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Average rating:
4.4 out of 5
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I bought an ESQ1 about 2 years ago as my first synth.Little did i know the ability of it.I have countless other synths but i always seem to throw the ESQ1 in the mix.If anyone wants a great,sturdy,and trustworthy workstation give it a shot.Over all it was the best $170 i ever spent.
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The CEM 3379 signal processor chips Matrix mentions in his review are also found on the SCI Prophet VS. Also like the Prophet VS, the ESQ-1 has no anti-aliasing filters for the digital waveforms and the 3379 signal processor chip is connected to the circuit in a similar way to the Prophet's circuit. So, you can get nasty aliasing sounds similar to the VS plus, you have the same resonant filters as the VS, so the ESQ-1's sound is very similar. If Trent Reznor is reading this, he would be probably pleased to know that the ESQ-1 is pretty much a Prophet VS with the architecture of a minimoog (no vectors, but some crazy modulation routings). The ESQ-1 was also used a lot by Skinny Puppy.
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This thing sound haunted. Can be very dark and ethereal. If I were making goth\industrial this would be my synth. It also sound surprisingly similar to Oberheim synths of its time, probably because it used some of the same Curtis chips as the Oberheim synths. See below. Definitely in the same vein, but it has a character of it's own. It sounds very analog, but it uses various waveforms as oscillator sources. You get saw, bell, sine, sqaure, pulse, noise 1, noise 2, noise 3, bass, piano, electric piano, voice 1, voice 2, kick, reed, organ, synth 1, synth 2, synth 3, formant 1, formant 2, formant 3, formant 4, formant 5, pulse 2, square 2, 4 octave 5, prime, bass 2, electric piano 2, octave, and octave +5. <br><br> Chips:<br><br>
8 CEM3379 VC Signal Processor <br> 1 CEM3360 Dual VCA (same as OB8, OBXA, and OBSX)<br><br> I actually think the ESQ1 sounds a bit more like a Matrix-6 than and OBXA, even though the Matrix-6 used the CEM3396 chips. Regardless, I find the ESQ1 to be a very dark, lush, and ethereal synth. Very nice and very unique. I swear the thing is haunted.
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My buddy has one at his house right now...it's his uncle's and he's "borrowing" it for a while. My friend had several sequences on it, hip-hop type stuff. It actually puts out an outstanding amount of bass if you know how to do it right, like he does. But that's not what impressed me.
I found this card, I don't know if this was his uncle's work or if it was some factory preset card, but there was this sound called "seagulls"...heh heh...it made this weird sound like a cheezy 80's synthesized ocean sound. Now my friend doesn't know about programming the voices themselves, so I took this sound and detuned the main oscillator WAY down, then I added a tremolo-type LFO to it and took the other two sound which I think were sine waves and I changed them to one of the noise oscillators. Oh MY GAWD...it was wicked my friend started freaking out. He jumped when the sound escaped from the amp. :)
This thing makes GREAT pad and industrial sounds... also w/ those LFO's you can make some awesome "hazy" (slow, "detuning" LFO) sounds, especially nice on medium-pitch saw waves. Also good for Stabbing Westward/Nine Inch Nails - type ditties. Think 80's oldskool, but with some ahead-of-its time capabilities. I don't have one yet but I will get one ASAP.
Oh yeah and stop complaining about the absence of hi-hat...if you put a little amount of time into and do some hi-pitched noise oscillators coupled with little "ticks" then you should be able to make some...and pretty trippy ones at that.
Overall phat synth.
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I love my ESQ-1 no matter what anyone into bashing Ensoniq may say... This synth is one mean machine!!! First off, it is a sturdy, Terminator type of construction that is nice & sloid/heavy. So you know its not gonna break if some frat/drunk(sic) slams into it at a gig... I have a flight case for mine too cause Iam touchy about dust & spills when I am not plugged in... The Patch editing on this thing is pretty darn amazing. I mean you have 3 osc per voice & lots of waveforms & a shedload of mod routing possibilities... If you know how to program a synth patch, this sucker will surprise you with the endless amount offuturistic soundz you can come up with. Even though I have my PC pretty well tweaked with every type of synth patch & wav you can imagine-- Istill like to spend 1 or 2 nights a month programming new patches on my ESQ-1 because of the unique sonudz I get on there... Its great for weird/experimental/industrial or even your raver/techno accents/pads... I love it & I would poke out my freakin' eyes before i would ever part with mine...I will buy another one someday, too. You can store 120 patches at a time on there & then just bulk send it to a PC librarian program to save the banks while you program some new patches...This synth is a beast if you get to know its elaborate voice architecture... If you are into a powerful sound, this mother can be pretty handy. Anyone looking for a Download-y/Puppy-esque type sound could do alot worse than this sucker... Its built like a tank, too as I said. For 300-350 smackers--it friggin' rules!!!!!! Dont hate me if you disagree, I just calls it like I sees it, pal...Oh, yeah, i have a Mirage too although i'm not as psyched about it... Its strictly for experimental/industral (my faves!) IMHO....Later Days, synth cadets & ivory ticklers & all you other hackers...
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