The Yamaha AN1x Synthesizer mailing list

--- In AN1x-list@y..., Phil <accession@o...> wrote:
 
> In fact, what's people's impressions of the AN200 so far?
>

Hi Phil! Long time no hear...hope you're well. 

I managed to steal away from the office early last Friday ;-) and went 
by the local Guitar Center (I know, I know...blech!) They had an AN200 
on display. It was lumped together with the Alesis and Roland drum 
computers. As opposed to the Korg's which have their own fanciful 
display and proper speakers - not poor sounding, budget headphones. 
Anyway, before I get off on a rant...

Of course it sounds just like an AN1x and anybody with some experience 
programming and selecting patterns on a drum computer is going to be 
able to jump right in. For somebody new to the game I don't think it 
will be appreciably harder to learn than anything else in that price 
range. Bear in mind it is a Yamaha though ;-P

Now that I've spent 10 min. with one, I have an appreciation for Todd's 
comments from last week regarding the LFO modulation routings. There's 
a select button adjacent to the LFO Speed knob which had the most 
cryptic abbrieviations I've ever seen - couldn't make heads or tales of 
it?! Okay, I can deal with that - just get out the manual and set it in 
front of you until memorized ;-) What I found disappointing were the 
drum sounds. Keep in mind I only spent 10-15 min. with it but I found 
the drum sounds to be very plain, vanilla sounding - they didn't hold 
my interest :-(

The 5 note polyphony for the 'AN' sound engine didn't concern me. It 
still provides two Scenes per voice so you can create some good sounds. 
Presumably the AN200 would be a role player in your live kit. Don't 
mistake it for something it's not. Heck, I'm impressed with how much 
mileage can be had from the 4 note polyphonic MS2000 so the AN200 is 
still okay in my book. The drum sounds have dampened my enthusiasm 
somewhat. I'll give it a second chance in a few more weeks but I don't 
see that the AN200 will find a home in my modest set-up. Doens't offer 
anything unique that I don't already own.

And while were back to comparing synths....

I had a grand time playing an MS2000 for a good half hour! And I really 
*am* impressed with how much sound comes out of a 4 note ployphonic 
synth. I enjoy the sounds more than the JP8000 but to my ears, the AN1x 
is warmer. Notice how I intentionally didn't say 'Analog'? Pretty 
clever of me, huh? ;-) haha ha

What I really, REALLY enjoyed was the Waldorf MicroQ! I must have 
played that thing for a good hour at least :-)  Doesn't sound like an 
AN1x to me - doesn't sound like a MS2000 either. It DOES sound like a 
Waldorf and if that's not an ambiguous statement I don't know what is 
;-) I loved the three oscilliators - bring the 3rd osc into play 
(manually, of course) just made the sound larger and right 'there' in 
your face. The duel filters can easily be swapped from parallel to 
serial configurations and sound good - very Waldorfish. The LFO mod 
matrix is a little daunting - again, cryptic abbrieviations but not 
nearly as bad as that message from space the AN200 was beaming at me. 
Lots of mod choices. I loved the endless rotation knobs and the 
function select buttons are an elegant solution. Damn - what I wouldn't 
do to replace the Select Knob on the AN1x with buttons like the MicroQ. 
That's how it should be done. It felt a little odd working with only 
six knobs (actually, four for most purposes) but I had such fun with 
the box I haven't yet but that into proper perspective. It might be a 
bit of a let down in the long run but I just can't say...the MicroQ 
mada real strong 1st impression with me.

And last but not least, there was a 2nd hand Akai AX73(?) - REAL 
analog! No folling - REAL analaog. It was pretty beat up and heavily 
used but it still worked okay and sounded, well, analog. User 
interface? WHAT user interface? It has none to speak of - haha ha My 
long gone, and sorely missed, Kawai K3 had more user interface than 
THAT thing! But it was cool to have a chance to play the Akai. I always 
check out the old, 2nd hand gear 1st thing when I go by shops like GC.

Okay, okay enough for now - back to what you were doing.

regards,

Jon