Date: Thu, 26 Feb 1998 11:02:46 -0600 (CST) From: Evolve or Perish To: analogue@hyperreal.org Subject: jp-8000 and an1-x They're neither analogue nor heaven, but this info might come in handy to anyone looking into either of these two synths. Then again, it could be completely useless... So I bit the bullet and hauled my lazy butt down to Guitar Center, where I grabbed a pair of headphones and some manuals and spent five hours turning knobs. I will confess that I only spent an hour and a half with the Yamaha. But its strengths are obvious. It's got enough mod routings to stun an ox, convincing sync and ring emulations, solid FM sounds, and really nice bass. Yamaha also paid some serious attention to the little details. The keyboard feels great (it's not weighted, but it still feels very luxurious) and the wheels are heavy and smooth. Unfortunately, the Yamaha's weaknesses are also obvious. On a number of patches, the sound would 'notch.' I don't know quite how to describe this effect, but it sounded as if there one- or two- millisecond gaps of silence, sort of like when you ask a computer to play something that exceeds its memory capability. It was subtle coming directly from the instrument, but it would translate to a loud click if run through an external reverb. Perhaps this was just a defect of the one machine I was testing, but it was not encouraging. But I felt the Yamaha had an even more serious problem with its interface. This thing was designed by someone whose brain works *very* differently from mine. Put simply, this thing is about as much fun to program as a trip to the dentist. After several harrowing ESQ-1 flashbacks, I gave up. Do note that this might be a purely personal matter. I know there are people out there who find programming a DX-7 to be second nature, so you might find the ANX-1 to be very intuitive. I found myself quite frequently lost and frustrated, though. Were I a professional, this wouldn't matter, but I do this for fun. And the Yamaha was the antithesis of fun. Which brings us to the Roland, which is all about fun. Put simply, I liked this machine. So before I go into why, I'll list its weaknesses. First and foremost, I disliked the fact that the LFOs didn't have a wider range of destinations. The functions of both LFOs are built in, and don't overlap much at all. So, for instance, if you want to modulate pan and the pulsewidth of Osc 1 at different rates, I don't think it can be done. The bottom line is that there just aren't tons of mod routings on this board. Other gripes: a *two-stage* pitch envelope? Come on. Also, I found the x-mod (FM) to be notchy and noisy. It might have a few uses, but it was so stepped that you'd never be able to smoothly apply it with an LFO or a sequencer. Also, like many Roland synths, the keyboard has a mushy, light, cheap feel. Others have mentioned this, but on the bottom end (with the filter wide open and no effects), this machine does not sound like an analogue synth. Unlike most, though, I don't find that to be weakness. It doesn't sound *bad* at all - it just doesn't sound analogue. Which I guess is a weakness for a machine claiming to be analogue model, but personally I liked it. Effects: the chorus is a joke. You can't alter sweep rate, width, or depth. It's not a bad effect, but you wouldn't want to overuse it. The delay on the other hand is quite nice. With separate knobs for time, feedback, and mix, it's got a lot of applications. Which brings me to what I liked about this keyboard. First of all, it's an instant-gratification machine. Grab a knob and turn, and shit happens. Which is big fun when you're driving the thing from a sequencer or using the arpeggiator. Speaking of which, the arpeggiator could use a little more programmability, but I found it to be versatile and easy to use. Separate envelope generators for the filter and amp is a big plus, and the filter itself sounds great. It's obvious that the filter is where Roland concentrated their efforts. It has a very warm and liquid sound, and its responsiveness to all mod sources is exceptionally smooth. True enough, it's not a Jupiter 8, but I'll take this filter over anything in a Juno. In addition, the JP-8000 will 'memorize' slider moves, and (my other gripes about mod routings aside) you can track velocity to *anything*. I also liked the wide variety of 'oscillator' types and their various modulations. The feedback osc is particularly fun. With that and a little x-mod, I was making noises worthy of the Butthole Surfers in no time (a good thing I was using headphones, or the staff would have pulled the plug on me!). While I liked this synth, spending some 'quality time' with it left me less than convinced that it's the one for me. It's recently been brought to my attention that the Studio Electronics SE-1 is in the very same price range, and it is, after all, the Real Thing. Should the SE-1 also turn out to have a decent arpeggiator and multiple velocity routings, I'd think a real analogue, 3-osc, 3-LFO, 4-EG, full-MIDI monster would be the obvious choice. Oh, and I looked at a Z1, but I didn't touch it - no sense in getting attached to something I can't possibly afford. However, if money is no object, this looks like the machine that got everything right. b r e t t -- Will review gear for food.