MATRIXSYNTH: Yamaha AN200


Tuesday, October 30, 2007

Yamaha AN200


images via
this auction.

MP3 demo here.

"This is a 5-voice AN1X with an additional 3 track groovebox style sequencer with built-in AWM2 waveforms for rhythm, bass and fx samples. Entire compositions can be easily made on this box or use it's innovative realtime performance features to create beats to songs on the fly. It has a 4 track free-style parameter sequencer/complex envelope looping generator. This allow you to create high-speed, complex modulatation waveforms to use in any 4 parameters at once. This feature allows you to introduce an endless variety of natural variation into the timbral elements that make up the sound. It gives the sound of the AN200 a kind of animation within the sound, the same way a filter sweep or PWM does, or even oscillator sync. It indeed makes the sound come alive. Because these tracks work at high speeds it gives the AN200 a unique feature not found in other analog modeled synths. Yamaha also includes extra features and routing not found in your typical modeled synths. There's different kinds of sync, FM configurations, new oscillator types, etc. All these features allow this to produce a wide range of all the classic analog synths as well as many hybrid sounds never heard before. It basic design is based on a morphing architecture. That means each preset is made up of two sounds. There is one morphing knob that lets you choose to hear either sound by itself(at the extreme ends), or a true morphed variable combination of the two. Note that this feature doesn't simply crossfade the amplitudes of the sounds the way a mixer would across two tracks. The knob actually adjust each parameter of the first sound towards the values of the other parameters that define the 2nd sound. It's a true morphing function and sounds radically different than simple crossfading. With this revolutionary architecture, almost any animated electronic sound can be realized on this synthesizer.

Here's another description that you may find helpful:

This uses the identical digital circuitry and chips as in the classic AN1X synthesizer, and Yamaha PLG150-AN Plug-in Board for the Motif, CS6X, MU90, MU100, MU128, MU2000, S80, S90, etc, as well as the Keyton plugin box. What makes this technology stand apart from the other virtuals is that Yamaha modelled AN after a SCI Prophet 5, Oberheim, and a MiniMoog Model D. You can get all these types sound character, plus much more you never heard before. This synth has broken new ground in synthesis and sound development by taking the critical elements from these vintage models and fusing them together in an incredibly flexible way. Some highlights are, two main Oscillators, one sub. Oscillators can be patched in series for one to modulate the other in the audio spectrum well above what an LFO can achieve as well as filter/OSC modulation. PWM, different kinds of sync, ring, multimode filter, matrix modulation, etc. However Yamaha didn't stop there, they included a 4 track high resolution free-form envelope generator where each of the 4 tracks are recorded in realtime using any controller knob, then can be assigned/re-assigned to any parameter for automatically generating the ultimate timbral ANIMATION in sync with each key trigger, or even in a random, free-running mode. That alone makes it sound bright and alive. The second revolutionary feature when this came out, was realtime morphing between two scenes, which are really the same as saying two different patches. So for example you can truly morph a Taurus bass into a dark and clangorous series of Cathedral Bells. This is a real morph between two distinct sounds, not simply an amplitude crossfade. This transitional effect sounds radically different and punches thru any mix. This effect really starts getting the AN sound outstandingly close to the kind of animation the Minimoog invoke."

7 comments:

  1. The downside to these machines... no external sequencing of other gear.

    ReplyDelete
  2. really? I had one and I didn't realize that.. they don't transmit midi huh? Well if you want one for that there's allways the Korg EM1.

    The ADACS on the AN and DX 200 suck. Period. They're better to pick up cheap, pull the PLG card out and put it into your Motif, CS6X or something.. They sound awesome that way.

    ReplyDelete
  3. there's a strange quirk with the sequencer in these machines as well... it would just skip out on the first note of a sequence now and again.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Are you sure about the no external sequencing on the AN200? I don't have one but I used my DX200 to sequence external gear.

    ReplyDelete
  5. I've driven various things off of my AN200 including my Emu Vintage Keys. You might not be able to ever figure out how to set the AN200 to drive anything though if you rely or expect some sort of instructions from the manual. It is the worst manual ever writen ever. Awsome little box though, I only wish it had one more oscillator.

    ReplyDelete
  6. my biggest regret concerning my an200 is that i didn't buy the dx200 instead.

    ReplyDelete
  7. LDT said... "I've driven various things off of my AN200 including my Emu Vintage Keys."

    Really?... care to share how you did and/or do that?

    ReplyDelete

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