Hydrasynth Explorer, Argon8 V3 & Modwave | side by side sound comparison
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- čas přidán 18. 09. 2022
- This Video is a sound & style comparison of three compact wavetable synthesizers for the smaller budget: the Ashun Sound Machines Hydrasynth Explorer, the Modal Electronics Argon8 and the Korg Modwave. Enjoy!
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Hydrasynth Explorer: thmn.to/thoprod/527778?offid=...
Modwave: thmn.to/thoprod/511545?offid=...
Argon8: thmn.to/thoprod/473936?offid=...
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Argonaut is my first synthesizer. And after six months of use, I'm just starting to realize how deep it is. The instument itself and its accompaniment are at a high level. I love my Argon🙌
👍🏻😎 to buy a Hydrasynth Explorer last week, was the best decision I made in the last years 🚀😎
8 voices on a WT synth is just too low for me, that's the issue.
For me the Modwave module (just for studio use) is the compromise, as it has polyphony, and I don't ever need to use it for bass. The plugin is far too heavy even on M2 Mac Ultra, so the hardware is worth it in this case.
Thoroughly enjoying your reviews every day, thank you.
PS you definitely made the hydraysynth sound better than previous demos.
After owning all three I realized I like the sound of the argon8 the best. Sounds fall right out of it while hydrasynth and modwave required a lot more work and didn't result in sounds I liked. Argon seems to have a more classic wavetable sound than the others
This Video is a sound & style comparison of three compact wavetable synthesizers for the smaller budget: the Ashun Sound Machines Hydrasynth Explorer, the Modal Electronics Argon8 and the Korg Modwave. Enjoy!
Great job! It was like watching what Sprockets would look like if it was a synth show. As Dieter would say, "Und now ve dance!"
Haha! Love it!!! Specially the one with Arnold!
It's fun, because YT blocked my first comment, obviously because I wrote something about touching primates! 🐒😁🍀
Very cool comparison.
What's important about the Modwave to mention, is that it has two timbres and an intense sequencer as well as multisample support. The others don't have lot of those features as far as I know.
Thank you, this video was exactly what I was looking for.
Very entertaining video, thank you for taking the time to make it.
The hydrasynth will probably fit nice film my desktop actually :)
Thank you so much Sir.. After watching the video (and several more about the HydraSynth) I will be ordering one..
Very very great Video! ☺️
A couple of months ago Korg released Modwave's native software as vsti/au.
very interesting thoughts on the differences and between these three.
Peace Flux I flux wit u homie!
...& he didn't trash talk any synth down to the ground to build-up the "best" 1.
We need more reviewers like this ASAP!
The KORG modwave manual and a internet search shows it recognizes POLY-AFTERTOUCH & MPE
I have to find the settings to accept aftertouch in the modwave... i hope it does not have to be set per patch like in the opsix :o
I just bought an Argon 8 after struggling with my Hydrasynth to often (both desktop versions)....They are both good but the Argon is much more straightforward to use for simple people like me.
I went straight to the Modal to buy, because the build quality is amazing and I like the keys being normal size. I really dislike small keys. The synth itself is amazing, but I do concur about the output volume being low. Although it has been improvved since its release.
Thank you for the comparison. I stay with my choice I did before I saw the video 😉
So? What did you choose?
@@winesynths I think the most intressting features has Modal Argon 8. All the morphing stuff is very cool, and I think it is also a total different sound than a classic Waldorf microwave. It is unique. I also understand now why you see jarre in his studio with the hydrasynth. Fits perfect his sound. Your Soundexamples was not a jarre piece but you hear this sound in his new productions very clear. Thanks again.
@@svensyntetics2830 When I made the Hydra demo I definitely had this JMJ moment! 😁 But it was definetely not intended!
i looked at a hydrasynth when i was buying a load of gear earlier in the year, it was the desk top one tho, coz i dont really do keys
Très bon test comparatif. Pardon ... Very good comparative test!
Merci beaucoup Monsieur! 🍀🤓
I have the Hydrasynth keyboard and am very happy with it. I think at one point I will sell it and replace it with the Explorer for the portability as I am reluctant to take it out of the studio because it is quite heavy. Also because you can power it with USB.
Yeah! It's really a cool portable keyboard! With polyphonic aftertouch! 👍
Rest assured you can make proper bass sounds on modwave, I got one just for that reason (heavy dnb/breakbeat type bass sound) and it does deliver big time. Presets are rubbish but I never use them. For me the ability to load custom wavetables make this synth way more flexible. I’m planing to try hydra at some point but I’m happy with modwave and its sonic capabilities. Plus modwave is bi timbral. I do agree on build quality is definitely on cheap side tho;)
Yeah! If it‘s your kind of sound, go for it! I just did not really appreciate the whole touch and feel of it. The other day somebody offered me a broken DW-8000 that I now have to restore. Back to the roots! 😁
I hope you know that Argon8 has different modes for the envelopes, and one of the Types is called "snappy" which is, as the manual suggests, "best suited for the percussive material".
Yes! I used it to make the kick in the demo. 🍀
just the video I was looking for.... only interested in what sounds the best....
I own 2 of the 3; Original Hydra and Modwave. Hydra is easy to program and I am still trying to find my way with the MW. I wish Glen and Dominic from ASM were hired by Korg to streamline the interface!
True words! Modwave is a real parameters grave and a bit flat, while Hydra is well structured and always sounds fantastic! Great synth for starters! 👍
A review of the Uno Synth Pro from IK Multimedia would be great, should you get the chance to test it.
Thanks for the idea! I don‘t know this one! 🍀
Paraphonic, analog, sounds great. Very good value.
@@aquaticborealis4877 But has bugs and the one i tried had a sound artifact that could be heard if the Filter was lowered
I generally dont thumbs up reviewers, but you got my thumbs up. 👍🏿
Thank you very much! You‘re welcome! 🍀
That was a really helpful video: I had a ModWave and returned it because I didn’t like the sound, and I’ve had two Hydras, but they sound very digital and they take ages to program… So Argon8? Or Iridium keyboard?💰
To me, they all sound kind of „digital“! And I was defintely not searching analogue sound here.
In any case I would recommend something „really“ analogue alongside! Can be Moogspensive or Behricheap! Doesn’t matter! Hydra and Matriarch is a great combination! Or Maybe a Model D or a Monopoly. Also guitar pedals can contribute a lot of analogue „brizzle“ to this kind of synth. 🤓
this was a good vid. i wanted to comment to your argon8 pondering. when that was first released, i was excited about the features. then i heard it in all the video reviews. it sounds hazy and thin, actually all the modal stuff is not to my taste. hard to describe, like looking through a slightly hazy window. and he talked about slow envelopes on the Argon. i have 2 analogs (barp2600 and a deapmind12) with envelopes that can snap. i have a theory about the 3 types of synths and why these digitals dont sound rich to me. analogs are analog, instant and just there. romplers/sample players process their sound basically instantly, just converting it since it is already there, and just run it through the amp and effects with few other processing steps. pure digital synths need many clock ticks to shuffle the bits through the registers through each step of the signal path through each section of the synth, starting with the wavetables or oscillators themselves. by the time the sound makes it out the converters, it has gone through millions of clock ticks, and IMO, this super micro latency adds up to something that cant be distinctly heard, but rather a smearing or hazing that thins and cheapens the sound. i love almost anything i have ever heard that uses a moog grandmother for example, and i really like my couple of analog synths and romplers because they sound great and rich and clean and sharp yada yada. these synths dont. I do wish i had the hydra deluxe keyboard with the strip, just not the hydra. i also really like the modwave performance features, but after getting a wavestate, i want nothing further to do with that keyboard which is also on the modwave. it is a bogus mid-size which just doesnt fit well and the keybed is really flimsy feeling. Worse, it is only velocity sensitive which is just asking to be broken if you are doing velocity stuff becasue thats all you can do SMH. korg needs to make modules or something you can actually perform with. FWIW, i'm waiting on the next gen of digitals. from here on in, it is only more powerful processors and more mature coding. the iridium is a good start in that direction IMO, but it has processor limitations as far as i understand. i do love that screen. so i'm getting squared away on my other synths while i wait for the digitals to mature some more. i would get a polybrute right now today vs an iridium is what i'm saying. haha
Yeah the Argon is a cold sounding synth, just what I was looking for, since I already have a Juno-60 and a DeepMind12 for the warm sounds.
@@MurrayDagostino i exchanged my Argon 8 yesterdag for a Modwave, exactly because Argon sounded way too cold for me. Modwave is way more on my alley and yes, i have Deepmind 12 for the really warm sounds :-))
You're comparing wavetable synths, and didn't include the Blofeld?
Ok! Episode 2 next year? But I am not really a Waldorf guy. I had the MW1 back in the days and never really used it for production. But I would really like to try the M!
@@winesynths I hear you, but Waldorf is synonymous with wavetables. The M and Iridium are much to expensive for this comparison: but the Blofeld, while old now, is still being sold, and is one of the most famous wavetable synths in history.
The Argon does not Sound like a stringmachine but more like a Vst synth like Millions out there.
Hallo. Ja, ich stimme euch in Vielem zu, aber schaut euch bitte mal die drei YT-Videos an, die Jexus (sounds-for-synths) mit dem Modwave gemacht hat. Die könnten ein anderes Licht auf die Sache werfen.
Wobei: Der Typ holt auch aus einem Staubsauger fantastische Klänge heraus.
LG
Ja wenn man Spass an und Verwendung für Lofi hat, ist der Synth ja auch gar nicht schlecht! 😁
@@winesynths Haha, ja. Dann ist er ein Fass ohne Boden. 😁
I was waiting for you to say, "You will own nothing & be happy".
Often less is more in music production! Thats true! 🍀🌻
Modwave is way far superior. 32 voices. Butimbric. AB blending x2 OSC x 2 layers. 5 LFO, unlimitless MOD matrix. MOD seq x each note. Kaos pad. Hundreds of waveforms. You can import your waveform and samples…we argue that digitals are VST in a box…why are we so focused on the box???😅
Hydrasynth Explorer or Minifreak? That's my dilemma. 🤔
Come on! 😁
Doesn't Korg Modwave allow us to overwrite presets? I have a Korg Krome that allows overwriting, it is one of Korgs best features. So just initialize the Korg and build your own sound. Yes, presets are completely useless to composers and skilled artists. Wavetable synthesis is very interesting, I would like to try it, I did not know the Hydra was considered a wavetable synth. The Explorer is tempting, but I will probably be disappointed if I didn't buy the full-sized key to fully perform the polyAT and also miss the strip too. So, I wait and save my money. There is always the 3rd Wave from Groove Synthesis out there that seems the ultimate in wavetable synthesis, allowing any wave import and automation preparing that wave for synthesis and performance. There is always a price for ultimate though.
huh? there are quite a few very successful artists that almost exclusively use presets...
That's what my comment was gonna be. Seriously, the last 30 years has been literally presets
Im about to sell my argon. It just doesn’t fit
Complaining about "too many presets" is just LAME! If you don't want to listen to them - DON'T GO through them!
There was literary nothing in the above performance part of the modwave that you couldn't do on an arpegiated Volca Keys - that's not where the strength of the modified wavetable synthesis is. Don't use an articulated spanner to drive nails - there is a tool for that it's called a hammer.
Hannes alluded to one of the strengths of the modwave already by citing it as a negative - you'll get 10 hours of listening to sounds just by scanning what's already there. This is a sound designers, score and ambience machine that is more complex than the other two synths put together. Sure you can play your live techno on it. You could use a violin for the too 😄
Argon8 definitely feels more quality build (nice departure from Craft and Skulpt) and their PC app integration is really good. I agree that is the most musical keyboard out of the three here, and I'd say that maybe it is the most beginners friendly out of the three also.
What features does the Modwave have over the Hydrasynth?
@@PhrygianPhrog 32 voices in stereo, X-Y pad with third dimension (they call it Kaoss Physics) - a smart way of adding Z-plane to 2D surface controller (not original idea, but new to Korg, and I wish Electribe 3 would have it if there ever is one coming up). Also for me it's the software integration with the PC and I prefer larger keys, even though I appreciate polyaftertouch on Explorer and overall, probably one of the best minikeys out there (certainly better than microkorg, monologue or JD-Xi or JD Xm!). I like the motion sequencing lanes on modwave, but i wouldn't call it superior. Explorer has got Mutators which are very cleaver and flexible in what they do. Also having dual displays is a big win.
@@macks2025 Thanks for the rundown. I have the Hydra desktop, which is great, but have had my eye on the Modwave recently because of those cool features. Maybe they will release a VST version like they did with the Opsix.
@@PhrygianPhrog Yeah I'm looking forward to that also 😀
Yep, I don't get the Argon8 to be not just multitiimbral and/or with analog filters. Lost in a glass of water .
It could also host other synth engines in it .
Wasted !
I have the Hydra Deluxe, great synth and also lots of new land to discover, it's that vast. One gripe I might want to mention is that the amount of envelopes and LFOs is too sparse, and the three oscillators all share the same amplitude envelope. Now, you may think that five envelopes and five LFOs is rich, but this number is not on par with the amount of tweaking you could do. If you want your amplitude envelope, filter envelope and perhaps a pitch envelope, you're through three of your envelopes already. And *if* you somehow want to allocate an extra envelope to one of the oscillators, then it again costs you an envelope. Another nag I could have would be that it'd be better to have mutants for all the oscillators, rather than just on 1 and 2. If this is beyond the CPU capacity, then it'd be better to allocate one mutant to osc2 and one mutant to osc3. It's not like you always need *two* mutants per oscillator.
The envelopes can all independently control osc levels. so thats not really valid. and they can route to multiple places with varied amounts and in a bipolar fashion so it doesn't "cost you an envelope" ... odd to count that as a gripe, what hardware synth handles that better? the 3rd osc is essentially a sub osc but with full oscillator control. if you are running out of envelopes or lfos with 5 envelopes and 5 LFOs the envelopes can be configured to act as lfos, and the lfos can be configured to act as envelopes .... then you have 2 layers with the deluxe so you are getting into 20 envelope territory lol
@@Fluxwithit lol I was hoping to see you comment on this! Love it!
@@Fluxwithit 🤔
Sorry, but the Modwave the best. It more than a cheap plastic body.
It is a bitimbral 32 poliphonic binaural dual osc+sub/noise VA/sampler/wavetable synth with complex sequencer.
as the video said - it lacks de oomph
@@AlistairMaxwell77 Yes, and the factory presets (the "sound") are also much better than the others. I forgot to write this. That's why Modwave is better. And ridiculously cheap for that.
Behringer could learn from Korg.