Ensoniq ESQ1 product placement

[Dave Weiser]

...At the very end of the best 80s action movie that never was, Kung Fury. The easter egg is at 28:40, but I urge everyone to watch the whole thing - it's only a half hour and it's a freaking masterpiece.

 

 

 

[Delaware Dave]

my favorite k/bs were Ensoniq; had the troublesome VFX; also the SD1-32 and TS-12.  Best user interface on the planet.  I wish they'd remake the k/b's with updated sounds ....

 

[Radagast]

I had both the ESQ-1, then later the SQ-80.  It was interesting what could be done with low-fi single cycle waves, especially the multi-sampled single cycle piano waves.  The Poly AT on the SQ-80 was a lot of fun.

[ProfD]

1 hour ago, Delaware Dave said:

had the troublesome VFX

Same here. 

 

The Ensoniq VFX-SD was a very cool  KB until the power supply got hot. 

 

As a gigging muso, the VFX-SD was too flaky so I unloaded it. 

 

I'd use their synths and samplers in studios but that VFX-SD experience kept me from buying a brand new Ensoniq.

 

Also, it didn't help that some Ensoniq samplers would crash in the middle of a session or a gig too. 😁😎

[Steve Nathan]

I was up in my attic yesterday looking for something else and saw that I have a Mirage up there!!

[Delaware Dave]

20 minutes ago, Steve Nathan said:

I was up in my attic yesterday looking for something else and saw that I have a Mirage up there!!

Ha!

 

34 minutes ago, ProfD said:

Same here. 

 

The Ensoniq VFX-SD was a very cool  KB until the power supply got hot. 

 

As a gigging muso, the VFX-SD was too flaky so I unloaded it. 

 

I'd use their synths and samplers in studios but that VFX-SD experience kept me from buying a brand new Ensoniq.

 

Also, it didn't help that some Ensoniq samplers would crash in the middle of a session or a gig too. 😁😎

 

Mine never overheated, it was the solder flux issue when they stopped using lead solder.  They sent a tech (Denny Edwards) out to my gig so that he could see it when it happened.  Happened the first show he showed up to, so he saw the issue first hand.  Talk about customer support.  Nice that they were in Malvern and I happened to be gigging at a club about 15 minutes from their headquarters.  I could hand deliver the keyboard to the mfg site and pick it up after work.  Now, I don't even know where to find a tech.....

[mate stubb]

I used to really like my ESQ-1. As a bonus, you could anchor small yachts with one.

[Bobbo Fett]

Still have an SD-1. Used to use the sequencer all the time, but now the floppy drive has bit the dust, so no more fun there. Really good sounds for the era though....

[Konnector]

14 minutes ago, Bobbo Fett said:

Still have an SD-1. Used to use the sequencer all the time, but now the floppy drive has bit the dust, so no more fun there. Really good sounds for the era though....

 

Get a Gotek USB floppy drive emulator with an OLED display.  They're under $100.00, and no more fussing about with floppies. I'm not an electonics tech by any means, but I recently bought one for an old Akai sampler I had with a dead floppy drive. Took me a couple of hours to install. Works great, and one USB stick will hold 1000's of patches. Get one that's already configured to work with an SD-1, so that all you have to do is install it.

[ProfD]

5 minutes ago, Konnector said:

Get a Gotek USB floppy drive emulator with an OLED display. 

Agreed.

 

Hopefully, those floppy disks containing useful data can be imaged and saved to computer.

 

Of course, floppy disk imaging requires a file conversion program and a floppy disk drive.

 

Then, the question becomes how important is to keep those sounds from the 1980s/1990s. YMMV.🤣😎

[Konnector]

17 minutes ago, ProfD said:

Agreed.

 

Hopefully, those floppy disks containing useful data can be imaged and saved to computer.

 

Of course, floppy disk imaging requires a file conversion program and a floppy disk drive.

 

Then, the question becomes how important is to keep those sounds from the 1980s/1990s. YMMV.🤣😎

The other way to look at it is that for little $ and time it turns a former boat anchor into a fully working unit with a nice data storage upgrade that can now be sold quite easily. 

[ProfD]

40 minutes ago, Konnector said:

The other way to look at it is that for little $ and time it turns a former boat anchor into a fully working unit with a nice data storage upgrade that can now be sold quite easily. 

Absolutely.

 

The Gotek USB drive definitely increases the sale value of an old hardware KB. 

 

Including a formatted USB stick with disk images seals the deal.😁😎

[Bobbo Fett]

3 hours ago, Konnector said:

 

Get a Gotek USB floppy drive emulator with an OLED display.  They're under $100.00, and no more fussing about with floppies. I'm not an electonics tech by any means, but I recently bought one for an old Akai sampler I had with a dead floppy drive. Took me a couple of hours to install. Works great, and one USB stick will hold 1000's of patches. Get one that's already configured to work with an SD-1, so that all you have to do is install it.

This looks cool! Guess I'd still have to figure out how to load the sequencer.....

[Franz Schiller]

That's the most amazing movie I have ever seen in my entire life. It's almost unwatchably good.

[dazzjazz]

One of my most embarrassing moments on stage was using a rack mount Ensoniq ASR-10 sampler. The moment was:

 

1. With a major Australian artist

2. in a large venue

3. during a tender ballad

4. with my parents in the audience

 

I was about to creep in halfway through the first verse with strings. Unknown to me, the Ensoniq had crashed.  Instead of a subtle entrance, I treated everyone to an ear splitting orchestral boom. So, it was still playable, but volume control was not possible.  
 

I have gotten over it but it wasn’t fun. This forms part of my reticence to ever use something like Mainstage on a gig. No frickin’ way!

[dazzjazz]

On 4/5/2023 at 2:04 AM, mate stubb said:

I used to really like my ESQ-1. As a bonus, you could anchor small yachts with one.

Yes, certain old keyboards make very good artificial reefs. 

[Justin Havu]

On 4/4/2023 at 5:13 PM, Bobbo Fett said:

This looks cool! Guess I'd still have to figure out how to load the sequencer.....

I've still got a disk drive in my VFX-SD.  Can't load the sequencer OS via SysEX (Can't find it anywhere) so I'll need to source an original disk.

[EscapeRocks]

On 4/4/2023 at 11:04 AM, mate stubb said:

I used to really like my ESQ-1. As a bonus, you could anchor small yachts with one.

I could anchor the entire 7th fleet with my old KS-32.

[Justin Havu]

Anything can be anchored with a KS-32 .

[Tom Williams]

I still wish Kurzweil would add polyphonic portamento in the style of the EPS.   That and quantizable loop point modulation ("transwaves") would be an awesome addition to VAST.

[Lady Gaia]

I sold my E-mu EMAX for an EPS in a heartbeat back when they first came out.  Sure, I gave up the analog filtering I'd eventually want back when I could afford more options, but with only a single keyboard the flexibility and usability of the Ensoniq was unparalleled.

[Tusker]

On 4/4/2023 at 1:59 PM, ProfD said:

 

Then, the question becomes how important is to keep those sounds from the 1980s/1990s. YMMV.🤣😎

Yes, it is personal isn’t it? When you have developed a relationship with the original hardware, there really is no substitute. And the Ensoniq’s I have played are quirky and unique. 

 

But if all we want is those 80s sounds, then it would seem that autosampling and then flying the samples into a sampling workstation would create a giggable solution. Or a beautiful soft instrument could emerge as has happened with DX7, Synclavier, PPG Wave, etc.

[Dave Weiser]

On 4/5/2023 at 5:03 PM, Franz Schiller said:

That's the most amazing movie I have ever seen in my entire life. It's almost unwatchably good.

 

Right??? I hope all of our friends here commenting on the awesomeness of Ensoniq do take the time to watch the video. 

 

Don't get be wrong, I loved the Ensoniq boards - ESQ1 was my first synth, back in 9th grade. I later owned/played the EPS16+, VFX, SD1 and gigged for years with a KT76. Wonderful boards. 

 

But the reason for this post is the head-exploding sh*t-storm of craziness that is Kung Fury!!

[nursers]

Dave, I've watched Kung Fury maybe 20 times since it was released, it's so good.

 

The accompanying music clip by David Hasselhoff is great as well:

 

 

 

 

[Dave Weiser]

3 hours ago, Dr Nursers said:

Dave, I've watched Kung Fury maybe 20 times since it was released, it's so good.

 

The accompanying music clip by David Hasselhoff is great as well:

 

 

 

 

Don't hassle the Hoff!

[Jim Alfredson]

That movie is a masterpiece of cheese. I love it.

[ProfD]

Kung Fury is funny as h8ll especially to those of us who grew up in the thick of the 1980s. 🤣

 

The movie also shows that it's possible to make an entertaining piece of art without a mega-budget and using a ton of CGI and other tricks. 

 

It's always comes back down to vision, talent snd creativity.😎