Ensoniq ES-5506 OTTO sound chip with 32 voice wavetable oscillator

The Ensoniq ES-5506 "OTTO" is a chip used in implementations of

sample-based synthesis Sample-based synthesis is a form of audio synthesis that can be contrasted to either subtractive synthesis or additive synthesis. The principal difference with sample-based synthesis is that the seed waveforms are sampled sounds or instruments ...

. Musical instruments and

IBM PC compatible IBM PC compatible computers are similar to the original IBM Personal Computer, IBM PC, IBM Personal Computer XT, XT, and IBM Personal Computer/AT, AT, all from computer giant IBM, that are able to use the same software and expansion cards. Such ...

sound card A sound card (also known as an audio card) is an internal expansion card that provides input and output of audio signals to and from a computer under the control of computer programs. The term ''sound card'' is also applied to external audio ...

s were the most popular applications. OTTO is capable of altering the pitch and

timbre In music, timbre ( ), also known as tone color or tone quality (from psychoacoustics), is the perceived sound quality of a musical note, sound or tone. Timbre distinguishes different types of sound production, such as choir voices and musica ...

of a digital recording and is capable of operating with up to 32 channels at once. Each channel can have several parameters altered, such as pitch, volume, waveform, and filtering. The chip is a

VLSI Very large-scale integration (VLSI) is the process of creating an integrated circuit (IC) by combining millions or billions of MOS transistors onto a single chip. VLSI began in the 1970s when MOS integrated circuit (Metal Oxide Semiconductor) ...

device designed to be manufactured on a 1.5 micrometre double-metal CMOS process. It consists of approximately 80,000

transistor upright=1.4, gate (G), body (B), source (S) and drain (D) terminals. The gate is separated from the body by an insulating layer (pink). A transistor is a semiconductor device used to Electronic amplifier, amplify or electronic switch, switch ...

s. It was part of the fourth generation of Ensoniq audio technology.

Major features

* Real-time digital filters * Frequency interpolation * 32 independent voices * Loop start and stop positions for each voice (bidirectional and reverse looping) * Motorola 68000 compatibility for asynchronous bus communication * Separate host and sound memory interface * At least 18-bit accuracy * 6-channel stereo serial communication port * Programmable clocks for defining a serial protocol * Internal volume multiplication and stereo panning * ADC input for pots and wheels * Hardware support for envelopes * Support for dual OTTO systems * Optional compressed data format for sample data * Up to 16 MHz operation

Implementations

* Taito Cybercore/F3 System * Seta SSV System * Ensoniq TS10/TS12 Synthesizers * Ensoniq Soundscape S-2000 * Ensoniq Soundscape Elite * Ensoniq SoundscapeDB daughterboard * Gravis Ultrasound Gravis GF1 chip (Ensoniq based)
Westacott Organs
DRE (Digital Rank Emulator) * Boom Theory Corp 0.0 Drum Module Interface

References

* {{Creative Technology Sound chips Sound cards