth explorer?
Sure, maybe there are some artefacts, but we are talking about one-digit-% issues here, right? Over all I can create many fun sounds with it and I don't get the "bad sonic character" point at all.

HS is a very fun and powerful synth, it just sounds bad compared to other similar (digital) synths and even plug ins. This new one seems to have that same sound signature. I've got the HS twice and found it unusable and much rather use one of the "flagship" plug ins than that.

The hydrasynth does not sound bad at all. I get people have different synth styles/preferences, but to say it sounds bad screams user error to me.

It’s like blaming the food itself for tasting bad instead of the chef who made the food. Most people just don’t know how to program synths. Even though I know how to get the sounds I want out of hardware I still consider myself a novice at programming synths. The hydrasynth can sound as good or as bad as the player controlling it.

No, sorry. It really sounds bad (to my taste).

[bmanic]

.. and that is Jexus doing the sounds.

Yeah, I rest my case.

[db3]

Yes, while interesting, I'm yet to be convinced. At this kind of price point UDO DMNO has me more intrigued. Curious to see what else NAMM delivers.

[Jim Roseberry]

.. and that is Jexus doing the sounds.

Yeah, I rest my case.

Not liking the sound from this video.
Watched another video early this morning where it sounded (to me) much better than HydraSynth.
I'm guessing those sounds were leaning on the Analog Filters.

I had the HydraSynth... but just didn't jibe with it.
Loved the idea (flexibility/capability).
Didn't love the sound.
I never seem to keep Wavetable based synths.

[dayjob]

An FM synth with 16 voices for 2400. Maybe I’m wrong but I just don’t see what’s the deal here. Modx M can be had for 1300, same for the Astrolab which can have 20-40 thousand presets. I can’t count the presets on the Modx M but there are so many to choose from and professionally made that you literally never have to create a patch from scratch. Almost every sonic possibility is already covered. Add a modwave for wavetables and you are still below the price tag and you have hundreds of voices, lots of midi channels.

i spent a lot of time with a Montage and never learned to like it. i thought it was awful to program really and i absolutely hated the screen. didn’t really care for the sound of it either. i had an FS1r for a while and that was more fun to program than the Montage. ymmv of course but i just couldn’t get into Montage. i know people probably do interesting things w/it but to me it was the perfect example of all the specs in the world not adding up to an interesting synth. synth players probably love it.. synth programmers.. less so.

I think you're both missing the point. It's not "an FM synth with 16 voices for $2,400." It's an FM synth with analog filters and 16 voices for $2,400. Whether or not the analog filters means a damn thing to you is a personal matter, but that's where the extra price is coming from. You're putting in not just the analog filter and amplifier, but all the back and forth A-D required. If you don't care about the analog filters, you probably don't care about this synth, as there are plenty of less expensive and versatile ways to get good FM sounds.

i was only talking about the montage and modX yamaha synths because people always mention the specs when any kind of FM hardware comes up and a good synth is more than just a list of specs.

i don’t have an issue w/the leviasynth. price seems reasonable. could use more outputs and a real multi timbral mode instead of what it has which seems also interesting but is kinda my least favorite way to get multi timbral type stuff.. especially if there’s not discrete outputs.

i think the leviasynth sounds interesting. deep modulation, programmer’s type synth. modulating the osc/algo type sounded cool in the sonic state video.

[Funky40]

The Jexus Video sounds -for my taste- completly crap. YMMV
That guy has no taste or no skills or both.


here, sonicstate video, i just started to watch.
Check in at 4:46 and listen........i hear there a interesting sounding Sound Engine ! YMMV ofc




i find the Levia concept exactly what the HW market needs to see.
It´s the first HW since a loooong time i´m really lusting after ( well, lets excloude that Elektron Tonverk beta box i´ve sent back)

People are already asking for a cheaper model w.o. the analog Filters.
But it´s the analog VCF per voice that has a big appeal to me. While i´m absolutely aware of how good plugin VCFs can sound nowadays.


I like that concept. Really
The price is above of what would be healthy to me to fork out, though.

and with Zebra3 on the market now.....something has changed in my opinion. (just, i can´t programm it / and can´t make me like to program plugin Synths )


Soundwise ? no Synth can compete vs. a ITB synth sound with some nifty post processing. That´s my opinion on that matter. (to me true vs. anything non staccato, poly playing)

Levia (desktop) has still its appeal to me

[mambo888]

Filter chip 1-5$, A/D converter same. The analog filter doesn’t justify the price, neither the hardware controls. The SY77 20 years ago had 16 voice polyphony and 6 operators / oscillators per voice. Montage M is at least multitimbral, can mix samples with VA and FM, multitimbral, has 256+ voice polyphony. I have listened to every Leviasynth demo and patch and compared with the presets of Modx they are in similar sonic territory, but the Modx is only $1300. I like the features of the Leviasynth and of course who doesn’t like a new toy? But if you have to make a rational decision I would end up with the Modx or a used Kurzweil PC3K6 every time. Just because it’s new and has 23 LFOs and 200 envelopes it is still a niche and once the hype is over most people would be happier with Zebra3 + controller or a Modx M. Let’s not forget the VAT that you have to pay in most countries up to 25-27%. Even montage M is too expensive, there is no way I would pay close to 4K for a synth that has limited polyphony and not even multitimbral in 2026 a beg.

[kritikon]

Finally got around to listening to demos etc and while I understand the idea behind it...doesn't grab me at all. The pluses are that it goes incredibly deep, definitely a programmer's synth. It seems to do things that even Wavestate doesn't go far enough into in terms of modulation. If I wanted complicated wibbles etc then it's a contender. Also seems to have quite a decent interface/screen that despite depths remains understandable without vast page-diving, although I think it's just on the verge of going so deep that software makes more sense. There's a point beyond which hw has disadvantages rather than hands-on advantages.

Ultimately it doesn't offer price/value to me. I just don't get the whole analogue filters on a digital hw synth idea if it ultimately remains sounding like a very digital synth. Mostly it does to me. Obvs it can do more, but so many of these vids have it sounding like a fancy DX7 which really is...meh . I don't want or need multiple FM synths. I like me some pure digitalness, but this kinda falls inbetween the cracks and doesn't appeal to either digital-me or analogue-me. That Behringer BX thing similarly falls flat on my face too - couldn't care less if you put CS80 filters or even decent ones on a DX1 - it still sounds like a DX1. So this does wavetables - meh. It doesn't mangle the FM enough to be standout - meh. THe analogue filters sound vanilla - meh. Though possibly the drive allows it to get a bit more interesting, depsite these vids don't show it.

Price - actually reasonable. Better value than some I could mention, but doesn't offer a huge amount of sonic value to my ears. Maybe if I didn't already have 2 or 3 of the better digital hw synths I might be more interested, but there's only so much digital hw I want. As a first or only digital flagship hw synth I might have been tempted. TBH VSTi make more sense to me for these kind of complicated sounds. If I want analogue I'll go whole-hog analogue, not a mish-mash of poorly tacked on afterthought analogue parts, which these filter seem to be. As purely an FM synth I might have been tempted if I hadn't already bought Opsix - some nice algorithm mangling possible inside Leviasynth admittedly. BUt I'm never going to want more than one hw FM synth.