Outer Limits of the Akai AX80 | Affordable Alternative to the Roland Jupiter 6?
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- čas přidán 30. 06. 2024
- Is the Akai AX80 a handsome but BORING instrument? Not so fast. This gorgeous brute has mastered things other synths can't touch.
Simply put, the AX80 has a STRONG personality. But to find it, you'll have to push it to the outer limits of what the engine was built to do. To quote the great WC Olo Garb ( / @jexus )
"The bass feels not like fresh warm blood pumped into your veins - it feels like getting hit in the head with a large rubber baseball bat. The lead feels not like rubbing your belly with a feather - it feels like having your ribcage ripped open by an electric bread cutter."
#akai #ax80 #synthesizer #roland #jupiter6 #studio #letsmakemusic #liveedit #patchlive
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I have to agree that the "alien orgel" patch starting at 6:23 is indeed majestic sounding.
Every synth deserves to be explored-- no matter how weird or janky.
Agreed!!
Love this one for weird pads and strings. Fun trick: I set filter lfo speed to zero so when the mod wheel is up it does sustained note re-triggering.
Thanks for this tip @gstormelectro!! I'm gonna keep experimenting and pushing the envelope... and I MAY even try running it through your fabulous SH5-VFC! (It's been eyeing the new AX80 ever since it arrived...) Stay tuned for more...
I have an intense love for quirky synths that misbehave. I was always a huge fan of the AX-60 but probably passed on this one because I always hated membrane buttons (>_
Cool review man and good approach. I like your outlook and attitude about it.
Thanks! I really appreciate that!
Love that lead sound you play at the very end. I’ve seen this synth in a store before but had heard the AX60 was “better.” I think you managed to get a lot of cool tones out of this!
I own a very clean AX80 that I just recently restored to functionality. I upgraded the battery and fixed the inflexible display board connectors that are so prone to failure. This is my second one actually. I purchased my first one brand new from a folk music shop that did not really know much about keyboards and had a couple that they were blowing out. I fell in love with its oddball sound and stunning looks. At that time I also had a DW-8000 and a Juno 106 so I was not lacking in lush and sweeping sounds. I used it mostly for percussive bass and organ sounds and it fit nicely as a counter balance to those other synths, I also sometimes layered it with patches from my other synths or samples from my Akai S612. (I wish they had included the sampler integration of the AX60 in the AX80). I used that AX80 on stage for many years and began to get tired of lugging it around because it was so heavy and pretty limited compared to other synths that were starting to come on the market. Almost immediately after selling it, I began to regret the loss, something about this stunningly gorgeous synth with its unique sonic quirks had put hooks in me. It took me a good while to finally have the resources to replace it and eventually I managed to find a unit in great condition which I have had for the last 20ish years. Do I use it much? Nope, but it never fails to give me joy when I sit down to it in a darkened room and start messing with with a patch by the light of that amazing blue/green readout.
Even back in the eighties I always had mine ran through effects. Back then I used an Ibanez SDR-1000, sadly my SDR-1000 is dead and seems to be beyond my meager capabilities or repair. That fantastic effects unit was certainly a prime component in my love for the AX80. They sounded amazing together.
Thank you, @murdockscott! What a LOVELY history you have with the AX80! I'm just starting my journey with it... Like you, I have an EX-8000 and JX-3P for all the lush sweepy goodness and am hoping to use the AX80 in a largely complimentary role. It sounds like this is exactly what you did?
There's no denying its charm... and sometimes strange sounds. As I explore, I'll also be looking for contexts where I can highlight its more unusual side...
I've owned my AX80 from new when I bought it in the mid 80's. Back then, having never played keys before, I relied on the sales guy to demo. My relative noob-ness and budget really dictated my purchase...the DX7 was out of my budget. And, the AX80 just looked cool. LOL. I used the AX80 live for a few things, but never did anything near its capabilities. Just within the last week or so I pulled the keybed apart as it was missing some notes... the same ones all the time. I do regular maintenance and still gig with it as a controller.
The plethora of VSTs available now make it challenging for me at least to use the AX80 as a sound source.... but one thing I've discovered is that it makes a great controller. It only takes a couple keypresses to change the patch buttons to MIDI channel assignment buttons that work directly. Once in that mode, the patch buttons 1 - 16 function to change the MIDI output channel without needing to menu surf. Using several VSTs and the AX80 live is fantastically efficient because of this... changing from one VST to the next with only 1 keypress. Barely have to remove your hands from the keys at all.
I've had to do the usual maintenance on the membrane connections and replaced the battery a while ago.
The one downside I've noticed is that it doesn't do well for sounds that have a sharp attack, but pads, strings and brass can be great! Add some reverb to the mix with your favourite outboard gear and it's still very capable. Thank you for covering this synth. Would love to try out your soundbanks too...
I released an album back in the 90S called Globule Warning under the name Love Groove. The lead sounds on every track (pretty much) were my AX80! There's a few of the tracks on CZcams if interested. I loved that synth, although it baffled me too quite a bit at the time. Wish I still had it now I know more about synthesis!
Bro you should be getting more subs! You've got a great channel budding right now. Keep it up! It won't be long.
Thanks, Tim. I truly appreciate that!
Well done, that’s come up as beautiful example too! love these synths.....unfortunately pretty hard to get outside of the US, which is why I don’t own one😔
Holy moly, that filter is AWESOME. +1 for the Rite of Spring opening on that unbelievably bad bassoon sound.
Heck yeah! I had to try it out... and then just gave up. Because... well...
it sounds good, I like it.
This thing is also quite good at complex evolving sounds. So many LFO's
Your a really good player!
Thanks for quoting my review (Beauty is only skin deep)! Yep - worst synth I've ever used. Didn't once use presets and never ever judge a synth on presets. I used the hell out of my unit, for months. I don't sell ANYTHING - but that AX80 was 100% the worst synth I've ever owned and I gladly got rid of it. It *was* a beautiful synth. Looks like you may have gotten the 'prettier' version with the glossy side panels. Mine had the tolex side panels and looked like junk. The UI was ok, but wasn't any better/worse than other keyhole programming synths like the JX3P. The visual element just isn't that necessary apart from looking cool. Usually you can tell what's going on by just hearing the sounds that it puts out and adjusting accordingly. Felt gimmicky, although back when it was made I'm sure it was cool (and it still does look cool).
Not at all similar to a Jupiter 6, which I own and that thing goes wild. Maybe I missed how the AX80 was an affordable alternative to this in your video? I thought I listened throughout the whole thing but didn't seem hear how they're similar.
Not at all similar to the Chroma Polaris either (which I also own). I'd love that synth more, if it didn't break down once a month.
Interesting information in the video though. I enjoyed watching it.
Sadly, I still don't like anything I'm hearing from this thing, but it's just our opinions about whether it's good/bad.
I'm still working to see what I can coax from the AX80. I'm putting in various musical contexts and pairing with much *bigger* sounding instruments to see if I can find interesting sweets spots.
Thanks for your review and thoughts, @MIDERA! I love love LOVE your channel (especially your Jupiter 6 sound design) and hope someday I can achieve a tiny fraction of the top-flight production quality you put out so consistently!
@gregwilder thanks. I don't actually love the Jupiter 6 to be honest. I think my favorite synth will always be the Virus TI or Oberheim Matrix 1000. I just love those two. And maybe the biggest problem with the AX80 is that it was up against the Matrix 1000 in my book (wow, back in 2017, sigh... time goes by too quickly) and it just could not compare. Hardly anything can compare though.
I also don't think my production quality is that great - just a nice camera from 2007 lol. The quality here is better in a lot of ways. Thanks :)
@MIDERA The AX80 cannot be compared to a Matrix 6 or 1000, in terms of overall sound or polish. But at its price point, it is a significantly more interesting synth than people give it credit for. Its sweet spots are narrow and hard to locate, but it can sing when dialed in. It has welll implemented velocity sensitivity, great modulation options, and is quite reliable once the membrane panel connectors are replaced - outside of VFDs failing. The AX80 is a vintage analog bargain - my opinion as owner of one, in addition to a JP6, JP8, OBX, Memorymoog, Matrix 12, Chroma.
I had one for a time, but the distortion in mine was more out of control and the same guy also gave me a Juno 106 that was "broken". I don't know what was every broken about it, it works still to this day. AX80 was pretty but the sound vs the 106 was no comparison.
Makes total sense... and of course current prices reflect that value!
Ex-AX80 owner here. Great to see someone give this thing a run. Was fascinated to find out whether I had been too harsh on it all these years. Despite your valiant try I still feel this was by far the worst synth I ever bought. I remember struggling for weeks to get a few good pad sounds out of it. Was still willing to forgive it for that but found that there was nothing that this thing was really good at. A truly feeble, thin and lifeless synth. Everything sounded somehow drained of vitality - you need to hear it 'raw' with no effects to feel the true horror. Very pretty display though and I really liked the angled back panel. Subbed in case you do more demos and I can vent again :D
Fair enough! Like you, I haven't found my way to a rich or lush pad on the AX80, but I have a Roland JX-3P and Korg EX-8000 for those duties. (videos to come) What I DO like is that the combination of thin DCOs and rather brutal filter makes for a very different sound - one that I'll feature in combination with more lush pad machines in future videos to try and develop a unique futuristic (yet vintage) sound.
@@gregwilder With the AX-80 what made it even worse at the time was that I was coming from 100% analog machines. I had a DW-8000 years ago, so looking forward to your next experiments!
Totally agree. "By far the worst synth I ever bought" was exactly what I thought. And I love me some junky synths.
It's funny, similar to your AX80, I felt really let down by the overall sound of my Korg 707, so I sold it. Yet in retrospect I really miss some of those sounds that I did like. There were definitely sounds that the 707 couldn't make, but it did have some sounds that to me were all its own, at least as compared to my other synths. And I LOVE 49-note keyboards for portability.
@@MIDERA It's the perfect example of something which has excellent specifications but missed out on the magic pixie dust.
Man, my first Poly! Bought it new in 1984. My parents forbade me to buy it. I was 17 at the time. I bought it anyway. Sold it broken for 50 Deutschmark in 1999. The guy who bought it apparently fixed it with a soldering iron in less than an hour.
What a warm feeling it is to see/hear (and even smell!) your first poly. (Mine was the JX-8P) Hope is not lost... even today used AX80s are quite affordable and *many* can be fixed or updated with minimal work.
@@gregwilder I am kind of considering to look for a used one locally after watching your video...
But one thing is sure: I proved my parents wrong. I used the AX-80 for 15 years on a daily basis, and it never collected dust in a corner like they predicted it would 🙂
@@helge666 You might be better off just buying a JX8P instead. Easier to find and similar price wise, I'm guessing. The slow envelopes you describe also sounds like something both synths share making them better suited to string/brass/pad type sounds.
@@MisAnnThorpe Yes, I used to have a JX8P a few years back! It was in working condition, but very dirty, and the Aftertouch didn't work. I cleaned it inside and outside thoroughly and tried to fix the Aftertouch, with mixed results. Had to sell it unfortunately. But I have a JX3P now, which sounds nothing like the JX8P, but is pretty cool nevertheless 🙂
@@helge666 I understand that they are very different sounding synths but which would you say you liked better; the JX3P or JX8P?
nice..me like
Love my ax80, ppl just don’t give it any time
I remember being really attracted to this synth back in the day, when I saw the ads in Keyboard Magazine. The Korg Poly-61 had a nice, ghostly filter also, but I was frustrated with the beating of the DCOs in the Poly-61. You'd program its more exotic sounds in, using the filter in resonance, and the beating would spoil the sound as you played across the keyboard. Also on the '61, some nice intervals could be found with the filter in resonance and set just below cutoff frequency, but the volume became very low then - so my fave sounds were very quiet unfortunately.
Agreed! I'd love to have a go with the Poly-61...
There's a LOVELY (and detailed) video comparing the ways in which several DCO synths actually produce their sounds. (czcams.com/video/mqY6cVJS9fo/video.html) It includes the AX80 and the Poly-61 and the Roland Juno series... very interesting!
Thanks for this link! IMHO, that piano factory preset is actually not a bad starting point and could probably be improved upon (a fun project!)...also, it'd be fun to try a Seiko DS-250 hooked to the DS-310!@@gregwilder
OH - just a couple notes on the Poly-61, in case you should decide to hunt one down. It's very easy to get to the innards. You will need to repair/replace the keyboard contact strips. Also, the power supply chip runs very hot and is not heat sinked. The 61 sounds very nice in single oscillator mode! Just a nice sounding tone. I miss mine!@@gregwilder
@@chuckermatinger3794 Thank you very much for this! Great information given the age and state of instruments like this. I have looked at the online and it seems it's possible to find some reasonable deals on them... especially for the sound!
@@chuckermatinger3794 What an interesting project idea. In fact, you could recreate (or tweak) most of the internal presets and provide them as an improved alternative sound pack! Hrm...
the gain staging...
Bought one of these serviced form Cali a few months ago and during shipping one of the solders came undone, still haven't fixed it but I'm thoroughly enjoying it so far. The filter is different in the best way, in that despite the VERY early 80s architecture and character, the kind of screams that I can pull out of it almost remind me of something Roland would've made in the 90s, which is a plus for me as someone born at the dawn of the millennia. I love getting lost in the past as much as the next guy but what really drew me to the AX80 was those little quirks, awful oboe sound and all. Preset 30, which sounds like typical syn-choir fare is downright beautiful when played in the right context, and the deepest of the sting presets, I'm blanking on which one exactly, is very fun to play for early post punk/darker new wave shit.
I don't really understand what the whining surrounding this thing online was ever about - it's not like you can't just use a different tool for your "phat/buttery/warm/lush/rich/buzzword" pads, basses and strings, and even at that, I find that with a 20 dollar chorus pedal and about 10 minutes of knob work, you can get yourself brilliant sounding pads that, next to my 106, do the job very well. Plenty of alternatives out there if you want to join the tens of thousands of people who want to be the next Tame Impala but at the 800 bucks these tend to go for I think the AX80 holds its own against the other 'early membrane wonders' on today's market, especially as an analog poly synth with a fucking *vacuum tube display*.
Also thought I'd mention here, the dude that designed this thing, Kazuo Morioka, ran Hillwood/Firstman back in the 70s. Hillwood made things for Multivox, who sold cheap, simple synths and pedals and copies of early Roland/Korg doohickies until they dropped off the map. I have a Hillwood MX30 that I nabbed for free a few years back, an awful little fuzzbox 'electronic piano' that was very likely based off of something by Ace-Tone and sounds like something off of a Fela Kuti album. As time went on, the lineup of Hillwood gear got a bit more complex and around when Akai started their foray into musical gear, Morioka popped up and started working for them. IIRC, I read somewhere that the AX80 was Morioka's first, or one of his first all-original designs, which is kind of cool to me.
Wow. Beautifully said. I'm 100% onboard with your thoughts on the AX80, those select presets, and its home in the right musical contexts. I had NO idea about the history of Kazuo Morioka and will look into that Hillwood gear you mentioned. Thank you so much for sharing!
I disagree too. It’s an incredible unit. I have one and I will never part with it. The looks alone is enough to love it
They stopped making t because it cost to much to make and has more control than a Roland Jupiter 6.The first synth with blue LED and they were very expensive then as they were a new thing.
Ahhh! That makes a lot of sense and explains some of the differences with the AX60.
I th8nk irs the only dual dco with 8 voices. N9t sure but 8 think it is. ❤
I think you're right! 😊
@@gregwilder there are so many 6 voices. I have 3 of them. That's plenty.
No Kawai SX240 (8 voice 2DCO per voice plus subOSC) eats this thing or breakfast...
@@andrewsundaresan786 Agree, have one and it sounds amazing unique.
While I agree with everything you say in this video, it's rather disappointing overall. I'm tempted to make a response video because your patches are truly tame in comparison to a lot of my own :shrug: In the meantime I will point people to the JEXUS / WC OLO GARB ax80 video for a real idea of what this thing is truly capable of.
@@user-dz7wg5rq6g just to reiterate, Jexus already did a great job of showing what the ax80 is capable of as far as outer limits. You don't have to believe me about my own patches, but i stand by what i said. If you wanna hear my stuff. search ism + skepticism
@@user-dz7wg5rq6g czcams.com/play/OLAK5uy_l6Lx-DcTHA8Q4VAILZywvAhbazoMa3PmI.html&si=RBGkTuNNKjeP8L2P
We're all waiting, master! BTW, I hate most of Jexus' patches.
@@MisAnnThorpe I responded to this twice before and both have disappeared. Not sure wats up with that, but as far as Jexus ... pffft agree to disagree. He is the master. I'm just a guy with an opinion and different patches. You don't have to believe me. It is what it is.
ps - my replies had links (to examples) in them so maybe that's why they've disappeared. :shrug:
No.
Do you mean it's not an alternative to the Jupiter 6? Could you elaborate?