ASM Hydrasynth Keyboard

Digital Is The New Analogue

HYDRASYNTH is THE dream synth for sound designers and musicians alike. Its sound generation is designed for maximum flexibility. At the same time, the user interface has been optimised for minimal paging and an intuitive workflow. The exceptionally robustly crafted synthesiser features 3 oscillators with the advanced "Wave Morphing Synthesis" engine, which can access a pool of 219 waveforms. As a special feature, oscillator 1 and 2 have wave scanning, which allows you to crossfade or "morph" between up to 8 waveforms. The oscillator signals can be further deformed via a total of four mutators, including FM, three different types of pulse width modulation (PWM), hard sync, harmonic sweep and wavestack, which creates five mutually detunable copies of the oscillator for ultra-fat and wide sounds - the tonal possibilities are almost unlimited.

If the oscillators are the heart of a synthesiser, the filters are the soul: the eight-voice, monotimbral HYDRASYNTH has two independent filters that can be connected in series or parallel. Filter 1 has 11 different filter models (12, 24 db, HP, LP, vocal and others). The second multimode filter works with 12 dB per octave including a continuous sweep from low-pass via band-pass to high-pass, comparable to classic SEM filters. Four effects refine the extensive sound generation: Delay and reverb (incl. cloud) are fixed, for the other pre- and post-effects you can choose from various algorithms such as chorus, flanger, rotary, lo-fi, tremolo, compressor and others.

The debut of Ashun Sound Machines (ASM) also sets new standards for the keyboard: The velocity-sensitive 49-key keyboard features the completely newly developed Polytouch™ keybed, which offers polyphonic aftertouch for each of the 8 voices. This results in an expressive control that can only be found on a few vintage synths (e.g. Ensoniq VFX). A 4-octave ribbon controller and ergonomically designed, illuminated pitch and modulation wheels provide expression and control unlike any other hardware synthesiser on the market. Of course, a sophisticated, programmable arpeggiator is not to be missed.

The modulation sources have not been stingy either. No less than 5 loopable DAHDSR envelopes as well as 5 tempo-synchronous LFOs with numerous waveforms and various trigger modes (plus a sixth vibrato LFO via the mod wheel) provide plenty of movement in the sound. A massive modulation matrix with 32 slots connects internal sources as well as MIDI CCs to their destinations.

Of course, ASM has also thought of live use: 8 high-resolution encoders including LED rings can be freely routed to desired parameters and changed live. OLED displays ensure perfect readability. In addition to 2 banks with a total of 256 presets, 3 further banks with 128 patches each are available for saving your own sounds.

On the connection side, there are not only the usual suspects with MIDI and USB, but also analogue clock and CV/gate inputs and outputs, via which analogue control voltages and clock signals can be integrated into the modulation matrix. The HYDRASYNTH works not only with 1 volt per octave, but also with the Hz/Volt standard, which was used e.g. by early Korg synthesizers. MIDI is available as a classic trio (In/Out/Thru) and via USB.

Features:

• Digital wavemorphing synthesiser

• 49 full-size keys

• High quality Polytouch® keyboard including velocity and aftertouch

• 8 voices, monotimbral

• Full polyphonic aftertouch

• High-quality and robust metal housing

• Arpeggiator including ratchet, chance, gate time & swing (8 modes)

• 3 oscillators with 219 single-cycle waveforms

• WaveScan parameters for modulating through wavetables

• Wavelist mode for crossfading up to 8 wavetables

• 8 user-defined wavelists per oscillator

• Mixer including noise generator and ring modulator

• 2 filters (serial or parallel)

• Filter 1 with 11 different filter models (12 & 24 db ladder, vintage ladder, HP, LP, vocal etc.)

• Filter 2: 12 dB (SEM style) per octave incl. continuous sweep from low pass to band pass to high pass

• Oscillators 1 and 2 each have 2 mutants incl. FM linear, Wavestack™, Hard Sync, Pulse Width, PW Squeeze, PW ASM, Harmonic Sweep

• 4 Octave Ribbon Controller (67 cm) incl. Theremin Mode

• Modulation Matrix

• 32 user-definable modulation routings

• 5 DAHDSR envelopes

• 5 LFOs (incl. Sine, Triangle, Square, Saw up, Saw down, S&H, Low random, Noise, Pulse width a.o.)

• LFOs incl. delay, fade in, 3 trigger modes, smoothing, start phase, one-shot mode

• 5 banks with a total of 128 patches

• 256 factory patches

• CV gate inputs and outputs

• 8 high-resolution encoders including LED rings

• OLED displays

• Patch macros

• Support of all common CV/GATE standards

• V-trig, S-trig: 3.5 and 10 volts

• 1 volt per octave +/-5V, 1 volt per octave 0-10V, Hz to volt +/-5V, Hz to volt 0-10V

• Clock input and output (1 PPS, 2 PPQ, 24 PPQ, 48 PPQ)

• Clock voltage: - 3, 5, 10 and 10 volts

• USB (USB MIDI in/out)

• MIDI IN/OUT/THRU

• PC/MAC-based Patch Manager plug-in

• Pre- and post-effects for unique sound processing

• Delay & Reverb

• Aluminium side panels

• Expression pedal input

• Sustain pedal input (automatic polarity detection)

• Dimensions: 800 x 350 x 103 mm

• Weight: 10000 g