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Average rating:
4.7 out of 5
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Pros: - clean sound with plenty of analog character - Interface is logical and conducive to work with - Keybed has ideal feel and spring to it, all other controllers are reliable, despite their being plastic - Incomprehensibly cheap pricing second-hand, maybe because it looks cheaply built to the average person, they wrongly assume it sounds cheap, which it deosn't. - Lightweight (c. 7kg) and plastic casing is tough. - big online community to help - blue
cons: - only 128 program memories - casing looks cheap and in fact is
This is a remarkable synth. At it's price s/h, it could just be a fully functional 61-key midi controller, but it also provides access to a sound engine that keeps on surprising me with an in-built virtual prophet 5, fm and some deep modulation possibilities. Its immediate strengths are for dance and electronic music, but with some effort, pads, strings and ambient sfx emerge to rival a 'warmer' k5000s. questioning why spectrasonics didn't use this synth for 'atmospheres.' I originally sold a korg z1 to buy the an1x and absynth 3. Of all those 3, the an1x is the most fun to play, and provides the most for its associated price. The z1 is much praised for its extended modulation options, but imo it lacked the character or inspiration of the an1x. Furthermore, its immediate rivals of the nords and jp8000 tend to be at least 100-200 pounds more expensive, whilst providing less of an intense synth architecture than the an1x.
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Alright, I've owned this VA for about 6 years now. It is highly versatile in terms of the "types" of sounds it can create - no question, its modelling abilities are impressive. But as far as the sound itself, no matter how much you twist those 8 little plastic knobs you can't break away from the fact that this synth uses digital oscillators and it sure sounds like it!
And that's the annoying thing about virtual analog. It has nothing to do with analog! Not even the knob-twiddling because the parameters change in steps, so no clean hi-res filter sweeps here.
I've played this synth a lot; I've recorded it and played it back; I even tried to sell it once! But there is one thing that never changes, it's that it will always have this "digital tinge" to it. Maybe a good thing for some people. Not for me.
Anyway, glad I got that out of my system. It's still a very cool synth and I give it a 4. I can still always use it as a controller... =)
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When i first got my AN1x I thought it was cool but iI wasn't that impressed. I did'nt use it too much.I thought it sounded weak compared to all my REAL analog synths.Then as time went on i kept thinking of selling it but I kept reading all these great reviews and I thought i might be missing something so I gave it a second chance and dug in a little bit deeper. Now i am very glad i hung on to it beacause it is trully a great synth. The stock sounds are pretty lame! I really took the time to get to know this beast and all of a sudden I was making these super fat bass sounds and warm lush pads.The modulation is pretty wild too. The fx are not the best but i would say they are good enough to give the sounds some life without hurting your ears.I guess what i am trying to say is you get from this machine what you put in to it. I own a bunch of great analog synths like Jupiters,Moogs,Oberheim and Korg.I wouldn't say the AN1x sounds just like an old analog synth. Maybe more like a little bit analog and DX7 hybrid, but it makes amazing sounds that stand out in a song.Isn't that what counts the most anyway?
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Actually, I've been able to get remarkably sweet analogue strings out of the AN1X. I can build sounds on this synth that are anything from a punchy Prophet 5 to a very convincing simulation of my trusty Jupiter 8. Seriously!
I originally purchased the AN1X after closely comparing it to the Nord and JP8000 boards. It blows both of them away for realistic and warm analogue sound. The only virtual analogue that comes close to the warmth of the AN1X is the Access Virus. One of our band members has the Virus, and I've had a chance to use it extensively. However, expect to pay alot more for the Virus KB.
AN1X is truly an amazing board, with excellent effects, a very responsive XZ pad, four free-EG 'robots', and programmable/assignable everything.
Although it is only 2-part multitimbral, it is still a great machine. In that respect, it's very much like the classic analogues. It seems that Yamaha's mission was to provide a Jupiter 8 / Prophet 10 type of board with the addition of a digital effects unit. They succeeded.
If you want a workstation keyboard, look to a Fantom or a Triton.
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Its the ultimate modern spacerock machine 70's style sequences(tangerine dream) , weird sounds, everyt space sound is possible. not a machine for beautiful strings etc , just use a other synth for that please forget the factory sounds, they truly do this synth no justice. make your own sounds!
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