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I had worked with a friends's AN!x last winter and utterly loved it. So when the opportunity came up to trade an old synth of mine for this baby, I didn't hesitate a second. At first it was a bit of a bitch to program, being used to older analogs with all the parameters readily available, but after 2 days of intense tweaking around I easily learned most of the synth's function. I used it for 3 months last winter and those were 3 wonderful months of incredible electronic soundscapes.
Now that I had *MINE* for a bit over a month. All I can say is.. I LOVE IT. This baby draws circles around a Nordlead(1 or 2), a Jp8000/8080.
Most of the info on synthsite is wrong or very much incomplete so don't waste your time reading it. I would not recommend this synth to someone who has no experience in programming synthesizers. Yamaha have the nasty habit of implementing rather cryptic programming environement to their synths, but if you spent some time learning your way around you'll find that nothing is as cryptic as it seemed at first, everything is logically placed and the amount of modulation power available is just insane. The Dx7 is cryptic, but once you learned your way around it and it becomes a second nature, you can do stuff that will split atoms. Same goes for the AN1x. Everything you could ever want to modulate/twist/blah is easily accessed and configured on the AN1x. It has more possibilities than a Jp8000 and Nordlead togheter. You can go from analogish stuff (that really DOES sound analog... bye bye Jp8000) to very very very digital mayhem.
It has a 3band EQ, low iand high are paragraphic, mid is parametric. For those that don't know what that means really. Paragraphic is a GAIN and a sweepable FREQ, meaning you choose what frequency you want to change then aplpy some positive gain(boost) or negative gain(notch). Parametric is a GAIN, FREQ and Q. you select the frequency with FREQ, select how 'large' is the range of frequency to be tweaked (Q) and then boost/notch it with GAIN. The low can go from sub to low-mid. the mid from low-mid to high-mid, and the high goes from high-mid to really high. So this means that you can EQ this synth just like you would on a mixing desk, so you don't even have to change your console's setting all the time. You also have 3 independant FX unit, Variation, Delay and Reverb. Delay has 5 types of delay (LCR, LR, Echo, Cross, Tempo) with all parameters user-adjustable. Reverb has 8 types of reverberation algorythms (Hall 1-2-3, Room 1-2, Stage 1-2, Plate) again with all parameters adjustable. These two effects can be chained either in parrallel (sound goes to both effect at the same time) or serial (sound goes into delay, then the delay ouput goes into the reverb). The Variation section has 14 different effects (Chorus 1-2, Flanger, Symphonic, Phaser, AutoPan, Rotary, Aural Exciter, Compressor, Pitch Changer, AutoWah, Distortion, Overdrive, Amp Simulator) each with their own set of editable parameters with a Dry/Wet amount control. Best part is, all the EQ/FX settings are saved with the patch. Which means each patch can have its unique EQ/FX settings.
Another function worthy of notice (there are tons.. but I won't list them all here or I'll be writing a novel) is the Scene Control. Each patch can contain 2 "Scenes" which are, in essence, patches by themselves. You can for example, make a bass on scene 1 and a pad on scene 2. from there, a number of options open to you, You can split the keyboard and have the two scenes on each side, you can put it in dual mode to have both scenes play on all keys, you can also assign different midi channels to different scenes and get a Bi-Timbral module, each scene having their own (user assigned) set of midi control change or real time knob control. Or you can set it to Scene Control. Thats the shit!. In Scene Control you "morph" between the two scenes with the modulation wheel (or any other controller you may want to assing to scene control). So with the bass+pad patch, you could play a bassline with gradualy (or suddenly.. YOU are in control) morph into a pad. This alone makes this synth better than all the modeling competition.
the an1x also excels as master controller if you are not looking for a 673 key, full dual nuclear weight resistance para-gravitational key return. the velocity and aftertouch are amazingly precise and you can adjust the velocity curve according to your style of playing.
All in all... get one if you got the money.. don't even think about it, just go out and buy it.
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