I was reading the "rate the VA" thread and found it really interesting that so many people liked the Yamaha An1X and yet it did so poorly on the synth market. I liked it a lot myself, because it sounded a lot like my matrix-6, especially for its horns. the filters were quite warm. I guess it was probably Yamaha's cheaper rendition of the VA concept that actually turned people off from this synth - it just wasn't as much of a unique looking synth as the other VA's became, from the Nord to the JP to the Q.

But now yamaha has released the AN200, essentially an AN PLG card housed in a desktop Electribe-like box. Does this appeal to any of you who liked the An1X? Personally it doesn't look like a great box.. the construction is noticeably less hip than an electribe, but I have a feeling that it sounds much better than the Korg.

I kinda wish Yamaha would do something innovative with their modeling technologies, instead of just making the plugin boards... I really would like to see an updated version of the VL70. Maybe I'll have to check out Tassman instead

I think the reason behind the poor AN1X sales were the design: very poor, the keyboard: flabby, the menus: difficult to discern, the display: unreadable, and the lack of enough realtime controls as opposed to the competition. The price was good though, and the quality of sounds and sonic possibilities were excellent, honestly.
I had hoped Yamaha would do such a desktop machine, but I had hoped it'd do it with the CS6X engine and controls.
Frankly, I am quite tired of virtual-analog machines, I have plenty of those and I'd be much more interested in a virtual engine that gave me ALSO classic, electric and acoustic sounds alongside the electronic ones, that I could edit from the front panel with dedicated knobs as I do with analog ones.

I couldn't have said it better myself, Max.

I am also of the opinion that the interface did significant damage to the AN1x's viability in the marketplace, especially considering the lack of emphasis on real-time control. While it may have kept the price down, the JP8000 et al looked and acted much more like the the synths that they were trying to emulate; and, let's face it - that's a part of the buzz.

I found the sounds of the synth itself to be among the more realistic of that year's crop of VA synths. If I remember correctly, Keyboard did a shootout of a bunch of them right around then, and if memory serves, the AN got some very high marks. I believe I recall Mr. Aikin saying that it had the best ring mod of the bunch.

dB

I'm interested as to what your reaction will be to the DX200.. basically the same interface as the AN200 with the DX board. It's curious to see a DX model with a Lowpass Filter.. I wonder if there's actually one per voice or if it's global.

I agree that the market is itching to see analog-style control on non VA machines. Or maybe it's just us VA phanatics. The recent proliferation of knob boxes (Phatboy, Knobby, the Doepfer ones (which by the way are the coolest), etc.) is a testament to this, as well as the Triton's knobs. I think pretty soon we'll see something similar to the JD-800 except with updated synthesis.... at least I hope so. In the meantime, maybe that's what you need?