Ensoniq VFX-SD

In 1989, Ensoniq VFX SD was released shortly after the initial released of Ensoniq VFX Synth as a performance type synthesizer. It has an updated drum waves or waveforms, a 24-track sequencer and a floppy drive for additional archiving purposes. VFX-SD is a professional quality sequencer capacitating 25,000 to 75,000 notes, and can hold up to 60 sequences and songs. The sequencer's operating system is loaded into the floppy disk from the RAM memory of the instrument, allowing easy loading of Ensoniq's new operating system. The VFX-SD's sequencer is versatile indeed because its floppy disk can also be used in storing whole songs, single sequence, single presets, 20-presets bank, single sounds, sets of 6 or sets of 30 sounds, and whole banks (60 seconds). Although it is not compatible with MS-DOS, niche industry sprang up to accommodate the needs of the musicians. The software has also a new drum and percussion sounds that includes 24 drum kits, totally compatible with the original VFX sound library. It also featured with MIDI Automated mixing and four individual outputs.

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Ensoniq SQ-80

Ensoniq SQ-80 was an update of Ensoniq ESQ-1. It includes 43 additional waveforms which includes 5 drum kits, enhanced sequencer, and floppy disk drive for patches and sequence storing. It also offers 2nd Reverb solution in stimulating reverb-like effects, and has Thru jack, In and Out MIDI. The machine has user friendly interface. It displays large fluorescent with two rows of 40 alpha-numeric characters that automatically shows various parameters in a given section and instantly access to each one through placing the buttons over and under it. This model is more reliable that ESQ-1 due to electronic hardware design revision. It is the first product to feature Ensoniq's patented Polypressure Keyboard technology which has a polyphonic aftertouch wherein each key pressed will independently respond to other keys aftertouch. Aftertouch can also control various modulation parameters like the LFO. Although SQ-80 is a classic analog or digital hybrid of the late eighties, it lacks built-in effects.

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Ensoniq Performance Sampler

Ensoniq Performance Sampler (EPS) is a 13 bit sampler manufactured by Ensoniq last 1988 to 1991, featured with professional studio music production tool and powerful live performance instrument. It has two processors where you can simultaneously load and play up to eight instruments (with another eight on reserve) and has 22 character single line vacuum fluorescent displays. Its keyboard is constructed with dark gray colored thick plastic in 61 weighted keys with assignable pitch, two patch select buttons, and modulation wheels and supported by polyphonic-aftertouch allowing you to a fair amount of expression as a MIDI controller. EPS is useful for live performances because it has two processors. The one processor handles I/O while the other is responsible in keeping the audio running without interruption wherein you can load another sample while playing. EPS' sequence pages allows the user in defining sequences and songs and is depended on the order of instrument banks being loaded.

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Ensoniq Advanced Sampling Recorder

Between the year of 1992 and 1995, Ensoniq Advanced Sampling Recorder or ASR keyboard was produced by Ensoniq. The ASR-10 features a powerful and flexible effects unit, advanced MIDI sequencer, polyphonic aftertouch, a powerful multi-layered synthesis engine, and load while playing abilities in which the user is not anymore required with additional equipment or computer in creating a complete song. The machine has also included sampling and sequencing tutorials that covers many features. It also includes more esoteric effects such as vocoder and distortion and has 62 programmable effects available for use. An internal 96 pulse-per-quarter-note 16 track sequencer is also featured enabling the user to jump to sequences during live performances. It has 31 voice synthesis design resembling a synthesizer rather than a sampler. It also shipped with 2MiB of internal memory in its default format and can be expanded to 16MiB and featured with Sigma-Delta 64 times oversampling. ASR-10 has SCSI interface to connect to an external hard drive, and CD-ROMs and a 3.5 floppy disk drive capable of holding up to 1640K.

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