Yamaha AN1x

The presets for the US model were so bad that Yamaha UK created their own. Yamaha have a few patch files available on their UK web site that really start to show off this fine synth.
Editing is pretty easy. There's only 8 knobs with a set of 8 assignment buttons to put them in different modes. It's nearly as easy as a JP8000 once you get used to it. It's got your pretty standard 2 oscillator, vca, vcf architecture so it doesn't take much learning. Overall it's a pretty easy synth to use and program.
The manual is crap. The information is spread all over the place. I was very disappointed with Yamaha for this. It reads like one of the design engineers wrote it instead of a professional manual writer.
The free AN1xEdit program from Yamaha is excellent. It's the best synth editor I've used. It's great for setting some of the hard to get at system and effects settings. It is also great for visually editing the phrase sequencer.

10 voice 2 poly. The built in effects are very good. Three different effects at the same time; delay, reverb and one other. I like the effects.
The keyboard is passable for a midi controller. It sends after-touch and is velocity sensitive. The appegiator is nice, but it also has a small phrase sequencer that can also record up to 4 parameter changes. In practice it works well.

It's a copy of an analog synth and it sounds just like that. I love the sounds, it doesn't have the grit of a 303 but instead has a wonderful smoothness. I spend a lot of time playing with the knobs, inventing new sounds and getting inspired by the fresh ideas they spawn. It's by far the best music investment I've made in a long time.

It's made of plastic so I wouldn't want to drop it. There's rumours that Yamaha are going to discontinue it. The price has dropped to about $850 which makes it a bargain. Grab one while you can.
Yamaha have been getting bad press over their EX5 and A3000 software but my AN1x is rock solid. I have locked it up once but I don't know what caused it and can't repeat the problem.

The UK site is pretty good. Quite a few nice patches including a heap of JP8000 emulations. I am impressed that they paid somebody to develop the nice PC editing program.

I spent quite a long time in my local guitar center checking out the AN1x and JP8000. I thought both were similiar in architecture and sounds but the AN1x had better effects and internal editing capability while the JP8000 had a real analog synth user interface and an extra $200 cost.
Check one out if you get a chance. If you are in the market for an analog synth and you have no real preference and want something flexible then you can't go wrong with the An1x.

The presets are mainly intended to show off the unit. Many of them use the arpeggiotor or the step sequencer. Especially impressive is the 'We all die' preset, which sounds like 'we all die' spoken through a vocoder. But it doesn't use samples, so go figure that out. Editing your own patches is pretty easy, you can tweak a preset or start from scratch. (There's only one bank - your edits will replace the presets, of which there are 128.) You have eight knobs to edit your sound, seven parts of it: VCO1, VCO2, VCA, VCF, MIX/VCF, SYNC/FM, PEG/LFO. More dedicated sliders would have been easier, but it works well. Editting effects, EQ, arpeggiator, step sequencer, free EG and all the other stuff is a bit more awkward, but luckily there are no menus: each function is accessible with a turn of a knob and a button click. Overall, it's pretty easy to use. The manual is OK, although it works better as a PDF file, because of the hyperlinks.

Polyphony is either 10 (unitimbral) or 5+5 (in dual or split mode). Not what you're used to with a sample player, but it's good enough for a lead synth. Effects are plentiful, with a variation effect, EQ, delay and reverb - but it's on the somewhat harder to use right hand side of the unit. You can't expand it whatsoever, though. The unit it *very* expressive. You have velocity, aftertouch, mod and pitch wheel, a pressure sensitive ribbon controller, and eight assignable knobs. It's an excellent controller, with a very thorough MIDI implementation. Every single parameter is controllable *and* transmittable over MIDI. Another nice feature is the 'scene morphing', where you can morph between two different sounds with the mod wheel. The on-board sequencer is like the old analogue ones: it holds only 16 notes, but it works very easy: just turn the knobs for the right note. The arpeggiator unfortunately can't be programmed, but it's very nice. The arpeggiator/sequencer has its own MIDI channel. The free EG makes up for the single LFO: you have four tracks, in which can you can record knob movements. The unit is feature-packed and I would have given it a 10, if it weren't for the polyphony/multitimbrality.

This thing is good for only one thing: analogue simulation. It *can* do FM, but with only two 'operators' (oscillators), you're out of luck. But the sound is *really* good. It can sound silky smooth, with soft evolving strings, or very very hard with screaming leads and pulsing basses. Much of the great sound comes from the effects, so no perfect 10 here. But the host of controllers give you so much expression to your sound: velocity and pressure affect the VCA and VCF, everything controllable of course. It's a beautiful instrument to play by itself.

It just never fails. You turn it off, go to sleep, and when you wake up you turn it on and continue where you left off. You're edits are still there. I don't know how the buttons and knobs handle extensive pushes (yes, you can push the buttons), though I've never heard complaints from anybody.

I've never dealt with Yamaha. I think they might be taking the Internet a bit more serious, though, especially in the Netherlands.

If you wouldn't consider the price, it would be a very interesting synth. But since it's so much cheaper than the compitition, you can hardly go wrong with this one. There are some quirks, but overall it's an easy-to-use piece, with great sound, at a more than affordable price. What more do you want?