On Tue, 21 May 2002 07:28:37 -0400 "Ed Edwards" wrote:
> >I've never really been that keen on the AN1x's keyboard 'feel'- I've been
>
> Darn right. Only keyboard I've had with a worse action was an Akai
> AX-60 - I
> think it had no felt under the keys so it was always literally
> "banging" on the
> keyboard when you played. Sometimes Yamaha is infuriating in their
> designs, you
> get this "What were they thinking?" feeling about certain things. I
> have a
> Yamaha A3000 sampler which uses SCSI 1 to communicate! Talk about
> slow... 1984
> technology in a unit released in 1997. What were they thinking?
If I recall correctly, SCSI 1 has a maximum transfer rate of 5 Mb/s,
which would be great if the A3000 could actually manage that. The reason
why SCSI is so slow on the A3000 has little or nothing to do with the
choice of the interface, but in fact with the actual implementation,
notably the handling of interrupts.
And while 45 minutes loading time for the maximum 64 Mb on an EX5 is not
really fun, it's not a computer. A hard disc on a hardware sampler is
strictly off-line storage and doesn't need to be on par with the latest
developments in computer land. We're talking different designs, small
volumes, and hence inherently higher prices. Getting the latest, greatest
interface leads to even higher prices. You also have to consider that
development of a machine like the A3000 easily takes five years or more.
> But, the AN1x
> is still one of the best VA synths for the money out there.
>
> Easy solution for the key action wearing out: use another keyboard as the
> controller via MIDI. I do this for some songs anyway since the
> action on the AN
> annoys me so much.
I think the AN1x has a very good keyboard for a synthesiser in its price
class. It just happens to be in a pretty mid price class. If you want to
have a better quality, you're easily looking at twice the price (if there
would still be new AN1x's).
Yamaha does make very good keyboards, as can be found on the SY99, EX
series, probably the Motif and the Korg Trinity and Triton (not the
Trition LE or Karma). But these synths are top end - and the AN1x isn't.
- Peter
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