The Yamaha AN1x Synthesizer mailing list

Op 25-2-2012 9:37, derek192603 schreef:

> I personally think that Yamaha have lost their innovative edge over the years, probably because innovation doesn't sell synths to the unwashed masses who don't edit and want instant sounds (i.e. the majority of people couldn't give a hoot about architecture and the depth of them).

Presumably, Yamaha have to pay the bills as well. And I think the bigger 
problem is software synths. The niches, which probably didn't any profit 
at al for Yamaha to begin with, are now filled by software synths.

The workstation concept is something that has worked well for the last 
10, 15 years, so that's what they're selling.

> I have the EX5, AN1x, SY77 and FS1R and I believe that they represent the pinnacle of Yamaha's innovation. Of course there is the DX7 (but the SY kicks its ass) and the CS/GX/GS series as well, but these four (EX5, AN1x, SY77 and FS1R ) are my personal picks. I am still dreaming of the day that Yamaha take all of the features of those four to make a dream uber synth, and I'm hoping that the Kronos is the competition that makes Yamaha wake up from the nice sounding but uninspiring Motif series.

Don't forget the VL-1/VL-7/VL-1m and the VP-1, which is about as common 
as Bigfoot is. Some of that ended up in your EX5 as well.

As for an �ber-synth... wasn't that what the EX5 was supposed to be? 
Although the EX5 never really knew what it wanted to be, or what the 
different departments within Yamaha wanted it to be. If you take a look 
at the schematics, you realise how utterly unsuited the thing is for the 
workstation role (one that involves samples and loading those from sort 
of media).

I'd rather that Yamaha would come out with a relatively simple basic 
design, with a 4 or 5 octave keyboard of AN1x quality (yes, the EX5/EX7 
keyboard is much nicer, but also more expensive) and space for knobs 
and/or sliders. They could reuse the same case for the different synths, 
muck about a bit with the layout of the knobs, and have a distinct 
colour for each synth.

And then, each synth would excel at one particular kind of synthesis: 
analogue modelling, physical modelling, FM, whatever. And it would be 
affordable, so definitely less than \u20ac1000.

Would it sell? It's hard to say, and given that we haven't seen anything 
like it, that probably means that they did their research and concluded 
that they wouldn't make any money from it.

But it would mean a fresh new wind through the hardware synth business. 
After all, how many reincarnations of the same Virus, Clavia, Elektron 
or miniature Korg can we stomach?

- Peter