Hydra synth: first impressions

[Marek Szulen]

Thanks for sharing, Jay.
Currently, I feel more and more like in 80's or 90's where we had lots of
new synths and most of them were a desirable ones :)
Due to other priorities, I can't buy any new synth at the moment, but would
be glad to build something from a kit.
Would be nice if Korg releases their ts1 as areal kit (not a pcb + case) :)

Regarding the ribbon controller - I loved it in my JP8000 back then. It was
indeed, very intuitive to use and giving more expression than standard
benders.

Marek
Venray, NL

On Tue, 2 Jun 2020 at 16:49, Jay Vaughan <ibisum at gmail.com> wrote:

>
> Well, it rocked up at Sky Studio today, and Phil kept it wrapped until I
> arrived so we could OOBE together.
>
> First impressions: its a very, very nice synthesiser.  Beautiful and
> elegant, even.  Perfect “first synth” UI, but hiding a lot of power.
>
> Polyphonic after-pressure is a feature all synths should have, as is the
> case with the ribbon controller.  I didn’t really realize it has MIDI/CV,
> so that was a treat (Neutron+Hydra scheduled for next jam session) .. the
> ribbon controller is very fun and right away becomes ’normal’ to
> reach-for.  The knob layout passes the ‘fumble fingers’ test (can turn
> knobs without touching others).
>
> It seems to me to be missing a patch bank selector - but I’m never happy
> unless there are dedicated patch keys anyway.
>
> Factory presets are all very, very reminiscent of another ‘analog
> modelling synthesiser’ I’ve got in the room.  All very paddy and some
> shockers, but not a lot of stable ‘keyboard player’ style patches, out of
> the box.. couldn’t find a good hammond or e-piano patch, at least not yet,
> but there are a lot of patches to go through.
>
> A few minutes with an INIT patch, and I was able to make the sounds I
> wanted.  The UI is pretty intuitive after a few minutes, and doesn’t get in
> the way, although you do have to pay attention to what’s selected.  I guess
> the modes-knowledge will grow easier with use.
>
> There’s both 3.5mm and phono headphone jacks, FFS.  That’s smart.
>
> OSC models and Mutators are a fascinating set of tools.  Just tweaking
> them around, I could feel there was a lot of territory to be explored with
> the engine.
>
> Arpeggiator is sweet, “RATCHET” mode, lol.  Bit disappointed its not
> rendered in the UI, though.
>
> For sure, a multi-timbral expander would be a nice thing to have - 8
> hydra’s in a box, a la TX816, would be amazing.
>
> Anyway - it feels so classy that I would love to see proper keyboardists
> play it, so I’ll be sure to turn up some Sky Studio sessions as they happen
> in the near future..
>
> j.
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