street priceThe Akai AX80 is a pioneering hybrid analogue/digital polyphonic synthesizer released in early 1985, representing Akai's bold entry into the professional musical instrument market. Priced at approximately £1400 at launch, the AX80 was positioned as a competitor to the Yamaha DX7 and served as the flagship instrument in Akai's ambitious Micro Studio System product line.
The AX80's most distinctive feature is its groundbreaking user interface, which addresses the common frustration of "digital parameter access" that plagued synthesizers of the era. Instead of forcing users to squint at tiny LED displays and navigate through menus, Akai implemented a stunning array of fluorescent bar graphs running along the entire width of the instrument. This innovative solution displays almost every available parameter simultaneously, making sound editing remarkably fast and intuitive. The visual spectacle of these illuminated displays is striking enough to "decorate Oxford Street at Christmas," transforming what was typically a tedious programming process into an efficient and enjoyable experience.
At its core, the AX80 is an eight-voice monotimbral polyphonic synthesizer featuring rock-solid digital oscillators paired with genuine analogue filters based on Curtis CEM 3372 chips (also found in the Oberheim Matrix series and Prophet 600). This hybrid approach was intended to combine the stability and precision of digital technology with the warmth and musicality of analogue filtering.
Each voice boasts an impressive array of sound-shaping tools:
The AX80 functions as something of a sonic chameleon, capable of emulating various synthesizers of its era rather than possessing a single distinctive voice. It can deliver the richness of Sequential's Prophet series, the depth and punch reminiscent of the Minimoog, the character of Roland's Juno series, and even approximate the digital qualities of PPG wavetable synthesizers (minus the wavetable capabilities themselves).
The instrument particularly excels at:
Notable factory presets include P4 (a harpsichord patch reminiscent of "Golden Brown" by The Stranglers), P22 (a church organ suitable for Bach), and P13 (a remarkably realistic oboe created entirely from oscillator waveforms and filtering, without any sampling).
The AX80 features the characteristic black wedge-shaped case common to mid-1980s synthesizers, weighing a substantial 15kg. The five-octave keyboard is touch-sensitive, though notably heavier in action than many contemporaries. Standard pitch-bend and modulation wheels provide performance expression, and the rear panel slopes away from the player—an ergonomic design choice that makes connecting external equipment considerably easier than with most instruments.
The front panel features 32 color-coded touch membrane switches spanning the instrument's width, organized according to synthesizer functions and six factory preset groups: keyboards, brass, woodwinds, strings, organs, and synths/effects.
Despite its innovative interface, the AX80 has several limitations. The MIDI implementation is notably basic, supporting only note on/off, program change, and controller information (pitch-bend and modulation). Critical features like System Exclusive dumps and real-time parameter transmission are absent, preventing users from recording parameter changes into sequencers or easily exchanging patches with other AX80 owners beyond swapping cassette tapes.
The instrument uses audio cassette tape for data backup and restoration—a method that proved unreliable in practice. The data entry wheel is a standard potentiometer rather than a continuous alpha dial, causing parameters to jump immediately to the knob's current position when selected, resulting in potentially coarse transitions.
The digital oscillators, while impressively stable and drift-free, lack the random character and richness of traditional voltage-controlled oscillators. On their own, they sound somewhat thin and nasal with a cold, cyclic quality. However, this weakness is largely overcome through the excellent filter section, the sub-oscillator, and especially the sophisticated three-LFO-per-voice system that can create complex modulation patterns and evolving textures.
The AX80 arrived during a transformative period in synthesizer history when the marketplace was rapidly shifting from analogue to digital synthesis and, increasingly, toward sampling technology. Despite impressive specifications and innovative design, the instrument failed to capture significant market share. Contributing factors included uninspiring factory presets that required external effects to truly shine, lack of major artist endorsements (while competitors secured support from Keith Emerson, Jan Hammer, and Joe Zawinul), and unfortunate timing as sampling instruments like the Ensoniq Mirage and Emu Emulator series gained dominance.
Within a year of its release, the AX80 had largely disappeared from retailers, appearing in bargain basements at heavily discounted prices (sometimes less than half the original retail cost). The instrument remains relatively rare on the second-hand market, suggesting limited production numbers in the UK.
While the AX80 couldn't be described as the commercial success Akai hoped for, it provided the company with crucial experience that informed their subsequent triumphant entry into the sampling market. The innovative fluorescent bar graph interface predated similar ergonomic approaches in modern instruments like the Clavia Nord Lead 3 with its illuminating V-Pots, demonstrating that Akai was ahead of its time in recognizing the importance of intuitive visual feedback in synthesizer design.
For those fortunate enough to acquire one, the AX80 reveals itself to be a powerful and expressive instrument once paired with appropriate effects processing. It requires patience and exploration to unlock its potential, but rewards dedicated users with fat, aggressive sounds, complex evolving textures, and genuinely musical performance capabilities. The instrument's user-friendliness, largely due to its remarkable display system, makes it a joy to program—a quality that remains valuable decades after its initial release.
Service considerations include limited availability of service manuals and the general rarity of the instrument, though Akai technical support has indicated that major problems are uncommon and most issues can be resolved by competent repair shops.
OSC-1:
OSC-2:
Country of origin / production: Japan
Recommend product to a friend| Usage area | |
|---|---|
| Synthesizer | |
| Performance Synthesizer | |
| Usage Design/ Form Factor | |
| With Keys | |
| Archetype | |
| Analogue (A) | |
| Polyphony | |
| Voices | 8 |
| Tone Generator / Sound Synthesis | |
| Synthesis Method | Analog Subtractive |
| Oscillator Type | DCO (Digitally Controlled Oscillator) |
| Oscillators per voice | 2 |
| Waveform/ Spectral form (main generator) | Square |
| Waveform/ Spectral form (main generator) | Saw |
| Pitch range | 32'' |
| Pitch range | 16'' |
| Pitch range | 8'' |
| Pitch range | 4'' |
| Pitch range | 2'' |
| Programs/ Voices/ Timbres | |
| Patches | 32 |
| Filter | |
| Voltage Controlled Filter (VCF) | |
| High-pass Filter (HPF) | |
| Low-pass Filter (LPF) | |
| Amplifier | |
| Voltage Controlled Amplifier (VCA) | |
| Envelope Generator (EG) | |
| Filter | ADSR |
| OSC | ADSR |
| Modulation | |
| Modulation Matrix | 3 LFOs (OSC1, OSC2, VCF) |
| Destination count | 3 |
| LFO: LFO per voice | 3 |
| MIDI in/ out | |
| IN | |
| OUT | |
| THRU | |
| Keys | |
| Size | 5 |
| Number of Keys | 61 |
| Dimensions | |
| Height | 102 mm |
| Width | 1018 mm |
| Depth | 392 mm |
| Weight | 15.2 kg |
| Case/ body | |
| Metal&plastic | |
| Color | |
| Black | |
| Production start | 1984 |
| Production ended | |
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