Ensoniq ESQ1

I can't give it the full 10 because, well, i'm a fan of knobs. For a button-and-slider based unit, this keyboard is amazingly easy to use. Skipping through sounds is simple, and creating sounds is very intuitive, like an Alesis keyboard if you're familiar. The screen is very big and is LED so there's no need to fumble during a dark set.

No built in effects, but I run this keyboard through an Alesis Nanoverb for chorus, flange, and delay. The saw waves on this machine sound amazing with delay- THIS IS THE BOARD TO GET FOR NEUWAVE, SYNTHPOP, AND EBM/INDUSTRIAL. Does all the cool detuned saw sounds you expect from dark club music.

The board has MIDI in/out, as well as a sequencer that I don't much mess with. The expansion cards for sounds are easyish to find on eBay for cheap. I have 3 now- each card can hold 64 sounds.

This is a synth. An 80's synth. Don't buy it if you want a stereo grand piano. The ESQ-1 does cool, full synth waves, and with the SWEET velocity keys, you have at your fingertips all those cheesy synth lines from songs like "Jump", "Forever Young", etc. Plug a wah or distortion pedal into it and crank up the modulation wheel and you've got the sounds that anyone from Skinny Puppy and KMFDM to Crystal Method and BT use.

It also, for it's own part, does pretty ok sounds for jazz and fusion. Like most digital synths, it recreates the sound of a Fender Rhodes or an old Wurly pretty well. It has an AWESOME Hammond organ sound, modulation wheel leslie speaker emulation, etc. This really is an all-around board. The strigs are great on it, the horns are cheezy, but that's what 80's synth players want!

Very dependable. It has had a "dead battery" since I bought it and hasn't given me any trouble despite. Built VERY solid, even the later 80's plastic versions are rocks. Looks tough too, unlike the Poly 800's and Kawai K1's of the late 80's.

Never dealt with them.

I bought this board at Music Go Round for a paltry 70.00 US. I would have gladly paid 200 for it, as it gives me all the cool sounds that one would expect from a Nord Lead or MS2000 minus the advanced filtration. The LFO's etc are all analog so you get that cool "vintage yet modern" synth sound heard in any electronic music style. Throw a cheap-o guitar effects pedal on it (like a Zoom 505) and this board REALLY sounds cool, especially with delay or hte combination of distortion and wah. I have created sounds like Crystal Method's "Keep Hope Alive" from this synth, a sound TCM paid 1,000.00 to make on a Nord 2.

I own and have owned an Alesis QS8, a Korg Triton, a Casio CZ1, a DX7, an MS2000, and the Ensoniq ESQ1. I put this board 2nd in terms of all-around badass after the Alesis. It's simple, it won't look ugly if you scratch or dent it, and it sounds great.

On version 2.3. Haven't done much editing yet (haven't had it that long), but everything else seems pretty well laid out.

Some built-in effects would be nice, but hey. The sequencer is pretty good. Keyboard action is quite nice. Almost too easy, but not over the top

This thing can make some pretty spooky sounds. Very wide variety of things you can do with it. Don't rely on the factory presets, of course. There are scads of sound banks (free and pay) out there with some nice stuff.

This thing is built like a tank. Do not drop it on your toe. My battery needs replaced, but that is normal for these things. If you dump everything from a librarian every time its not a big deal.

Haven't dealt with them. Don't expect to.

For what I paid for it, its fanatastic. Fun, solid, good keyboard action, easy to bank things out with. If you can snag a good deal on Ebay, well worth it.

It was the synth that I learned synth programming on. Figured out what an LFO did and such. Amazingly easy if you already know subtractive synthesis, and not bad to learn with if you don't.

This is where it shines. Where do you get all these features at that price? 8 note polyphony, 8 part multitimbral, three independant oscillators with tons of waveform choices, three independant LFO's with two modulation sources each, 4 pole filter with Curtis chips, 8 track pattern sequencer... all for about $200? Fantastic value for the money.

I love the sounds. Especially the electronic and industrial sounds that can be built. Now... without an external FX processor, they sound lifeless. A little reverb and you're in heaven. Wonderful strings, deep basses, fantastic weird noises. The square, sine, saw, and noise wavs are great for analog-ish stuff. The others are good for weird noises and textures. And it's so expressive. You can always put the filter cutoff right there on the mod wheel. Something about the response of the board... with a little reverb... it just sings. I had one patch on it that used to make an old girlfriend want to cry. That's expressive :-) 8 for sound, 10 for expressive = 9

I've heard about problems, but I've never had any. Supposedly they crash often, but I think that's mainly with the older OS versions because mine have never missed a note.

It's a 15 year old board. To heck with support. The internet support for it is great. You can download thousands of patches. I even found instructions on replacing the internal memory battery online.

Would I buy another? I am right now. I've been playing synths for about 7 years now and I've had two ESQ-1s. One when I first started with synths that I sold to get more recent gear and learn more. The second I sold because of a lack of studio space. It is a big puppy. Now I'm buying a third because there are things I just can't do on other boards. They're so inexpensive for so much power. One of my all time favorite synths.

First of all, yes I bought this for $5.00 Amercan $'s. It took me a litle bit but I found a manual online and it was a piece of cake after that.

Lots a crap to play with, I am still playing, thats a good thing.

It sounds awesome, well summed up in here already.

Haven't gone that far yet. But this thing looks like it has been through hell and back and besides the battery needing to be replaced, it works great.

Haven't dealt with them but I bought a battery from a place called EPR Electronics and they were cool as sh*t.

This is my first full synth, I also have a little Roland MC-303 but the Ensoniq is the real deal. The battery was low but I sucked it up and payed the $11 for a new one and soldered it in myself, it was very easy. I love this thing. I will leave you with this exerpt from the latest Keyboard Magazine, I think it says it all.

Some of the best products come from intriguing people. One guy who hasn?t received his due is Bob Yannes. Not only was Bob responsible for the Ensoniq Mirage sampler and ESQ-1 synthesizer, but he was also the man behind the Commodore VIC-20 and 64 computers.
We?re gathered today to praise his ESQ-1. This affordable eight-voice polyphonic synthesizer has a cool built-in sequencer that?s intuitive to operate and provides storage for 2,400 notes (10,000 with the memory expander) in 30 sequences, which can be strung together in ten songs of up to 99 sequences each. Sequence memory is battery-backed, too, so everything is ready to go whenever you turn the ESQ-1 on. ?I fought hard for that,? Bob says. ?When we made the SQ-80, which is basically an ESQ-1 with a disk drive, some engineers said, ?Why don?t we just put dynamic RAM in there and the users can store their sequences on disk?? I argued, ?They don?t want to have to remember to save data.? Then they?d say, ?We can prompt them to save their work,? and I?d answer, ?You can?t prompt people that there?s going to be a blackout in five minutes!??

Perhaps the ESQ-1?s biggest claim to fame is its implementation of dynamic voice allocation. In his September ?88 review of the ESQ-1, Jim Aikin reported that you can ?play eight notes on the left side of a split, lift your hands, and immediately play eight notes on the right. We didn?t notice any time lag as the voices were re-programmed to the new tone color ? an impressive achievement.?

?The real distinguishing factor about the ESQ-1 was that it had dynamic voice assignment with polytimbral operation,? Bob admits. ?Nothing else at the time could do that. I had an Oberheim Xpander, and you had to pre-assign its voices. The funny thing was, when we introduced the ESQ-1 at the January ?86 NAMM show, Tom Oberheim and people from other companies came by and asked, ?How do you do that? We?ve tried and all we get are pops, clicks, and noises when the voices are reassigned.? Our response was, ?Well, we?re really clever.? The truth is, although we added interpolation on the envelopes to fill in the spots between notes when the processor couldn?t keep up with the calculations, it just happened to work out that the Curtis chips we picked and the software that drove them didn?t have any problems with pops and clicks.?

Although the Mirage preceded the ESQ-1, Bob had planned to make the synthesizer years earlier when he designed the SID (Sound Interface Device) chip for the Commodore 64. ?Back in the ?70s,? he recalls, ?I was interested in Moogs, and my high school had an ARP 2600 that I used to play with all the time. I was completely enamored with the Oberheim polyphonic synths when they came out in 1974, but I didn?t have $4,000 or $8,000 to spend on something like that. That was the motivation for me to design the SID chip. I wanted to make something that modeled the traditional analog synthesizer on one chip. I had it all in the back of my mind that someday I would build this polyphonic synthesizer with a multitrack sequencer ? which ultimately became the ESQ-1.?

This is a fairly intuitive synth, and the manual is needed very little after looking through it once. The functions are laid out well, and there's not much searching or menu-traversing involved in programming.

I have never played a keyboard with a better weight and feel. It's not annoyingly heavy like piano action, and it's not like a cheap plastic toy. Solid. Smooth. No effects, but a decent sequencer for its age. It has average MIDI capabilities, nothing special. Three oscillators is nice when so many synths have only two, and the filters are great.

This is not a ROMpler - it's a synthesizer, and as such, I won't bother to comment on the "realism" of sounds. It is very expressive, and has a wide range of sounds, with something available for every situation. The programmability is incredibly smooth and easy, and the quality of sounds is superb.

This thing is now 15 years old and works very well. I'm not the original owner. It shows some wear, and has seen heavy use, but it's a tank.

N/A - though the manual is available online.

This is the god of the budget synths. Though it didn't score a 10 in any category, the fact that it was such a great deal gave it bonus points. This is the 'board I recommend most highly to someone interested in learning keys, but not sure whether they'll stick with it. Very usable in many situations, and if you decide you're not a keyboarder, you're not out much cash. If it was stolen, I'd probably buy the Ensoniq SQ-80 if I had the opportunity, but I sure as heck would replace it with the same thing.

Software version 2.1. Bought used in 1987. Easy to use, just plug & play; page-driven menu is logical and easy to follow.

I love the action--it's light, but solid. Sequencer is great, I use it as a quick way to get ideas down. 8 voice polyphony drops voices during more complicated sequences, so for those I use the MIDI.

Percussion sounds are hurting a little, but some others are great. It was the first keyboard with sampled sounds. No effects, but I prefer outboard effects anyway.

This was my main keyboard for ten years--gigs, studio work, teaching...hardly ever a problem! I am on my third sustain pedal, I had to reglue the top panel to attach the circuit boards. Little stuff like that; my only worry is that the labels for the back panel will wear off, and I won't remember where to plug anything in!!

Never dealt with them

Would I buy something else now? Probably, but this keyboard has proven to be worth far more than I paid. By today's standards, it's somewhat primitive, but I got everything out of it I needed. I bought an EMU Proteus-1, and use the two units together.

I thougt this one would be difficult to edit, but it's very logical indeed.The buttons are direct and there are no menu's except for 1 or 2 pages. My software version is OS 3.5 and it was built in late 1987.Don't have a manual but if you're familiar with synths already this isn't a problem.

8 voice poly which is enough for the sound it makes.I only have it for 2 weeks now but i notice that the ESQ1 has a character of its own.
The keyboard is nice and my sequencer is expanded but i only made some simple sequences till now.

Some people say that the waveforms are 12 bit, but i don't know exactly...The filter is what striked me the most,it seems that Ensoniq have used so-called Curtis-chips for the filters and they sound really analogue!(They are analogue you know!)
No FX on this one but it sounds really electronic [with some piano and organ sounds].

Have it just 2 weeks, so can't tell much about it.The battery was low so i called a music store and they would charge me $60 to replace it! So i took it to my dad who replaced the battery in 15 minutes!(You have to be handy with soldering!)

Dunno...

Old but full of character..you can't compare it with any other synth out there.Good for experimenting and electronic sounds.

I bought my ESQ-1 in 1986 after reading about "The poor man's Fairlight" in a magazine. In fact, the first thing I did with it was sequence Jan Hammer's "Miami Vice." (Well, you know, it was the 80s). The ESQ was really the first synth in its price class with a built in sequencer and until last year it was still the heart of my MIDI studio.

I've achieved a wide range of sounds with the ESQ from Oberheimish thick pads to the gritty digital bite of a PPG Wave. In fact, the chameleon like nature of the instrument sold me on it in the store. It sort of bridged the chasm of analog and digital.

The 8 voice multi-timbral polyphony by today's standards is thin and there are no built-in effects, but the on-board sequencer rocks! Simple, elegant, and straight forward.

The original 40 presets were a bit lame, but programming the ESQ is not difficult thanks in part to it's large LED display. If you can get a hold of one of the Eprom 80 sound cartridges, there are some good presets to work from. The velocity sensitivity is workable and there is no pressure sensitivity or aftertouch. Of course, 1986 pre-dates General Midi and patches won't respond to MIDI panning data.

In fifteen years of constant playing, I have not had one problem with the ESQ.

I have no experience with Ensoniq technical support. Again, never had a problem.

The ESQ was my first synth (but not my last), later I added a Mirage, Juno-6, TX-81Z, Bit-01, Proteus/1 and now a host of plug-in synths. Still the ESQ has remained my bread and butter MIDI controller.

Given the ESQ's age, I wondered if I could complete a high profile sound design job using nothing but the ESQ, my Power Mac G3 and some modern recording software.

The job was for a bank that wanted a 2 second musical tag to go with an animation. I work primarily as an animator, but offered to do the sound too since it was so integral to the project (and, well, since I could.) The client wanted something close to the Intel tag that's currently being used. Could the aging ESQ cut-it? You bet.

I created a few bell-ish patches then sequenced the parts using the ESQ sequencer. I then recorded each sound into Pro-Tools and generously applied reverb and eq using a Waves plug-in.

The end result sounds great, the client is happy, and in one day I made 3 times the original purchase price of the ESQ-1. Not too bad for an antique digital synth.

I'm using Cakewalk and Cubase 5.0.
The sound is incredible, Its no problems at all. It's actually more fun an inspiring to work with my music now, than ever...
And its really easy too. Although The manual was quite hard to understand, (I got helped by a friend) After a while Everything was easy..
(Tha manual I've got i hand made py a amature, but he has explained everything so easy for me...)
http://www.geocities.com/synthercisers/esq1.html

keybord is great, lots of woices....
velocity could be better, but that doesn't matter..

It's a great sampler...

erEterh..

just updated to 3.5.Ensoniq build them like a tank.I have a VFX,SQ-80,Mirage and 2 esq-ones.I bought the esq new in 1987.It was ourchased at the same time as my mirage.I used it as a controller keyboard in my setup for about 8 years.I don't even has a case for it yet.The piano sounds are a light thin.I use mirage for piano and electric piano.I use the esq for harmonica,organ,strings,and moog.Mine was smashed 2 yrs ago.A 100 pound speaker fell on it it knocking it off the stand and onto the concrete while playing a show outside.The last 5 keys were broken out of it and the front panel buttons were all knocked inside the case.It continued to play and I finished the show.The repair center epoxy'd the keys back together and I re-fastened the curciut board to the lid...still usung it today, and I play 3 out of every 4 weekends.

Some sounds are a little thin due it it being an 8 bit machine, but the on board sequencer is very easy to use to get your ideas down quickly.

horn sounds are good...strings have a fairly quick response.Thay sound nice when midi'd with a mirage piano. The organs are good but not quite as expessive as the VFX.Vibes and bottle sounds are good.

The most abused keyboard I've ever owned, but has never let me down to despite all the damage to it.I've done shows on large riverboats that use a generator for power.The power would be so unsteady that my other keyboards would refuse to operate and lock up. My esq would flicker its display and never miss a note.

I've heard rumors over the years (since 1985) that ensoniq was very lacking in customer service.I personally have had good response from the dealers,but they have even acknowledged a lack on ensoniq customer service.I guess if you buy one of these used keyboards now customer service doesn't matter because they are old enough that support is limited anyway.

I think ensoniq reliability is excellent.I'm sure that there is someone out there reading this that would disagree but based on my experience::I have owned a mirage and an esq-one since 1987.I later bought a used sq-80 and a VFX.I also use a yamaha tx81z and an alesis hr-16 drum machine.Through playing live on the road in the clubs virtually every weekend,and using the same gear during the week in the recording studio for my own personal pleasure,I rate ensoniq reliability excellent. I was very disappointed to learn that they have just about pulled out of the keyboard business.It's nice to hear a song on the radio that has sounds in it that I know came from ensoniq products.Lonnie Moore..Hit and Run classic rock band. Parkersburg, W.Va LMoore2000@citynet.net Lets talk ensoniq.