zt3ai is about as close a sound to the an1x in a soft synth but lacks hand on control and the 8 control nobs are great as you can have many controlers set
and the keyboard has a good feel
i have tried some of the new synths on the block and have to say that the keyboards are shit very flexible plastic
i use both hardware and software and would not give up my asr10 keyboards for any soft sampler as the polyphonic keyboard action is great and there is still no soft synth that can perform poly aftertouch supposed to be coming in vst3 but not as yet
my asr10 is 19 years old so to me the software synths are still way behind the hardware
its all about the sound and i find it very hard to get soft synths and samplers to sit in a mix like hard ware thats why i sample soft synths in to my collection of samplers
and then use them in the mix they always sound much better hence why top producers still keep there most coverted hard ware
----- Original Message -----
From: Peter Korsten
To: AN1x-list@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Wednesday, March 30, 2011 7:42 PM
Subject: Re: [AN1x] 3 things
Op 30-3-2011 13:10, Nate King schreef:
> my thought and argument though is that I can't justify taking up space with
> another digital synth. Does it sound good, unique, etc? Yes. But the point
> remains that if it's digital, then there "should" be a way to get something
> that sounds close or better out of another digital machine (i.e.: my
> computer). so - i'm finding it hard to think out the reasons of why I should
> keep it around. So far every digital synth I've bought I at the time thought
> "Wow that has a lot of features and for a good price and sounds pretty sweet
> too!" and a few months later I found myself saying "meh" and getting rid of.
> The an1x has been the only one that's satisfied my gear lust. Just last year
> I owned jp-8080, alesis qs 6, roland jv 1080 and I know a handful of others
> I can't think of at the moment. No matter what I do, I still found myself
> twiddling with stuff in the computer more than these digital synths and I
> can get it to sound a lot better. The only exception is again the an1x, but
> with the recent addition of a dx7ii - it seems out of place (and honestly
> nearly completely useless when I run the dx7 through analog filters and
> other effects and sequence it with something else).
Fair enough, but one could also argue that analogue synths are just a
bunch of transistors, resistors and capacitors thrown together, so
basically they should all sound more or less the same. But there are
different oscillator and filter designs - either in passive components,
or in algorithms.
The difference isn't really between digital and analogue, but more
between subtractive synthesis (what the AN1x and all your analogue
synths do) and other types of synthesis, like the frequency modulation
synthesis of your DX7II, the additive synthesis of the K5000, or
sample&synthesis in pretty much every other synth on the market.
To me, the difference between 'analogue' and 'digital' is a non-issue,
and I also don't quite see why there would be a discussion between the
two. Does a MiniMoog sound better than a DX7? Not if you attempt to
create an electric piano sound, that's for sure.
But that also means that, in my view, you're focussing on irrelevant
issues. The space issue is very important, but if it's that important,
get rid of your DX7II and replace it with an FS1r. Sure, you'll need a
computer editor, but what's the difference between mucking about with a
synth editor and a soft synth? And anyway, there are some excellent FM
soft synths.
I'm not saying that you're wrong in your decision to get rid of the
AN1x. What I'm saying is that you're using the wrong arguments to
convince yourself. "There should be something that sounds close [...]" -
no, not really. Unless someone stole the algorithm from Yamaha, in which
case they may expect a court case.
I'm pretty sure that there are soft synths, analogue modelling synths,
that sound good enough for you to get rid of the AN1x. But I'm also
quite sure that you won't find a soft synth that sounds "really close",
let alone identical.
In the end, it's all about the sound.
- Peter
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