The Yamaha AN1x Synthesizer mailing list

I love my An1X. But recently I have been having lustful thoughts 
about the new Voyager and the synthesizers.com modulars. 

Why? Well, I find all the VA's (including the beloved AN) to sound 
quite plastic sometimes. I kinda like that sound, but I would also 
like to have more breathing and interaction. I have done a bunch of 
tricks with free eg and mod routings to make my sound more expansive, 
but even with my best efforts, there is a feeling of smallness and 
compactness sometimes.

Secondly, I am getting just a bit tired of midi and it's 128 steps. I 
can hear the difference between using a low rez (ribbon, mod wheel) 
and a high rez (pitch wheel) controller on the same parameter. This 
is true on a number of parameters, not just filter cut-off. Even LFO 
modulation of pitch sounds smoother to me on a free running analog 
oscillator.
 
I'll stay with the AN for now. But I am tempted to look for an 
analog, or a digital with smoothing functions, at some point. I hope 
Yammie come up with a "son of AN", because I love the basic 
architecture. It does do a lot of semi-modular sounds without getting 
too complex. I would like them to open up the architecture just a tad.

Oh well,

Jerry


> Now, I'll grant you that the Serge probably sounds better than the 
Yamaha -- maybe even twice as good, although I doubt it -- but I 
could buy a band-new AN1x (at the 1998 street price of around 
$1200US), a Nord Lead 2, and a Virus KB, and still have change back 
from my $6K.  And I guarantee that the Serge won't sound better than 
those three put together!
> 
> Oh, well -- I guess I'm not really a Rado/Bruno Magli/Bentley kind 
of guy, anyway ... ;^)