knob values
2004-11-25 by robotunes
hi, all... my story: i'm searching for my first an1x, so i've been reading the manual. the manual says that when editing, you click a knob and position it to coincide with the parameter's current value. my questions: 1. then you click again and resume normal tweaking? 2. does this procedure keep parameters from jumping an insane amount when you tweak them (multifunction knobs usually produce that effect)? 3. can you use this click function to sweep the filter more smoothly so that it doesn't step (if the stepping is the same as on the an200, then i can live with it, as it sounds musical to my ears)? i think the manual says you can but over only a limited range. for the life of me i can't find that part in the manual anymore. if all this is true, this sounds like the synth i've been searching for since 1998, about the time the an1x was introduced. feel the irony. a former jp8000 owner, i've been looking lately to reacquire that board, as it was my second-favorite, next to my jp6. then i discovered the an1x. wow! all these years i had avoided it because i saw only 8 knobs. then i got the an200 and thought, "man, if only i didn't have to use that frickin' computer editor, and if only it had keys." so yesterday i downloaded the an1x manual and to be honest, i've spent the last 24 hours crying over all the years i've wasted. i've always longed for a cross-modulating synth + step sequencer. i've tried just about everything: the mc505 (a *vastly* underrated synth but it's getting flaky as it ages, and i want a va, not s+s); the polymorph (so-so sounds but an awesome sequencer with one fatal quirk: you can't see the values before you edit them); nord modular (built-in step sequencer didn't transmit midi clock. WTF?!!); the electribe (another vastly underrated synth that i plan to reacquire); the asr-x pro (AWESOME sampler with a crippled interface and sluggish sequencer); the emu xl7 (never saw eye to eye with that puppy); the evolver (perfect except it sounds to my ears more digital than analogue. now i'm looking for analoguish sounds to complement it); the novation ks-4 (how can you lose with 4 independent arpeggiators? they're non-editable. ARGH!); the jp8000 (exceptional, sequences weren't editable and the lfo didn't reset on key on, which meant saved sequences sounded different each time you played them, depending on the current lfo phase); the ms2000 (too thin-sounding for me); the roland sh-32 (superb, even for s+s, but it's actually a player's synth. i can play, mind you, but i prefer to build polyrhythmic sequences in real time and play on top of that while manipulating the sequences); and that led me to the dx200 (i *love* to program this thing, but real-time tweaking yields non-musical moments that need to be balanced by musical moments); which led me to the an200, which led me to the an1x. sorry for the long-winded self-analysis, but at least i spared you my adventures with several other synths, such as the korg poly 800. ;-D so after all that, i'm extremely hopeful that the an1x doesn't suffer from the wild parameter jumps that happen when i tweak the an200. if that's true, i can stop crying... rt