Yamaha AN1x

I had to write this because the Aaron's comments who owned AN1x, what for a week or something?? As you can tell, it's impossible to write deep review of synth you have owned short time. I bought mine 1998 and still I'm having lust with it. It's my master keyboard because: 1)I'm not piano-player who needs responsive and weighted keyboard, it's fast and light to play and I like how the aftertouch works 2)It's small and don't take too much space 3)8-knobs for controlling other stuff. 4) After owning CS1x, it's easy to use.

I agree the most of the stuff with Aaron because I was totally disappointed when I bought AN1x. Sounds were really bad. I was going to sell it for few times but it's still there. After I spent LONG time with it I started realitze the possibilities and limits of the unit. More next part...

Because I think it's great pad and athmosphere machine, polyphony could be greater than 10. Long release times eats the poly and with dual layering you can create amazing complex and "massive" stuff but with only 5 voice poly. I like the keyboard action but that's totally matter of taste. Effects are not great but a bit spice is always welcome. Delays (tempo delay) are great and I use them most. No expansion. MIDI is great but LFO-sync to MIDI-clock would be welcome. AN1x is quite feature-packed synth with possible to morph two sounds and use dual/dual-unison modes. After few years I started to dig modulation matrix. You can make 16 differet(if I remember right) sets of sources/destinations. With these you can make synth sing and very expressive.

Presets are mostly crap including some very basic basses and synth sounds. Check sounds from the net or try yourself. I was lucky with AN1x because at time I bought it I didn't have many other synths. So I had time with it. If you have studio full of synths, I bet you don't have time to learn every synth inside-out if you aren't full time musician. I use synths for different things even AN1x has made quite many different sounds during these years. AN1x has usually made pads/athmos but also leads/basses.

Knobs are working fine as are the keys. Only the color of the plastic near the inc/dec buttons are faded. I have used it a lot! Never gigged with it.

Never used.

They are dirt cheap today. If you get one and you aren't seeking the cheesy sounds, be ready to lear to edit it (as most of the synths). I combined it with sampler/Roland JV and analog synth and made some nice tracks (IMHO) but now I have more stuff to tweak. Still using AN1x every time. I'm sure Micron can make the sounds AN can't and it definitely has better (and more) presets. Still, test synths and think what you are after.

To say this synth is easy to use is to say that shoes are easy to untie.
The presets are the worst I have heard and will want to hear. Taking a walk through their tutorials created something that (on a different machine) would've sounded great 1/3rd of the way through, then the next step featured ruined it entirely. The Japanese have a well-deserved reputation for beautiful insanity but these patches and instructions led to something completely ineffable. Legal action should be pursued in investigating and rectifying the conditions with which Yamaha treats their sound designers.
No computer should be tainted by contact with this "synthesizer". The manual sadly was the best feature of the AN1x package, which is small comfort after listening to this thing for more than half an hour.

Keyboard action is passable. The knobs will fly off if looked at cross-eyed, like the CS1x and CS2x.

The sequencer was innovative for this time, but can easily be surpassed by the Alesis Micron's phrase programmer, or the RPS functions of the Roland JP-8000. It's basicly an arpeggiator you'd want to use, that you can control.

You can get a decent, strong sub-bass out of it, but after hearing the rest of the patches, you wouldn't want to. The effects... are slightly better than the CS2x, slightly better than the Zoom Sampletrak. Expression was quite workable, but again, the sounds are nothing you want, unless you suffer from some strange hearing deficiency, or secretly loathe your audience.

Sound carries flavor, and the best musicians are those who recognize, on whatever level, that they work in synaesthetics; the art of stimulating different sensorial reactions. There are those who smell colors, hear textures, etc., and music always is a process of evoking by connotation in a variety of levels. So, to me, this board sounded like the smell of vinegar-dressed foot, peppered heavily in dill, eaten in a dusty attic. There was just a huge quality of hollowness, as though the sound components were missing an essential richness. Even the cheapest of Korg VA's sound better than this.

There is no one I hate so much as to play live on this thing for. I'm sure the OS and components are perfectly stable. Those knobs, though...

Ads will often noted that its use as a midi controller is cited very strongly. That's because you'll never want to use much off of it. That ribbon controller is a keen idea on a foully executed concept.

Yamaha must've seen the JP-8000 and gotten the strange idea that they could do it better and in a chassis reissue. If you really need a ribbon controller and a lot of knobs, get a JP-8000, or be daring and try the Novation X-Station 49, which has a joystick instead of wheels, and a Kaoss Pad-style X/Y pad that can cross-control 4 instead of 2 parameters. Ditto on the Korg Z1. The Micron is also well worth looking at.

I sold this thing after a week. No rating here. They wouldn't want to hear from me about this, anyway.

I've been playing about 6 years. I've owned Roland D2, Roland SH-32, Korg EM-1, both Kaoss Pads, Yamaha CS2x, Zoom RT-123, Roland MS-1 sampler, Zoom Sampletrak St-224, and most recently (and belovedly) the Alesis Micron. I sold keyboards for Guitar Center and know my way around a lot of synthesizers. As for this beast, I had it for a week. I gave it a fair chance, did my best to re-edit and get past the presets, and failed: it sounded That Crappy. I will never touch it again and warn everyone else to stay far away from one. Not even the most deranged noiz musician would want one. The only place it would fit in is at Guatanamo Bay.

I wish it had a sound engine as clear and rich as the CS6X. At this point I don't know if I could even touch a Motif again.

If you're looking into VA synthesis, try an Alesis Micron. Annoying to edit but the results are worth 7 times the hassle.

The presets are trash, But then again who the hell buys a synth for presets?
the editing is a little tricky at first. It's like 2 microkorgs in the sense that there is a main control knob for half the stuff and then button groups for the others - basically which ever group is selected is what the knobs do, or where ever the knob is pointing is what the buttons do. after you spend a couple hours with it-it will become 2nd nature.
also the software an1x edit is AMAZING if you own and an1x you much get an1x edit - it's the best way to program this beast.

The poly is good enough it sounds very fat when it wants to.
the key action is simply THE best of any synth I have ever owned (and I have owned alot of synths!) I would pay the $300-400 for to use this thing as a controller! - though if your into piano keys then you wont like it- but it's a synth not a piano.
the built in effects are great, I don't find the need to use external effects at all. it has velocity and aftertouch (why spent 300 on a midi controller when you can buy this!)

it doesn't have realistic sounds...because it's a synth.

it really sounds amazing it's different then most VA's - like how the nord lead 2 is different. also there is lots and lots of modulation.

it's very reliable I have had no problems with it nor have I heard of anyone having any problems with it.
I would gig with out a back up for sure.

well it's kind of old now (1997) so I don't believe there is much customer support - but then again I never have needed it so I am going to give it and even score of 5.

If it were lost or stolen I would defiantly buy it again.
it's worth far more then what I paid.

Presets are OK, they are quite easy to edit. You have over 50 parameters available through the knobs. Manual seems to be quite easy, though I had to read it twice to catch the method of synthesis and construction.

Polyphony 10 notes, reduced to 5 when in unison mode. Unison is a very well - sounding method of play. Sound are doubled and slightly detuned, so they are wider, harder add fetter. Lots of effects: chorus, reverb, delay, rotary and others. Sounding maybe a little bit outdated, but still you must remember that it's not a very expensive synth. Better get an external effects device. Midi works ok, the only drawback is long time of program change control (about 1 sec.) 16 step sequencer, never used it. I think the LFO filter should have a measure in Hz, not scale from 1 to 256 (never know how fast exactly it works). No LFO - tempo link. Knobs rather poor, but they have a very interesting feature: when pressed show current parameter value.

Very few realistic instruments. If you're searching for realism forget an1x. Its a synth of flesh and blood. Fantastic analog-like sounds, that give you the chill. Great for techno, dance, ambient, but of course also other kinds of music. Strong and fat, rather warm in sound, full, heavy. Filters sound great. Should have it in your studio. Velocity keyboard, enough for me. Maybe too little response to aftertouch.

Never any problems with it. I think the worst think about it is poor quality of its case. Low budget plastic, but still seems to be better better than in cs1x.

running ROM version 1.01....the presets sound ok, but are nothing to write home about! if you look for a synth to turn on, select a preset and have fun, there are for sure better ones available! there are lots of great patches (for free!) on the net, though.
what really sucks are the knobs. they feel very cheap and they absolutely don't work accurate. if you want to set a parameter to a certain value - e.g. 23 - , it often looks like this: you move it to 22, then to 24, to 22 again, to 24 again, and just don't hit the 23 - although you move the knob very little! this can really be annoying. sometimes it's like gambling... :(
On the other hand there's a "knob-push-feature" thats already been described here, and this is quite a good idea.
anyway, the free pc editor makes the knobs dispensable!
besides that, the patch editing works fine on the an1x.
the downloadable editor makes it even easier.

arpeggio notes are not send by midi :(
the onboard effects are ok, they don't replace outboard equipment, but do their job quite good. max. polyphony is 10 notes, in unison mode 5 notes. keyboard is velocity sensitive (<- adjustable) and has aftertouch (<- not adjustable). the an1x has an step sequencer which works really nice for own arpeggios. haven't programmed it yet using the onboard editing matrix, only with the pc editor! very easy!
the synth is kind of bitimbral, "kind of" because you can't really play two timbres at a time, just two scenes (two different settings for one voice)!
display is not quite oversized, but big enough.
it has 3 realtime controllers (pitch wheel, mod wheel, x-z ribbon controller), each can control 0 to 16 parameters of your choice.
i'll give this an overall rating of 7 points, because todays synthesizers offer more than the an1x (multitimbre, 3 oscs....).

as for every virtual analog synth, this is not ideal for the reproduction of natural sounds like guitars, pianos, drums aso. samplers do a better job here. you can use the an1x for dance music (from trance to ambience to rave to dancefloor to ...), but also for "spicing" pop, rnb, rock, industrial...! its great for (arpeggiated) pads, basses and leads.

has crashed once, when it received corrupt midi data from my sequencing software.
overall build quality seems not too robust. it's a plastic box.
nonetheless, i would gig with it without backup, i guess.

never dealt with yamaha.

I would buy me an an1x again, if it was stolen. for that price, you can't beat it! There are more sophisticated products on the market (acces virus, clavia nordlead, and so on...), but they are $$$ ! And almost everything you can do on them, you can do in a way on the an1x, too. I recommend it especially to beginners, who are not sure whether va synthesis is right for them. thats what i did, too. it is my first synthesizer. this review is explicitly from an beginners point of view!

PS: If you want to contact me, remove the nosp_am in my email address.

I have read some of the reviews on this web page and I thought I might add something to it myself. My friend Alex wilson has been recording music as a season musician and a producer from many years and I have also been recording music and playing live for about 12 years myself, I think the one thing that alot of us forget is that when we record music and play live most people have no idea about analog or virtual analog only what they like to hear. I can lug my moog modular on stage which has cost me #400 in the last year alone to maintain or my AN1X which cost me #300 and I still get the same great reaction. The one thing I would say to anyone getting started in recording synth based music is don't make the same mistakes as I did spending years and about #15000 on equipment trying to get the perfect sound, You will never get it! just try to make the best of what you have and don't get to worried about true analog or digital analog.

OS 1.02. The manual is very good and useful IMHO. Easy editing, especially with AN1xEdit software editor. Presets - who cares? ;) There's very good ones though. Ribbon controller is fun to use, aftertouch is somethat rough, but usable. Knobs could be better (a bit steppy in normal mode) but works fine. Very logical and well-built synth.

Polyphony could be better (10 max), but I'm not complain (otherwise - 10). Very good legato, unison, dual modes. Scene morphing, FREE EG, arps and step sequencer, ring-mod, FM, Sync, PWM, feedback - great stuff! Very capable synth architecture with powerful modulation matrix (16 in/outs per scene). Very good filter section. - I was suprised how good it is!

What I can say - it is OUTSTANGING Yamaha AN sound! This synth has its own character which I love.

MIDI controller capabilies are just GREAT (very nice synth keyboard action, much better than Roland)! It's my Master MIDI Controller.

Phat & cutting leads, deep basses, lush syn.strings, pads, weird FXs, some FM-stuff (e-piano), organs, syn.percussion - no problem for this synth!

FX section is good: variation effects - very good, delays - good, reverbs - average (at least they are tweakable ;) ), onboard master EQ helps much too...

This is YAMAHA - 10. This synth once retained my edited voice when a sudden power loss occured!

Very good. Yamaha is very responsive by e-mail. Good site. Manuals, wonderful freeware editor and other stuff can be downloaded from their site. Many patches on the web, user groups. Very nice...

If it will be stolen I would buy it again in a heartbeat... I love my AN1x. Great value. I only wish more polyphony and multitimbrality. This synth inspires me to write the music. In my setup AN1x covers all "analog" section. I only wish to add to my setup FM&FS synthesis - Yamaha FS1R (another fantastic synth from Yamaha).

Being used to a cs2x, and a kstation, programming is a real breeze and if that weren't enough, there's free software that edits it!
Presets? Huh? did it have any ?
Manual is good enough... yamaha style..

It has a ribbon controller that is REAL fun to play with, 8 asignable knobs, that feel nice and ruggid! and when je PUSH them you'll see the value that it is asigned ATM.. also, when pushed you can easily finetune your patches
polyphony of 10... welll... if in this synth you do not have enough with 10 voices, consider cycling as a hobby.
Expansions not that I am aware of... but i'll see the end of thay sooner than that this synth is depleted in sounds. (well apart from like the synth breaking)..
It has Aftertouch! which is fair enough, even for performance play, the keys are almost identical to a waldorf Q keys.. play really nice, feel weighty and yet have fast action for the complicated stuff.
The onboard stepsequencer, love at first sight, ok, there might be better steppers, but hey, it still is one hell of a stepsequencer, on top of that it has Enveloppes you can DRAW YOURSELF! 4 of them, and these are asignable to any of the functions in this baby WOW doesn't even start to describe the pleasures that can bring

This is THE electronic synth you want ... if you can't get the right sounds out of it??? what did you say? oyeah, you were a cyclist before weren't you?
A++++

dunno, BUT will find out REALLY fast.......

yes i will use it NO not without DOUBLE backup being my first gig and that facing 2000 people, no thanks, even if it were a sherman A1 i'd bring double backup

haven't yet and don't expect to need it ever

Cyclist vs. Artist.... you do the math..

there is no excuse on earth not to want this .... except ... well you get the idea ;)

Not the easiest synth to get around on but very convienient in a way too. All the knobs are good and easy but the other features are a bit tricky depending on what you are trying to do.

Plent of good features for a VA. The only thing I wish it had that it doesnt is a vocoder but that's not a concern at the price of this synth.

Excellent!!! I love this synth and it keeps suprising me all the time. After owning it for a couple of months and doing some light editing, I finally started to download some patch files from the Phat and Blue website. I was blown away by some of the sounds that other people were making. Those patches made for some great places for me to start making more of my own sounds and really helped me learn more about the synth. If you cant make an analog sound from your favorite 70's or 80's albums with this synth.....well, it's not the synths fault. I've been in and out of a few rock bands with this board and have had no problems with replicating sounds from Van Halen's 1984, Jump, Rush's Tom Sawyer, Simple Mind's Dont Forget About Me, Billy Idol's Rebel Yell, and countless others. It also works great for Linkin Park and Nine inch Nails. It's not the only board I gig with but it serves it's purpose well and more importantly does all the things that my sample-playback synths just cant do.

I've gigged it heavily. I cant afford a back-up so that answers that. Something came loose inside it once that killed all of my A's and E flats but it was a simple fix ( no tools, just reconnect ) and that was just a fluke thing. I cant hold that one incident against it.

Never used them.

If it was lost or stolen I would cry. I love this synth. I've been playin to some degree or another for about twenty years. I've got a few other synths like a Roland U-20 and XP-30, Korg N1R, E-mu Virtuoso, and an Akai S3000. I also run Cubase SX with Halion and the included soft synths. I love everything about it pretty much. The only thing that I dont like is the action but it's not horrible. Just plain and springy. My Rolands have sort of a cam action to them. Hard to explain but I like it. I chose it cause they were so cheap on ebay and everyone seems to like it on this sight. It also got a good review by Jim Aikin in Keyboard magazine. I just started writing a song in Cubase SX that uses several sounds from the AN1x. Definitly helps the process of writing.

The An1x is a pretty complicated synth to program at a first glance, however when you dig more deep into the controls, alot of things start to make sense. However it is much easier using the An1xEd program, which by the way is one of the best editors i've seen for a synth, no doubt about that. This Ed makes editing presets or your own patches a breeze...
The manual is absolutely fab. Nicely written with lots of tips here and there which is really good. Alot of useful reading.

I bought this synth primarily for the keyboard, which I think is really nice for the price you can find these synths for. The built in effects sound nice, but not the best ones i've heard, but they do the job.
10 notes of polyphony. This could have been increased, perhaps through some kind of upgrade, but it still has more than double the Korg Ms2000, and it really sounds just as fat and beefy as that one.
The keyboard action is very nice indeed. You can do extreme fast lead solos or bassline solos, and using modulation wheel and the ribbon controller for solos, just makes life more fun! It's really a fun(ky) synth. Midi wise, it's got in, out and through, and you just use those for storing patches externally to this very nice An1xEd editor.

This is where this synth shines above all. Again for this price, this synth just blows away the competition, even today some 6 years after yamaha released it. It can sound really beefy and bad, if you know how to program it. I've been using synths now for over 5 years and I must say that this is one of my secret weapons in the studio, and overall i'm really picky with sounds since one of my big hobbies is programming sounds. When people hear sounds in my productions and they ask from what synth it came from, 99% can't really believe it came from the An1x....it's that good. It's not NI Absynth, but it does have it's own character and the sonic range is limited if you compare it to the infinitely evolving sounds you for instance can make with NI Absynth. I use it primarily for fat basses and soft/harsh leads...
I've been using alot of softsynths and becoming more and more picky about sounds, but I was very surprised with the An1x, doing sounds that really "stand out" from the rest. Very nice sound indeed.
Someone told me the An1x have a bad DAC, but seriously I can't hear that at all. I just can't take people seriously when they complain about these subtle quality aspects anyway today. People really don't take the time to learn from what these synths have to offer, and I think that's a shame. You really can't make a judgement from standing in the music shop scrolling through crappy presets.
Try it, buy it and love it!

This is not an area i've had to much experience of since i've only had it for like two weeks now, but it hasn't crashed during the time i've used it. Therefore it seems reliable, but I can't really tell from this short time of use...

No experience in this field either...

I hope this synth will stay with me for a very, very long time. I have no intentions whatsoever to sell it. This must have been one of my best buys ever, and I fell in love with it right away. If I have to wish for something the synth could have had, (but for this price you really have no right to complain), that would be more multitimbrality and double the voices. If it had that it would really be one of the best, and most underrated(?), synths of all time. I'm that convinced...