The mystery of Yamaha’s recent AN-X trademark application may be about to be solved, with a purported leak indicating that this will be the name of a new synth engine in the MODX+, a new mid-range synth workstation.
Images of what appear to be a keyboard bearing the MODX+ name have surfaced on Yamaha Musicians. It seems that this will be the successor to the MODX, the 2018 workstation that took features from Yamaha’s flagship Montage synth and packed them into a more affordable instrument.
MODX comes in three sizes - with 61-, 76- and 88-note keyboards respectively - and we’d expect the plus version to follow suit. The MODX’s AWM2 and FM-X synth engines seem likely to be included in the MODX+, too, but the big question is what AN-X is all about.
The logical conclusion to draw is that this will take sonic cues from the AN1x, the popular virtual analogue synth that Yamaha released in 1997, but this is all speculation at this point.
Yamaha Musicians also believes that the MODX+ will have double the memory of the MODX along with increased polyphony. Other rumours suggest that the Montage range will be getting a firmware update that includes the AN-X engine.
Prices and release dates are still to be confirmed - as, of course, is the actual existence of the MODX+ - but the thinking is that we could get an announcement from Yamaha as early as September.
