i decided to explore hardware solutions and ended up picking the asm hydrasynth desktop.
running mg3hex standalone the direct (usb) connection didn’t work, but mpe over 5pin din midi works fine.
it has some great patches, especially synth bass ones. the 3x8 keypad can be configured like a fretboard and is very playable and very expressive, so much nicer for auditioning patches and exploring what happens when you increase pressure. pedal inputs for sustain and exp are very handy.
it has a nice feel, very solid, heavy.
zero cpu load = freedom.
it’s a lot of synth, the sound is bordering on glorious. i doubt that $800 worth of mpe soft synths would make me as happy. the soft option might become more competitive in the future if they manage to markedly improve the performance.
here’s a couple of hydrasynth patches being controlled by mg3hex. this setup is using midi 1.0, as live9 doesn’t do mpe.
asm provided single channel aftertouch versions of their patches, i’m using those.
the top three controls on touchdaw are aftertouch, pitchbend and modulation. m1-m4 correspond to the knobs on the hydrasynth.
touchdaw is superb for dialing in just the right sound. but for live use i think i’m going to switch to knobs mounted directly on the guitar. if i can figure out where to fit them.
compared to plasmonic and serum xt i find the patches to be much deeper.
the latest setup involves mg3net in ableton at 64 samples (zoom l8) sending to mg3hex standalone at 64 samples (‘dummy’ asio4all) which is connected to the hydrasynth directly via usb.
a second pc at 128 samples is handling the efx and looping.
my life is now crackle-free. and mpe is working, although i drift back and forth between it and midi 1.0 (among other things, that pitch drop off issue upon string release another user was describing is worse with mpe)
observation of the day: mg3hex is going to make me so so lazy, my many technical flaws simply vanish with the judicious application of string/strike filters and legato.
here’s a mix of hydrasynth rhodes, bass and synth patches loosely woven together:
i’m pretty happy with the way things are working these days. i’ve got modulation / pressure control with onboard rotary encoders, and transpose / sustain using buttons.
the hydrasynth has patch-specific controls, in this case i’m controlling ‘glide’ and ‘darken’ with force-sensitive resistors.
the hydrasynth is running through neural dsp’s archetype tim henson, the bit at the end of the video uses the ‘multivoicer’. there’s no post-processing.
lastly, the setup is now: mg3hex standalone at 64 samples, ableton for looping and effects at 128, all on one pc.
