The Yamaha AN1x Synthesizer mailing list

If you happen to have a spare 8-12 thousand dollars and you want a 
monophonic synthesizer, check out these links-

http://www.scampers.com/EGRES/

and this one-
http://www.ticalun.net/sergePlanner/configurator.aspx

I spent way too much time drawing up dream modules yesterday.

I'm going to go buy a lottery ticket.

By the way, the AN1X wil do fine until I can afford a massive modular 
system.

Rainbow Jimmy
http://www.spaceanimals.com
http://www.mp3.com/spaceanimals

Hi Jimmy,

>If you happen to have a spare 8-12 thousand dollars and you want a 
>monophonic synthesizer, check out these links-
>
><http://www.scampers.com/EGRES/>http://www.scampers.com/EGRES/
>
>and this one-
><http://www.ticalun.net/sergePlanner/configurator.aspx>http://www.ticalun.net/sergePlanner/configurator.aspx
>
>I spent way too much time drawing up dream modules yesterday.
>
>I'm going to go buy a lottery ticket.
>
>By the way, the AN1X wil do fine until I can afford a massive modular 
>system.

Interesting.  I tried to configure an AN1x-equivalent Serge Modular -- it's not completely apples-to-apples, but I tried to get close -- and ran out of room at about $3K.  With two racks and about $6K, I was arguably there.  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 ... ;^)

Regards,

-BW

--
Bruce Wahler
Design Consultant
Ashby Solutions\ufffd   http://consult.ashbysolutions.com
978.386.7389  voice/fax
bruce@...

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 ... ;^)

Hi Jerry,

>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.

Interesting that you should point this out.  Looking over the General MIDI specifications, I see that the MMA lists CC#1 as "Mod Wheel (course)," while reserving CC#33 for "Mod Wheel (fine)."  This allows for a 14-bit mod wheel, but it requires five bytes (using running status) rather than three.  There are similar locations for some of the other common functions like volume, pan, and the data slider.  Obviously, the MMA gave some thought to reaching outside MIDI's limitations, but no manufacturers I'm aware of followed suit.

Regards,

-BW

--
Bruce Wahler
Design Consultant
Ashby Solutions\ufffd   http://consult.ashbysolutions.com
978.386.7389  voice/fax
bruce@...

> Interesting that you should point this out.  Looking over the 
General MIDI specifications, I see that the MMA lists CC#1 as "Mod 
Wheel (course)," while reserving CC#33 for "Mod Wheel (fine)."  This 
allows for a 14-bit mod wheel, but it requires five bytes (using 
running status) rather than three.  There are similar locations for 
some of the other common functions like volume, pan, and the data 
slider.  Obviously, the MMA gave some thought to reaching outside 
MIDI's limitations, but no manufacturers I'm aware of followed suit.


Bruce:

This is really interesting information you are sharing. I am 
concluding from what you are saying that if I patch the mod wheel to 
cc33 and use that to control a parameter, I MIGHT get better 
resolution. (I realize it depends on the mechanics of the controller 
and the interpretation by the model as well.) I gotta look into this. 
You couldn't point me to a list of cc's with 5 bytes could you? Is 
there an MMA website with a data list or discussion of resolution?

I've been using the pitch wheel for fine modulation of complex stuff 
like FM depth (where a millimeter can mean a radical change) and 
groaning about it, since I'd rather use it for pitch. But if I can 
get better granularity out of the other controllers (expecially the 
ribbon) it would solve a bunch of problems for me.

Thanks,

Jerry

Hi Jerry,

>This is really interesting information you are sharing. I am 
>concluding from what you are saying that if I patch the mod wheel to 
>cc33 and use that to control a parameter, I MIGHT get better 
>resolution. (I realize it depends on the mechanics of the controller 
>and the interpretation by the model as well.) I gotta look into this. 
>You couldn't point me to a list of cc's with 5 bytes could you? Is 
>there an MMA website with a data list or discussion of resolution?
>
>I've been using the pitch wheel for fine modulation of complex stuff 
>like FM depth (where a millimeter can mean a radical change) and 
>groaning about it, since I'd rather use it for pitch. But if I can 
>get better granularity out of the other controllers (expecially the 
>ribbon) it would solve a bunch of problems for me.

I think that my half-explanation may have lead you astray.  If the list will bear with me for a moment, while I explain something about MIDI and General MIDI (GM):

There is no controller that sends out 5 bytes per se; all MIDI CC (control change) commands use three bytes --

    Bnh xxh yyh    where: n = channel number -1,  xx = controller number,  yy = data value

So, a mod wheel value of 127 on channel one would be --

    B0h 01h 7Fh

If a mod wheel uses the coarse/fine method, and wanted to send a value of 128, it would be --

    B0h 01h 01h B0h 11h 00h

Now MIDI supports a mode called "running status" where multiple commands of the same type (note, control, etc.) can be sent back-to-back without the second (or third, etc.) header byte.  This is what I meant by a "5-byte sequence" --

    B0h 01h 01h 11h 00h

The reason that they can get away with this time-saving step is that all commands have a value of 128 or more, while all data bytes -- including the controller number -- are 127 or less.

GM left places for all of the major controls to have both a coarse and fine adjustment, including the "general purpose slider" type controls.  Now the bad news:  To my knowledge, NOBODY has ever implemented these features!  Not even high-end players like Fairlight and Synclavier -- in their case, probably because they preceded the higher-developed GM spec.  If you patch the mod wheel to CC#33, chances are that nothing will happen at all:  most synths either ignore CC#33, or use it for something completely unrelated.  :^(

Regards,

-BW

--
Bruce Wahler
Design Consultant
Ashby Solutions\ufffd   http://consult.ashbysolutions.com
978.386.7389  voice/fax
bruce@...