Hello Jerry,
I've had several Turkish friends over the years and have been really
impressed with the subtlety of some of the Turkish singers... Just
stunning to listen to. It's like it has so much more depth compared to
western tuning. Very emotive stuff. Takes a lot of skill to perform,
too. But, Like I said, I haven't actually played any. Just admired it
from a distance. There's nothing like alternative tunings to add
"exotic" to a song.
That would be a NO. No polyphonic pressure. The ESQ does accept a REAL
CV pedal input which can be used to great affect for solos - if you can
find one or build one it's a real asset, but it isn't a passive CV
pedal. You need one which really puts out voltage. Hey, it's old. The
routing possibilities are great and pretty much any source can modulate
any target - 15 possible sources and 9 destinations, though most
destinations can take at least two modulators. You can theoretically
have 17 modulation sources going in one 3 osc patch. Gets kind of
complicated if you want it to. And they can be layered :) 2 deep. VERy
flexible architecture - especially given the time it was made. If you
get the keyboard rather than the module ESQm, use another board to
control it. They receive channel pressure, but the ESQ keyboard doesn't
have aftertouch at all. For the money they are great little synths. I
love mine to death and have been having a great time running them from
the AN. They go together very well. Last night in fact I had a legato
lead going while transmitting in poly to the ESQm's detuned and set on
an "OB" patch I tweaked a while back. Really sounded nice - super lush.
That OB patch sounds better than the ones I have tried on the AN so
far. But, leads and chords at the same time from one board - very
nice. I've seen ESQ's at Musicgoround for around $200. The modules are
like $149, less if you are lucky. The SQR is a better model if you can
find it. They don't pop up much though. There's also a freeware Windows
editor/ librarian program on the web which comes with a ton of patches.
Great value for the bucks and they have a real unique sound. I will
never sell mine - no way. If you do buy one, you will definitely need
the manual. There are a few weird things about it that the manual
explains. I think there is a PDF on the web somewhere, but I'm not
certain of that. The ESQm's look like battleship gray boxes - seriously
ugly, but the looks are very deceiving indeed. They can rock real hard
in the right hands. If you crank them up you can scare a guitarist with
ease ;) Well, some guitarists...
The AN is a lot easier to tweak, obviously, since it has the control
knobs, but soundwise I have been very impressed. They have low
resolution samples, but they were done really well for the time and
after the filters, they sound amazingly good. I was frankly shocked at
the ballsiness of the sound when I got my first one. They sound really
analog because of the filters if you program it right, but you have 32
waves to work with and sometimes it does digital weirdness, not unlike
the AN, actually. The sound may be a bit sharper than the AN, though.
But, it depends ... Very hot outs, too, so watch your mixer levels and
your speakers. Mine are usually set about half way up and they are as
loud if not louder than most of my other gear. I imagine when they came
out a LOT of people in the manufacturing biz were really, really upset.
They are primitive by today's control standards, but all in all they are
pretty amazing, really. I am still impressed with the sound, though I
have some much newer gear. But, I wouldn't have bought two if I didn't
think it was worth it.
Anyway, that's probably more than you wanted to know... If you have any
other questions I'd be happy to try and answer them. Happy to spread the
joy... But, these days I'm still getting acquainted with the BLUE beast
:) And enjoying the hell out of it. I won't be selling the AN either I
think.
Take it easy,
Warren ^=-=^
"Jerry Aiyathurai " wrote:
> AN1X unless you pony up for a Kurzweil. Or maybe I should try out an
> ESQ. Does it have polyphonic aftertouch by any chance?
>
> Cheers,
>
> Jerry
>