The Yamaha AN1x Synthesizer mailing list

> But your statement here was interesting too. I have only briefly 
played with the ribbon controller and meant to get back to it but 
have been busy with other, mostly using the modulator wheel. What is 
the advantage of the ribbon? Why is it (or is it?) more natural for 
example than a mod wheel....in what kinds of cases do you prefer the 
ribbon over the mod wheel?

>>>>>>For me, the big difference is that you can attack the ribbon, 
anywhere along it's length. You don't have to slide up from zero or 
64 to get there. This makes it great for trills, if it is assigned to 
pitch for example. As bruce said its good for fast stuff. The only 
weak point of it, is that it has only a 128 step resolution, so you 
have to keep the pitch range pretty small, if you are using it for 
pitch (the pitch wheel, by comparison has much more steps, I think 
128 times 128 according to the midi spec, so you can do huge sweeps 
without a stepping sound). I find that for other things, the ribbon 
is pretty good, but again, you have to keep the range small, or the 
sound gets grainy.


> While we're at it, I know I can assign most (if not all) parameters 
to a controller...but if anyone had a list over the TOP best things 
to assign to the mod wheel, and also to the ribbon controller I bet 
it would help....Anyone?

>>>>>>>>>The mod wheel - I tend to use very traditionally. For more 
lead and bass typs sounds I use it for vibrato/tremolo application 
and for patch morphing. For pads, I sometimes program a timbral 
change (filter cutoff, pulse width, etc) so I can control the mood of 
the song.

On the ribbon - I have a couple of tricks that are particular to the 
An1x. Basically the ribbon on the AN1x is great for triggering things 
like envelopes. One thing I like to do is create a pitch envelope of 
about 20-30 and a pitch depth of zero. Then I assign pitch depth to 
the ribbon (X axis). I set this value to "direct" so that the 
midpoint is no envelope, the left-hand-side of the ribbon is a sweep 
up and the right-hand-side of the ribbon is a sweep down. Now if you 
just control the pitch of both oscillators with the pitch envelope, 
you get regular results, but remember that the more synthetic-
sounding features of the AN1x can be modulated by the pitch envelope 
also (FM, Oscillator sync etc). I usually just have one oscillator 
swept by the pitch envelope, so that the oscillators 'grind' against 
each other. So now when playing, your patch sounds normal (because 
the pitch envelope depth is zero), but if you tap the ribbon, you 
hear an explosion, as the pitch envelope creates FM, or other 
interesting sounds. Where you tap on the ribbon, determines the pitch 
and direction of the explosion. So you can have a lead sound and when 
you reach a climax, you can trigger these noises. A pretty cool 
synth, because it sounds like a modular with these effects.

Also the Z axis is great for wah things like opening the filter. 
Especially if you have a lot of amplifier feedback (try the BEF 
filter with a lot of feedback), you can make it scream when you press 
the ribbon (Z pressure). Remember you don't have to use the LPF all 
the time, as you can control the brightness of the sound with the osc 
edge. Don't hurt your ears doing this. It can be really nasty.

My $0.01. I hope these ideas help. I myself am learning a lot from 
these discussions.

Cheers,

Jerry