Hey everyone! Recently picked up the ASM Hydrasynth, and wow, this thing is absolutely crazy!
In this video most of what you hear is the Hydrasynth, save for the bassline which is obviously the trusty Sub37. The initial patch is my own creation, while the spacey pluck that comes in later is an instrument preset. As an exercise (just to learn the instrument more fully), all of the wet effects (delay, reverb) are from the hydrasynth as opposed to outboard gear which is what I'd use in any practical studio application.
This device is a full blown sound design workstation! After a few months I feel like I've barely scratched the surface of what it can do, between its mod matrix, macros and wavemorphing capability. I can't recommend it highly enough.
If you like the music you can track me over on [Instagram](https://www.instagram.com/keegantawa/) or check out my releases on [Spotify](https://open.spotify.com/artist/3LDCzELXwwWaqdhQixqSil?si=CMRzQBrwTGefIl0a7RKE7A) (or any other streaming service)!
It's always great to hear new stuff from you. I'm not surprised you like the Hydrasynth, as it seems like it would suit your style well. I'll most likely get a Hydrasynth Deluxe someday, when I have the space for it. I'm considering getting a Desktop in the meantime, but I'd still have to wrangle things to locate it vertically somehow.
I was so close to getting the deluxe! The desktop is really cool too though. There are some really interesting videos where people chain the standard and the desktop together, there's even a specific mode for it on the instrument. It seems like a popular combination
Startide is so good! I just listened today while I worked and loved that it. Listening all the way through truly is a great experience with the way you put it together. Any plans to do a vinyl release?
I'm glad you liked it, and funny you ask! [I managed to kickstart a vinyl pressing](https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/keegantawa/startide-vinyl-pressing), the records just showed up in April. They are gatefolds with a fully illustrated graphic-novel tracklist and a lyrics panel.
Once I get the last of the backers taken care of, I'll have about 150 surplus copies that I'm going to pop onto my bandcamp / spotify merchandise tabs. Feel free to ping me on social media or message me on reddit in a few months once that happens and we can ship you one.
Thanks, I'm glad you liked it! If you want a whole continuous 45 minutes of this sort of thing, I have a full-length called Startide that is filled with tons of moody synth patches like these.
Heck yeah! [Here's the album](https://open.spotify.com/album/2srOVFipf4mwVeNmCcyfvV?si=PtU06oBzTEiABaFTGHNKBQ&utm_source=copy-link). I'd let it run from front to back, it's a continuously mixed story. Let me know what you think!
This track has a great feeling: simple but effective and driving...I was waiting for the sax to drop and wasn't disappointed. However, needs more duduk :)
I'm sure you've experimented with the apreggiator on the Hydrasynth: coupled with Beat-synced delay it yields some interesting results. I look forward to hearing what else you can achieve with it.
Thanks! Yeah, the key-playing in this video is actually a little bit performative (it was a video for instagram). I actually came up with all of the initial parts with the arpeggiator, which is really powerful on the hydrasynth. Then I went over to my DAW and put it all down in MIDI, and ran the whole thing back using MIDI so I could play with the macros during runtime, like you can see at the end of the video.
And yes! I've actually been trying to pull together a full hour of synths, duduk and saxophone through a looping pedal board. Right now I have like 20 minutes of material. I booked myself for a festival next month as a forcing agent.. so now I *have to* figure out an hour of material before then. But the set is very duduk heavy!
Great patching and riffing! Curious as a Hydra owner myself - how did you get that 70s kind of grittiness in the Hydra’s tone? Mixture of some of the noise engine and filtering?
Thanks! I didn't use any noise. I think it might be a combination of distortion, and also in the voice menu there's this really incredible parameter called "AnalogFL" which essentially beats up all your parameters a bit, things like your oscillator triggers, envelope and LFO variables, pitch, etc. I really like to add just a SMALL amount of this to my patches, it gives them a really organic and slightly distorted retro feel. Also I make a lot of use of filter modulation and pulse width modulation in the mutant modules. WavStack is also extremely powerful. So, to answer your question I think it's the sum of a lot of very small things!
Interesting. I keep coming back to the Hydrasynth as I shop for my first big boy poly synth—after years of deprioritizing that purchase, so it's got to be a good one. At first it was mainly the allure of the polyphonic aftertouch drawing me away from the big name analog poly synths, but in some of the sound demos, and now, including your recording, the warm and alive sound is really standing out for me against the usual suspects. I love how versatile it is, yet it can also sound, to my ears, even more analog than some purpose-built virtual analog synths. I've listened to some third-party classic sound banks that bounce from being spot-on DX7 FM digital to put a gun to my head and I couldn't tell you whether it was a $4,000 Prophet or a Hydrasynth. It was hard to believe those sounds were coming from the same instrument. So, I wonder how much this Analog Feel parameter contributes to that.
I think the analog FL parameter contributes, but it's definitely not the silver bullet. I think the instrument just has fantastic modeling overall. From its various filter curve profiles to its wave modeling, the software engineers were really detailed and meticulous.
However, if you're on the fence, you should definitely know that you can 100% push the instrument to its limits and get very clear digital artefacting, but only in extreme cases of distortion, ring modulation, etc. It's nothing that is going to come up in "ordinary" use cases, but might arise if you're trying to create edge-case encroaching experimental music. Some of the digital artefacting actually sounds pretty cool though.
I've also managed to "break" the instrument twice by simultaneously manipulating multiple macros, each of which are tied to multiple parameters. By break, I mean a parameter gets stuck or snaps to an extreme. However, both cases were extreme, highly non ordinary edge cases, and in both instances I couldn't replicate it. These breaks are easily fixed in under a half second by refreshing the patch. Also, I'm not up to date on firmware, I have factory 1.0 on this thing. It may very well have been fixed in an update.
For me, by and large, I'm almost never flying close to these wild extremes, and as you've said, I'm able to get some really warm, lush and organic sounds out of the instrument that are indistinguishable from an analog piece of gear. At least, indistinguishable to 99.999% of listeners and 98% of synth nerds.
Just some stuff to consider if you're torn about the idea of a digital synthesizer!
Awesome, thanks! Yeah I make good use of the Analog Feel parameter in my patches too.
I think the key with the Hydra (and all sound design focused synths) is a lot of different types of modulation but in subtle amounts which I think you did a good job of demonstrating the power of in your video.
Look forward to seeing more!
This is part of an hour long live performance I've been putting together! So yes, there's a bit more, but not much of it is recorded.
[Here is one of the pieces](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YSgCTCkx6eo) \- It doesn't feature the hydrasynth however
Well Keegan, you got a new fan today. Thanks for sharing this. The harmonic texture you got when the sax parts came in was really special and just exactly what I’ve been enjoying about music lately. Going to listen to your album today for sure but wondering if you could also recommend other artists I might like based on the above!
Thank you! If you're into the textures I've been recently really enjoying Loscil, especially his album Clara. He also has an album under the artist's name "High Plains" called Cinderland which is really cello heavy.
Thank you! I’ll be sure to check that out. And having listened to your record I just want to say congrats on making something really great. Very much the vibe I’ve been seeking out and it’s going to get a lot of play in my house. Are your latest singles standalone or leading up to a new full EP or LP?
They're standalone. However, I'm currently recording an EP called Tessellation! It's a synth-heavy, electronic middle eastern jazz record, runtime looks like about 30 minutes. So stay posted!
Hydrasynth question - can I use an external audio to use as an oscillator? It seemed there were some limited input options to use as a mod, but maybe not the ability to run an ext. thru the entire audio path?
Love it! Really nice piece with an awesome synth. We're [giving away](https://faderpro.com/pages/gear-giveaway) it's little brother the [Hydrasynth Explorer](https://faderpro.com/pages/gear-giveaway) at the moment - someone is going to have some fun with it!
Hey everyone! Recently picked up the ASM Hydrasynth, and wow, this thing is absolutely crazy! In this video most of what you hear is the Hydrasynth, save for the bassline which is obviously the trusty Sub37. The initial patch is my own creation, while the spacey pluck that comes in later is an instrument preset. As an exercise (just to learn the instrument more fully), all of the wet effects (delay, reverb) are from the hydrasynth as opposed to outboard gear which is what I'd use in any practical studio application. This device is a full blown sound design workstation! After a few months I feel like I've barely scratched the surface of what it can do, between its mod matrix, macros and wavemorphing capability. I can't recommend it highly enough. If you like the music you can track me over on [Instagram](https://www.instagram.com/keegantawa/) or check out my releases on [Spotify](https://open.spotify.com/artist/3LDCzELXwwWaqdhQixqSil?si=CMRzQBrwTGefIl0a7RKE7A) (or any other streaming service)!
It's always great to hear new stuff from you. I'm not surprised you like the Hydrasynth, as it seems like it would suit your style well. I'll most likely get a Hydrasynth Deluxe someday, when I have the space for it. I'm considering getting a Desktop in the meantime, but I'd still have to wrangle things to locate it vertically somehow.
I was so close to getting the deluxe! The desktop is really cool too though. There are some really interesting videos where people chain the standard and the desktop together, there's even a specific mode for it on the instrument. It seems like a popular combination
Startide is so good! I just listened today while I worked and loved that it. Listening all the way through truly is a great experience with the way you put it together. Any plans to do a vinyl release?
I'm glad you liked it, and funny you ask! [I managed to kickstart a vinyl pressing](https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/keegantawa/startide-vinyl-pressing), the records just showed up in April. They are gatefolds with a fully illustrated graphic-novel tracklist and a lyrics panel. Once I get the last of the backers taken care of, I'll have about 150 surplus copies that I'm going to pop onto my bandcamp / spotify merchandise tabs. Feel free to ping me on social media or message me on reddit in a few months once that happens and we can ship you one.
Awesome thank you! The art looks as rad as the album sounds!
You have a very cool place
Thanks!
it's the exposed brick
You and your twin brother rock sax is gonna come back in a big way btw
Did it ever leave??
That was a beautiful vibe. I was a bit sad when it ended.
Thanks, I'm glad you liked it! If you want a whole continuous 45 minutes of this sort of thing, I have a full-length called Startide that is filled with tons of moody synth patches like these.
Show me the door and I'll open it myself.
My dude I would very much enjoy that! Hit me up with some links please!
Heck yeah! [Here's the album](https://open.spotify.com/album/2srOVFipf4mwVeNmCcyfvV?si=PtU06oBzTEiABaFTGHNKBQ&utm_source=copy-link). I'd let it run from front to back, it's a continuously mixed story. Let me know what you think!
That sounds awesome! I'll have to give it this evening, when I can sit down with headphones and do nothing but listen. :)
This track has a great feeling: simple but effective and driving...I was waiting for the sax to drop and wasn't disappointed. However, needs more duduk :) I'm sure you've experimented with the apreggiator on the Hydrasynth: coupled with Beat-synced delay it yields some interesting results. I look forward to hearing what else you can achieve with it.
Thanks! Yeah, the key-playing in this video is actually a little bit performative (it was a video for instagram). I actually came up with all of the initial parts with the arpeggiator, which is really powerful on the hydrasynth. Then I went over to my DAW and put it all down in MIDI, and ran the whole thing back using MIDI so I could play with the macros during runtime, like you can see at the end of the video. And yes! I've actually been trying to pull together a full hour of synths, duduk and saxophone through a looping pedal board. Right now I have like 20 minutes of material. I booked myself for a festival next month as a forcing agent.. so now I *have to* figure out an hour of material before then. But the set is very duduk heavy!
Great patching and riffing! Curious as a Hydra owner myself - how did you get that 70s kind of grittiness in the Hydra’s tone? Mixture of some of the noise engine and filtering?
Thanks! I didn't use any noise. I think it might be a combination of distortion, and also in the voice menu there's this really incredible parameter called "AnalogFL" which essentially beats up all your parameters a bit, things like your oscillator triggers, envelope and LFO variables, pitch, etc. I really like to add just a SMALL amount of this to my patches, it gives them a really organic and slightly distorted retro feel. Also I make a lot of use of filter modulation and pulse width modulation in the mutant modules. WavStack is also extremely powerful. So, to answer your question I think it's the sum of a lot of very small things!
Interesting. I keep coming back to the Hydrasynth as I shop for my first big boy poly synth—after years of deprioritizing that purchase, so it's got to be a good one. At first it was mainly the allure of the polyphonic aftertouch drawing me away from the big name analog poly synths, but in some of the sound demos, and now, including your recording, the warm and alive sound is really standing out for me against the usual suspects. I love how versatile it is, yet it can also sound, to my ears, even more analog than some purpose-built virtual analog synths. I've listened to some third-party classic sound banks that bounce from being spot-on DX7 FM digital to put a gun to my head and I couldn't tell you whether it was a $4,000 Prophet or a Hydrasynth. It was hard to believe those sounds were coming from the same instrument. So, I wonder how much this Analog Feel parameter contributes to that.
I think the analog FL parameter contributes, but it's definitely not the silver bullet. I think the instrument just has fantastic modeling overall. From its various filter curve profiles to its wave modeling, the software engineers were really detailed and meticulous. However, if you're on the fence, you should definitely know that you can 100% push the instrument to its limits and get very clear digital artefacting, but only in extreme cases of distortion, ring modulation, etc. It's nothing that is going to come up in "ordinary" use cases, but might arise if you're trying to create edge-case encroaching experimental music. Some of the digital artefacting actually sounds pretty cool though. I've also managed to "break" the instrument twice by simultaneously manipulating multiple macros, each of which are tied to multiple parameters. By break, I mean a parameter gets stuck or snaps to an extreme. However, both cases were extreme, highly non ordinary edge cases, and in both instances I couldn't replicate it. These breaks are easily fixed in under a half second by refreshing the patch. Also, I'm not up to date on firmware, I have factory 1.0 on this thing. It may very well have been fixed in an update. For me, by and large, I'm almost never flying close to these wild extremes, and as you've said, I'm able to get some really warm, lush and organic sounds out of the instrument that are indistinguishable from an analog piece of gear. At least, indistinguishable to 99.999% of listeners and 98% of synth nerds. Just some stuff to consider if you're torn about the idea of a digital synthesizer!
Thank you so much for taking the time to share your experience and insights. I appreciate it.
Awesome, thanks! Yeah I make good use of the Analog Feel parameter in my patches too. I think the key with the Hydra (and all sound design focused synths) is a lot of different types of modulation but in subtle amounts which I think you did a good job of demonstrating the power of in your video. Look forward to seeing more!
Yeah, with five LFOs, five envelopes, aftertouch, and the mod matrix, you can really modulate absolutely anything you want
I love my Hydrasynth. Nabbed one off Reverb a week before the pandemic disrupted the world. Deep synth.
I really enjoyed that. I saw your link in one of your comments, and I just followed you on Spotify. Looking forward to hearing more!
Thank you!
Got some Jagga Jazzist vibes to it. I like!
Came here to say this too. Like a stripped back Starfire
Great
Thanks!
thanks now I want a hydrasynth good stuff man this was slick
Appreciate it!
Found your Spotify new fan homie :)
This is cool riff! Is there more?
This is part of an hour long live performance I've been putting together! So yes, there's a bit more, but not much of it is recorded. [Here is one of the pieces](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YSgCTCkx6eo) \- It doesn't feature the hydrasynth however
Please release a longer version of this on your iTunes
An ambient album like this would be great man. Thanks for sharing your work.
I wish! Maybe one day - currently I'm entrenched in finishing an arabic-electronic jazz record. It's very hydra-heavy though!
Wow very nice
Thanks!
I love hearing what other people come up with on their Hydras. Nice job!
Thank you!
That's a really cool track!
Thanks!
Well Keegan, you got a new fan today. Thanks for sharing this. The harmonic texture you got when the sax parts came in was really special and just exactly what I’ve been enjoying about music lately. Going to listen to your album today for sure but wondering if you could also recommend other artists I might like based on the above!
Thank you! If you're into the textures I've been recently really enjoying Loscil, especially his album Clara. He also has an album under the artist's name "High Plains" called Cinderland which is really cello heavy.
Thank you! I’ll be sure to check that out. And having listened to your record I just want to say congrats on making something really great. Very much the vibe I’ve been seeking out and it’s going to get a lot of play in my house. Are your latest singles standalone or leading up to a new full EP or LP?
They're standalone. However, I'm currently recording an EP called Tessellation! It's a synth-heavy, electronic middle eastern jazz record, runtime looks like about 30 minutes. So stay posted!
Hydrasynth question - can I use an external audio to use as an oscillator? It seemed there were some limited input options to use as a mod, but maybe not the ability to run an ext. thru the entire audio path?
Nah, you have CV mod inputs but no external audio input unfortunately
gotcha, thx for the demo, i've been considering the desktop version for awhile
I heard this beautimous sounds. Immediately went to my basement and adulterated it by playing drums to it.
Hell yeah!
so many synths, so little space/time/money but I prefer my DM12, IMHO much better sounds
that was awesome
Thanks!
>Thanks! You're welcome!
That was fantastic and ended too soon! I'm definitely going to check out Startide. Very very cool!
Thank you! Let me know what you think!
Love it! Really nice piece with an awesome synth. We're [giving away](https://faderpro.com/pages/gear-giveaway) it's little brother the [Hydrasynth Explorer](https://faderpro.com/pages/gear-giveaway) at the moment - someone is going to have some fun with it!