Hello and Happy Sunday!! Todays hardware highlight is the Akai VX600 Analog Synthesizer. Produced in 1988, the VX600 is a six voice with two analog VCOs per voice and excels at deep, rich bass, thick pads and strings and such. The VX600 employs six voice cards, each have one CEM3374 and one CEM3378, on the mainboard there are 9 SSM2300. The VX600 also has a very flexible Mod Matrix that allows independent routing from each VCO to various editing parameters. Also, there is a LP resonant filter, a HP filter, two LFOs, three EGs, two external sound inputs, connection for EVI1000 and EWI1000 wind synthesizers and a 13-pin DIN connector gives six individual voice outputs. Due to the CEM types and Mod Matrix, the VX600 is often compared to the Oberheim Matrix 12 or Xpander, however the CEM chips are not identical. The VX600 has its own unique sound and character which is identical to no other synth. Personally, Ive find the sound of the VX600 to be somewhere between a Prophet600, Pro One (but not AS in your face) and an Oberheim Matrix 6, but not sounding identical to either one. Voices can be stacked in a number of ways and creates such a wide, obtuse sound - very thick. Very compact and makes use of the same OS and UI of the early MPC series and allows for a rather straight forward workflow. For storage , the Akai is compatible with Roland expansion cards. You wont come across a VX600 too often as Akai produced a very low number of these unit and theyre quite rare. They are prone to have inverters that start to get buzzy (much like the Yamaha SY77, SY99 and Akais own S3000-S3200 series samplers) and require replacing or removal and the display replaced with an LED after a good 15-20 years- but unlike the Yamaha synths and Akai samplers mentioned, the inverter is isolated from the audio path and will not bleed in. The VX600 in the photos is my personal one and its highly cherished. My sole gripe with the VX600 is the attached power cable (much like early Nord Leads), but early next year, I intend on replacing it with a standard EIC socket. Polyphony - 6 voices Oscillators - 12 osc. (2 per voice) LFO - 2 LFOs per voice (various waveforms, speed, delay, depth) Filter - Lowpass / Highpass filter w/ cutoff, resonance, pitch follow VCA - FM: depth, destination & vca: level Keyboard - 37 keys (velocity and aftertouch) Memory - 50 sound library patches, 20 code memories, 40 programs, 10 packets + external memory cards available Control - MIDI (6-parts) Date Produced - 1988 vintagesynth/akai/vx600.php https://youtube/watch?v=jyuIP3m9kds greatsynthesizers/en/general-en/2013/10/akai-vx-600-analog-matrix-synthesizer/
Posted on: Sun, 21 Dec 2014 14:15:31 +0000
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