Akai AX60

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AX60
AKAI AX60
ManufacturerAkai
Dates1986
Technical specifications
Polyphony6 voices
Timbrality2
Oscillator1 VCO per voice
LFO1x4 waveforms (saw, square, triangle, random), 1 dedicated PWM
Synthesis typeAnalogue subtractive
Filter24 dB/octave 4-Pole resonant lowpass; highpass
Input/output
Keyboard61 keys
Left-hand controlpitch & modulation wheels
External controlMIDI, sustain pedal, program footswitch

The AX60 is a

Juno series synthesizers. The AX60 uses voltage-controlled analogue oscillators and filter circuitry based on the Curtis Electronics CEM 3394 integrated circuit.[1]

Features and cabinet

This

Sysex
data.

Front panel

The AX60's front panel is designed with a single control for each of its editable parameters, often including LEDs to indicate the parameter's status. In addition to the plethora of control faders, there is a small LED screen which indicates patch numbers and other information to the user. A series of switches controls the chorus effect, arpeggiator, modulation routing, and other features. The position of every switch and fader is stored digitally in one of 64 patches which can be recalled or edited at any time.

Back panel

The back panel has quarter-inch jacks for recording data to

cassette tape, sustain and program change footpedal jacks, MIDI in, out and "thru" DIN connectors
, stereo quarter-inch audio outputs (with a cable plugged into only the left output the stereo signal is summed to mono), a quarter-inch stereo headphone jack, a quarter-inch arpeggiator trigger input jack, and memory protect and power switches. It also has special inputs for use with Akai's S612, S700, and X7000 samplers, allowing you to run the samplers' voices through the AX-60's analog filters and envelopes.

Keyboard

The keyboard is five

octaves
(61 notes, C to C), is unweighted, and is not velocity-sensitive.

Voice architecture and sound programming

Voice architecture

The AX60 uses voltage-controlled analogue oscillators and filter circuitry based on the Curtis Electronics CEM 3394

Six-Trak, Max, Multi-Trak, and Split-8
.

Each of the AX-60's 6 synthesizer voices consist of a single

ADSR envelope generator, while the VCA volume
has its own envelope generator.

The AX-60's filter is a 4-pole (24 dB/octave) resonant lowpass type.

FM sounds typically produced by the Yamaha DX7
, depending on the VCO waveform, the VCF cutoff frequency, and the amount of filter resonance.

The AX-60's VCF's cutoff frequency can be made to track the keyboard, allowing higher notes to sustain their harmonic content.

The modulation section of this synthesizer features a

low-frequency oscillator with four available waveforms (triangle, square, sawtooth and random) which can be routed to VCF cutoff, VCO pitch or VCA amplitude. These also have a programmable delay before their effect sets in. A second LFO is dedicated to pulse-width modulation
, and only its rate and depth are programmable.

There is also a programmable output level for each

Juno series chorus. Notably missing from the voice architecture is portamento
.

Performance controls

The AX-60 is bitimbral with 6 voice polyphony. The keyboard can be "split" to play two patches independently. The assignment of voices to each split side can be 0-6, 2-4, 4-2, or 6-0. Splits where no voices can be used for half of the keyboard are useful when the AX-60 is expanded with an Akai sampler. Each side of the split responds to a different MIDI channel.

In addition to "split" mode, the AX-60 can be made to operate monophonically in Unison mode, where all 6 voices are "stacked" on each key, resulting in rich, powerful timbres.

Also available: Sustain/foot pedal inputs, pitch bend wheel and modulation wheel with adjustable "depth." The pitch bend wheel can also be used to modulate the VCF cutoff frequency.

MIDI implementation

The AX60 has relatively limited MIDI implementation. It can send/receive data on 1 of 16 MIDI channels, with the ability to send/receive on two different channels simultaneously when the keyboard is "split." Aside from note data, the AX60 also sends/receives pitch bend wheel and modulation wheel input via midi CC. Although the front-panel controls can not be edited through CC, automating pitch bend and modulation amount can be useful. In addition, the pitch-bend wheel can be set to affect VCF Cutoff frequency rather than pitch, and in this way the VCF frequency can also be automated.

Other information

Accessories

The AX-60 is designed to be compatible with Akai's S-612, S-700, X-7000, S-900 and S-950 samplers, allowing sampled sounds to be used as a second oscillator, passed through the AX-60's unique voice architecture.

Literature

Peter Forrest's "A-Z of Analogue Synthesisers" lists the Akai AX-60 as #75 in Forrest's list of the Top 100 Synthesizers. According to Forrest, the AX-60 handily tops the

Juno 60
(#95).

Reference material

References

  1. ^ a b "Akai Professional AX73 / VX90 / AX60". Archive Products. AKAI Professional M.I. Corp. 1999โ€“2005. Archived from the original on 2013-07-28. (archived on HollowSun.com). โ€œThe AX73 was a simple analogue synthesiser based around the Curtis CEM 3394 chips ... Internally, the AX60 had the same voice architecture as the AX73 and VX90 ... Common to all models in the range, however, was a proprietary 13-pin DIN socket that allowed you to connect an S900 for processing through the synths' analogue filters. ...โ€
  2. ^ CEM3394 uP controllable synthesizer voice Usbid. Retrieved 15 December 2022

External links

  • Peter Forrest "A-Z of Analogue Synthesisers"
  • Akai AX60 Vintage
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