From legion@netaxs.comWed May 17 13:13:38 1995 Date: Fri, 12 May 1995 15:17:15 -0400 (EDT) From: Legion To: jeanniel@merle.acns.nwu.edu Cc: AnAlOgUe HeAvEn Subject: Re: differences between ESQ1 and SQ80? On Fri, 12 May 1995 jeanniel@merle.acns.nwu.edu wrote: > What are the differences between Ensonic ESQ1 and SQ80? > What are their architecture? What are the mod routing capabilities? More appropriate for Electronica Mikey but here goes: 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. Differences: 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. SQ80 - Velocity and Aftertouch keyboard 70+ waveforms Stereo outs (R is mono, L is headphone) Sysex for everything Built in disk drive for storing sounds, banks, and sequences. additional velocity settings on keyboard. This disk drive is the main thing as the waveforms are nice but you can do pretty much everything soundwise with the ESQ that you can do with the SQ80. hope that helps From pgl@draco.bison.mb.caWed May 17 13:14:02 1995 Date: Fri, 12 May 1995 16:02:18 -35900 From: Paul Linton To: jeanniel@merle.acns.nwu.edu Cc: AnAlOgUe HeAvEn Subject: Re: differences between ESQ1 and SQ80? I've had an SQ-80 for a couple of years now. I'll give you the run down: Keyboard - 61 note weighted-action keyboard with velocity and polyphonic aftertouch - Programmable split point - Sound layering on either or both halves of keyboard - Polyphonic or mono glide (ie. portamento) Voice architecture - 8-voice polytimbral - 3 Oscillators per voice (8-bit digital waves) - Hard sync and Ring (AM) modulation - 3 LFOs per voice (Saw, Triangle, Square, and Random) - 4 EGs (Complex ADSRs with simulated reverb and velocity modulation) - Programable panning - 4-pole low-pass analog filter with variable resonance - 15 modulation sources similar to matrix modulation There are 75 multi-sampled and synthetic waveform, transient attacks and inharmonic loops. They range from standard analog waves like triangle, sine, and pulse (no PWM though) to piano, voice, formant waves, strings, etc. None of the acoustic samples are very realistic. They do provide interesting harmonics for strange sounds, though. Also there's the transient attack waves like pluck, bowing and so on. You use these with the regular waveforms for a type of L/A synthesis. The ESQ-1 is basically the same machine, except that it doesn't have aftertouch on the keyboard, a disk drive, MIDI thru, and it has only 32 digtal waveforms. Both machines are 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. They both have a decent sequencer (for their time). Full MIDI support as well. The OS is pretty decent, it has a big 80 character display like most of Ensoniq's stuff. Pros: A beast in the programing department. Fat sounds (although it's tough to get beefy Moog-style bass out if it). 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. Cons: The SQ-80's keyboard is pretty bad, IMO. The digital waves are a tad rough sounding so it's hard to get silky smooth pads for example. No unison mode (tough to do with this kind of synth). Only one stereo out. If you can get an SQ-80 for a good price (around $400, I s'pose) check it out. If you've got any specific questions, let me know. /\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\ \"If you alter the Cutoff Frequency Knob while the Resonance Knob is set / / to a high level, you can create a type of sound that is attainable only\ \ from a synthesizer." -- Roland Juno-106 Owner's Manual / \/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/