GovernorSilver Posted September 13, 2021 Share Posted September 13, 2021 The Deluxe Looks promising as a midi controller without even acknowledging its synth engines. I wonder who has designed and built their action and AT mechanism? Maybe I´m wrong, but IIRC, some relationship between ASM and Medelli was mentioned sometime ago already. Up to now, I don´t read any masterkeyboard features in the specs. A.C. Thanks. Medeli has largely been an unthrilling answer for, 'what action are they using' to me. But I"ll hold opinion till I get to play one. Well, without Medeli, there's no ASM, and thus no Hydrasynth. Medeli is the parent company and provided the startup resources for ASM. The poly aftertouch was made possible because Medeli was willing and able to tool their factory to produce the keybed Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GovernorSilver Posted September 15, 2021 Share Posted September 15, 2021 At about the 7:00 mark of this Knobcon 2021 video, the ASM rep says the keybed was "refined" for Explorer and Deluxe - in particular they added note off velocity. [video:youtube] Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GovernorSilver Posted September 30, 2021 Share Posted September 30, 2021 Looks like I missed Ken from ASM's appearance at a beloved local shop [video:youtube] Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zephonic Posted October 16, 2021 Share Posted October 16, 2021 Ticks a lot of boxes for me... [video:youtube] Quote local: Korg Nautilus 61 AT | Yamaha MODX8 away: GigPerformer | 16" MBP M1 Max home: Kawai RX-2 | Korg D1 | Roland Fantom X7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zephonic Posted January 20, 2022 Share Posted January 20, 2022 Took the plunge and ordered a Deluxe without ever having seen or played one, fingers crossed. Should arrive next Thursday. Quote local: Korg Nautilus 61 AT | Yamaha MODX8 away: GigPerformer | 16" MBP M1 Max home: Kawai RX-2 | Korg D1 | Roland Fantom X7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Doerfler Posted January 20, 2022 Share Posted January 20, 2022 Good for you, Menno. I have had the 4 octave Hydrasynth for almost a year and have been considering selling it to get the Deluxe, 73 keys would be great. I haven't played a Deluxe either, but if it's the same keybed as is the 49 key version, then it's a home run. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zephonic Posted January 20, 2022 Share Posted January 20, 2022 How has it been for you? Strengths/weaknesses? Quote local: Korg Nautilus 61 AT | Yamaha MODX8 away: GigPerformer | 16" MBP M1 Max home: Kawai RX-2 | Korg D1 | Roland Fantom X7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Doerfler Posted January 20, 2022 Share Posted January 20, 2022 Solid build, great feeling keybed, class compliant, MIDI over USB solid, Manager program to shuffle sounds around into whatever banks you prefer works flawlessly, free soundset from Carlos Mezzanotte used to be available at MPN store, that will get sorted eventually (will be happy to send it to you if not), Poly Aftertouch (if you are into that) Dr. Mike Metlay has done an entire video series on it, check out his You Tube channel It's not analog, it's not VA, it's digital. Sounds digital. If you are looking for analog type sounds, you will have to find them somewhere else. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ProfD Posted January 21, 2022 Share Posted January 21, 2022 20 hours ago, zephonic said: Took the plunge and ordered a Deluxe without ever having seen or played one, fingers crossed. Should arrive next Thursday. Brotha Z, I hope that you have a blast with the Hydrasynth Deluxe. There is a lot to dig about that synth. If my sonic palette was wider, I probably would have bought one too. 😎 1 Quote PD "The greatest thing you'll ever learn, is just to love and be loved in return."--E. Ahbez "Nature Boy" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zephonic Posted January 21, 2022 Share Posted January 21, 2022 20 hours ago, Doerfler said: Solid build, great feeling keybed, class compliant, MIDI over USB solid, Manager program to shuffle sounds around into whatever banks you prefer works flawlessly, free soundset from Carlos Mezzanotte used to be available at MPN store, that will get sorted eventually (will be happy to send it to you if not), Poly Aftertouch (if you are into that) Dr. Mike Metlay has done an entire video series on it, check out his You Tube channel It's not analog, it's not VA, it's digital. Sounds digital. If you are looking for analog type sounds, you will have to find them somewhere else. What, Carlo made a soundset for it? I'm gonna have to find out about that, is he still around here? I'll check out those Metlay vids. I've never been much of an analog-first guy, so that is not an issue at all. Thanks for your report, Dave! 1 Quote local: Korg Nautilus 61 AT | Yamaha MODX8 away: GigPerformer | 16" MBP M1 Max home: Kawai RX-2 | Korg D1 | Roland Fantom X7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zephonic Posted February 5, 2022 Share Posted February 5, 2022 Have had it for about a week now, not much time to really go in deep, but first impression is that the presets are a bit weak. You definitely need to tweak the knobs for this thing to come to life. I remember something similar from the original Nord Lead, the presets were kinda meh, but then a buddy programmer dialed in some sounds and baaam, it was killer. I like the build quality and layout, not hard to get around on, and thank God there is aftertouch. But I don't know if I'm enough of a synthesist for this. Quote local: Korg Nautilus 61 AT | Yamaha MODX8 away: GigPerformer | 16" MBP M1 Max home: Kawai RX-2 | Korg D1 | Roland Fantom X7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ProfD Posted February 5, 2022 Share Posted February 5, 2022 8 hours ago, zephonic said: But I don't know if I'm enough of a synthesist for this. I'm more of the tweak it and get results quick persuasion. Brotha @zephonic, that's fair. The 1st question is what types of sounds do you need from a synth. If you're primarily a KB player/musician who wants to program in advance or dial in playable synth sounds (bass, lead, pad, comp, etc.) on the fly, you're probably better off with a knobby synth and little or no menu diving i.e. Take 5, DSI REV 2, Novation Summit or Prophet P6. OTOH, spend some time with the Hydrasynth Deluxe. It's digital which gives a wider variety of timbres than an analog synth. You'll figure out how to fly around on that Hydrasynth like a magic carpet and dial up those heat seeking missiles.😎 2 Quote PD "The greatest thing you'll ever learn, is just to love and be loved in return."--E. Ahbez "Nature Boy" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Doerfler Posted February 5, 2022 Share Posted February 5, 2022 3 hours ago, zephonic said: You definitely need to tweak the knobs for this thing to come to life. Indeed, that is why they are there. have fun. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brenner13 Posted November 13, 2022 Share Posted November 13, 2022 Got impatient waiting for a pre-ordered MiniFreak and jumped on a demo Hydra-Explorer. I play a Yamaha melodica so figured mini keys would be no issue, but these are more ”diving board” than my pianica so a little difficult playing some chords and especially arpeggios where fingers are naturally closer to the pivot point. Gonna take a little while to compensate. Also, the noises the thing makes begs to have low, pulsating bass with the right hand soaring or comping above. A lot can be done with skillful octave jockeying, but definitely would be more fun on the 73-er with the poly-aftertouch. I figured polytouch was one of those things ya don’t know what you’re missing, and boy was I right…Super expressive! The presets are fine at demonstrating how some of the synthesis is done and there are some that are fantastic, but as often mentioned here and elsewhere, rolling yer own seems to have the best results. It is fairly easy to navigate, but is pretty deep and some of the options are a little hard to understand what they are doing. Building one’s own sounds is very time consuming and there is a ton of learning to do. There are already plenty of third party libraries available, but some of them just sound like tweaked randomizations that most anyone could do themselves. Not sure if Easysounds might do some with this board, but sure do like most of the sound packs he’s done with the MODX. I’ll be keeping an eye out. I’ve only had the Hy-Ex for a few days so have little info for a review yet. Tons of those already on UToob anyway. Cool synth, but I probably would be happier with the cost-vs-features of the 49-key vers. Gonna give the wee one some more time, though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sunspot Posted November 25, 2022 Share Posted November 25, 2022 Thanks brenner, this thread got hijacked about the versions other than the mini-key Explorer so I appreciate your thoughts on the keybed feel. I wonder if it would pair well with an Arturia Keystep for a small backpackable two-tier setup? I'm not a big minikey fan but I've owned a Keystep for a few years and it is servicable. Preferable to me over the grid pad-based instruments like the Ableton Push. Besides, Keith Emerson didn't seem to have any trouble playing the one on his GX-1. 😊 The Explorer is on sale for $499 for Black Friday, so I'm tempted. Did you decide to hang onto it, or move on? Quote The Players: OB-X8, Numa Compact 2X, Kawai K5000S, cheap Korean guitars/basses, Roland TD-1KV e-drums. Eurorack/Banana modular, Synth/FX DIY. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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