Ensoniq

Last updated
Ensoniq Corp.
Company type Subsidiary
IndustryMusical instruments and technology
Founded1982;42 years ago (1982)
Founder
Defunct2002 (2002)
FateAcquired by Creative Technology (January 1998) and merged with E-MU Systems, now dissolved
Headquarters Malvern, Pennsylvania
Parent Creative Technology
Website www.ensoniq.com at the Wayback Machine (archived July 19, 1997)

Ensoniq Corp. was an American electronics manufacturer, best known throughout the mid-1980s and 1990s for its musical instruments, principally samplers and synthesizers.

Contents

History

In spring 1983, former MOS Technology engineers Robert "Bob" Yannes, Bruce Crockett, Charles Winterble, David Ziembicki, and Al Charpentier formed Peripheral Visions. The team had designed the Commodore 64, and hoped to build another computer. To raise funds, Peripheral Visions agreed to build a computer keyboard for the Atari 2600, but the video game crash of 1983 canceled the project and Commodore sued the new company, claiming that it owned the keyboard project. Renaming itself as Ensoniq, the new company instead designed a music synthesizer. [1]

Ensoniq grew rapidly over the next few years with the success of the Mirage and the ESQ-1. The plant in Great Valley, Pennsylvania employed nearly 200 people and housed the manufacturing facility. A number of successful products followed which all included the full-custom ICs for music and effects which were developed in house. While the core keyboard products were generally successful, there were some quality problems and increasing competition from Asian companies. An attempt to diversify into hearing aids was unsuccessful and put the company in financial peril. In the mid-nineties, they developed a line of very cost-effective sound cards which sold millions of units.

In January 1998, ENSONIQ Corp. was acquired by Creative Technology Ltd. for $77 million. The acquisition was focused on the sound-card technology of the Ensoniq Audio-PCI. The musical products division, which was in financial trouble, was merged with E-mu Systems to form the E-Mu/Ensoniq division of Creative. Over the next three years the Ensoniq operation in Pennsylvania was gradually dismantled and shut down. After releasing an entry-level E-mu MK6/PK6 and Ensoniq Halo keyboards in 2002 – essentially keyboard versions of the Proteus 2500 module – the E-Mu/Ensoniq division was dissolved and support for legacy products was discontinued soon afterward. [2]

Musical instruments and digital systems

Mirage DSK-1 (c. 1985) Ensoniq Mirage DSK.jpg
Mirage DSK-1 (c.1985)
Ensoniq ESQ-1 (1987) Ensoniq ESQ-1.jpg
Ensoniq ESQ-1 (1987)

Ensoniq entered the instrument market with the Mirage sampling keyboard in 1985. At the price of USD$1695 it cost significantly less than previous samplers such as the Fairlight CMI and the E-MU Emulator. Starting with the ESQ-1, they began producing sample-based synthesizers. Following the success of these products, Ensoniq established a subsidiary in Japan in 1987.

Ensoniq products were highly professional. Strong selling points were ease-of-use and their characteristic "fat", rich sound (generally thought of as being an "American" quality, as opposed to the "Japanese" sound which was more "digital" and somewhat "cold"). After the Mirage, all Ensoniq instruments featured integrated sequencers (even their late '80s and early '90s samplers) providing an all-in-one "digital studio production concept" instrument. These were often called "Music Workstations". Starting with the VFX synthesizer, high-quality effects units were included, in addition most synthesizer and all sampler models featured disk drives and/or RAM cards for storage. The manuals and tutorial documents were clearly written and highly musician-oriented, allowing the users to quickly get satisfactory results from their machines. In 1988, the company enlisted the Dixie Dregs in a limited edition promotional CD Off the Record which featured the band using the EPS sampler and SQ-80 cross wave synthesizer.

The company had much success with the SQ product line starting in the early 1990s. This was a lower-cost line that included the SQ-1 (61 keys), SQ-2 (76 keys) and SQ-R (rack-mounted, with no keys or sequencer), as well as KS-32 with full 76-keys weighted piano-keyboard. Later versions were produced with 32 sound-generating voices.

VFX (1989) Ensoniq VFX (angled).jpg
VFX (1989)
ASR-10 (1992) Ensoniq ASR-10 rear.jpg
ASR-10 (1992)

The company's heyday was in the early 1990s when the VFX synthesizers offered innovative performance and sequencing features (and terrific acoustic sounds), along with the ASR series of 16-bit samplers which also integrated synthesis, effects, and sequencer into a single-unit digital studio. The TS synthesizers followed the legacy of the VFX line, improving several aspects such as the polyphony, effects engine, sample-loading capabilities and even better synth and acoustic sounds. The DP series of effects rack-mount units offered parallel processing and reverb presets on a par with Lexicon's offerings, but at affordable prices.

DP/2 (1995) Ensoniq DP2 Multi Effects Processor.png
DP/2 (1995)

Despite these strengths, early (1980s) Ensoniq instruments suffered from reliability and quality problems such as bad keyboards (Mirage DSK-8), under-developed power-supply units (early ESQ-1), or mechanical issues (EPS polypressure keyboard). Through the early and mid-1990s, much effort was focused on improving the reliability of the products. The company did not manage to reinvent its workstation concept in order to survive the mid and late '90s.

Timeline of major products

Mirage DSK-8 (1985) Ensoniq Mirage DSK-8 (1985).jpg
Mirage DSK-8 (1985)
ESQ-M (1986) Ensoniq esq m.jpg
ESQ-M (1986)
EPS (1988) Ensoniq EPS Photo.jpg
EPS (1988)
EPS-16+ (1991) Ensoniq EPS-16+ (angled).jpg
EPS-16+ (1991)
KS-32 (1992) Ensoniq KS-32 (1992, top-up).jpg
KS-32 (1992)
Fizmo (1998) Ensoniq FiZmO.png
Fizmo (1998)

Sound cards and semiconductors

In 1986, after making an agreement with Apple Computer, the same ES5503 DOC (Digital Oscillator Chip, marketed as "Q-Chip") used in the Mirage sampler (DSK-8, DSK-1, DMS-1), ESQ-1, ESQ-M and SQ-80 synthesizers, and SDP-1 piano module, was incorporated into the Apple IIGS personal computer.

Later engines, with 16-bit sample playback and internal digital filters, were ES5504 DOC-II (used in the EPS sampler) and ES5505 OTIS (used in the EPS16+ sampler and the VFX line of synthesizers featuring 21 voices). Finally, ES5506 OTTO drove all subsequent 32-voice machines (SD-1/32, TS10/12, ASR-10/88) and the dual-OTTO machines (KT, MR, ZR). The latest incarnation, ES5548 OTTO-48, was used in the final line of Ensoniq studio products (ASR-X, FIZMO).

Ensoniq also developed an effects DSP, ES5510 ESP, that was used in the machines from VFX on and the standalone FX units DP/2 and DP/4. OTTO-48 generation uses its greatly enhanced successor, ES5511 ESP V2. A combination of OTTO and ESP, ES5540 OTTOFX, was also developed and sold.

The Ensoniq ES5505 OTIS/OTISR2, and ES5510 ESP (Ensoniq Signal Processor) were also used in various arcade games. They were all manufactured on the CMOS process. OTTO was licensed to Advanced Gravis for use in the Gravis Ultrasound card. In 1994, production began on PC sound cards for home computers. The design of the video-game console Atari Panther also included the OTIS chip, though the product never reached series production. A dedicated version of OTTO, ES5530/35 OPUS, was developed for AT-bus sound cards, featuring built-in joystick and CD-ROM interface.

Ensoniq's sound cards were popular and shipped with many IBM PC compatibles. Many games in the late MS-DOS era supported the Ensoniq Soundscape either directly or through General MIDI. In addition, Ensoniq devised an ISA software audio emulation solution for their new PCI sound cards that was compatible with most contemporary IBM PC games. It is speculated that this was an important factor in Creative Lab's acquisition of Ensoniq, because Creative/E-MU was struggling with legacy compatibility at the time with their higher-performance PCI audio solutions.

Soundscape

Soundscape S-2000 Ensoniqsss-2000.jpg
Soundscape S-2000
ESP DB EnsoniqESP.jpg
ESP DB
Soundscape Elite Esselitenoesp.jpg
Soundscape Elite
  • Ensoniq Soundscape Elite was Ensoniq's high-end ISA offering. It offered the highest MIDI quality of any PC sound card they ever made, including the newer AudioPCI. The Elite was based mostly around the S-2000, with some additional features that set it far apart from its progenitor.
Soundscape OPUS Soundscapeopus.jpg
Soundscape OPUS
  • Ensoniq Soundscape OPUS This card was a Gateway 2000 OEM, and possibly was used by other OEMs, but was never sold to Ensoniq's customers directly. It was a Soundscape-like board, using the Ensoniq 5530/5535 OPUS multimedia sound chip, a chip that was only used on these OEM boards and essentially comprises an OTTO with back-then usual additional interfacing (Joystick, CD-ROM).
  • Ensoniq Soundscape VIVO90 was Ensoniq's generational step forward from the Ensoniq Soundscape S-2000-based boards. It was first produced in 1996. VIVO90 had similar specifications to the older boards, but was built to cost less to manufacture.

AudioPCI

AudioPCI Ensoniq ES1370 1.jpg
AudioPCI

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Music technology (electronic and digital)</span>

Digital music technology encompasses the use of digital instruments to produce, perform or record music. These instruments vary, including computers, electronic effects units, software, and digital audio equipment. Digital music technology is used in performance, playback, recording, composition, mixing, analysis and editing of music, by professions in all parts of the music industry.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sampler (musical instrument)</span> Device that records and plays back samples

A sampler is an electronic musical instrument that records and plays back samples. Samples may comprise elements such as rhythm, melody, speech, sound effects or longer portions of music.

The Ensoniq Mirage is one of the earliest affordable sampler-synths, introduced in 1984 as Ensoniq's first product. Introduced at a list price of $1,695 with features previously only found on more expensive samplers like the Fairlight CMI, the Mirage sold nearly 8,000 units in its first year - more than the combined unit sales of all other samplers at that time. The Mirage sold over 30,000 units during its availability.

A rompler is an electronic musical instrument that plays pre-fabricated sounds based on audio samples. The term rompler is a blend of the terms ROM and sampler. In contrast to samplers, romplers do not record audio. Both may have additional sound editing features, such as layering several waveforms and modulation with ADSR envelopes, filters and LFOs.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ensoniq ESQ-1</span> Synthesizer

Ensoniq ESQ-1 is a 61-key, velocity sensitive, eight-note polyphonic and multitimbral synthesizer released by Ensoniq in 1985. It was marketed as a "digital wave synthesizer" but was an early Music Workstation. Although its voice generation is typically subtractive in much the same fashion as most analog synthesizers that preceded it, its oscillators are neither voltage nor "digitally controlled", but true digital oscillators, provided by a custom Ensoniq wavetable chip. The signal path includes analog resonant low-pass filters and an analog amplifier.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ensoniq EPS</span> Digital musical instrument

The Ensoniq Performance Sampler (EPS) was one of the first few affordable samplers on the market. It was manufactured from 1988 to 1991 by Ensoniq in Malvern, Pennsylvania, US. The EPS is a 13-bit sampler and replaced the Mirage - widely regarded as the first truly affordable sampling keyboard.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ensoniq ES-5506 OTTO</span>

The Ensoniq ES-5506 "OTTO" is a chip used in implementations of sample-based synthesis. Musical instruments and IBM PC compatible sound cards were the most popular applications.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ensoniq Soundscape S-2000</span> PC sound card

Soundscape S-2000 was Ensoniq's first direct foray into the PC sound card market. The card arrived on the market in 1994. It is a full-length ISA digital audio and sample-based synthesis device, equipped with a 2 MiB Ensoniq-built ROM-based patch set. Some OEM versions of the card feature a smaller 1 MiB patch set. It was praised for its then-high quality music synthesis and sound output, high compatibility and good software support.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ensoniq SoundscapeDB</span>

The SoundscapeDB is an Ensoniq-designed and produced MIDI daughtercard designed to interface with the "Waveblaster" pin header available on many older sound cards. It was released in 1994.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ensoniq Soundscape OPUS</span>

The Ensoniq Soundscape OPUS (SS-3016-NCD) is a Gateway 2000 OEM sound card, and possibly was used by other OEMs, but was never sold to Ensoniq's customers directly. It was a Soundscape-like board, using the Ensoniq "OPUS" multimedia sound chip that only was used on these OEM boards. It had a 1MB patch set ROM chip, resulting in a lesser MIDI quality compared to the Soundscape and Soundscape ELITE. The "OPUS" cards again carry the Motorola 68EC000 CPU. The variety of CD-ROM interfaces have been removed. Otherwise, however, the card is simply a cost-reduced Soundscape-compatible board with similar capabilities.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ensoniq Soundscape Elite</span> Ensoniqs high-end ISA PC sound card offering

The Soundscape Elite was Ensoniq's high-end ISA PC sound card offering. It offers the highest MIDI quality of any PC sound card Ensoniq produced. The board is an evolution of the company's previous Soundscape S-2000. The Soundscape ELITE was launched in March 1995.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ensoniq AudioPCI</span> PCI-based sound card

The Ensoniq AudioPCI is a Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI)-based sound card released in 1997. It was Ensoniq's last sound card product before they were acquired by Creative Technology. The card represented a shift in Ensoniq's market positioning. Whereas the Soundscape line had been made up primarily of low-volume high-end products full of features, the AudioPCI was designed to be a very simple, low-cost product to appeal to system OEMs and thus hopefully sell in mass quantities.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sound Blaster Live!</span>

Sound Blaster Live! is a PCI add-on sound card from Creative Technology Limited for PCs. Moving from ISA to PCI allowed the card to dispense with onboard memory, storing digital samples in the computer's main memory and then accessing them in real time over the bus. This allowed for a much wider selection of, and longer playing, samples. It also included higher quality sound output at all levels, quadrophonic output, and a new MIDI synthesizer with 64 sampled voices. The Live! was introduced on August 11, 1998 and variations on the design remained Creative's primary sound card line into the early 2000's.

The Ensoniq TS-10 was a synthesizer and music workstation introduced by Ensoniq in 1993. It provided synthesis, user sample playback, sequencer, effect units and performance facilities in a 61-key package.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Korg DSS-1</span> Polyphonic synthesizer

The Korg DSS-1 is a polyphonic sampling synthesizer released by Korg in 1986. As Korg's initial entry into the sampling market, the DSS-1 combines sampling, additive synthesis, and waveform drawing with an analog signal path. The DSS-1 was released a time when major synthesizer manufacturers like Yamaha and Casio were beginning to explore sampling, an area of sound design dominated by companies like Fairlight, E-mu, and Ensoniq. Korg did not stay long in the sampling arena; the DSS-1 was the company's only sampler until 1998 when Korg introduced sampling options on their Triton and Trinity series of workstations.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Creative Wave Blaster</span> MIDI synthesizer

The Wave Blaster was an add-on MIDI-synthesizer for Creative Sound Blaster 16 and Sound Blaster AWE32 family of PC soundcards. It was a sample-based synthesis General MIDI compliant synthesizer. For General MIDI scores, the Wave Blaster's wavetable-engine produced more realistic instrumental music than the SB16's onboard Yamaha-OPL3.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ensoniq SQ-80</span>

The Ensoniq SQ-80 is a digital/analog synthesizer manufactured from 1987 to 1989. It was Ensoniq's update to its first synth, the Ensoniq ESQ-1.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">E-mu Systems</span> American music technology company

E-mu Systems was a software synthesizer, audio interface, MIDI interface, and MIDI keyboard manufacturer. Founded in 1971 as a synthesizer maker, E-mu was a pioneer in samplers, sample-based drum machines and low-cost digital sampling music workstations.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ensoniq ASR-10</span> Digital musical instrument

The Ensoniq ASR-10 is a sampling keyboard produced by Ensoniq between 1992 and 1998. The ASR-10 was a follow-up product to the very popular Ensoniq EPS and EPS-16 Plus performance samplers, and was also available with a piano style weighted keyboard (ASR-88) and a rackmount version (ASR-10R). At the time, the machine was one of the most powerful samplers available.

Digital Sound Factory is a sound design company that creates sound libraries, known as SoundFont libraries, for playback on synthesizers and computers compatible with Steinberg Cubase, Cakewalk Sonar, Reasonstudios, Steinberg Halion, Native Instruments Kontakt, Apple GarageBand, Apple Logic, Ableton Live, GenieSoft Overture, Finale, Creative Labs Audigy/X-Fi, E-MU Systems EmulatorX/Proteus X, LMMS, FL Studio, MuseScore, Mixcraft, VSamp, SFZ, SynthFont, Ardour, FluidSynth and more.

References

  1. Perry, Tekla S.; Wallich, Paul (March 1985). "Design case history: the Commodore 64". IEEE Spectrum. 22 (3): 48–58. doi:10.1109/MSPEC.1985.6370590. ISSN   0018-9235 . Retrieved 2011-11-12.
  2. "The Amazing Ensoniq". Keyboard Kountry. Retrieved 2021-10-03.
  3. "Ensoniq Sampled Piano". Sound On Sound. September 1986. pp. 8–9. ISSN   0951-6816. OCLC   925234032.
  4. "Ensoniq EPS-M Sampler Module". Music Technology. May 1989. p. 14. ISSN   0957-6606. OCLC   483899345.
  5. "Ensoniq SQ1". Music Technology. October 1990. pp. 64–69. ISSN   0957-6606. OCLC   483899345.
  6. "Parallel Lines". Recording Musician. August 1992. pp. 32–36. ISSN   0966-484X. OCLC   264952514.
  7. "Ensoniq DP/2". Sound On Sound. December 1995. Archived from the original on 8 June 2015.
  8. "Ensoniq ASRX". Sound On Sound. September 1997. Archived from the original on 7 June 2015.
  9. "Ensoniq Paris II". Sound On Sound. January 1998. Archived from the original on 24 September 2015.