Yamaha A-4000 belongs to the Yamaha's ''A'' sampler line which started with famous A-3000. Later came A-4000 and A-5000. Although called a sampler, Yamaha A-4000 offers amazing synthesis capabilities and is maybe one of the most underrated samplers. For start, it gives you: 2 LFO's, 3 EG's, 16 different filter types with complete control over the parameters. Single patch has no tone limit. Many samplers had tone limits of one patch to contain up to four tones (waveforms). Yamaha is not limited in that way. You can stack as many tones/waveforms as you want for a single patch. This way you can create very rich and complex sounds.
It also has some unique synthesis functions like ''expand detune / dephase'' and LFO with fully programmable waveforms. Once you create new sound, you can resample it to create even more complex one. There are also 96 onboard effects inside of three independent effect blocks, which can be connected in series, parallel or individual. Combine this capability with the resampling function and you'll have virtually endless effect processing power at your fingertips. You can even use the A4000 as a stand alone effects processor by assigning effects to the stereo analog inputs.
Yamaha A-4000
Sound Examples
Here are .mp3 sound examples of Yamaha A-4000 which will demonstrate it's synthesis capabilities. In most examples, used sample will be the saw waveform. The size of this sample is only 712 bytes (that is 0.7 kB ! - for those of you who got used to kilobytes). You can download saw waveform from here (right click to download it).
2osc_saw_lfo.mp3 (375kB) - First we will start with standard LFO modulated filter sweep. In this case used filter was 18 dB with medium resonance applied. Sound is made of two saw oscillators octave transposed and a touch of reverb. 2osc_saw_lfo-Note.mp3 (171 kB) - Same sound, single note. AnalogRAW.mp3 (591kB) - Analog sound made of two saw waves and one square wave filtered through band pass filter (BPF) with max width. Each osc uses random pan, square uses expand detune function. 2saw_eg_lfo.mp3 (455kB) - Another LFO sweep with two oscillators, filtered one through LPF the other through HPF, both resonant. To demonstrate effects unit, a little bit of chorus and hall efx were added. 2saw_osc+dist+delay.mp3 (273kB) - Dual saw sound, processed through TWah+OD and T-XDly efx. 2sqr_lpf18(dephase)_hpf24.mp3 (478kB) - Introducing dephase function. This will make your sound extra wide without need for efx. Two oscillators were used - both square waves. One filtered through 18 dB low pass filter (LPF), the other one trough 24 dB high pass filter (HPF). I recommend headhones for this one. AditiveRAW.mp3 (127kB) - Remember stacking as many tones as you want on a single patch? Well this feature gives you a chance to build a primitive, but functioning additive synthesizer. Following sound was created by only using sine waveform. There are totally 8 sine waves, each controlled by it's own LFO, but all together inside a single patch (this makes overall controlling of the patch much easier). Each sine wave's pitch is transposed so they make standard music harmonics (second harmonic is octave up, third harmonic is 7 notes above second, fourth is 5 notes above third, etc...). AditiveChordRAW.mp3 (115kB) - Same sound as above but a chord. AditiveSynthesis.mp3 (310kB) - Organic type of sound created by aditive synthesis. sqr_lfo_port.mp3 (146kB) - A little bit of fun with square wave and LFO. expand_detune+7_singleOSC.mp3 (555kB) - The revolutionary ''expand detune'' function. According to manual this feature sets up a tuning differential (discord) between left and right channels. However, when you put the (stereo) width to 0 you get this crazy sounding PWM type of effect. Believe or not this sound example is a single saw oscilator (the one available for download above). That is one sample, one timbre, one poly, no efx, no tricks or anything, just single saw waveform + expand detune function! SineWave+reverb.mp3 (72kB) - Using sine wave oscillator and LFO to create simple organ. Little bit of reverb was added. Note: To create a sine wave and other ''analog'' waveforms like pulse, saw, square or white noise, there are many good programs available of which some are freeware. Just ''google'' it. :-) sqr_detune.mp3 (185kB) - Single square wave with 18 dB filter, full resonance and expand detune function set to +3. AnalogPad.mp3 (555kB) - Following pad was created using one pulse wave, two saw waves and one sine wave. That's all - the rest is A-4000. SawPad.mp3 (422kB) - Another pad, this time made of three saw waves. Resample.mp3 (137kB) - This sound started as a sine wave. Using resample, efx and a lot of programming i turned into this organ sound. Resample2.mp3 (67kB) - Another organ sound that started as sine wave, then resampled. transwave-mult_timbr.mp3 (2152kB) - Testing multi timbral part of A-4000. Simple drum set and a ''transwave'' type of sound that i programmed.
Author's A-4000 with customized booting screen.
(don't do it kid!)
About
Yamaha A-4000 belongs to the Yamaha's ''A'' sampler line which started with famous A-3000. Later came A-4000 and A-5000. Although called a sampler, Yamaha A-4000 offers amazing synthesis capabilities and is maybe one of the most underrated samplers. For start, it gives you: 2 LFO's, 3 EG's, 16 different filter types with complete control over the parameters. Single patch has no tone limit. Many samplers had tone limits of one patch to contain up to four tones (waveforms). Yamaha is not limited in that way. You can stack as many tones/waveforms as you want for a single patch. This way you can create very rich and complex sounds.2osc_saw_lfo.mp3 (375kB) - First we will start with standard LFO modulated filter sweep. In this case used filter was 18 dB with medium resonance applied. Sound is made of two saw oscillators octave transposed and a touch of reverb.
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