Interested in these REs. Saw that Hydronexius just went on sale for $59. I'm curious what's the difference soundbank/soundwise between the two. I understand they are from the same developer and see that Aquious is bigger, but curious how much they overlap.
Does Aquios includes all the sounds of Hydronexius or are they targeting different genres/sounds?
I watched youtube videos for both, but hard kinda hard to tell listening to just the video. I understand I could trial both but they are big downloads and would like to get some insight from others (or perhaps the developer) before I commit a bunch of time to it.
Aquios X4 vs Hydronexius
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MirrorEyEs
- Posts: 107
- Joined: 16 Jan 2015
- Location: UK
Aquios X4 doesn't have much in the way of bass and mono patches if that matters to you! I believe Hydronexius covers those bases/basses more comprehensively.
Reason 12 - Horrible plastic M-Audio Oxygen 49 and a battered pair of Sony MDR V6 cans
They have completely different sounds samples, none overlapping. Aquios has 4 sound layers, Hydro has 2. Aquios has 4.2gb, Hydro has 2.2gb of sound samples. They are designed to be versatile and not genre specific. Both have many synth and real instruments. However the Hydro has 10 included 808 drums sets. Aquios has only instruments, but alot more and is focused more on huge layered sounds!
I absolutely loved Hydronexius, straight out of the gate, and bought it almost instantly - (literally within the hour, which I've never done before or since, except maybe for one of Jiggery Pokery's phenomenal organs).
For some reason, Aquios didn't grab me in the same way at all. I spent a couple of hours playing around with it, and there are certainly some nice cinematic string and horn patches in there which are quite usable if you dig deep and experiment, but other than that it seems to be a pretty odd mixture of sounds which don't really appeal to me as much as Hydronexius. If you were able to combine Aquios's sub-patches together in anything other than the pre-ordained sets of four, it could be a real killer RE, but due to the unavoidable restrictions of the IDT format, you simply can't.
(Well, I guess you 'could' by stacking several instances into a combinator, of course, but Aquios would be so much more impressive if that were achievable within the instrument itself. This limitation is not the fault of DNA Labs, of course, and I'm sure they would love to find a solution if it were possible.)
As it stands, I genuinely think Hydronexius is by far the more appealing of the two, especially at the current price of $59, which is a steal, IMHO.
The bottom line is, you wouldn't lose anything by buying Hydronexius, and then buying Aquios too if you really love it (or vice versa). There is really no overlap. One may appeal more to one kind of musician, and the other to another.
I don't 'dislike' Aquios, but I honestly don't think I'd be tempted to buy it unless it were to come down considerably in price. It just doesn't feel like $120-worth of value. I really should spend a bit more time with it before my trial runs out, in case there's something I've missed... but my first impressions were a bit of a disappointment after being so blown away by its older brother.
(But yes, if it were to drop to $59 in a future sale, I'd probably snap it up... partly because I like DNA Labs, and would want to support them to encourage further work. I have a feeling they are capable of even greater things, and I really think Aquios was just hampered somewhat by the current IDT restrictions.)
For some reason, Aquios didn't grab me in the same way at all. I spent a couple of hours playing around with it, and there are certainly some nice cinematic string and horn patches in there which are quite usable if you dig deep and experiment, but other than that it seems to be a pretty odd mixture of sounds which don't really appeal to me as much as Hydronexius. If you were able to combine Aquios's sub-patches together in anything other than the pre-ordained sets of four, it could be a real killer RE, but due to the unavoidable restrictions of the IDT format, you simply can't.
(Well, I guess you 'could' by stacking several instances into a combinator, of course, but Aquios would be so much more impressive if that were achievable within the instrument itself. This limitation is not the fault of DNA Labs, of course, and I'm sure they would love to find a solution if it were possible.)
As it stands, I genuinely think Hydronexius is by far the more appealing of the two, especially at the current price of $59, which is a steal, IMHO.
The bottom line is, you wouldn't lose anything by buying Hydronexius, and then buying Aquios too if you really love it (or vice versa). There is really no overlap. One may appeal more to one kind of musician, and the other to another.
I don't 'dislike' Aquios, but I honestly don't think I'd be tempted to buy it unless it were to come down considerably in price. It just doesn't feel like $120-worth of value. I really should spend a bit more time with it before my trial runs out, in case there's something I've missed... but my first impressions were a bit of a disappointment after being so blown away by its older brother.
(But yes, if it were to drop to $59 in a future sale, I'd probably snap it up... partly because I like DNA Labs, and would want to support them to encourage further work. I have a feeling they are capable of even greater things, and I really think Aquios was just hampered somewhat by the current IDT restrictions.)
D'you know what? I think I may have seriously underestimated Aquios! I've spent a few more hours playing around with it this afternoon, and it has a lot more potential than I gave it credit for in my initial appraisal. Once you stack a few of them in a combinator, and selectively mix and match the subpatches from several different presets, you've got an amazing set of ingredients.
On reflection, I was just being lazy in expecting the presets to just 'do it for me'. Ha! As is so often the case, it's only once you delve beneath the hood that the true potential of an instrument begins to revel itself.
Aquios is a quirky old beast, to be sure... but then, so am I.
On reflection, I was just being lazy in expecting the presets to just 'do it for me'. Ha! As is so often the case, it's only once you delve beneath the hood that the true potential of an instrument begins to revel itself.
Aquios is a quirky old beast, to be sure... but then, so am I.
Cool thanks for all the info. Good to know there's no overlap in any of the sound sources. I like Hydronexius I always wanted something like this in Reason and at $59 its very enticing. However with VSTs around the corner (and I already have a ton ) makes me wonder. Looks like its on sale for a couple of weeks so will keep trialing it out.
Cheers Koshal. Have fun with whichever option you choose.
Something else which may be of importance. They are both very CPU-friendly. Unlike some recent REs, which can occasionally cause the dreaded "computer too slow" warning (even with a fast SSD and a decent processor), you should run into no such problems with either Hydronexius or Aquios thanks to their relatively simple architecture.
Even with a whole bunch of them running, they should have very little impact on the CPU. This is a definite bonus when you consider just how BIG they sound, and how much sonic oomph they deliver.
Something else which may be of importance. They are both very CPU-friendly. Unlike some recent REs, which can occasionally cause the dreaded "computer too slow" warning (even with a fast SSD and a decent processor), you should run into no such problems with either Hydronexius or Aquios thanks to their relatively simple architecture.
Even with a whole bunch of them running, they should have very little impact on the CPU. This is a definite bonus when you consider just how BIG they sound, and how much sonic oomph they deliver.
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