AVP Synth Intros HBS-100 Hybrid Bass Synthesizer

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9pu4PcWPd8I

AVP Synth has announced the HBS-100 Hybrid Bass Synthesizer – a new hybrid MIDI synthesizer module. 

 

Specifications:

  • HBS-100 is optimized for producing beautiful and sculptured bass sounds.
  • Method of synthesis: Digitally controlled oscillators (DCO)
  • Controlled oscillator (DCO): two unique digital oscillators (saw, rectangle, PWM) with Wavetable options
  • Controlled filter (VCF): one active, aggressive, 100% analog 12db low-pass filter
  • Envelope generator (AR/ASR): one
  • Low frequency oscillator (LFO): one; triangle
  • MIDI Interface: MIDI In, 4 channels
  • Audio output: mono jack 6.3 mm
  • Controls: 9 knobs, 5 switches and 1 button
  • Power supply: adapter 9 V DC (included)

For more info on pricing and availability, see AVP’s Facebook page.

Update: This product has been pulled from the market because of issue relating to reuse of technology from the Meeblip.

60 thoughts on “AVP Synth Intros HBS-100 Hybrid Bass Synthesizer”

  1. Wow, I wasn’t expecting it to sound that good in practical use (songs at the end of the video) based on the controls and demo at the beginning. I wonder how much this will go for.

    1. This thing is simply a copy of our meeblip anode, running the V2.0 firmware that was released last fall. They’re selling it for about $300, which is about twice what the real thing costs.

      1. Wow. I t actually is almost exactly the same.

        The Meeblip is Open Source but this is a bit of a stretch for that.

        Prove this isn’t an overpriced ripoff of the MeeBlip AVP, or you will have lost all your customers from day one.

      2. FIrst of all, James, this is not the way to advertise a synthesizer.
        Secondly, as I got the information from my engineer, he has heard of your unit and maybe shared some concepts given that it is an OPEN SOURCE data, BUT the PCB and the filter are our own concept and TOTALLY different.
        Maybe you have patented wavetable technology?

        SO, you cannot claim that its a clone plus it looks totally different.
        Then maybe everyone should be claiming that an arp odyssey is a clone of a minimoog? 😉 It’s a tale as old as time and your claim sounds more like a promotion of your own product which is the worst way to promote yourself

          1. How is the filter different?

            The control set and features list looks almost exactly like the MeeBlip.

            I don’t think James is promoting his product at all.

            He’s warning us of yours….

            Your attitude seems to indicate taht you don’t give a fuck if you rip off other peoples work for RESALE. Open source is designed for experimenters, not for free designs to market.

            1. You contradict yourself. Learn what the open source is first and then we can talk. He did do some poor advertising and funny how you believe everything without checking the details.
              And using the curse words does not make your comment more significant, in fact sounds more childish

              1. Gusein, it seems that YOU are the one who did not check the details of Creative Common Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 before you marketed your synth as a derivative of meeblip without attribution. Two days later, you have still not learned. Perhaps correct your error before correcting others?

                1. Michael, we are learning from our mistakes yet there are plenty of you guys jumping down our throats making it seem worse than it actually is. Thanks for beating around the bush, we have been in contact with the developers of anode for two days straight now and will put up all the necessary changes and info. So you can stop worrying now

                  1. Try to learn the truth before you correct people.

                    You can’t just appropriate under open Source. Attribution is important.

                    Regardless, you still have not provided any reason why your filter is different enough to warrant an extra 150 dollars over the MeeBlip.

                    If anything you unit should be cheaper, since you did not have to design the original circuits…or firmware.

  2. Hi Ben!
    Thank you for nice words 😉 appreciated!
    Please join our facebook group and i will give you the price depending on your location

  5. I love that you guys made a synth but stop saying it has DCO’s. DCO’s are dogitally controlled ANALOG oscillators. If your using DSP Oscillators just call them DSP, no need to be intentionally vague or confusing.

    1. Quote from wikipedia on DCO:
      “A digitally controlled oscillator or DCO is a hybrid digital/analogue electronic oscillator used in synthesizers. The name is analogous with “voltage-controlled oscillator.” DCOs were designed to overcome the tuning stability limitations of early VCO designs.”
      Where did you find a dsp in here? 🙂

    2. We (Synthtopia) are using the specifications provided by the manufacturer, but I’d agree that AVP’s use of ‘DCO’ terminology is confusing and appears to be incorrect.

      DCO traditionally has referred to an an analog oscillator that is synced to a digital oscillator, in order to provide pitch stability and accuracy.

      The description of this synth seems to be a hybrid synth, featuring digital wavetable oscillators and analog filters, similar to the meeblip.

      Gusein – our readers would appreciate if you could be clearer on the architecture of your synth, if you could be public with your pricing and if you’d have a Web site that they could visit to find out more about your synths.

      1. Hi Synthtopia,

        Yes, our name HBS states that it’s a hybrid synth and maybe there is some confusion in that.
        Concerning the website – since we are just in the beginning, we have to analyse the demand before starting big, plus we manufacture limited quantities per order.
        Don’t worry, we will of course get to that!

    1. Please let’s refrain from hateful comments here.
      Our prices do not “vary” based on “likes” but simply on shipping location, order quantity, paypal % and insurance. For example, as you might know, the distances from Russia to Europe and to US, for example, are different hence shipping to the latter will obviously cost more.

  7. It’s not bad enough that the manufacturer won’t disclose the price of his kit, instead choosing sending you to the cultural abyss that is facebook. BUT… you have to join a FACEBOOK GROUP to find out anything about the product.

    Fuck that noise.

    Not the best way to market your product and drum up that word-of-mouth anticipation.

    1. Hi Tony,

      Please let’s refrain from hateful comments here. We are a startup little company that is assessing the demand for our product at the moment prior to starting full scale. I agree that not everyone might like FB Group however it does serve as a great platform for communication and saves time from registering on the website. We will eventually develop our platform but it takes time. Additionally, all the prices vary based on the shipping location to each country, insurance costs, paypal % and order quantity. This way we go extra mile for our customers and use tailored approach in order to minimize the calculation hassle. Please do not get offended by it, we are trying to make it simple for you.
      In case you have any inquiries, you can always use our email: avpsynths(at)gmail_com

      Best,
      AVP Synth team

  8. Hang on.

    The HBS-100 is a rip-off of the Meeblip anode. It uses exactly the same control layout, sounds exactly the same and has the same wavetables and 4-channel implementation.

    You can either buy the original instrument for $140, or spend $300+ to get a Russian copy.

    1. Hi Frodo, let me again state what I have written above.
      FIrst of all, this is not the way to advertise a synthesizer.
      Secondly, as I got the information from my engineer, he has heard of this unit and maybe shared some concepts given that it is an OPEN SOURCE data, BUT the PCB and the filter are our own concept and differ greatly from the synth you are referring to. HBS-100 does not sound the same since it has different filter which makes it a different synth.
      Maybe these guys have patented wavetable technology? Well that would be an issue for many companies then.

      SO, you cannot claim that its a clone plus it looks different.
      Then maybe everyone should be claiming that an arp odyssey is a clone of a minimoog? ???? It’s a tale as old as time and your claim sounds more like a promotion of this product

      1. see reply below – not a quesiton of patents. The anode is not without copy restrictions. If you’ve used a part of the design you need to look up what those are and follow them. Open source doesn’t mean ‘free to sell’.

  9. Can I suggest that if you make a bass synthesizer it would be great to have the option of the oscillators reseting. It makes such a difference in usability, and soo few bits of hardware do it (can only think of the Minitaur and Xenophone?)

  10. Hmm. You are “assessing the demand” for a Russian Ripoff of a meeblip anode at twice the price with no website and incorrect product description.
    I’ll take two!
    (I’m sure that you are an honest startup and will not suddenly disappear with my money…)

  11. I’ll take the contrarian position.

    It looks a little cooler than the Meeblip Anode, IMO. And if the filter is actually different, I think it justifies itself.

    I’m 100% for stealing, infringing, sampling, etc. – as long as you’re doing a minimal amount of innovation and NOT counterfeiting.

    Counterfeiting is trying to pass something fake, usually inferior, as the original item to piggyback on the marketing and brand. That’s not what this AVP is.

    If it has no sonic advantages over the Anode and is more expensive, it won’t succeed. If it sounds better or at least unique it might sell.

    So if the 12db filter isn’t really different than the Meeblip, now is the time to toss a 24db transistor ladder in there. Hey, that’s another circuit that is not protected by patent law and is frequently cloned.

    1. Thank you for the comment.
      I think people do not understand the concept of modifications. If you take a moog, a korg, an arp and others, yes they do all share the analog principal of oscs, mixer, vcf, vco but the FILTER is one of the main things which makes the sound differ.
      I would just say that let the actual purpose – the sound decide for itself!

  12. Sure, the design is simple, but I think the use of exactly the same knobs to set MIDI channels is a bit hard to swallow… This is at the very least using the Anode firmware, possibly with some hardware modifications.

    None of the Anode design is protected by patent law, but the firmware and design is GPLv3 copylefted. If you have indeed used their firmware, I believe you must attach ‘prominent notice’ to the product that it makes use of this as a GPLv3 inclusion, and include the original source with the project.

  13. Guys, in the hope that we can keep this thread friendly, here’s an update. I’ve chatted with Guga at AVP and he confirmed that this synth is based on the Meeblip anode, with a new filter and new circuit board layout.

    anode is an open source design, released under a Creative Common Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 license. It requires proper attribution for a derivative product, and it requires that a derivative product be released under the same license. I have asked Guga to do this.

    I was pretty angry when I discovered this Synth without attribution, and Guga was pretty upset that I posted here instead of talking to him first. Hopefully, we can get everything worked out.

    2. One final update: AVP has withdrawn the HBS-100 and will not be releasing it. Guga emailed me to say that he had been misled about the design by his tech. He said: “My tech does apologise for this, he has unfortunately set me up with this one.”

      There seems to be a lot of confusion about open source licensing. Many open source projects such as the Mutable Instruments Shruthi and MeeBlip series are released under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike license. It’s allows people to make their own copies of the project and use the project as the basis for their own designs, even commercially.

      The CC-BY-SA license requires two things:

      1. Attribution — You must give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made. You may do so in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests the licensor endorses you or your use.

      2. ShareAlike — If you remix, transform, or build upon the material, you must distribute your contributions under the same license as the original. That means providing schematics, board design files, source code and everything else that another person would need to make their own copy.

      It’s pretty simple, and Peter and I reached out to AVP to let them know what was required to make their product compliant with the open source license.

      In the end, AVP chose not to release the HBS-100 because their tech had misled them about how much of the design was actually based on anode. It ran unmodified anode firmware, and the “new” filter section was simply a slightly modified version of the anode filter.

      Let’s make one thing clear, though. As long as AVP follows the conditions of the CC BY-SA license (and the GPLv3 license for the source code), they are free to make and sell their own version of anode.

  14. I don’t much about PCB and synth guts, but I can guarantee all of that Guga at AVP is a top notch guy and seller! I bought an Alisa 1387 from him a couple of months ago, and he kept me updated with pictures and whereabouts on a daily basis. We have since then been in contact with each other at least once a week, just talking synths 😉

    I would buy from him again without even hesitating, and I WILL buy a Polivoks from him when I get the money.
    So in other words, don’t take him for a thief, a fony or a crock.

    1. You do know that a winking emoticon implies “I’m lying, play along” or “Take this with a grain of salt” in English right.

      It also implies a shady person selling something and winking to his buddy behind your back as they screw you.

  15. Awww….the video is removed.

    Wonder what happened there.

    Also still wondering about what makes the different filter worth 150 extra bucks.

    AVP won’t answer that.

  16. caligari, you think that the economics and shipping are the same everywhere in the world? I’m not going to go in that details 😉

      1. caligari, well, then do it 😉
        Funny, seems Meeblip is not doing good at all if it’s trying to market its products using this ways

        1. I don’t work for Meeblip and am not trying to market anything. Personal opinions of forum users are NOT official advertising, marketing, etc for a company.

          AVP would not answer any questions with regard to how the filter was actually different or why this synth justified the extra 150 dollars it was supposed to cost. I am led to believe that this information was totally unknown to anyone besides the engineer, who didn’t communicate it, because there really was no difference.

          To add to that, Guga and others attacked comments with snide remarks about people not “understanding economics” or avoiding questions by acting insulted or demeaned by a users joke or personal opinions.

          They further imply that a simple ordering website with some detailed product info and photos requires a huge overhead cost that is beyond their means. It costs practically nothing to open a simple webpage nowadays, especially compared to what it costs to manufacture a product.

          If the interaction on this forum is any indication, it would seem that AVP seriously needs to consider somebody for customer relations.

  17. Update: This product has been pulled from the market because of issue relating to reuse of technology from the Meeblip (see Specifications above).

  18. caligari,
    hi again, I see this issue has really got to you 🙂 Once again we did provide all the info about the difference in filters and PCB to the firmware manufacturers, this argument is getting old.

    I can only tell you since the issue has been resolved quite some days ago and we terminated HBS, that a lion share of our price is express shipping which takes 6-10 days worldwide in addition to insurance costs. Also paypal charges are different for Russia which you probably do not know.

    Your quote: “I bet I could ship a Meeblip to anywhere in the world for less than 150 bucks” – I presume you could but since we presume it is a “regular shipment” it would never reach many countries and you would have approx. two months waiting time by which a client would probably be extremely weary.

    Please keep in mind that when you judge somebody you need to know all the details prior to claiming the product overpriced.
    Concerning the website and FB group – we want our clients to feel special and we did stress the tailored approach. Is that bad for you? 😉
    We want to make equipment based on people’s needs which are easiest communicated through FB posts. There are different marketing strategies and hiding behind a faceless template website with no comments available is not the only option.
    So far everyone appreciates our approach.

    1. Where did you answer any of these questions?

      Not in any post here…which is where one would expect an answer if the question was asked here.

      I’m well aware of shipping costs worldwide, and PayPal fees for that matter. In fact, the PayPal fees for Russian sales to the US are 5.4% and they get much better as your sales volume increase. The US to US rate is 3.9%. How a 1.5% difference justifies a 100% increase in the products price is beyond me, even with shipping included.

      I have bought full sized keyboards from Latvia that costs less than 150 dollars to ship to the US.

      Anyway, I’m done with his conversation and will never buy a product from you. I also will heartily recommend to anyone that asks, that they avoid your company as well.

      1. caligari,

        You have completely ignored my statement about the cost of express shipping we are using plus the Paypal % including bank conversion rates is almost 10% so i would appreciated if you first check thoroughly your information before making such statements.

        I cant do anything against this personal vendetta given that you are so convinced anyway

        Peace, Gob bless and jastafarai 😉

        1. The shipping price for a package of 2 pounds to Russia in 3 to 5 days is $66.75. If you want to wait 9 days it drops to $25.75.

          10% of a $150.00 synth is $15.00. Of course, you charge 300 so that’s $30.00

          So that’s $81.75 for the “real” price of 150 bucks to $96.75 for your $300.00 price.

          You are still overcharging by at least $50.00.

          Your business acumen is as astute as your ability to recruit engineers.

          You can keep making up stuff all you want…bu everyone has seen through it.

          Have fun marketing your drum machine…and i would check the engineering on it first to see if it was “borrowed” as well.

          1. You’re calculations are still wrong but I m not going to take away this toy from you. On top of this your comments are becoming really offensive and I am pretty sure I know who is hiding under your nickname which makes you appear childish to the audience out there.
            Since you started judging my ability to hire engineers I do not wish to continue this silly conversation given you have not even met me or my engineer in person. I suggest if you want to go further with this we can continue this conversation in skype 😉 let’s be adults

            1. Guga, you’re not doing anything to make this situation look better for yourself.

              Caligari is a longtime regular on this site and he does not need to meet your engineer in person to form an opinion, based on what we’ve seen here with the HBS-100.

              To claim he’s causing offense and that he “appears childish to the audience” sounds a bit deluded and over the top. If we want to be adults about this then please, go ahead and sum up for us here exactly how the HBS-100 differed from the MeeBlip..

              The “audience” is waiting..

              1. XmasDreamz

                All the differences were stated by James already and that is enough plus im not forcing you to buy something what you don’t want so just get over it

  19. Guga:

    I thought we had shaken hands and decided to put this behind us?

    I am sick and tired of having our tiny little company attacked. We do not “hide behind a faceless template website with no comments.” Create Digital Music is one of the largest music industry websites on the planet and Peter and I have worked very hard to develop and support our synths over the years.

  20. James, I wasnt actually talking about your company. Dont know where you got that from. We were having a conversation with caligari concerning marketing methods. Nothing to worry about

    1. You accused them of using comments against your company as “marketing” for their own products.

      Also, quit thumbing your own comments.

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