The Yamaha AN1x Synthesizer mailing list

Scott,

The AN1x is a multi-layered beast, and while it's not fascinating reading, 
it does help to at least skim the manual from cover to cover.  There's a 
lot of possibility waiting inside the synth, and some of it isn't obvious 
at first glance.  When I first got my AN1x, I thought of it as a simple 
digital Minimoog clone -- I've been playing synths since the early 70's, 
and cut my teeth on the Minimoog and the Putney VCS3 -- but there are lots 
of more possibilities than that.  IMHO, here are some of the nuggets that 
lie in wait, once you decide to get in there and learn all the possibilities:

Edge Control -- morphs the wave shape from a sine wave to the chosen wave, 
controlling the harmonic content of the result; takes a 50% pulse wave from 
a sine to a triangle to a "soft" square wave to a "classic" analog square 
wave, to a DCO (rather than VCO) edge.

Free EG -- allows the recording of up to four real-time adjustments, to add 
timbre changes, fading, etc. without the need for an extra set of 
hands.  This feature is useful to make changes that sync to the beat of a 
song, and for modulating the oscillator sync into almost "talk box" effects.

Arpeggiator -- while this has always been an interesting feature to have 
lying around, most of the synths I've used had about eight patterns.  The 
AN1x includes quite a few more, including some techno and bass line 
variations that may come in handy.

Step Sequencer -- at first, this seems like a limited feature -- only 
16-steps (32 would have been better) -- but once you realize that in 
addition to the one sequence per patch, there are another 128 sequences 
which can be linked to any patch and chosen from the keyboard, the 
possibilities open up a bit.  Also, the sequence (and arpeggiator) can be 
sent to other synths via MIDI; I use this to add percussion elements from 
my Alesis S4 to songs.

Modulation -- each patch allows for up to 16 sources of modulation (per 
scene), chosen from a pretty large list of sources, to alter another large 
list of destinations.  In effect, the AN1x is something of a modular synth, 
without the hassle of patch cords!

There are other features I could discuss, but my point is not to write the 
AN1x as a one-dimensional instrument until you try all of its possibilities.

Regards,

-BW

--
Bruce Wahler
Design Consultant
Ashby Solutions™
www.ashbysolutions.com
CloneWheel Support Group moderator
978.386.7389  voice
978.964.0547 fax
bruce@ashbysolutions.com