Ensoniq Corp. was an American

electronics The field of electronics is a branch of physics and electrical engineering that deals with the emission, behaviour and effects of electrons using electronic devices. Electronics uses active devices to control electron flow by amplification ...

manufacturer, best known throughout the mid-1980s and 1990s for its

musical instrument A musical instrument is a device created or adapted to make musical sounds. In principle, any object that produces sound can be considered a musical instrument—it is through purpose that the object becomes a musical instrument. A person who pl ...

s, principally samplers and

synthesizer A synthesizer (also spelled synthesiser) is an electronic musical instrument that generates audio signals. Synthesizers typically create sounds by generating waveforms through methods including subtractive synthesis, additive synthesis and ...

Company history

In spring 1983, former

MOS Technology MOS Technology, Inc. ("MOS" being short for Metal Oxide Semiconductor), later known as CSG (Commodore Semiconductor Group) and GMT Microelectronics, was a semiconductor design and fabrication company based in Audubon, Pennsylvania. It is mo ...

engineers Robert "Bob" Yannes, Bruce Crockett, Charles Winterble, David Ziembicki, and Al Charpentier formed Peripheral Visions. The team had designed the

Commodore 64 The Commodore 64, also known as the C64, is an 8-bit home computer introduced in January 1982 by Commodore International (first shown at the Consumer Electronics Show, January 7–10, 1982, in Las Vegas). It has been listed in the Guinness ...

, and hoped to build another computer. To raise funds, Peripheral Visions agreed to build a computer keyboard for the

Atari 2600 The Atari 2600, initially branded as the Atari Video Computer System (Atari VCS) from its release until November 1982, is a home video game console developed and produced by Atari, Inc. Released in September 1977, it popularized microprocessor- ...

, but the

video game crash of 1983 The video game crash of 1983 (known as the Atari shock in Japan) was a large-scale recession in the video game industry that occurred from 1983 to 1985, primarily in the United States. The crash was attributed to several factors, including ma ...

canceled the project and Commodore sued the new company, claiming that it owned the keyboard project. Renaming itself as Ensoniq, the new company instead designed a music synthesizer. Ensoniq grew rapidly over the next few years with the success of the Mirage and the ESQ-1. The plant in Great Valley, Pennsylvania employed nearly 200 people and housed the manufacturing facility. A number of successful products followed which all included the full-custom ICs for music and effects which were developed in house. While the core keyboard products were generally successful, there were some quality problems and increasing competition from Asian companies. An attempt to diversify into hearing aids was unsuccessful and put the company in financial peril. In the mid-nineties, they developed a line of very cost-effective sound cards which sold millions of units. In January 1998, ENSONIQ Corp. was acquired by

Creative Technology Creative Technology Ltd. is a Singaporean multinational technology company headquartered with overseas offices in Shanghai, Tokyo, Dublin, and Silicon Valley (where in the US it is known as Creative Labs). The principal activities of the compa ...

Ltd. for $77 million. The acquisition was focused on the sound-card technology of the Ensoniq Audio-PCI. The musical products division, which was in financial trouble, was merged with

E-mu Systems E-mu Systems was a software synthesizer, audio interface, MIDI interface, and MIDI keyboard manufacturer. Founded in 1971 as a synthesizer maker, E-mu was a pioneer in samplers, sample-based drum machines and low-cost digital sampling musi ...

to form the E-Mu/Ensoniq division of Creative. Over the next three years the Ensoniq operation in Pennsylvania was gradually dismantled and shut down. After releasing an entry-level E-mu MK6/PK6 and Ensoniq Halo keyboards in 2002 – essentially keyboard versions of the Proteus 2500 module – the E-Mu/Ensoniq division was dissolved and support for legacy products was discontinued soon afterward.

Musical instruments and digital systems

Ensoniq entered the instrument market with the

Mirage A mirage is a naturally-occurring optical phenomenon in which light rays bend via refraction to produce a displaced image of distant objects or the sky. The word comes to English via the French ''(se) mirer'', from the Latin ''mirari'', meanin ...

sampling keyboard in 1985. At the price of

USD$ The United States dollar (symbol: $; code: USD; also abbreviated US$ or U.S. Dollar, to distinguish it from other dollar-denominated currencies; referred to as the dollar, U.S. dollar, American dollar, or colloquially buck) is the official ...

1695 it cost significantly less than previous samplers such as the

Fairlight CMI The Fairlight CMI (short for Computer Musical Instrument) is a digital synthesizer, sampler, and digital audio workstation introduced in 1979 by Fairlight. — with links to some Fairlight history and photos It was based on a commercial lic ...

and the

E-MU Emulator The Emulator is a series of digital sampling synthesizers using floppy disk storage, manufactured by E-mu Systems from 1981 until 2002. Though not the first commercial sampler, the Emulator was among the first to find wide use among ordinary m ...

. Starting with the ESQ-1, they began producing sample-based synthesizers. Following the success of these products, Ensoniq established a subsidiary in

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

in 1987. Ensoniq products were highly professional. Strong selling points were ease-of-use and their characteristic "fat", rich sound (generally thought of as being an "American" quality, as opposed to the "Japanese" sound which was more "digital" and somewhat "cold"). After the Mirage, all Ensoniq instruments featured integrated sequencers (even their late '80s and early '90s samplers) providing an all-in-one "digital studio production concept" instrument. These were often called "Music Workstations". Starting with the VFX synthesizer, high-quality effects units were included, in addition most synthesizer and all sampler models featured

disk drives Data storage is the recording (storing) of information (data) in a storage medium. Handwriting, phonographic recording, magnetic tape, and optical discs are all examples of storage media. Biological molecules such as RNA and DNA are conside ...

and/or

RAM Ram, ram, or RAM may refer to: Animals * A male sheep * Ram cichlid, a freshwater tropical fish People * Ram (given name) * Ram (surname) * Ram (director) (Ramsubramaniam), an Indian Tamil film director * RAM (musician) (born 1974), Dutch * Ra ...

cards for storage. The manuals and tutorial documents were clearly written and highly musician-oriented, allowing the users to quickly get satisfactory results from their machines. In 1988, the company enlisted the

Dixie Dregs The Dixie Dregs is an American rock band from Augusta, Georgia. Formed in 1970, the band's performance consists entirely of instrumentals that fuse elements of diverse genres such as rock, classical music, country, jazz and bluegrass into an ec ...

in a limited edition promotional CD '' Off the Record'' which featured the band using the EPS sampler and SQ-80 cross wave synthesizer. The company had much success with the SQ product line starting in the early 1990s. This was a lower-cost line that included the SQ-1 (61 keys), SQ-2 (76 keys) and SQ-R (rack-mounted, with no keys or sequencer), as well as KS-32 with full 76-keys weighted piano-keyboard. Later versions were produced with 32 sound-generating voices.

The company's heyday was in the early 1990s when the VFX synthesizers offered innovative performance and sequencing features (and terrific acoustic sounds), along with the ASR series of 16-bit samplers which also integrated synthesis, effects, and sequencer into a single-unit digital studio. The TS synthesizers followed the legacy of the VFX line, improving several aspects such as the

polyphony Polyphony ( ) is a type of musical texture consisting of two or more simultaneous lines of independent melody, as opposed to a musical texture with just one voice, monophony, or a texture with one dominant melodic voice accompanied by chords, h ...

, effects engine, sample-loading capabilities and even better synth and acoustic sounds. The DP series of effects rack-mount units offered parallel processing and

reverb Reverberation (also known as reverb), in acoustics, is a persistence of sound, after a sound is produced. Reverberation is created when a sound or signal is reflected causing numerous reflections to build up and then decay as the sound is abso ...

presets on a par with Lexicon's offerings, but at affordable prices.

Despite these strengths, early (1980s) Ensoniq instruments suffered from reliability and quality problems such as bad keyboards (Mirage DSK-8), under-developed power-supply units (early ESQ-1), or mechanical issues (EPS polypressure keyboard). Through the early and mid-1990s, much effort was focused on improving the reliability of the products. The company didn't manage to reinvent its workstation concept in order to survive the mid and late '90s, and no lower-budget versions of their keyboards were offered to replace the aging SQ line. Excellent synthesizers like the VFX or TS models lacked cheaper rack-mount counterparts. Finally, while the competition's products were continually evolving and newer technologies such as physical modeling were introduced, Ensoniq failed to follow the late '90s market orientation, often recycling old concepts on their new products. During this time, much of the engineering effort and company resources were focused on computer sound cards, which offered more profit for the company.

Timeline of major products

* 1984 – Ensoniq Pro-Cussion * 1985 –

Ensoniq Mirage The Ensoniq Mirage is one of the earliest affordable sampler-synths, introduced in 1984 as Ensoniq's first product. Introduced at a list price of $1,695 with features previously only found on more expensive samplers like the Fairlight CMI, the M ...

* 1986 –

Ensoniq ESQ-1 Ensoniq ESQ-1 is a 61-key, velocity sensitive, eight-note polyphony (instrument), polyphonic and multitimbral synthesizer released by Ensoniq in 1985. It was marketed as a "digital wave synthesizer" but was an early Music Workstation. Although it ...

* 1986 – Ensoniq SDP-1 Sampled Digital Piano * 1988 –

Ensoniq SQ-80 The Ensoniq SQ-80 is a digital/analog synthesizer manufactured from 1987 to 1989. It was Ensoniq's update to its first synth, the Ensoniq ESQ-1. Compared to the ESQ-1, the SQ-80 includes 43 additional waveforms (including five drumkits), an enhanc ...

* 1988 –

Ensoniq EPS The EPS (Ensoniq Performance Sampler) was one of the first few affordable samplers on the market. It was manufactured from 1988 to 1991 by Ensoniq in Malvern, Pennsylvania, USA. The EPS is a 13-bit sampler and replaced the Mirage - widely re ...

* 1989 – Ensoniq EPS-M * 1989 –

Ensoniq VFX The Ensoniq VFX Synth was initially released as a performance type synthesizer in 1989. It was soon followed by the release of the VFX-SD, which included some updated waveforms (drum waves), a 24-track sequencer and a floppy drive. Both models ...

* 1989 – Ensoniq VFX-SD * 1990 – Ensoniq SQ-1 * 1990 – Ensoniq SQ-R * 1990 – Ensoniq EPS 16 Plus * 1990 –

Ensoniq SD-1 Ensoniq Corp. was an American electronics manufacturer, best known throughout the mid-1980s and 1990s for its musical instruments, principally samplers and synthesizers. Company history In spring 1983, former MOS Technology engineers Rob ...

* 1991 – Ensoniq SQ-R+ * 1991 – Ensoniq SQ-1+ * 1991 – Ensoniq SQ-2 * 1992 – Ensoniq SQ-1+ 32 voice * 1992 – Ensoniq SQ-2 32 voice * 1992 – Ensoniq SQ-R+ 32-voice * 1992 – Ensoniq KS-32

* 1992 –

Ensoniq ASR-10 The Ensoniq ASR-10 was a sampling keyboard produced by Ensoniq between 1992 and 1998. The ASR-10 was a follow up product to the very popular Ensoniq EPS and Ensoniq EPS-16+ performance samplers, and was also available with a piano style weigh ...

* 1992 –

Ensoniq TS-10 The Ensoniq TS-10 was a synthesizer and music workstation introduced by Ensoniq in 1993. It provided synthesis, user sample playback, sequencer, effect units and performance facilities in a 61-key package. Another version, the TS-12, had the sam ...

and TS-12 * 1993 – Ensoniq DP/4 * 1995 – Ensoniq DP/2 * 1995 – Ensoniq DP/4+ * 1996 –

Ensoniq MR61 The Ensoniq MR61 is a 61-key music workstation synthesizer that Ensoniq released in 1996. It features a 16-track sequencer, digital effects, and several hundred onboard sounds or patches. This music workstation got rid of some previous classic ...

* 1996 – Ensoniq KT-76 Ensoniq KT-88 * 1997 –

Ensoniq ASR X Ensoniq Corp. was an American electronics manufacturer, best known throughout the mid-1980s and 1990s for its musical instruments, principally samplers and synthesizers. Company history In spring 1983, former MOS Technology engineers Rob ...

* 1997 – Ensoniq DP/Pro * 1997 –

Ensoniq E Prime Ensoniq Corp. was an American electronics manufacturer, best known throughout the mid-1980s and 1990s for its musical instruments, principally samplers and synthesizers. Company history In spring 1983, former MOS Technology engineers Rob ...

* 1998 –

Ensoniq Fizmo The Ensoniq Fizmo was Ensoniq's last attempt at creating the perfect synthesizer. Developed in 1998, the Fizmo uses a Digital Acoustic simulation Transwave with 4 MB of ROM, up to four voices per preset, each voice with two oscillators, independe ...

* 1998 – Ensoniq ZR-76 * 1998 – Ensoniq ASR X Pro * 1998 – Ensoniq PARIS Digital Audio Workstation * 2002 –

Ensoniq Halo Ensoniq Corp. was an American electronics manufacturer, best known throughout the mid-1980s and 1990s for its musical instruments, principally samplers and synthesizers. Company history In spring 1983, former MOS Technology engineers Rober ...

(E-mu product using Ensoniq brand)

Sound cards and semiconductors

In 1986, after making an agreement with

Apple Computer Apple Inc. is an American multinational technology company headquartered in Cupertino, California, United States. Apple is the largest technology company by revenue (totaling in 2021) and, as of June 2022, is the world's biggest company b ...

, the same ES5503 DOC (Digital Oscillator Chip, marketed as "Q-Chip") used in the Mirage sampler (DSK-8, DSK-1, DMS-1), ESQ-1, ESQ-M and SQ-80 synthesizers, and SDP-1 piano module, was incorporated into the Apple IIGS personal computer. Later engines, with 16-bit sample playback and internal digital filters, were ES5504 DOC-II (used in the EPS sampler) and ES5505 OTIS (used in the EPS16+ sampler and the VFX line of synthesizers featuring 21 voices). Finally, ES5506 OTTO drove all subsequent 32-voice machines (SD-1/32, TS10/12, ASR-10/88) and the dual-OTTO machines (KT, MR, ZR). The latest incarnation, ES5548 OTTO-48, was used in the final line of Ensoniq studio products (ASR-X, FIZMO). Ensoniq also developed an effects DSP, ES5510 ESP, that was used in the machines from VFX on and the standalone FX units DP/2 and DP/4. OTTO-48 generation uses its greatly enhanced successor, ES5511 ESP V2. A combination of OTTO and ESP, ES5540 OTTOFX, was also developed and sold. The Ensoniq ES5505 OTIS/OTISR2, and ES5510 ESP (Ensoniq Signal Processor) were also used in various

arcade games An arcade game or coin-op game is a coin-operated entertainment machine typically installed in public businesses such as restaurants, bars and amusement arcades. Most arcade games are presented as primarily games of skill and include arcade v ...

. They were all manufactured on the

CMOS Complementary metal–oxide–semiconductor (CMOS, pronounced "sea-moss", ) is a type of metal–oxide–semiconductor field-effect transistor (MOSFET) fabrication process that uses complementary and symmetrical pairs of p-type and n-type MOSFE ...

process. OTTO was licensed to Advanced Gravis for use in the Gravis Ultrasound card. In 1994, production began on PC sound cards for home computers. The design of the video-game console

Atari Panther The Atari Panther was a cancelled video game console from Atari Corporation that was planned to be the successor to the Atari 7800 and the Atari XEGS. It was developed by the same ex-Sinclair team, Flare Technology, who were previously respons ...

also included the OTIS chip, though the product never reached series production. A dedicated version of OTTO, ES5530/35 OPUS, was developed for AT-bus sound cards, featuring built-in joystick and CD-ROM interface. Ensoniq's sound cards were popular and shipped with many IBM PC compatibles. Almost every newer

MS-DOS MS-DOS ( ; acronym for Microsoft Disk Operating System, also known as Microsoft DOS) is an operating system for x86-based personal computers mostly developed by Microsoft. Collectively, MS-DOS, its rebranding as IBM PC DOS, and a few ope ...

-era game supported the Ensoniq Soundscape either directly or through

General MIDI General MIDI (also known as GM or GM 1) is a standardized specification for electronic musical instruments that respond to MIDI messages. GM was developed by the American MIDI Manufacturers Association (MMA) and the Japan MIDI Standards Committ ...

. In addition, Ensoniq devised an

ISA Isa or ISA may refer to: Places * Isa, Amur Oblast, Russia * Isa, Kagoshima, Japan * Isa, Nigeria * Isa District, Kagoshima, former district in Japan * Isa Town, middle class town located in Bahrain * Mount Isa, Queensland, Australia * Mount Is ...

software audio emulation solution for their new

PCI PCI may refer to: Business and economics * Payment card industry, businesses associated with debit, credit, and other payment cards ** Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard, a set of security requirements for credit card processors * Pro ...

sound cards that was compatible with most IBM PC games. It is speculated that this was an important factor in Creative Lab's acquisition of Ensoniq, because Creative/E-MU was struggling with legacy compatibility at the time with their higher-performance PCI audio solutions. According to one source, because of the wide range of patents Ensoniq had involving PCI-bus support for the sound cards, and the fact that Ensoniq wanted E-MU's technologies, the buyout of Ensoniq became the best of both worlds.

Soundscape

* Ensoniq Soundscape S-2000 The original Soundscape was Ensoniq's first direct foray into the PC

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 i ...

market. It was a full-length

digital audio and ' wavetable'

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 i ...

audio card, equipped with a 2 MB Ensoniq-built

ROM Rom, or ROM may refer to: Biomechanics and medicine * Risk of mortality, a medical classification to estimate the likelihood of death for a patient * Rupture of membranes, a term used during pregnancy to describe a rupture of the amniotic sac * R ...

-based patch set. * Ensoniq SoundscapeDB The SSDB was a ' wavetable'

daughterboard In computing, an expansion card (also called an expansion board, adapter card, peripheral card or accessory card) is a printed circuit board that can be inserted into an electrical connector, or expansion slot (also referred to as a bus slo ...

(

daughterboard) upgrade for PCs with a sound card bearing a Wave Blaster-compatible connector. It was based upon the S-2000 chipset but was without the digital sound effects section or any DAC. The SSDB would use the host sound card for final output.

Ensoniq Soundscape Elite The Soundscape Elite was Ensoniq's high-end Industry Standard Architecture, ISA PC sound card offering. It offers the highest MIDI quality of any PC sound card Ensoniq produced. The board is an evolution of the company's previous Ensoniq Soundsca ...

was Ensoniq's high-end

offering. It offered the highest MIDI quality of any PC sound card they ever made, including the newer AudioPCI. The Elite was based mostly around the S-2000, with some additional features that set it far apart from its progenitor.

Ensoniq Soundscape OPUS The Ensoniq Soundscape OPUS (SS-3016-NCD) is a Gateway 2000 OEM sound card, and possibly was used by other OEMs, but was never sold to Ensoniq's customers directly. It was a Soundscape-like board, using the Ensoniq "OPUS" multimedia sound chip th ...

This card was a

Gateway 2000 Gateway, Inc., previously Gateway 2000, is an American computer hardware company. The company developed, manufactured, supported, and marketed a wide range of personal computers, computer monitors, servers, and computer accessories. It was acq ...

OEM An original equipment manufacturer (OEM) is generally perceived as a company that produces non-aftermarket parts and equipment that may be marketed by another manufacturer. It is a common industry term recognized and used by many professional or ...

, and possibly was used by other OEMs, but was never sold to Ensoniq's customers directly. It was a Soundscape-like board, using the Ensoniq 5530/5535 OPUS multimedia sound chip, a chip that was only used on these OEM boards and essentially comprises an OTTO with back-then usual additional interfacing (Joystick, CD-ROM). * Ensoniq Soundscape VIVO90 was Ensoniq's generational step forward from the Ensoniq Soundscape S-2000-based boards. It was first produced in 1996. VIVO90 had similar specifications to the older boards, but was built to cost less to manufacture.

AudioPCI

Ensoniq AudioPCI The Ensoniq AudioPCI is a PCI-based sound card released in 1997. It was Ensoniq's last sound card product before they were acquired by Creative Technology. The card represented a shift in Ensoniq's market positioning. Whereas the Soundscape line ...

The AudioPCI was designed to be a low-cost, yet feature-rich audio solution, which could be integrated on computer motherboards as a value-added option. It consisted of little more than a small, host CPU driven audio chip (one of the following: S5016, ES1370, ES1371) and a companion DAC. Despite its small size and low cost, AudioPCI still offers nearly all of the audio capabilities and functionality of the Soundscape ELITE card. The AudioPCI line used an NMI-based emulation TSR program Ensoniq developed to provide a reasonable level of legacy DOS compatibility without requiring any signals from the ISA bus, though the TSR could cause problems with games that relied on custom flavors of

protected mode In computing, protected mode, also called protected virtual address mode, is an operational mode of x86-compatible central processing units (CPUs). It allows system software to use features such as virtual memory, paging and safe multi-tasking d ...

References

* Ensoniq Corp., Dixie Dregs, "Off the Record", ENS-1000, 1988. * Case, Loyd. "In Search Of The Ultimate... Sound Card." Computer Gaming World Dec. 1994: 138-148. * Ensoniq Corp. Soundscape S-2000 Manual, Ensoniq, 1994.
"Ensoniq Corp. Web Site"
by Ensoniq Corp., Multimedia Division Product Information and Support Pages, 1998, retrieved December 25, 2005

by Ensoniq Corp., Multimedia Division Product Information and Support Pages, 1997, retrieved December 27, 2005 * Prince, Bobby. "In Search Of The Ultimate... Wavetable Daughtercard." Computer Gaming World Dec. 1994: 156-164. * Weksler, Mike & McGee, Joe. "CGW Sound Card Survey." Computer Gaming World Oct. 1993: 76-84.

External links

Creative Labs : Home Page

E-MU / Ensoniq home page

Ensoniq in the Internet Archive 2/14/1998

Ensoniq AudioPCI S5016 User Manual

Archive of Ensoniq manuals at SynthManuals.com
{{Authority control Synthesizer manufacturing companies of the United States Sound cards Creative Technology acquisitions 1998 mergers and acquisitions Sound chips