Good afternoon, everyone. I was wondering if anyone knew of any hardware that produced sounds like this ancient synthedit plugin, JellyFish. It's a favorite of mine by de la mancha. Sounds pretty harsh/digital, but easy to dial in very strange, very annoying, "wibbly, wobbly" sounds with it. I've linked a demo of JellyFish below, as well as a blog post linking to de la mancha's own words about the synth.

I'm currently running this plugin on an Apple Silicon device through JBridge and Cross/Audiogridder, which isn't ideal. Would be nice to ditch this software setup and replace it with something more immediate. I'm not an expert on synthesis and am still yet to purchase my first hardware synth (looking at the Elmyra 2), but I'd love to toy around on hardware that was designed to generate sounds that resembled the ones you can get out of this little de la mancha plugin. I wanted to know if JellyFish reminded you of any hardware synths in particular? Bonus points if the synth is compact in size and made by a lesser-known developer!

Thanks for your time, here's a link to a demo of JellyFish:

... and de la mancha's blog post:

https://delamanchavst.wordpress.com/2013/10/22/jellyfish/

 

The synth is from 2008 and is not very popular in terms of sound quality and GUI, but if you like it, you will find very few comparable ones due to technological advances. I have listed everything the Jellyfish can do to make it easier to find something comparable. You may not find something like the Jellyfish in currently available hardware synths. The ELMYRA 2 is the closest thing to the Jellyfish for your taste and is a good choice. Der Roland Gaia 2 kostet derzeit 679 EUR:

Roland - GAIA 2 Synthesizer -->www.roland.com/de/products/gaia_2/
OSC 1 (Wavetable): 63 waveforms
Modulation types: Wave position, Phase modulation (P-MOD), Shaping modulation (S-MOD)

OSC 2/3 (Classic waveforms): Sine, Triangle, Saw, Square, Super Saw, and 5 noise waves
Modulation types: Shape, Ring modulation, Oscillator sync, Cross modulation 1, Cross modulation 2

jellyfish is a 4 oscillator synth with multiple modulation methods between the oscillators and of their various parameters which guarantees plenty of movement in the sound.

This is great for evolving pads, wobbly bass, vibrant leads or just plain strangeness. Using addition, subtraction, phase difference, ring modulation or phase distortion, the oscillators can modulate each other to get a wide variety of sounds. 2 tempo-sync LFOs and an ADSR envelope can all modulate this inter-osc modulation, as well as pitch, filter cut-off and each other. A pair of resonant filters and a tempo-sync delay complete the deal.

Spoiler: de la Mancha - jellyfish Synth (Hybrid) v1.0 VSTi - 11 Mar 2008

de la Mancha - jellyfish Synth (Hybrid) v1.0 VSTi - 11 Mar 2008

jellyfish is a 4-oscillator synth with multiple modulation methods between the oscillators and of their various parameters which guarantees plenty of movement in the sound.

This is great for evolving pads, wobbly bass, vibrant leads or just plain strangeness. Using addition, subtraction, phase difference, ring modulation or phase distortion, the oscillators can modulate each other to get a wide variety of sounds.

2 tempo-sync LFOs and an ADSR envelope can all modulate this inter-osc modulation, as well as pitch, filter cut-off and each other. A pair of resonant filters and a tempo-sync delay complete the deal.

Features:

- 4 oscillators arranged in pairs, with each pair able to modulate each other.
- 9 inter-osc modulation methods, including phase distortion, phase difference and ring modulation.
- ADSR envelope per oscillator pair, with unlimited values and definable contours.
- 2 resonant low pass filters with flexible routing.
- 2 tempo-sync LFOs with 16 waveforms and adjustable phase.
- LFOs can modulate the inter-osc modulation, pitch and filter cutoff for each pair.
- LFO2 can modulate LFO1.
- 1 ADSR envelope can modulate as per the LFOs and modulate both LFOs.
- Tempo-sync delay, with damping and mix level.
- Oscillator and LFO note-on sync.
- 11 waveforms per oscillator.
- MIDI learn / MIDI CC parameters defined.
- 50+ presets by runagate.

Made with SynthEdit

https://delamanchavst.wordpress.com/2013/10/22/jellyfish/
https://www.kvraudio.com/product/jellyfish-by-de-la-mancha
https://plugins4free.com/plugin/1797/

 

Last edited: Feb 19, 2025

this is a pretty standard synth, the only weird thing about it is the weird math it has for the mod modes for the oscillators, some of which are weirder than others. as long as the sound you need isn't of the weirdest variety, you should be happy with a hydrasynth. a kurzweil k series will also let you do crazy things, but the learning curve is aggressive. if you want to recreate 100% of what you see there, the only thing I know of is some eurorack modules

 

Huge thanks to you Radio and stopped for the advice. I do like the Elmyra but I'll also keep an eye out for the GAIA 2, as it seems very powerful. Same with the Hydrasynth which looks amazing. Will familiarize myself with the Kurzweil workstations, too.

 

if you want something that can do these weird, digital and almost sterile sounds, and crazy evolving pads, the Hydrasynth is possibly the best suggestion you are going to come up with. It will do them, but even more complex but also much better sounding. It's easily it's strong point. If you want it for more standard sounds synth stuff, that's where it is lackluster. It's kind of like a modern day Fizmo.