Archive of the former Yahoo!Groups mailing list: The Yamaha AN1x Synthesizer mailing list

Yesterday I stopped at the musical instruments department of a Best Buy (who ever thought they see THAT?!?) in Reston, VA and had opportunity to try out the new Roland Gaia SH-101. I was impressed - clearly they've taken the JP-8000 experience to a new level. The interface is so immediate, no menu's - no cryptic LED. The layout is remarkably similar to an old Juno or original SH-101. The sound was good, perhaps a little too good - but the presets we ho-hum. The price point was $700 USD (and I had a 10% coupon in my pocket... ) It felt very solid and even the funky Roland Mod/Pitch bender felt above average. Color me impressed.

Korg has recently reintroduced the Electribe series and has churning out mini-synths for what seems like years now. Even Akai is in on that act - as Novation has been for years -with mini-synth/controller combination units.

So where's Yamaha? Are they going to follow suite? They had a period of engaging synthesizers at one point (CS1x, AN1x, CS6x, AN200/DX200, RM1x, A3000, EX5, etc.) but have since been successfully riding the workstation bandwagons. Is there any cause to believe they've something up their sleeve?

Regards,

Jon