The Yamaha AN1x Synthesizer mailing list

I have a gig on Labor Day Weekend so I dialed up a few new patches. 
Every time I start playing with the AN1X I'm startled with the sounds 
I get-everything from spaced out Pink Floyd weirdness to Velvet 
Underground grunge.

Last night I programed some single oscillator sync leads. Those 
pierce through the mix quite nicely, especially with the aural 
exciter.If you set the fm to be modulated by LFO 1 and put a long 
delay on the LFO you can get a nice clean sound that decays into a 
roar of noise.Try the leads through a tube amp. The tubes really add 
a lot to the sound.I like to use the ribbon controller for the 
filter.I like to set the pitch bend up a little higher than half a 
step-makes the bend more musical. You don't just whip the wheel all 
the way up and let go, you have to listen a little.

Get a cheesy organ sound (lots of sustain, use pulse width mod for a 
little vibrato). Run this through the amp simulation. Instant Velvet 
Underground. If you crank up the feeback (turn down your amp don't do 
this with headphones) you get a nice one finger organ that just 
disintegrates when you play chords.Program the ribbon controller for 
fm and reverb and you can branch way off into Sonic Youth noise 
festival territory. I have no idea how you'd use this musically but 
it's fun to play with.

For sweeps you can split the keyboard. Tune the left side up a few 
octaves so it plays the same notes as the right side.With the control 
matrix, the free EQ, and all the LFOs you can have the sound going 
everywhere. I used to set the voices to dual for real fat pads, but 
they were too fat. By splitting the keyboard you can choose how fat 
you want the sound. Also by setting the ribbon controller to control 
the echo and reverb you can quickly send the sound into hyper space. 
It gets out of control fast.

If I could remember to save these patches on the computer I'd have a 
nice library of sounds by now. I'll get bored with a patch and 
rewrite it without backing up the original sound. Oh well. The old 
synths didn't have any presets.

Rainbow JImmy