In technical matters, the engineers at Ensoniq should take some more lessons on the topic "powersupply and its consequences" My original wal wart died just 10 days after I had bought the machine. I didn´t really wonder about it as this tiny thing would apparently never be able to deliver 1000mA at 9VAC... Ok, I immediately got a sparepart on guarantee, still I decided to look for a fitting powersupply that would really get the job done and ended up in a small store, where I found the SNES powersupply (all long before the first comments on this were to be found on the internet...!) Using this powersupply my Fizmo worked properly for a year and a few weeks, then suddenly dying a strange death. After switching it on, it only showed ESP, rebooting and crashed without being touched several times in a row, then staying completey dead. Taking it to the store, I first had to hear, that Ensoniq´s been taken over by EMU, so "it might take a bit longer than usual", so they said. UAAAHHHH, shit, this always is my way of fortune, I thought. Well, this was november 2000, and I´m still waiting for my machine to come back to me. The technican told me, there´s a problem as wether Ensoniq nor EMU or anyone else has the neccessary circuitry plans for this synth, those plans seem to be non-existant at all!!! Well, I´m deeply disappointed by the support of EMU/Ensoniq and really pissed by their incompetence. Now, as I do no longer want to wait for my favourite Leadsynth I decided to get a second-hand rackmount Fizmo. But this time I´m going to modify the internal power stabilizer before I´m going to do any long-run editing.

As the all weird support at EMU/Ensoniq has nothing to do with the concept or the sound of the Fizmo, I rate it as follows: 5/5 for sound, concept and the keyboard itself, but 3/5 for the tech specs, as one extra output pair had been nice and the poor wal wart... This makes it four points.

P.S.: if anyone knows about the electrical interior, circuitry plans for the Fizmo, please mail to me!

just bought on efizmo - really cool, but i read all this stuff about its power supply, i don´t want my new friend to be burnt ! what do i have to do, i´m a really technical fool, don´t how to fix that problem, do i have to open my fizmo? well anybody out there, who can give me some advice? thanks !

I own many synths from the venerable all digital Yamaha DX-7, to the TG33 Vector synth, Roland XP50 with Session, techno and vintage wave cards, EPS16+ sampler, Vaz Modular PC based synth etc etc so I think I should be able to give a comprehensive review.

Most people are disapointed with the FIzmo the first time they try it: "Where are the organs? The strings? The tb303 patches? And how come there are only five knobs when brand x synth has 100?". Usually you hear this from the ignorant who just walk up and expect another sample-playback workstation. This is a SYNTHESIZER, it is true to the artistry of creative, evocative, surreal and miasmatic sounds. No synths come close, it's phatness and expressiveness can rival any analog modeler and then the control offered is succint and can modulate sounds and effects to such precision it will make you pee your pants.

There are 5 knobs F-I-Z-M-O. They are *not* "programming" knobs. You do not compare this synth to the 8000 Roland series or other 100 knob synth. These knobs are real time controller knobs. Do they work? You can modulate one sound so much it becomes another that is unrecognizable from the first. If you try to do that with another analog modeler you lose the first sound you were playing. The Fizmo is still in the game, easy to revert back to the inital sound. The sound engine uses transwaves, much like the wavestation or PPG synths did back in the day. Unlike those synths you can modulate the loop start and end points, even in real time creating truyely evocative sounds for the film, sountrack, techno, ambient, and goth crowd.

The basses are pretty weak, but basses are usually simple static waves of short duration. This is not the function of transwaves, you don't buy it for organs, horns, pianos etc. It is not a sample playback unit for those who never program their synths. Roll up your sleeves and use the Sound driver PC application included with the synth to program sounds and you have a palette that is incredible, yet unfortunately unheard on most major label releases as of yet, but so was the TB303.