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Average rating:
4.4 out of 5
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The best synth you can program without knobs on it. Extremely user-friendly! Along with SCI Sixtrack and some other the only multitimbral synth of the 80ies with real analogue filters.
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This one is a very "sexy" synth. First of all, even unplugged, I love it because it looks eighties, and it's impressive the quality of construction of this synth. For instance, the modulation wheel is a delight to use, and it's important what you got under your fingers, I think it influences the way you play. The keyboard is my favorite one among all my synths. Of course, not so good to play Chopin, but fast, somewhat elastic, well sized, good for me !! But the most magnificent thing is the screen. Have you ever seen such an alien's screen ? In the night.....Oh my god ! The sequencer is a nice notepad, I was positively impressed by all the simple but professionnal features it has to offer. The multitimbralness is godsend, not to much to play your consumer's GM stuff, but rather to stack layers. The sound ain't extremely dynamic, and this synth tends to make dirty sounds sometimes, U don't really know why, even with halfway resonance or less... Anyway it allows a tremendous variety of experimentations, has a *lot* of modulations, and if U spend some time and energy, U will find jewels. This synth belongs to one of those disappeared species U don't really know a lot about, but when U hear'em screaming distorded sounds far away in the jungle cos' they've lost their family, U start crying too.
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I would say that this i a very good syntheziser indeed. This is a much better buy than an Juno-2 becuase it is eightvoice multitimbral(altough the synth itself has only eight vocies) It has no effect, the sound is a bit "dirty" but it is so good, easy to program and a very analouge sound. This is the synth that skinny puppy used om many track (think of the intro of testure) And Adamski used a lot on his first album. If you like hard electronic sounds (Electro/breakedance, Skinny puppy, Acid house, techno stuff) this is the synth for you.
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Yes, I recommend to buy one.
Pro's:
8 voice Multi Mode 3 DCO's, 4 ADSR's, 3 LFO's per voice Vast modulation routings, incl. panorama Same analogue filter chip as in Prophet VS Sync and Ring modulation Wonderful Pad sounds. If you add a Multi-FX you will beat any modern JD-/JV- etc. in this. Very easy to program. Immediate access to each page with its own button . Nice Keyboard feeling (similar to D-50; far better than cheap "modern" Keyboards) A lot of small details in the user interface you'd be astonished of and you'll miss in other synths afterwards ...
What are their architecture? What are the mod routing capabilities?
The ESQ/SQ80 have identical voice, filter , and processing/routing architecture. 8 voice polyphony. Three oscillators per voice. 5 stage envelopes and quite frankly mod and routes out the wazoo. They use curtis chips in the filters with resonance and cutoff, etc making for a nice warping of sound in a digital/analog type hybrid instrument. A gross generaliztaion of the sound would be to say it's grity and metallic but it can also do convincing sweeps and pads as well. Does good Moog too.
It uses 8 bit sampled waveforms which can be detuned, stacked, etc to create the overall voice. the usual Saw, sine, pulse,as well as 3 noise forms, pianos, synthforms, strings, winds, etc. It's forte is not in realistic acoustic instruments but in warped, fuckup synth versions of sounds. Splits, layers, and fully functional 8 track sequncers plus tons of midi stuff.
ESQ - Velocity keyboard (1-127) 30+ waveforms stereo outs (R is mono) Aftertouch via midi Sysex for saving sequences to a mirage sampler and patches to any ol' sysex beast a bank at a time.
... great for programming. There are 15 modulation sources, which can modulation things like filter resonance, panning, and so on. The LFOs can modulate each other or an LFO can modulate itself, this will give you and idea of what it can do.
.. a decent sequencer ... Full MIDI support as well. The OS is pretty decent, it has a big 80 character display like most of Ensoniq's stuff.
A beast in the programing department. Fat sounds. The large display and OS make it easy to program. Good for analog, PPG and Waldrorf type-sounds. Portamento and mono mode. 8-part multi-timbral.
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If you are into deep house and trippy deep dark music then check out this board Yes the preset are rubbish But what it can do...puts many more expensive and pretentious cringe get one before they become the next trendy piece of electro An incredible value as I picked up mine for $500 US. Ah I love a good synth... no more rave o matic crap...
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