New AN-X synth incoming from Yamaha?
4,7 / 5,0 | 
Yesterday Yamaha secured a trademark registration for “AN-X” as it pertains to Musical Instruments. Something new or an evolution of a classic 90s virtual analogue?
AN1x
Well, of course, one immediately thinks of the Yamaha AN1x synthesizer. I think they called it “retro-analog” at the time, but we would call it virtual analogue and was Yamaha’s answer to the Roland JP-8000. It used DSP modelling to generate analogue-style waveforms and then gave you 10 notes of polyphony, 8 knobs for tweaking parameters and a pretty phenomenal arpeggiator.
Yamaha AN1x brochure · Source: Yamaha
Even though it was digital the AN1x was a proper synthesizer with the traditional VCO-VCF-VCA architecture. Some say it had a bit of Prophet-10 character in there which is interesting if you consider that the much-missed Dave Smith of Sequential worked for Yamaha and on the technology behind the AN1x.
AN-X
So if the AN-X was an evolution, why not call it the AN2x? While something along the lines of the AN1x seems likely there may be no connection at all. There was also the Yamaha AN200 groovebox based on the same technology and the guts of the AN1x turned up on the PLG150-AN plugin board for the CS6x.
Most intriguing.
Yamaha could do with another synthesizer adventure. The choice at the moment seems to be between the fun but limited reface mini keyboards and the huge and workstation like MODX and MONTAGE. Something fun and accessible in between that can compete with the Korg Modwave, ASM Hydrasynth or Modal Cobalt 8 would be awesome.
Anyway, according to the trademark report the Type states:
Musical instruments, namely, electronic musical keyboards, electronic pianos, music synthesizers.
So that’s very exciting. No product images or drawings are filed. All we have is the lettering.
Yamaha AN-X Trademark · Source: Yamaha
What do you think? More news when we get it.
- Trademark application.
- More from Yamaha.
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6 responses to “New AN-X synth incoming from Yamaha?”
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Pft
so I guess a new RS7000 will never be on the table.. even tho it won the “new equipment” survey years back.. 🤦🏿🤦🏿🤦🏿
I never ‘gelled’ with the AN1X. I bought one about 7 or 8 years ago but found its tiny screen (8 x 2 dot matrix I think) frustrating and its 10 note polyphony too limiting. Perhaps it was a ‘beast’ when it was first launched, but by the time I got hold of one, my VSTs were already leagues ahead. Sold it a year later. Might regret that one day!
Back to the main topic though; perhaps AN-X is a combination of true ‘AN’alogue synthesis and good old FM (the ‘X’).
Tiny screen ? You don’t need much the display on the An1x and Cs1x and do you have 3 hands ? 10 notes poly is more enough .
ha love you ever used long release sounds? are you still thinking that is polyphony related to how many fingers we have ?
It’s quite obviously a “synthesis engine”, much like the FM-X. Montage’s Tone Generator diagram indicated the possibility of adding more TG engines. I’d fully expect announcing a new Montage OS or an updated Montage model featuring this new engine.