Akai AX60 Synthesizer User reviews -Page 1

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Average rating: 4.2 out of 5

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Aston Clyde a professional user from Los Angeles writes:

Simple story: got a Prophet 08 for $1500 and could not get a decent patch out of it, at least not to my ears. Sold it after a week. Got a AX60 for $50 locally with a few broken keys and I just can't believe how good this analog gem sounds. Owned a AX73 as well but the lack of real time controls make it a different beast. The Akai is not a Juno. No Roland cheese here. Pure harsh but unique like nothing else tones. I use my X7000 as a second oscillator through the dedicated 13-pin input and voilÃ ! Instant PolyEvolver mayhem without the cheap construction.

Rating: 5 out of 5 posted Monday-Oct-05-099 at 07:39

laura a professional user from USA writes:

Got my synth back from now ex husband long time ago now... This is the most easy to use, and fun to use, synth that I have played. Nothing like it on the market new. Newer is not always better, IMO. Have gotten earthshaking bass, to ghoulish wailing sounds out of it, read on another post of someone who had gotten Jetson's spaceship sounds out of it and I have to say that I have been able to duplicate it, well, once. I have the manual, but it is not extremely helpful in the tone creation idea department, it basically is a technical manual. Just go at it.

Rating: 5 out of 5 posted Thursday-Feb-09-066 at 09:51

Justin Havu a professional user from USA writes:

I bought this keyboard from a friend who had it sitting up in the attic of his house, and I love it. I can get really good filter sweeps and effects, as well as lead sounds. All I need now is a sampler to go with it! Hahaha!

Rating: 5 out of 5 posted Saturday-Feb-04-066 at 09:17

Max a hobbyist user from US writes:

This synth is awesome! I'm just starting out with hardware synths, so there's plenty I don't know, but I'm not getting rid of my AX-60 anytime soon. I've found it to work really well for two pretty unique tasks: really warm (not necessarily "fat"), sentimental harmonies, and (surprisingly) as a drum synth. Within one day of playing with this thing, I made some pretty weird drum sounds (snares, kicks, wood blocks, toms). Granted, most people probably aren't looking for a drum synth in the AX-60, but I'm weird like that and I love it.

People seem to rave about the chorus filter, but my favorite sounds so far have been without it; keep it off if you're looking for really warm sounds. Yes, the chorus is good, but for the sounds I try to get, it makes them sound colder and more generic.

And yes, you can do ridiculously nasty leads and basslines with this things. Tons of resonance (so much at times that I had to totally cut the HF EQ on my mixer because it was killing my ears!) But like I said, I think the AX-60's true power lies in emotional sounds and experimentation. I use my alpha Juno when I want sleazy ravey sounds; I use this when I want something introspective.

The AX-60, while obscure, is truly a standout synth. To my knowledge, there is no other sub-$200 pure analog synth with midi control and faders. If there is, let me know and I'll buy it!

Rating: 4 out of 5 posted Wednesday-Feb-01-066 at 16:21

a part-time user writes:

I'm not really sure why people automatically equate analogue with "fat" sounds. A friend of mine dug this out of his garage (it belongs to his housemate), and to ours ears it sounds really thin. He runs it through his old 1970's Yamaha organ speaker, which usually makes just about anything sound dense, full and warm, but the sound quality of the AX60 was still much like the Roland home keyboard he has sitting above it. We both used to own Junos, and they definitely had more oomph than the AX60, and that's not saying a lot because there are certainly more powerful synths than Junos out there. Having just given this synth's sound quality a total bashing, I will point out that it's not all bad! Compared to the Junos, the AX60 is definitely a lot better for creating sound effects. In fact I'm really not sure why it gets compared to the Junos at all, as it has quite a few more interesting features that really set it apart. Although it only has one set of sliders for the envelopes, the filter and amp envelopes can be set separately by toggling between the two with a couple of buttons. The pitch of the oscillators can also be governed by the envelope controls, which comes in very handy considering there is no portamento (no portamento on Juno6/60 either). The LFO has five different waveforms and the oscillator section has more waveforms than the Junos and all waveforms on the AX60 can have PWM applied, with a dedicated LFO for controlling PWM speed. Then there is the oft mentioned VCO modulation of the filter, which produced great bell/ring mod sounds tha the Junos could never do. In summary; one of the thinnest sounding analogues (almost DX7 thin) but an interesting and relatively versatile sound effects producer for the money.

Rating: 2 out of 5 posted Sunday-Dec-04-055 at 16:57

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