| I've seen AKAI VX600 and XE8 in Tokyo last year.
VX600 has 320 character LCD display(laerge as AKAI S1000),
User interface is good.The sound of VX600,worm and thik.
I felt that VX600 is "Poorman's Oberheim" or "Poorman's
Jupiter".Maybe the reason is base of VX600's sound ,that
is VCO. (*NOT* DCO.) If you want sound of vintage synth,
VX600 is reasonable choice.and it has MIDI,and more reliable
than vintage synths.
Actually VX600 is already phase-outed product.It can be said
vintage machine,too?
I've seen XE8 Drum expander too,but its drum sound is not so
good for me.I prefer ALESIS's new low-cost drum machine(some
of Bass and snare sounds are very nice,it can be standard of
drum sound) or AKAI XD10(Tecno or Disco style cheep drum
sounds nice).
Hidemi
|
| Article 22642
From: metlay@organ.music.cs.cmu.edu (Mike Metlay)
Subject: Re: What's an Akai VX600 Matrix Analog Synth? (blowout sale)
Date: 4 Jun 91 22:05:25 GMT
Organization: Carnegie-Mellon University, CS/RI
In article <1249@sousa.ltn.dec.com> eirikur@ranger.enet.dec.com (Eirikur Hallgrimsson) writes:
>
>What is an Akai VX600 Programmable Matrix Analog Synthesizer really like?
>If it has decent filters, a few LFOs and the matrix feature is for real, this
>could be a steal.
THREE HUNDRED DOLLARS?! The VX600 was Akai's atempt to take on the Xpander
on its own turf! It was a very powerful synth with a few things the Xpander
didn't have, like its own keyboard and the ability to process external
sounds through the filters. There have been other blowouts on Akai gear
before, usually on relatively cheap and unimpressive gear and I must state
that I may WELL be WRONG about which synth I'm remembering. But the short
keyboard and the softkeys sound like the right beast. I'm going to go into
my Akai catalog ASAP and look it up; if it's what I think it is, then it's
beyond a steal for those who could never afford an Xpander-- the damn thing
originally retailed for $2995! (Which is why I think I could be wrong)
Eirikur, can you get one on approval? If you can, you should; I KNOW you,
and you'd LOVE this thing.
--
metlay | I've got thirty sharpened analog filters up
| my sleeve, over two dozen REAL VCOs in my
| holsters, and a vector joystick in my boot.
metlay@organ.music.cs.cmu.edu | So why am I staring at the Waldorf ads...?
|
| It's not an Xpander-class device. Much closer to a Matrix-6. The matrix
implementation is better than the Matrix-6, though, in my opinion. You can use
MIDI controller #'s as direct inputs to the matrix.
Clearly intended as a host for the EWI and EVI, there are no pitch or mod
wheels/knobs/whatever. The E?I plugs in directly (not via MIDI) and has direct
access to the matrix. Which is cool. I might try to find an EVI, since I
played trumpet a bit in jr high. I might also fake something to use the input
as a hardware project. By using aftertouch, I think I can get my Casio plastic
sax to play the special E?I patches where BC is mapped to volume and envelopes
are not used to drive the VCA. The velo/press keyboard just seems to be there
for keyboard comping when you are not soloing on the E?I, or for setting up the
(huge, complicated and to me useless) mode where the E?I (or the keyboard, or
MIDI input) plays chords in response to each note-on. I did edit one of the
E?I voice patches to use aftertouch instead of BC in the matrix and it worked
fine from the keyboard.
2 VCO, 1 VCF, 2 LFO, 3 Envelopes, 1 VCA. No lags, tracking generators, no
re-triggering of Envelopes, etc. Has only saw, triangle and pulse waveforms.
Can't find any mix level control for the waveforms, it's more of an off/on
thing for each. Does have the external inputs (for voices 1 and 2), and the
manual is somewhat intelligible on the subject. You can run a stereo sampler,
or two signals into it, and assign control of the two voices to two MIDI
channels, etc.
Multi-timbral, with 40 setup slots, and 50 'simple voice' slots.
Setups can have a mix of mono and poly modes, polyphony is static.
You can have several voices playing in unison mono on one channel,
with the remainder playing a pad or somesuch. Only limit is the 6 voices.
10 x10 mod matrix (required, no hard routings as in Matrix-6).
Can use any MIDI controller # from 1 to 31 as any input to the matrix.
Can use any analog output of the Akai wind controllers as any input to the
matrix. I think you can't do second order effects such as using an envelope to
vary the LFO amount sent to a destination, but I'm not sure. Ah, having the
manual to hand, I see that LFO depth is a matrix destination. Akk, you never
control source levels at the source! Didn't they learn anything on modular
systems. Oh. You say they never used a real modular system.
It's an insane product. MIDI imp. chart claims NO SYSEX! Not too much of a
problem because of the powerful mod matrix taking MIDI controllers directly.
Much of what interactive sysex is used for isn't needed here.
Incomprehensible manual. Weak techo-geek translation. Two typos in the
display screens. Really!!! Yet another terminalogy problem: what I have
gotten used to as patch Banks, are Packets here. I was thinking about MIDI
message packets for quite some time while scratching my head.
Wins: Best User Interface on a analog machine that I have ever seen. It's
semi-graphic, and you can enter values via the wheel/knob, the keypad, or the
arrow keys. Most values such as waveform are displayed as graphics, not just
numbers. It also uses little scales and things like that where the indicator
moves as you adjust the value. It's like a neat synth with a built-in graphic
editor/librarian. Excellent display. Backlit blue LCD.
Losses: No pitch or mod controls on the unit. (Has 4 dual-ganged pots that
control the sensitivity to E?I pitch, mod, portamento controls. The editing
model is "edit in place," and there is no compare. You can easily make a
change that blows away your sound, and you simply have to reverse the operation
manually, because switching to another sound and back gives you your edited
version.
Akai must be brain-damaged. This thing is very weird.
The sound is good, not all damped and murky like the Matrix-1000. One or two
of the factory patches are sensational, a few are ok, and most are the pits.
The filter sound is closer to the "competant implementation of the 4-pole
filter" sound than to the old Moog 'ladder' filter. I don't think I like it as
much as the filters in my MKS-7. The easy programming interface means no
problem in that department.
Eirikur
|