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:
The downside to these machines... no external sequencing of other gear.
ReplyDeletereally? 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.
ReplyDeleteThe 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.
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.
ReplyDeleteAre you sure about the no external sequencing on the AN200? I don't have one but I used my DX200 to sequence external gear.
ReplyDeleteI'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.
ReplyDeletemy biggest regret concerning my an200 is that i didn't buy the dx200 instead.
ReplyDeleteLDT said... "I've driven various things off of my AN200 including my Emu Vintage Keys."
ReplyDeleteReally?... care to share how you did and/or do that?