Look, Bill –
When you start off any response, written/spoken/anything, with the word “academic” in the first clause, you have asserted yourself as some sort of intellectual expert and/or snob.
Bill, how much experience - live or in a studio do you have with this unit? Please consider some thoughts about the AN1x……..
One) It’s 15 years old.
Two) It was not offered as an expensive instrument to competing with older and new instruments. It was marketed as a good VA keyboard.
Three) (My bared neck, so you or anyone can cut it as you think appropriate ----)
Electronic musical synthesizers were/are/will be marketed very much like cars, having a predetermined sales life span by the upper level management. They sit around and decide how much power the unit will have, how much money they expect to make from it and how long they will distribute it for profit. They also predetermine when they will replace it with something “better” (designed to make them more money).
As musicians, we are often faced with some ugly and bad choices when it is time to buy new gear. This AN1x is not a classic violin or piano or automobile. It is supposed to be a musical instrument which we expect to use for live and/or studio performance and creation of art. The ugly part of our spending money is that the marketing departments of these huge corporations are not usually interested in musical creativity of the buyer. They usually build them for the purpose of making money. They decide in advance how long they think it will be profitable and then they decide what date to abandon it after their predetermined time of sale without apology. This ideology is meant to force us (the players) to go and buy replacement units (that will make more money for the corporation) because the synth they composed their songs on is no longer manufactured.
Some companies have the integrity to build equipment that will have a lifetime of “usability” that is not determined by some mathematical formula in their distribution and sales division. That type of morality and motivation is hard to find and is extremely arguable as to who is perusing that kind of product.
So here’s the point of my “rant”: This Yahoo group is best served by people who provide the members ideas, tricks, shortcuts & references to the manual and other bits of knowledge that will help us improve our use of the AN1x as a musical instrument. Otherwise, criticism that is not accompanied with technical references that will help our group make this unit a better instrument for expression of the art of Musicianship is just egotistical junk - not worthy of the time necessary to read the negative opinions. Stated shortly: If you don’t like the AN1x, fine. Find another you do like, buy it and then go post your tips and information that will assist the people who subscribe to that Yahoo group. Or maybe you might try being helpful: pointing out shortcomings and then providing methods of working around the weaknesses of the instrument. Over the 15 years I’ve been with this group I have generally found it to be a source of great knowledge, friendship and useful information. High headed condemnation without useful assistance is --- um, is sort of… well, useless.
Barney Edmonson (Ed²)
author of the patch list:
http://f1.grp.yahoofs.com/v1/ULxJT0LtPu7VtCY22xIwj_HnmHH7peSAIEYiK_MQdVWgo1nyZ937JPQhnEuUietjWme7Sru00m_O-gcz45iEsVEfl6ZBIo8B3fnS/AN1x%20Voices/AN1x%20Patch%20Names.zip%c2%ad%c2%ad _____
Hi Guys, this is a really interesting discussion, if slightly academic
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