Just a note for the AN1X spotters (or Yes fans) amongst us. I
recently purchased the Yes Video "The House of Yes" It was filmed
last year while Yes was touring in support of the latest CD: the
Ladder. For those in the know, the man at the keys is Igor Khoroshev
(
http://www.khoroshev.com/). The guy can play!
However, I had a surprise watching the video: No less than THREE
Yammie An1x's were used on stage.
There were two An1x's that Igor was playing (no sign of a Nord - he
used to play one) and Jon Anderson had one as well. (Anderson played
a few drones and doubled bass parts on the AN1x for one song.)
How did they sound? Well first the downside. The minimoog parts were
very pretty, but they did not "spit" enough, and Igor was too far
back in the mix for my taste. The bravura nature of the Wakeman solos
did not come out. (Though they were fiercer than the ones Rick was
generating on the ABWH tour using Rompler & FM synths.) Igor's
patches were pretty interesting and I think a slightly higher volume
and maybe a little high end eq cut would have helped. Igor stayed
true to most of the original Wakeman minimoog sounds (e.g. And You
And I, Awaken and Roundabout).
On the upside:
On the song Face to Face from the Ladder, the intro is an AN1x
sequence and there appeared to be more than notes involved (some kind
of controller programming or Free EG modulation was also used.)
Sounded extremely cool. Similar kind of effect to "On the Run" from
Dark Side of the Moon (An EMS VCS3 sequence, I believe.)
This is the best use of the AN1x that I have heard on a major record -
period.
Overall the AN1x was used a lot. Most of the stuff that was not a
piano or organ was played on it - and he did use it for an analog
sounding (mellow) pipeorgan in Awaken. The entire Yes sound has been
affected positively, I think. Cool Synth.
Cheers,
Jerry.