The Yamaha AN1x Synthesizer mailing list

Op 26-2-2012 7:26, Ed Edwards schreef:

> 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 \u201cbetter\u201d (designed to make them more money).

The one flaw in your argument: synths are not cars.

You'll need a new car because the old one becomes too expensive to 
maintain (I live on an island, so after ten years, I'm approaching that 
stage with my car), or because it has some desirable feature such as 
better safety, better fuel economy, or whatever. Crash a 1990 Volvo 960 
(Volvo's are safe, right?) into a 2004 Renault Modus, and see what 
difference 15 years in engineering make.

With computers, it's even worse. When I got my Athlon64 3500+ and Nvidia 
6800 GT, they were the bees knees. (Well, there were slightly faster 
versions, but they were twice as expensive.) Nowadays, a low power Intel 
Atom CPU is faster than that Athlon. And you can't play anything recent 
(meaning, less than 7 years old) on that combination.

You don't have that with synths. Sure, there will be synths with more 
features, but that doesn't make your 15 year old AN1x useless all of a 
sudden. And when it comes to age, let's have a look at the synthesis 
engine used in all Motifs, including the latest ones: AWM2. Do you know 
when it came available: in the TG55 from 1989. That's a whopping 23 
years ago. Apparently, Yamaha don't think that it's old hat, so why 
should they think the same of the VA algorithm of the AN1x?

Mind, I see where you're coming from, and for sure, manufacturers market 
and sell these units for a limited time, but they whole idea of upgrade 
cycles when it comes to synths is greatly exaggerated.


- Peter