ASM Hydrasynth Keyboard

HYDRASYNTH is THE dream synth for both sound designers and musicians. Its sound generation is designed for maximum flexibility. At the same time, the user interface has been optimized for minimal paging and an intuitive workflow. The exceptionally robustly crafted synthesizer 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 are capable of WaveScanning, where you can crossfade or "morph" between up to 8 waveforms. A total of four mutators can be used to further deform the oscillator signals, 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 sonic possibilities are virtually unlimited.

If the oscillators are the heart of a synthesizer, the filters are the soul. The eight-voice, monotimbral HYDRASYNTH features 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 operates at 12 dB per octave including a continuous sweep from low pass to 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 for short) also sets new standards for the keyboard: the velocity-sensitive 49-key keyboard features the in-house 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 synth 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.

ASM has of course 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 storing your own sounds.

On the connection side, there are not only the usual suspects with MIDI and USB, but also analog clock and CV/Gate inputs and outputs, via which analog 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 that e. g. early Korg synthesizers used. MIDI is available as a classic trio (In/Out/Thru) and via USB.