Extensive modulation capabilities With its 32-slot modulation matrix, the Hydrasynth Desktop empowers you to create incredibly nuanced and expressive sounds. Synthesists are particularly impressed with its envelope generators (five per voice), which offer delay and hold in addition to ADSR stages. Each stage of the envelope can sweep through exponential and logarithmic curves, which offers big creative potential for long, evolving modulations. Like most of the functions on Hydrasynth Desktop, envelopes can be locked to BPM for tempo-synced modulations. Combined with the looping function, you can use the envelopes as LFOs with interesting waveshapes. And speaking of LFOs, Hydrasynth Desktop offers five LFOs per voice with 11 total waveshapes. That includes the 8-step LFO, which allows you to create your own custom waveshape. Advanced real-time control via eight macro controls One of the most popular aspects of software synthesizers is the ability to control multiple parameters simultaneously via macro controls, and the ASM Hydrasynth Desktop gives you that creative power in hardware form. You can customize its eight macro controls to tweak up to eight destinations simultaneously. And with a total of 170 modulation destinations to explore, you can easily use the macro controls to warp between completely distinct sound variations on the fly. Deep synthesis with an intuitive interface While the Hydrasynth Desktop engine is remarkably powerful, it's relatively simple to find and tweak the parameters you're looking for. On the front panel, you'll find a graphic representation of the audio path, with buttons to select each individual section (individual oscillators, mixer, effects, and so on). Selecting a section brings its associated parameters to the display, with eight encoders ready to tweak. In other words, every section of this synth can be accessed with a button press, no menu diving required. What's new in the Hydrasynth v1.5 firmware update? With the v1.5 firmware update, ASM added a ton of creative potential to the Hydrasynth. Here are just some of the more notable additions: Five new filter models — shape your sounds in new ways with filter models, including Steiner frequency response curves and SEM-style sweeps Microtonal Scale Import — Hydrasynth now supports MIDI Tuning Standard files Distortion effect — add harmonic bite, pre- or post-FX Updated Step LFO — now with a maximum of 64 steps, and with the ability to adjust in semitone increments, the step LFO can be used as a step sequencer Updated envelope gate sources — in addition to triggering envelopes via keyboard, 11 other sources can be set to trigger envelopes Macros as a Modulation Destination — Macros can control up to eight parameters simultaneously, and now you can modulate them all from a single source Updated Randomizer — you can now randomize different modules in a patch by different amounts, or meld parameters from two patches to create a new patch Custom startup patch — you can now choose which patch is loaded automatically when you power up your Hydrasynth And much, much more! Features: 24 RGB pads with polyphonic aftertouch, which also offer quick access to secondary functions via “SHIFT + Pad" Combines multiple synthesis methods like wavetables, linear FM, WavePWM, subtractive, and more 8-voice polyphony, with 3 x oscillators per voice and 4 x Mutator waveshapers total 7 types of Mutator waveshapers — FM-Lin, WaveStack, PW-Orig, PW-Squeeze, PW-ASM, Harmonic Sweep, and Hard sync WaveScan oscillators offer a total of 219 waveforms Dual filters — 1 x multimode (11 types) and 1 x variable LPF-BPF-HPF, with series/parallel routing options 5 envelope generators (ADSR) per voice with delay, hold, and looping abilities Envelopes can be locked to BPM (MIDI Clock) for tempo-synced modulation 5 LFOs per voice, with 11 waveforms — Sine, Triangle, Saw Up, Saw Down, Square, Pulse27%, Pulse13%, S&H, Noise, Random, and Step Powerful arpeggiator with 8 modes, including chord and phrase modes 32-slot Mod Matrix provides ample options for manipulating your sounds CV/Gate connectivity for integrating with modular/semi-modular synthesizers 8 insert effects, with Chorus, Flanger, Rotary, Phaser, Lo-Fi, Tremolo, EQ, Compressor, Delay (5 types), and Reverb (4 types) 8 Macro controls allow you to tweak multiple parameters simultaneously
