The Yamaha AN1x Synthesizer mailing list

Hey all,

First off, a little plug for the AN1X (and I know I'm already 
preaching to choir on this one)...

WHAT a board! I bought my AN1X 4-5 months ago on a whim on Ebay from 
a guy who just happened to live within 40 minutes of my house (easy 
pick-up, no delivery costs), and boy was I pleasantly surprised.  
Unfortunately I wasn't pleasantly surprised by the construction 
(flimsy plastic) or the keyboard feel (less solid than it could be) 
or even the operation interface (though better than some)...no, I was 
blown away by the SOUND!  Wow!  Only then did I realize the 
substantial difference between that and my JP-8080 (nice in its own 
right, but no AN1X).  I dorked around with a few prophets in the late 
80's early 90's and I wasn't surprised to read the comparisons after 
joining this group, because the "prophet sound" was one of the first 
things I thought of after playing the AN1X.  I SO wish Yamaha had 
taken the AN1X as a "round-one" effort and expanded it like Access 
did the Virus or Novation did the Nova (I'm sure you've already 
chatted about how nice an AN2X or an AN3X would have been).

And on to the main topic...
I've recently ordered a Motif rack and have read it will take the 
AN200 plugin board (among others...I already have an extra DX200 
board and am thinking of ordering an AN200 board if performance is 
adequate).  Can anyone tell me how the AN200 board works controlled 
from a master board/unit.  Are the filters, etc contained ON the AN1X 
board or do the programming parameters for the "mother" keyboard (so 
to say) control the EGs, LFOs, Filters, etc of the plugin board?  The 
idea of having half an AN1X plugged into my Motif rack is quite 
appealing, but I'm curious how the control of the board and sound 
works in comparison to the AN1X.

I know this might be better answered in the Motif forum, but I've 
seen enough discussion about the AN200 board on this group that I 
thought I would ask.

Thanks much,
Wadrad

The PLG150AN is the plugin board; the AN200 is the stand 
alone "groovebox" version which has the same plugin board inside, 
along with some other stuff. I have the PLG150AN(andDX) boards in my 
S80. The AN board is completely self-contained, with its own filters, 
EGs, LFOs, sequencer, etc. Also has a few things the an1x doesn't (osc 
cross modulation, osc1 multisaw wave, osc2 tri wave). Has 256 on-board 
presets plus an empty userbank. Userbank memory is lost when you shut 
power off. On my S80, I have a smartmedia cardfile named "autold 1". 
This file is the AN userbank and is automatically transferred to the 
AN board when I power up. Some ANedit parameters can be accessed from 
the mother device, but you need to use the editor to access 
everything. For realtime AN control, I have S80 knobs assigned to flt 
cutoff and rez, 3 assignable knobs, pitchbend, and a mod pedal. No 
problem adding EFX from mother device or using AN voices as part of a 
multi (performance). Best $240. I ever spent. Does the "P5 sound" 
better than my Ion, and they compliment each other 
nicely.                                                                
                                                                       
 --- In AN1x-list@yahoogroups.com, "wadrad" <wadrad@y...> wrote:
>
>...Can anyone tell me how the AN200 board works controlled 
> from a master board/unit.  Are the filters, etc contained ON the 
AN1X 
> board or do the programming parameters for the "mother" keyboard (so 
> to say) control the EGs, LFOs, Filters, etc of the plugin board?  
The 

> idea of having half an AN1X plugged into my Motif rack is quite 
> appealing, but I'm curious how the control of the board and sound 
> works in comparison to the AN1X...

> Best $240. I ever spent. Does the "P5 sound" 
> better than my Ion, and they compliment each other 

I agree.  I'll listen to Yaz/Yazoo's "Upstairs at Erics" and than 
think to myself, "Man...I've just gotta get an SCI Pro-1 but then I 
talk myself out of it since I have AN200 that, by almost all accounts, 
can get pretty close...and it has patch memory.  I wouldn't really 
want a performance synth where you couldn't store patches - I'm just 
not old-skool enough!  Even Dave Smith himself said that good VAs can 
get "90%" of the analog sound and he went on to say that in his 
opinion that's good enough when you factor in the advantages and extra 
features of VA vs. aging analogs.

I certainly like (or love??) my Ion but it's more of an amorphous "any 
analog" whereas the ANs are focused on sounding like a P5.