The Utterly Unique Feature of the Medusa Hybrid Synth

[@ChumpyDumps]

I really feel like the Medusa has been a criminally underrated synth. I know it had some issues with the sequencer when it first came and and it's still not incredible intuitive, especially coming from the Elektron world, but it's still so cool that have it built into a synth. And it does sound really good. I wish the filter resonance wasn't so harsh but that's really the only major criticism I have of it. It's so cool to be able to have both analog and digital oscillators on it.

[@nickolasyounker]

You're Amazing Gaz! I really have appreciated your views & and extra working with each instrument. Your walk-troughs have been in-valuable. I'm happy you take the time with these instruments and it shows!

[@GrootsieTheDog]

Ive been able to use it as a multi-track sequencer! By carefully programming each note with a "chord" but actually playing a few melody lines with each of the notes of the chords...then set the playback mode to "next". Fading in/out the oscillators will then play individual or grouping notes of the chords depending on how many oscillators you fade in/out!

[@Gainn]

Looks like I procrastinated too long.. They don't seem to be available any more.

[@unkwn_io3350]

I love this crazy synth. I bought after your super booth review and it’s amazing. Love the video on it...keep them coming

[@TheCeredigion]

Would love to see a couple more videos about this. Thanks Gaz. Would be really interested in seeing something that links this and something like the 0 Coast together

[@matthewtunnicliffe201]

Really enjoyed this video. That's an amazing sounding synth, and obviously as experimental as hell! It's a synth I haven't really looked into for some reason, but I already have the Polyend Tracker and Dreadbox Typhon - and love them both - so this thing is getting very tempting. I assume I'd be able to trigger the Medusa sequencer from my Tracker easily enough, in which case the possibilities are mouth watering.

[@frankstetka7206]

Man you made me think of a Bob Ross after a drinking a gallon of coffee😁. Alright this is supposed to be an endearing comment. I love this thing !! They are so many ways to use it and Polyend keeps making it better via OS updates. Once I spent a bit of time with it, I was shredding it. It’s out of control fun!

[@livinproof718]

I own one of these (6months)and I can say I learn something new all the time ,thanks for this video

[@MarcWeertsMusic]

Dreadbox is a brilliant company and this is an awesome collaboration they did. Great video Gaz!

[@vinkerdoodles]

Probz one of the best Tutz of this synth so far... thnx Gaz!

[@tylerevans1700]

That was really neat! Also I bet that CD collection in the corner is epic.. Thanks for the noises!

[@uyscuti5376]

When is he going to start painting happy clouds

[@livinproof718]

D Sw 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

[@darrylcannon6628]

My fuking god best comment in forever lol

[@kernel-panic-override]

Went for the news about Polyend groovebox (thanks for sharing a pic of Polyend Tracker!), stayed for some quality content :)

[@timo7968]

Enthralling video... something quite unique in amongst the usual reviews. Hats off fella!

[@Mchannemann]

Really interesting Gaz, very similar to what I'm used to from my elektron digitakt, which is great I love this to be in more sequencers as it adds soo much depth to the tracks!

[@sodothehivesonhisleg]

The Medusa is a very forward thinking synth, it feels like the first iteration of a future approach that is years ahead of its time. After using a equal interval grid controller keyboards feel very antiquated, the workflow potential of a backlit grid interface is enormous (as shown by the push and launchpad) playing inversions over 3 octaves with one hand is great, as is sequencing wild modulations, as is any kind of MPE support! I really hope we see some of these ideas taken up and developed further by some larger players. For now I'm v impressed with mine!

[@sodothehivesonhisleg]

Tenori-on > Monome Grids > Launchpad/Push > Medusa > ? > ? > ?

[@swires1]

How about now using two of those together!?

[@apislapis]

Love your studio. Each vlog reveals it from a different angle and I like what you've done with the limited space that you have. Studio tour sometime? The missus reckons your a bad influencer cos each time you demo summat I end up reaching for my wallet and I just might again. The true utterly unique feature of the vlog is of course Gaz Williams, national treasure. Keep them coming Gaz.

[@KeithDuncanSound]

Perfect review straight to what I wanted to know

[@zedwhyex]

Diolch Gaz - been noodling away on my Medusa since getting it but feeling quite overwhelmed as it's my first hardware synth! This has *really* helped me focus things 😊👍

[@ClayMann]

Very interesting! It got me thinking about how you could take just one sound and map it across all pads then use lets say each level of pads to have a certain resonance so as you bash down through the pads the resonance sweeps or accents in a harmonically pleasing way. So essentially you've created a controller that's mapped to a grid. Only you can stack up what that controller or grid stack can do. You know how like with a Vangelis like Blade Runner synth line gets super expressive because of that ribbon controller and aftertouch. You could do that here on the grid just using the relative position of the pads to define that ribbon control or how aftertouch affects a sound. Damn I want to play with one now! haha. Great stuff.

[@ProckGnosis]

Ah...nice to revisit! Looking forward to unpacking and playing with again a bit...

[@matt9591]

Gaz Williams is my spirit animal

[@F4FQz]

My spirit animal is the "Shaved Beaver", but this man is an amazing alternative. Can we have 2 spirit animals?

[@AdamsBrew78]

I think mine would be an interesting hybrid known as a GazCuckoo.

[@julianhigginson5946]

Matt yeah he like a synth lion

[@Jimantronic]

Lovely stuff, cheers Gaz

[@kai-vd5485]

Very inspirering! Thanks a lot!

[@markuszorn3654]

Thanks for that GAZ! Love mine as well and I had some great fun creating stuff like you showed for quite a while now. Unfortunately it is not possible to record the playing of those pad creations, neither it is possible to trigger them from an external source... and I am not such a great finger drummer..., maybe I have to practice more.

[@444levels9]

Markus what do you mean by ' it is not possible to record the playing of those pad creations' ? could you clarify that?

[@markuszorn3654]

@@444levels9 The pads Gaz creates in this video can only be created in Grid mode. To play notes for the sequencer step by step (either note/nothing/TIE/random) by finger you have to be in Note mode. But you can create with those prepared, modulated pads a sequence by copy/paste them, starting from pad 1, pad 2, etc. (sequencer always has to start from step 1, pad 1).

[@tonhueb]

A similar feature was added by Novation in the latest Bass Station II firmware. It's called overlays, they also let you tweak most parameters of the sound per individual key on the keyboard. Though it's not as powerful and a bit harder to program I guess.

[@ArtFluids]

I love this concept, I don't like how long it takes for the filters to morph between sounds. Too much of a sweep for me, I'd like that to be tighter. Instant is impossible but I'd like it to be as close as possible.

[@drstupid1]

Instant like the bass station 2 ? 😎

[@gnarlysoundscapes7210]

That's a really powerful feature. Very cool demo. :)

[@fortheloveofnoise]

The only thing I dislike about your channel is that you have far fewer subscribers than you should.

[@GazWilliams]

ADHD Synth very kind words thank you!

[@canoelectronico]

one more!

[@designhappens8157]

Càno Electrónico..... and one more

[@AndrewAHayes]

I would like to set this up as chords of a particular key down the left and then to the right of each chord notes within the chosen scale, this would speed my workflow up no end

[@danielpirone8028]

Fantastic!!! More please!

[@saardean4481]

2:35 i thought you`re going for the star wars theme

[@janhenckell4178]

between the Medusa, a Deluge and an Aerophone AE-10 i tend towards an Aerophone.

[@claytonlevibrown]

main issue is selecting the tuning for those notes sounds like that could get old fast, people wished it transitions between notes smoothlyer

[@ZetaCarinae]

I feel like I haven't seen much love for the Medusa, I'm really curious how happy people are with it and what it can do. Thanks for the video.

[@MSS-g7f]

I had it for about a week. Wobbly knobs, nothing special about the sound and takes ages to program. Not for me. I wanted to love it, instead I ended up staring at it with contempt.

[@aphexon.]

Fin Corrigan no wobble here, just pure joy!

[@MSS-g7f]

@@aphexon. Cool, not every instrument is for everyone. As an aside I replaced it with a Novation Launchpad Mk 3 to use with my Blofeld for multi-timbral, poly after-touch sequencing and playing oh and I got a €670 refund for the difference :)

[@havokcc]

I got one this week and so far I’m loving it, so much to explore, and having a reverb/delay makes it shine

[@Skiddoo42]

@@havokcc EVERYTHING is better with reverb! I've been struggling with mine a few months. It sounds too good to let go, but everything about it it mysterious. The manual is not well-written, despite the obvious effort put into it. NO wobble, though, this thing is built like a tank.

[@VincentPresley]

I just ordered one of these because of this video. Question: can you do this sort of thing on the grid but so the individual squares have their own egs? Maybe in poly mode? I’d love it if one square could ring out while a hit another.

[@New_Zealand_Music]

Thank you for your awesome video. Dreadbox is definitely one of my favourite synthesiser manufacturers. I just wish they had an agent in my country. I'm holding my hand up, me please. Lol. Something a little bit off base I noticed you've got an ehx voice box or some sort. I have the ehx 256. Do you think they're both good. I mean I don't use the autotune. But I think the vocoders nice. Does yours have the weird MIDI cc 13? Cheers

[@k-hunka]

Are you in any way related to a Gentleman by the name of Cuckoo??? In other news, this video helped me immensely. I will be pulling the trigger on this beast.

[@Rustik1722]

Gaz, what type of desk is that? Great job Dusty!

[@romeodenis77]

Would it sequence the external drum machines like Vermona drm mkIII? Thanks.

[@oneearedcat001]

Sounds like sample and patch flip on the Circuit & Mono Station

[@alanchamberlain4595]

Hi Gaz, have you done much with the Medusa recently? Is the grid MPE compatible , which would work with Ableton Live 11?

[@GazWilliams]

Yep Medusa cam fully function as an MPE controller in Live 11.

[@alanchamberlain4595]

@@GazWilliams Would be really interested if you did a video on that! I suppose that the @Sensel Morph could possibly control the Medusa too? I think that the MPE functionality of @Ableton Live is going to give a new life to a few bits of kit.

[@i.syntaxerror]

With ordinary not that fancy like Moog's or Sequential's buttons and knobs (Medusa- after a year of heavy using ALMOST EVERY DAY not wobble) , this synth is beautifully designed in terms of modulation possibilities and playing life. I am still amazed. Lets be honest.. Is ugly - BTW Medusa .. but is portable, is modern (MPE), is unique, is hybrid and attention please (!) - is discontinued. I am pretty sure the owners of this machine with open minds are heaving a lots of joy. Others, oh well.. they just talking about.

[@ProfessorSynth]

Great presentation Gaz👍

[@MrSunnyBra]

Hey Gaz. Slightly off piste, but are you still diggin and using your Kordbot? Just came across a cheap deal nearby and have been intrigued by its potential for writing chord progressions. Also, have you tried it with your iPad?

[@jokonstantin1]

Nise Video Gaz beatifull synth...

[@peterkadarmusic9728]

Very interesting. I thought the Medusa would make an ideal expander for the Matrixbrute. This show some very cool stuff indeed. Thank you for the video, Gaz!

[@AdamsBrew78]

How does Medusa compare to Analog Four/Keys ? Been planning to get the latter to pair with my new MD UW but Medusa definitely has me intrigued.

[@donaldpriola1807]

Can someone draw his blood for me, and run tests? I want whatever he's taking.

[@innerspacerace9196]

I bought one with bastl thyme

[@dzaxys4643]

Just scored one of these on eBay for 500 squid think I am going to be a hermit for a while great video thanks

[@tron944]

Is it a 1 track sequencer?

[@GazWilliams]

Essentially yes but has lots of tricks up it’s sleeve

[@skylerkade5895]

Bit late but can the whole grid with all the changes be saved under a single patch?

[@ifyouseekade]

fun video, gaz. v2 color changing grid buttons please.

[@ifyouseekade]

and a x/y scroll wheels so the current grid of pads could/would only be a small portion of a much larger set, and the x/y scroll wheels allow you to navigate that larger set. but that might be too similar to the deluge at that point.

[@shiteshovel6741]

I need to seriously look at this thing. It’s ummmmm Very different

[@benoitgoncalves5026]

Very nice video

[@dcashley303]

Hi Gaz, this is amazing! What would happen if you weren't in mono? Would you lose all these extra functions of having parameter switching or does it just get messy?

[@GazWilliams]

davidevoid with this particular feature it only can trigger one step at a time as it’s not the normal keyboard type of mode.

[@dcashley303]

@@GazWilliams I see, so it's always going to have that mono feel. Thanks for clearing that up, cool anyway! Would be great if Elektron had something similiar to this (they may already and I just don't know it, don't have any Polyend or Elektron devices *insert gear envy face*)

[@DaraM73]

Nice, thanks, Gaz

[@SourDiesel69]

Winter is coming!

[@leyetnin1]

Gaz, love the Medusa! But, when are you going to demo the Abyss with your midi bass guitar?

[@tylerevans1700]

That's gonna be sick..

[@GazWilliams]

Definitely on the cards soon...

[@HotStrange]

The Abyss is maybe my most pined after synth ever.

[@periurban]

These iPad apps are looking more and more realistic.

[@bungeechord1]

You made me buy this! Lol

[@leetronix]

The sounds seem very harsh and aggressive for me, not a synth I would use unless it had better sound generators.

[@GazWilliams]

I really didn’t dwell much on the sound here but you can coax lovely gentle timbres out of it.

[@leetronix]

Gaz Williams Thanks for the interesting video though. It does seem a very quirky machine, I liked how easy it was to assign separate sounds per pad, I thought that was a nice touch, but still just not floating my boat from what I keep hearing from it. Not sure where it fits in a music environment from my perspective I mean.

[@garycarruthers8042]

Some nice sounds on this Benn and Gear vid: kzbin.info/www/bejne/joutYnaXZ5ulf9k

[@leetronix]

Gary Carruthers Thanks for the link. I watched it and yes a much different sound a bit warmer and nicely varied. I can see this working well with other gear ie eurorack but as a standalone or performance only I don’t think so at least not for me. But again interesting review 👍

[@dom85esc1]

Definitely heard Star Wars on those first two chords.

[@toitoitoy]

Can't Electron Analog Four do the same thing?

[@GazWilliams]

toitoitoy not quite but sort of using the midi map.

[@KorhanErel]

Thank you for this video Gaz. As far as I can tell, as a Digitone owner, with Medusa, you can design the sound per pad on the fly while on Digitone (and most probably also on A4), you choose from available presets in your sound pool. The Digitone is multitimbral and hence allows four sounds at the same time, but Medusa is way more flexible when it comes to assigning sounds to a single pad. However, the Digitone and I think the A4 as well, have macro functionalities using Aftertouch, Velocity, Modulation Wheel, Pitch Bend and Breath Controller (CC#2). If one designs the presets beforehand utilizing these macro controls, the Elektron machines can do stuff the Medusa - probably - cannot. I can imagine an amazing performance setup with one Digitone, one Medusa and one Hydrasynth Desktop (played with a Launchpad Pro 3). Possibly not for dance music, but I don't really play dance music anyway :)

Not really

[@floflow1024]

The one unique feature is the insanely long boot time... it's such a turn off!

[@GazWilliams]

Flo Flow it’s carrying out its oscillator tuning. Once up to temp the boot time is fairly rapid.

[@videomrjon]

If you want to skip the tuning, you can hold ev1 while turning it on for a boot time of about 8 seconds.

[@Stakkeroid]

Some VCO synths can take half an hour to ”boot up” :-)

[@Skiddoo42]

This is why my portable speakers have a bottle opener mounted on the back. Because if I had to find one laying around my basement, the boot time would be nowhere near long enough.

[@JorritDuin]

This is cool, essentially you are playing patches. Try that on a analog 'patchable synth'.

[@THIEFSOUNDS]

you literally can do that with polyend's Preset module.

[@cosmicsprings8690]

✨✨🌞✨✨totally boss thank you ✨✨🌞✨✨♦️🗿♦️✨✨

[@MadelnMachines]

Can't the matrixbrute do this kind of thing?

[@surenoblack2658]

Great video but the Medusa’s work flow is terrible, I was an early adopter (paid the higher price) and can safely say it’s the only synth I have that I wish I didn’t. It’s long winded, glitchy (although a lot less now) and mostly uninspiring (to me)

[@GazWilliams]

I can understand that sentiment. The improvements from there its early days have been significant though. Have you tried using it as an MPE controller?

[@surenoblack2658]

@@GazWilliams yes i was testing out the MPE feature but for me, i found it crude and physically limiting especially comparing to controllers designed for MPE. i have other dreadbox synths, my favourite being the NYX line but this just doesn't seem to awe me, the sequencer is strong granted but over all it doesn't shine for me. it is definitely in my humble opinion more a "tinkerers" synth then an every day work horse in a music production set up

[@messer21]

Sureno Black I felt the same way, I was a early purchaser. The work flow was difficult. Purchase another one a few months back and made myself spend some time with it. If your into sound design it’s amazing!

[@WeirdMedicine]

I wanted to love it; I bought it the week it came out. After 3 weeks of constant recalibrating the oscillators, I gave up and sent it back. If you buy one, check the intonation, maybe I just got a lemon. It was/is a very, very cool idea, however.

[@swires1]

I've read you have to calibrate it right after turning on and then again after 10min. Don't ask me why but someone claimed that!

[@Skiddoo42]

It is a trippy synth, counter-intuitive, almost as if it was designed to be a high-end conversation piece. It's very artistic in both sound and look, but more avant-garde than production-grade. It doesn't belong in a studio so much as on a coffee table, creating atmosphere and occasional amusement. I find myself working around it, it does not integrate well with other equipment in terms of workflow. I really hope they come back with a 3.0 upgrade, a couple of small changes could make a world of difference, seems like that might be a long shot, though.

[@samjones3433]

I think you’re wanting it to be a centre piece when it’s an instrument. A bit like looking at a guitar and going “that’s not much of a band”. Try pairing it with a nice sampler and see if you feel the same way. Build a track that way then use the instrument itself to jam along

[@Skiddoo42]

@@samjones3433I get you. There are ways to work around the limitations of this instrument, but really, should you have to? For what you pay and the potential promised, it should be able to do several specific things that it can't do, like proper ties in the sequencer. It can hold drone notes, but it can't sequence them? You should at least be able to scale the duration of a programmed note. I'm lucky I guess: If I had paid full price for mine I would have had to return it. I am going to keep it and try to get everything I can out of it, for now, because it is fun to play with, limitations aside.

[@HotStrange]

LOL

[@swires1]

@@Skiddoo42 4.0 is out

[@Skiddoo42]

@@swires1 Thanks! And yes I still have mine...

[@azurduy117]

Came for the synthesis, stayed for the Hazarai.

[@notsure1135]

Sounds like the old Atari Star Wars.

[@willswitchcraft]

always exceptional reviews, and so nice to have them presented with your usual trademark: enthusiasm!!!! how unusual and refreshing. a w e s o m e

[@hotchameanshotcha]

I wish you'd spend more time on the music and less on singing the praise, this is annoying in an information video.

[@michael7018]

What a terrible demo crimes

[@giligarden]

It´s a boy toy. It´s called synthesizer but it looks and sounds like a cheap and ridiculos kidbrick from toys´r´us.

[@swires1]

Bet you like antiquated nonsense from the last century.