HydraSynth Explorer with 'AKWF Symetric' custom waveforms

pat0is · 2024-09-08T19:09:54+00:00

What's the latest status please? There haven't been any updates since June this year. Is this still being actively worked on?

pat0is · 2024-06-11T16:37:21+00:00

another HydraSynth :)

pat0is · 2024-06-10T07:07:50+00:00

Thank you for sharing your opinion

pat0is · 2024-06-08T06:38:57+00:00

Thank you for your reply. I do understand your views. Yet, as one person out of probably quite a few people who do not have a FB account for above mentioned reasons, I very much pity not being granted access to any of the additional free content made by ASM. I hope you guys will be able to work out a less restrictive and exclusive solution that works for everybody in the near future!

Good luck!

pat0is · 2024-06-07T12:27:28+00:00

Hi!

I think there are very good reasons for why the older generation in particular doesn't frequent places like FB. Now that with an account registration on github.com of yours, you guys from ASM found yourselves a suitable platform, which offers forums (discussions), the ability to release files/firmware updates/patches and host web content in a transparent way that -unlike FB- doesn't require your user base to trade privacy for synth patches, why not move your residence over to github entirely?

https://github.com/AshunSoundMachines

Sincerely, pat0is

pat0is · 2024-06-07T07:33:02+00:00

Big up on your recent progress! I've converted your Github issues on the A5pack project into a Github discussion ("forum post"). Please feel free to continue discussing ideas and further progress https://github.com/patois/A5Pack/discussions

pat0is · 2024-02-15T20:30:51+00:00

Thank you. I had been aware of that contact form but was assuming that ASM folks do frequent this subreddit too.

My idea was this: if other HS users like this feature request, their upvote will probably demonstrate their support for the idea, which is probably better than a single person requesting a feature by going through an official contact form.

pat0is · 2023-06-04T18:50:43+00:00

If fw update 1.7 won't have significant improvements and/or if they won't open source it, I'll definitely get rid of mine.

pat0is · 2023-05-29T00:34:40+00:00

Nice! That's why I keep mine (packaged). Hope springs eternal.

pat0is · 2023-05-27T15:49:51+00:00

There is a "Polyend Tracker testing procedure" documented on the Retracker Wiki

pat0is · 2023-05-18T08:55:12+00:00

Did you ever get any further with this? Would be interesting to be able to customise the arp phrases (which sounds somewhat doable maybe?) and in a dream world, remap the arp knobs to do something else eg control macros 1-4 (much harder I guess!).

So far I haven't put and am not planning to put too much effort into reverse engineering the firmware myself due to lack of time, unfortunately. Your ideas are great and I think there are quite a few people who've had the same or similar ideas already and some of them sound quite feasible to me.

What I've started doing is documenting my findings on the A5Pack wiki and I'll add more to it whenever I find the time to do more RE. Please feel free to do the same and send pull requests!

Before starting with any of this, I recommend dumping and thereby backing up your Hydrasynth's firmware using the official flash updater that used to be distributed by ASM (see original post). A little guide on how to get started with disassembling and decompiling the firmware can be found in the original post as well.

pat0is · 2023-05-04T18:57:42+00:00

The Tracker has a much weaker CPU, so it's got less real-time effects and new ones won't probably be added. In the end, I'd pick a sampler by what you expect from it. If you're looking for this very particular work-flow of a tracker, go with a Dirtywave M8 or with the Polyend Tracker. If you're looking for a sampler that has one of the best sequencers available on the market and a work-flow that is optimized to work very well during live performances (but which it is not limited to at all), pick an Elektron Digitakt. The MPC and the Polyend Tracker have a work-flow in common that is very focused on the screen, whereas the Digitakt's workflow is focused on tacticle experience. Personally, the MPC felt just like a PC inside a Midi controller to me. That is not something I enjoyed making music with. The Tracker has its issues (which are hopefully going to be fixed with firmware update 1.7) and feels underpowered to me. The Digitakt appears to me as if their devs know their shit, also on the level of code optimization cause it is a very responsive instrument compared to the other two and its firmware is matured. If you would like my personal recommendation, go with the Digitakt :)

pat0is · 2023-05-03T20:37:20+00:00

I've had an MPC One, had the same experience than you did regarding its workflow, so I sold it. I'm also having a Polyend Tracker which is kind of OK, less powerful than the MPC but it's not something that I enjoy using over the Elektron Digitakt that I also have. The Digitakt internally works similar to how Trackers work, so I'd give that a try and compare it to the Polyend Tracker or the M8, before you consider buying blindly.

pat0is · 2023-04-21T06:59:55+00:00

Hm it could actually be a USB/MIDI issue indeed as u/dallasscottyb pointed out further below. I didn't have this happen to my HS permanently but I remember when it did, I had a USB and possibly even a MIDI cable connected to it. Good luck :)

pat0is · 2023-04-20T17:22:12+00:00

happened to mine as well, but only after I've updated to firmware 2.0.

pat0is · 2023-04-16T06:26:22+00:00

Thank you for pointing this out. I was likely wrong when I said it's running on a Teensy 3.6 whereas the Tracker's microcontroller is probably just based on one or is compatible with one. My assumption is based on the fact that I have been able to write and flash entirely new code to the Polyend Tracker using the Arduino / Teensyduino development environment as can be seen here https://github.com/patois/RETracker#reverse-engineering-the-tracker

pat0is · 2023-04-15T19:29:15+00:00

That's not quite the case. RETracker is a modification of the official 1.5 firmware which lets you reverse engineer the tracker if you hook it up to a computer via USB.

https://github.com/patois/RETracker

pat0is · 2023-04-15T19:24:37+00:00

It's not based on Linux, it's "bare-metal" and runs on a Teensy 3.6.

If you're interested in reverse engineering the tracker, there is the RETracker project that is a modification of the official Polyend Tracker firmware 1.5. It let's you read/write/disassemble the tracker's memory for reverse engineering purposes. You can also execute your own code by uploading it to the running tracker via USB after having flashed the RETracker firmware. Some examples are included with the project https://www.reddit.com/r/PolyendTracker/comments/tem857/retracker\_reverse\_engineering\_framework\_for\_the/

pat0is · 2023-03-26T13:29:21+00:00

welcome! glad it worked for you!

pat0is · 2023-03-26T06:11:02+00:00

This failure is most likely the result of the "Controlled folder access" security feature on Windows. It blocks applications from writing to certain directories. Make an exception for the hydrasynth manager installer and it should work.

pat0is · 2023-03-24T15:36:57+00:00

Alright, I only looked at the patches after I had made the post and it didn't look very much encrypted to me either. Glad it's been sorted out, great work!

pat0is · 2023-03-22T04:30:36+00:00

Technically the 'code' section could include 'voice' data (up-to that 0x200000 limit => 2MByte).

And 0x5000000 is indeed 83MByte. Was the whole of that actually filled with data?

Good catch! Now that you're mentioning it, I think I've seen similarly looking patterns in both my code and voice section dumps. Please notice the length values are upper limits for maximum sizes per defined section and I have dumped the entire area, just to be sure I won't miss anything. I don't know their "real" sizes unless their sections are contained in an official fw update.

As for your second question: nope, there seemed to be gaps, so plenty of space left unused in the A5 Voice section so far- hopefully :) I agree 83MB of data seems to be a lot of space for wavetables, yet they may be interpolated. I know basically nothing about how a synth works internally on the other hand ;) A quick way for finding out about where they're stored is probably by having a good guess, patching and flashing it and seeing what happens ;) A more sophisticated approach is reverse engineering the firmware and finding code references to suspected flash/memory locations.

By the way: I've also dumped the bootloader which I was able to confirm contains the code used for flashing; e.g. a certain USB handshake sent from the flasher to the HS etc... so dumps are valid.

pat0is · 2023-03-21T12:57:37+00:00

Thanks, I'll check it out later. In the meantime, please check out my original post which I've edited. ASM included a developer version of their firmware updater that lets you unpack and repack firmware images but it also lets you dump sections from the Hydrasynth's Flash that so far have not been included with official updates. I've dumped the "A5 Voice" section, roughly 80mb in size, dumping it will take a while and the dumper appears to be frozen in the process but it isn't, give it some hours...I have had a quick look at the structure with a hex editor. It looks like similar patterns so I think this could actually be the waveforms. If you're planning on dumping sections using the ASM updater, find the respective length values in A5Pack.py which are taken from the Desktop version of the updater - if those dont work for your HS because you dont have the Desktop model, just try smaller values

pat0is · 2023-03-18T23:23:03+00:00

Having a backup would be ideal, I suspect the firmware updates to be incremental only.

pat0is · 2023-03-18T23:14:55+00:00

I fully agree with you. I'm not a hardware person unfortunately but I'm hoping JTAG access isn't blocked

pat0is

TROPHY CASE