Dreadbox Hades Review

[jsharpphoto]

I was going to post this in the minitaur section, but decided it might help more people in the general section.

Build Quality - Solid. The wood cheeks aren't as nice or smooth as what you get on a Moog, but I'm a woodworking snob. It's also only $300, and Moog's competitor, the Minituar has a street price of $500 and doesn't even come with wood cheeks. So I can't really hold it against them. All the knobs are rock solid, and the switches feel great. The panel layout looks terrific in my opinion, and the graphic design of the panel is something to get excited about. I think it's one of the best looking synths on the market.

Sound - Bassy. Single vco with TWO SUB OCTAVES. You can run just the subs if you want to, and the VCO has either sine or square waves, just like the minitaur. All of that being said, I don't love the way it sounds, but my opinion is mine and mine alone. It might fit your setup better than mine. I got it to have a different sound option to my minitaur. The filter is a 3-pole and is highly resonant. To me, it's a bit too harsh, and that should say a lot considering I have a polivoks filter in my modular and use it all the time. But there is just something about it that is a bit too crunchy for my taste. You might feel differently, as stated.

Usability - This is where it gets complicated. It runs on a 15v power supply, as opposed to the 12v in the minitaur. That means when controlling it via CV, you get the entire range, not limited like the minitaur. This may be enough of a selling point for some people. But since it's only a single VCO, you can't detune it against each other for the added phatness. I do like the patchbay method of handling modulation. This would pair VERY well with a mother32. My biggest problem with the playability is the LFO. It's a very broad range LFO, but I think they chose the wrong potentiometer to control it. Like they used a linear instead of a logarithmic pot. The best function of the LFO is modulating the pulse width. But this is difficult to be precise with because of the range of the LFO pot. To get a slow LFO you only have about 1/10th of the knob travel, so forget getting a precise LFO time. The middle range of the LFO is kind of unusable. So you have about 30% of the LFO travel dedicated to the audio range, 10% on the opposite end for slow LFO, and 60% of "no man's land" in the middle. They should have either used a different POT or added a lo/hi switch to adjust the range.

Bottom line - If you are thinking of adding it to get some bass to your non-mother32 Moog, I would save up and get the minitaur instead which is much more usable overall, with midi syncable LFO's with very dramatic ranges, preset storage and the fantastic editor. If you are looking to add some variety to your mother32, this can add a lot of options. For the price, it's hard to argue with if you can get past the LFO operation. I am a big fan of Dreadbox products. I will continue to buy their pieces as long as they maintain their track of merging good ideas with good craftsmanship, but unfortunately I'm returning the Hades. Maybe next time.

[Struble]

Sorry to hear that it wasn't to your liking. I was looking forward to coming over and trying it out. Done and done and on to the next one, as they say.

[DonutDude]

Thanks for the review jsharpphoto. I've been somewhat interested in the Dreadbox Erebus. Any experience with that?

[jsharpphoto]

Thanks for the review jsharpphoto. I've been somewhat interested in the Dreadbox Erebus. Any experience with that?

I have never seen a erubus in person. If memory serves, the Sonicstate review was quite favorable.

Another note about the Hades, the vco has no fine tune. Only course tuning. I was only using it with my drum machine, so I didn't spend a ton of time trying to tune it. But that could be an issue for people integrating it into their systems.