Ensoniq MR-61

I bought mine used and it came with no manual. I was able to figure it out (at least most of it) within an hour. I later found a ZR 76 manual which is very similiar to the MR.

64 voice, normal to good actin. Fantastic effects. Has three expansion slots though finding ROMS is difficult. Best sequencer around and the idea pad is amazingly helpful

I am tough in this area. The Stereo Piano is good, beyond that, none of the acoustic sounds are striking. The ambient sounds are, however, wonderful. All in all, better than most, but still lacking

It's an Ensoniq. Made of steel and built to last. Gig to your hearts delight

NA. Out of businees and EMU is moving on with their lives

I would not replace it if it were stolen, however I would go into a mild state of depression. I have owned the following boards: Ensoniq SD1, Korg 05w, Casio WK 3000, Roland XV synths, a few digital pianos, and a host of modules over the years. Feature for feature, the MR 61 holds its own. Its sounds are comparable to a lot of Korg sounds, but fail when compared to the WK 3000 (Believe it or not) It seperates itself with its sequencer, drum machine, and ease of use.

My MR61 was a 1996 issue, with an OS 2.00; for the most part, the sounds are very good to great, and can be easily tweaked to fit my preferences. I found mine used, and bought a manual from Syntaur; the manual is a bit heady, and requires the user's tenacity.

You've read about most all the datails from other posts, yes? The kybd action is excellent, IMO, and touch selective. There are in-house effects, which are ok and easy to use with a lot of parameter changes available. Although there are technically expansion capabilities, finding any of the expansion boards has been a difficult task, since the MR61 is no longer in production. The sequencer is so easy to use, edit, copy, etc! I'm not yet up to speed on MIDI :(

The Ensoniq samples are known for having been some of the best of their era. This keyboard works great for all genres of music. The velocity and after touch are somewhat programmable, and the sounds are very good.

I've only used this kybd to record to disc with, but in a live situation, it's always a good idea to have a backup.

There is no customer support that I know of, since the original Ensoniq company is no longer. This kybd has been out of production awhile, though there seem to be many others on the internet willing to offer their patches, tips, etc...

Overall, this is an excellent sounding, easy to use, midi capable synth. I reneted an MR76 years ago to create music for a video I was producing. I liked the ease of use and the rich sounds, but it was too big for my small studio. When I discovered the MR61, I searched eBay, till I found one. I love most everything about this synth, except that it's so heavy and delicate. I've narrowed my collection down to an sk-1, sh3a, mr61, vl-1, and synthog. I compared the mr61 to other newer products, like roland, alesis, and yamaha, but they all lacked the richness, depth, and fat qualities of the mr61's sounds. I looked for about 2 years before I found one in mint condition! I would definitely get another one!

its no worse or better than most on ease of use to me - its fine

well the sequencer and effects is cool and its basically everything you need and for the price wow

great sounds for the time and tons of them i would put it up agaisnt any keyboard in that time frame and any keyboard in that price range and better or close to some of those today

uh these things are getting old and mine starting to do one small weird thing where it goes into the pan function on its own so i would say i wouldnt go without a backup but its still working good oh sometimes it freezes up and have to restart lol

forget it - their gone

overall its great for the price - as for me replacing it nah cuz im moving up to samplers and slave boards and have alot more cash now but if i only had $600 there's no other keyboard that can touch it

In Portuguese: Este teclado e o sintetizador profissional mais facil de utilizar que eu ja vi.. Tudo e bem facil de localizar e de programar... O sequencer ent?o, nem se fala...

Polifonia: 64 notas; Ac?o do teclado: boa; Efeitos: bons; Expans?o: Excelente; MIDI: total high... Sequenciador, muito bom

Sons: org?os e strings matadores, pianos e pianos eletricos muito bons, as guitarras s?o fracas, e os viol?es tambem... os sons sinteticos s?o bons, Drums s?o ok, n?o comprometem. O resto e bom...

Suporte no Brazil??? Nota 0!!! A PRIDE, importadora, e terrivel no seu atendimento aos clientes Ensoniq. N?o conte com eles

E muito bom... tive um por 6 anos e n?o tenho do que me queixar.

Version 2.0. I bought this keyboard 2nd hand ($1200 Canadaian) about a year ago, it came with the Urban Dance Expansion board, which by the way, features plenty of old synths in it's arsenault of sounds. Before the MR61, I owned an SQ1 along with an original EPS sampler which I hesitated in selling for the MR61. I have no regrets now, and have coupled the MR61 with a new ASR-X-PRO. The price of both units is well under what I was looking at for in a Korg Triton, Yamaha EX series, or roland XP series and since I've owned one of these brand names or another over the years, I've always preferred Ensonq's sound engines to them. The sounds on the MR do not dissapoint. Of special stand out are the drums, synths (with expansion board), and acoustic instruments. The manual, although a little long in the tooth and no index for a quick find at the back, is easy to understand,while at the same time being comprehensive. I've always found Ensoniq manuals far superior to other companies who seem to lose everything in the translation. There is basic editing of the patches but if you want to go further you'll need the dreaded computer. Lets be fair though, this keyboard was designed for writing songs and does this better than most higher priced rigs on the market even today, besides if I want to twist and tweak, I'll just sample into the Pro and do just that.

Polyphony is 64 note, which after owning the SQ1 is gigantic, but probably considered moderate by today's 128 note beasts. Still, there's enough there to get the job done. Effects are the best I've heard on a keyboard at the moment (even the new ones), again, Ensoniq's effects have always impressed me (I use the Pro sometimes as a stand alone effects box, it has the same block as the MR). Expansion boards are still available at EMU/Ensoniq, and if you can get the Urban Dance one I'd recommend it. It's not just for dance music, as I mentioned earlier, there are alot of vintage sounds on this. The only thing that bugs me about the sequencer, is the fact that you don't have "song tracks" after you've chained the sequences together like on the SQ or EPS for that matter. I also miss the ability to toggle between sequences so I can quickly hear how they will blend into each other. Oh well you can't expect everything, and really, 15 years ago when I owned my Kord Poly800, I was always thinking, I wish there were some sort of recorder on these things so I wouldn't have to use two cassette decks to bounce. Now I've got 16 tracks, so I shouldn't complain. On the bright side, the sequencer is fairly flexible and a breeze to use. The other great implementation to this keyboard is the Drum machine and Idea Pad, both are indespensible for songwriting.

I remember when I was selling my drum machine to a guitarist. He never heard of a workstation keyboard before and wanted to hear it. I brought up the "crunch" guitar patch for him, played a bit of Edgar Winters Frankenstein, which I quickly threw to the sequnecer to add a bass line and a few more drums. All he said after I was finished was "I wish I could get my guitar to sound that good". Patches? yeah there's lots of em, and you won't be dissapointed. I use this keyboard for everytype of music, it seems it really shines when you bring everything to the sequencer, all those sounds just seem to meld together perfectly (something I can't say for other brands).

This thing is at least six years old, and God know's where it was before I bought it 2nd hand (although it was in good shape) but I haven't had a problem with it yet. Since it's been housebound since I've owned it, I can't tell you how dependable it is on the road but if it's anything like the SQ1, I see no problem.

Well if you haven't heard, they're owned by EMU who is owned by Creative Labs. Funny thing though, alot of EMU's new stuff seems to be using alot of Ensoniq's good old trademarks and technology. I think this is a good thing (and hope the brainiacs who were with Ensoniq start another company)and the sharing of technology from all sides will be a benifit. Check out EMU/Ensoniqs site, there is a new Ensoniq keyboard (the "Halo") due out in March. As for the customer support on old Ensoniq equipment, I wouldn't expect too much. Look to third parties for this.

If it were lost or stolen I'd buy one again in a heartbeat, I like it that much. Its easy to write songs on, has a great selection of sounds, is easy to use and sounds great with its built in effects. On the other hand, the couple of little quibbles I had about the sequencer are minor, and can be overcome and forgotten in time with all the other features loaded on this thing. I really, seriously looked at the new workstations out there, but price was a big factor and feature for feature I have always found the others to leave a big important feature out of the picture. Like I said earlier, I've owned equipment from all of these major manufacurer's but always seem to come back to Ensoniq. They will be sorely missed (by me anyway).

That's my second review of this fantastic machine. About a year ago, I sold my MR-61 to buy a Trinity. No regrets, the Korg is mind-blowing piece of engineering. I've recently bought another MR-61, OS v2.0, and its FX and acoustic sounds are to kill for. Now the two workstations are living in peace on a double cross-type stand.

For people that would like to buy an MR, I'll discuss first the most important features and then the MIDI implementation, which seems to be very bizarre.

Features worth the buying:

* The overall sound character is much warmer than many non-ensoniq gear that I've tested, including Roland and Yamaha. Technically, the output uses 18-bit DACs and features a 108 db dynamic range. The effects are 24-bit. As a result, the total sound has lot of dynamics and a richer spectrum. I've owned a TS-10, which has the same kind of output, but is actually a little noisy. Both keyboards are totally professional stuff.

* Acoustic sounds are really to kill for. The 14 Mb onboard waveform ROM devotes 3 Mb to piano, and about 3 Mb are dedicated to drum and percussion sounds. The acoustic steel guitars are unbelievable. The sampled sax and winds are close to the available on my Trinity's MOSS card (on the Korg they are physically modelled). Strings are warm and very useable. Distorted guitars are very good and warm, using the proper effects.
There are so many percussion sounds (about 80 kits x 61 keys each) that you'll spend most time only exploring the onboard drums. About 70 of the ROM kits follow the Ensoniq drum mapping (different from GM-mapping), and you get many variations of each element across the keyboard (6 kicks, 8 snares, 7 hats, and so on). Each different kit offers totally different samples on the respective zone. That's pretty distinct of GM mapping, where different kits only means different kicks and snares. You can build kits as easy as you want, and you can even build a custom kit per sequence (other manufacturers please take note...).
The MR's drums (one of the main reasons of my buying) are professionally sampled and very realistic. Using the StreetKit or GrooveKit really allows you to make convincent patterns on those styles.
Bass sounds are acceptable. Synth pads are acceptable but don't bite the Trinity's ones (or other manufacturers' general ones).

* For performance situations, the Transpose, Layer and Split buttons are a reasonable alternative to my Korg's ultra-complex Combis and GlobalMenus (there's no way on the Trinity to quickly split or layer two sounds). The integrated DrumMachine, already discussed on my former review, is a nice addition. Unfortunately, you can't build your own patterns from scratch on the MR itself, but you can tweak the preset ones (altering kits, mixing zones, etc.) to get really weird results. There's a software utility that can convert short MIDI seqs into MR's patterns, available from Emu-Ensoniq's website. The layer & split combinations can be saved as 'presets' or 'single sounds'. The latter option will let you use the combination as a single sound on the sequencer!

* The 24-bit effects are the best I've heard. They are warm, quiet and very programmable. Like other synths, you get Reverb, Chorus and Insert simultaneously. The Reverb is quiet and sounds nice. The Chorus (which can be mixed with the Reverb on assignable amounts) is not as good as the one found on the Trinity, but kicks ass when compared to the Rolands I've listen. The Insert FX (IFX) on the MR are available as one of about 40 algorithms. The IFX can be freely mixed with the Chorus and Reverb units. Most of the MR's IFX are series of stereo effects chained, and usually they contain 2-tap or 4-tap delay blocks, very useful. You get configurations like Flanger->Delay, Phaser->Delay and complex ones like Comp->Dist->DDL (compressor + distortion + parametric EQ + 2-tap delay). Every one of the four blocks can be set to zero gain to disable the impact on the signal. This effect has no l

I bought my MR61 without ever trying one out. I had read some reviews and listened to some demos on the internet back when it was first introduced, and I decided then that I wanted one. Now that I own one I am thrilled with it! I have heard other people talk about the sequencer glitches, but haven't experienced any real flaky behavior on mine, and I use the sequencer A LOT. About the only thing that I've noticed is the SOLO button doesn't seem to work right. The other tracks will display a MUTE light, but they still play as though un-muted. Besides that, I've had absolutely no problems with it! I think perhaps the older software versions were more buggy. Mine came with OS version 2.11 installed (you can find out what version you have by pushing the "system" button while holding down the SoundFinder "save" button) and it almost never behaves strangely.

The SoundFinder interface is really great. Sounds are organized alphabetically in categories such as Bass, Bell, Hits, Piano-Accoustic, Piano-Electric, String-Section, String-Solo, Vocals, etc. Turning the left knob changes the category and turning the right knob changes the patch within that category. You can also spell the name of a patch by holding down the SoundFinder button and "typing" the name with the keyboard. As you enter more letters, it will move through an alphabetical list of all the sounds, sort-of like the computer program "Quicken" fills in check names and amounts for you as you type. There is also a category called All-Sounds where you can scroll through all the patches in memory to discover new patches you may not know even exist otherwise.

If you're in to programming custom sound patches and programs, this may not be the keyboard for you. There is NO sound programming functionality available directly from the keyboard. You'll need to hook it up to a computer to program sounds with the Unisyn software that came with the MR61.... or at least should have come with it. I bought mine used and the software was not included!

The MR61 display is smaller and more claustrophobic than I'd like. You only get a dim 20x2 character LCD, and I can't find any adjustment for the viewing angle, which is crazy because it is clearest when you stand IN FRONT of the keyboard and look back down on it!! From a normal standing or sitting angle behind the keyboard, the display is a little washed out and the LCD "template" of black boxes is easily visible. The display would be impossible to read in bright sunlight. It's not a real huge problem though because almost every feature of the board has its own section on the main panel. There are tons of lighted buttons, and some even have multiple colored lights to indicate their status. There's so much information given that way that there isn't much need for a big display. Even the KORGs with those huge LCD's don't let you get around any easier than the MR61. Once you learn where everything is, you'll probably fly around on the MR61 faster than on anything else. Usually, pushing one button is all it takes. If you're used to ENSONIQ's way of doing things, you be running at full speed almost instantly. If not, I think you'll still be sprinting in a few days.

The manual is large (489 pages), comprehensive and well-written. It goes in to great detail on everything. There's even a big section devoted to the method of accelleration used on the "value" knob. It's obvious when reading the manual that ENSONIQ knew they had a great instrument in the MR series. I think it's THE best sounding keyboard in its class. Even the fancy (and more expensive) KORG Trinity and Triton boards don't impress me as much as the MR61.

There is an "Idea Pad" that records everything you play, dividing it in to segments when you stop playing for a while or switch instruments. You can set up in the preferences how long it should wait before creating a new segment, and how much memory to reserve for the idea pad, so you can put more memory to use in the sequencer if you don't need it for the idea pad. The Idea Pad will "remember" everything you've played for as long as the memory allows, and you can have it play back your doodles by pushing a button, then if you like it, send it to any track in the sequencer. It's a cool tool to have if you compose through improvisation, as without it you might bang out a cool riff and then forget how you did it. I don't use it much because I haven't figured out how to get the tempo in the sequence to fit what I've got stored in the Idea Pad. But it has helped me when I'm trying out a few different chord progression ideas, because I can play each of my ideas, then easily listen back to them and pick the one I like best. It's kind of like a one-track sequencer that is always running.

The 16 track sequencer is VERY easy to use. Each track has its own dedicated lighted button which makes it extremely easy to navigate around in your sequences and tell at a glance which tracks are being used. Each sequence is stored in a bank which also has its own lighted button for easy navigation. You can easilly arrange your sequences in to songs by holding down the "playlist" button and pushing each of the sequence bank buttons in the order you want them to play. It's by far the quickest and easiest sequencer I've ever seen. There are some great editing functions and an undo which comes in really handy, although certain important operations can't be undone. You can set a "from" point and a "to" point and work just with that region. It's a handy tool, but when you're working on an individual track the default for erasing is within the region, while when working with the sequence as a whole the default is OUTSIDE the region. That gets a little bit confusing, and on several occasions I've accidentally thrown out all the measures EXCEPT for the part I was trying to discard. And, of course, that is one of the functions that can't be undone!

My only other complaints about the sequencer are that there seems to be no direct way to jump right to the end of the sequence. You have to use one of the knobs to scroll the location through all the beats and sub-beats to eventually get through the whole thing. At least the knob is "accellerated" so when you continually crank it it starts moving though the sequence faster and faster. But I always end up overshooting my mark and have to do a lot of back and forth dialing to get to where I need to go. I also find the default sampled male voice counting off "one-two-three-four" each time I record a track extremely annoying. It's really bad when I am doing a sequence in something other than 4/4 time, because it only counts to four, then clicks the rest of the countoff. You can change the countoff sound to a click or stick, but I haven't figured out how to SAVE that setting, so I end up having to change it every time I turn on the board. Also, the "rewind" button by default plays a useless sample of a "tape rewind" sound effect. This too can be disabled, but, again, I don't know how to keep it that way when I turn the unit off.

The keys have the standard light springy synth feel, but the action is smooth. My SD-1 keys bounce a little which makes for some sloppy playing during really fast riffs, but the MR61 keys are quick and accurate. The velocity and aftertouch sensitivity is much better than on my SD-1 too. Actually, it's a little too sensitive for my hands sometimes. I have my SD-1's sensitivity set at one end of the spectum and the MR-61 at the other! There are some nice uses of aftertouch on s

My MR61 doesn't have any of the optional expansion boards installed, but even without them there are tons of sounds, and most of them range from very good to excellent (even the general MIDI sounds are decent). Its strength for me is probably the synth pads, most of them are really thick and rich, which I love because my older SD-1 board is severely lacking in this area. The piano sounds are also very good, especially the Stereo Grand in which the lower notes are panned more to the left and higher notes to the right. Even the sax patches sound OK, which I find are usually the worst sounds on most boards. There is a huge list of excellent drum kits, and an awesome built-in drum machine which is better than any stand-alone drum machine I've used. When you find a pattern you like, you can send it to the rhythm track in the sequencer with the push of a button.

I also use an older ENSONIQ SD-1, and the MR61 is a great improvement in sound quality. Many of the SD-1 patches sound terrible without running through their default effects settings, which is a big problem since all the tracks in SD-1 sequences have to share one effect. On the MR-61 they give you a global chorus and reverb along with an "insert" effect that can be any one of the 40 other sweet effects built-in to the board (some, like the "chatter box" are really wild). Therefore, you can assign your piano track to a wet reverb, your bass to a chorus, put a medium reverb on the strings, and still use a wild digital delay/flanger effect for a funky synth lead track. And, unlike the SD-1, most of the patches on the MR61 still sound decent after you change their effects. I find the output lacking just slightly in the high frequencies (the pianos seem a little "muffled"), so I have the high-band EQ on my mixer tweaked up a little bit to give it a little more crispness.

Unfortunately, I don't think the MR61 is as expressive as some other keyboards. The SD-1 has some really nifty "patch select" buttons above the pitch-bend and mod wheels which allow you to alter the sound of the patch by muting and activating voices within the patch at will. It's put to great use on some patches, like on the sax where you can add a nice growl on a note if you like while playing just by moving a finger off the pitch-bend wheel. ENSONIQ did away with that idea on the MR61 though, and all you get is the standard pitch-bend and mod wheels. Even the mod wheel isn't put to much use in most patches. It seems like most of the time it's defaulted to the standard vibrato idea. A ribbon controller would have been a nice addition.

I've never used the MR61 in a live setting, but I used and abused my SD-1 in gigs with no real trouble. I don't think the MR61 is quite as rugged as the SD-1, but I've had it open once to have a look around and it is well-made. The MR61 would be quite easy to get around on while playing live. In a live setting where I needed to swich patches on the fly I would still set up a sequence containing all the patches I wanted to use during a song and switch them by pushing the track button. Most patches sound really very good both in their "live" mode and within a sequence where you may need to compromise the effects a little. The sounds are great and the effects and effects layout are really well done. The keyboard just simply sounds wonderful to me.

I don't have any personal experience with ENSONIQ support, so I don't know how helpful they will be. Some reviews I've read said they were helpful, and some did not. Since the company has merged a couple of times, I suspect that the level of support has fluctuated depending on when it was that these people were in contact with them. The dust has settled from the mergers now, so I think they should be pretty good and getting you what you need.

Although their web site has changed many times over the past few years, they still have an archive with useful articles and downloads for almost all the older keyboards. It's pretty easy to get around their site, and I have got some good stuff , especially for my SD-1, from them that way.

Each keyboard has its own strengths and weaknesses, and determining what makes a good sounding or bad sounding synth is a very objective thing that is up to each musician's ear. I would say that the MR61's biggest strengths are it's easy interface and large number of sound patches. It's best sounding patches are the synth pads and pianos, with almost everything else in at a very close second, with one exception: Almost all the guitar patches (accoustic and electric) are pretty nasty. The biggest problem (besides no built-in sound programming) is the somewhat limited amount of sequencer RAM, and that it likes to be the MIDI boss, and doesn't take orders from other MIDI devices too well. That's OK though because it is a great centerpiece to a MIDI studio. ENSONIQ made some of the best sounding, full featured and innovative keyboards around. It was cool that ENSONIQ and EMU merged, but somewhat sad that they got bought by Creative, the SoundBlaster PC card manufacturer. But the SoundBlaster cards are some of the best sounding PC cards you can get thanks in part to ENSONIQ technology. And the MR61 is actually still alive in the form of the ZR76. The ZR76 is pretty much an MR61 with the "Perfect Piano" expansion sounds and a 76 key weighted action keyboard. The front panel layout and interface are nearly identical. In fact, three out of the four mp3 demos of the ZR76 on ENSONIQ's web site (all except "Jode's Home") are also some of the built-in demos of the MR61. Check out the "Paddy & Pals" demo to get a good idea of how great the MR61 sounds. This demo shows off some great instruments, the sax that comes in about 1:40 through the song is probably the weakest of them all, and even it's not too bad.

By the way, if you have an MR-61 or ever come in to contact with one, lift off the three large knobs for a fun suprise.

IF THERES ONE THING THAT ENSONIQ DOES RIGHT, ITS MAKE AN IDIOT PROOF SEQUENCER. THAT WILL PROBABLY BE THERE LEGACY (TAKE NOTE ROLAND). ANYONE WHO HAS EVER USED AN ENSONIQ SEQUENCER USUALLY LEARNED EVERYTHING THEY WERE EVER GONNA LEARN IN THE FIRST FEW MINUTES. VERY SELF EXPLANATORY. SOUND EDITING ON THIS ONE IS A LITTLE TRICKY THOUGH (TRANSLATION I DONT KNOW HOW THE HELL TO EDIT THE SOUNDS ON IT YET!!!)BUT THEN AGAIN I BOUGHT MINE AS A FLOOR DEMO UNIT AND COULDNT TELL YOU IF IT CAME WITH A MANUAL

THE POLYPHONY IS ADEQUATE FOR THE MUSIC I DO, AND I HAVE NEVER HAD A PROBLEM WITH IT. THIS HAS SOME PRETTY COOL ON BOARD EFFECTS THAT CAN BE TWEAKED AND TRICKED OUT A MILLION DIFFERENT WAYSTHE DOWNSIDE IS YOU CAN ONLY USE ONE EFFECT AT A TIME, AND THE HEAVIER EFFECTS TEND TO BLEED INTO OTHER TRACKS, EVEN IF THE OTHER TRACKS DONT HAVE EFFECTS ON THEM. FOR SOME REASON DESPITE THE KEYBOARDS EVER DEPRECIATING PRICE THE SOUND CARDS ARE STILL WAY TOO EXPENSIVE (SOON THE BOARD WILL BE CHEAPER THAN THE SOUND CARDS).ALTHOUGH I GIVE THE SEQUENCER RAVE REVIEWS I JUST THOUGT OF THREE TERRIBLE THINGS ABOUT IT 1 ITS A PATTERN BASED SEQUENCER (AS ARE ALL ENSONIQS) HOWEVER YOU CANT GO FROM ONE PATTERN TO THE NEXT, AS SORT OF A PREVIEW OF HOW THEY WILL SOUND TOGETHER, WITHOUT CREATING A SONG (YOU COULD, HOWEVER, IN OLDER ENSONIQ BOARDS). 2 MY OLD SQ1 THAT I "UPGRADED FROM HAD 8 TRACKS IN PATTERN MODE, AND 8 TRACKS IN SONG MODE TO MAKE UP ITS SEQUENCER, WICH WAS GREAT FOR SOLO TYPE INSTRUMENTS THAT CAME IN AND OUT OF THE SONG IN DIFFERENT AREAS. YOU COULD PLAY ALONG WITH THE ENTIRE SONG AND VIBE WITH IT( I KNOW IT SOUNDS CORNY) HOWEVER THE MR ONLY HAS PATTERN TRACKS. 3.THIS WILL NOT CHASE A MIDI TIME CLOCK. BACK WHEN I HAD ADATS AND A BRC, I WOULD SYNC MY SQ1 UP, AND IT WOULD CHASE THE TAPE, IF YOU FAST FORWARD TO THE BRIDGE ON TAPE, THE KEYBOARD WOULD FIND ITS BRIDGE. WITH THE MR, WHEN YOU STOP THE TAPE AND REWIND, THE MR STARTS WHERE U LEFT OFF (I NOW USE VEGAS PRO, AND STILL HAVE THE SAME PROBLEM). IT COMES WITH THIS SCRATCHPAD THAT REMEMBERS THE LAST FEW THINGS YOUVE PLAYED, UNFORTUNATELY I AM NOT A DRUG USER, AND CAN USUALLY RECALL WHAT HAPPENED FIVE MINUTES AGO

THE SOUNDS ON THIS ARE PRETTY COOL, THEY DO WELL WITH THE BASIC STUFF, AND DO GREAT WITH DRUMS(FORGET ABOUT THE CHEESY LITTLE PRESET DRUM PATTERNS THAT I SUSPECT ARE TAKING UP TOO MUCH MEMORY)THE GROUPING OF THE SOUNDS ARE NICE, AND ARE CONVENIENTLY GROUPED TOGETHER, BUT IF I MAY BITCH AND MOAN AGAIN (AND I WILL) 1. WHEN IN THE DRUMS GROUP AND TRYING TO FIND THE HI HAT SUBDIRECTORY (OR ANY SUB) THE DATA WHEEL GETS WAY TO ANXIOUS AND SKIPS TO THE END OF THE DRUMS, YOU CAN GO BACK AND FORTH FOREVER, THIS THING FEELS YOU SPINNING WHILE, AND ASSUMES YOU WANT TO GET TO THE END. 2. THERE IS A COOL LITTLE WAY TO SPELL OUT THE NAME AND FIND IT( USSUALLY JUST THE FIRST FEW LETERS) HOWEVER, YOU MUST KNOW THE SOUNDS NAME (THIS WOULD HAVE BEEN GREAT IF THE CLAPS WERE CALLED "CLAP 1 THEN CLAP FAT" ETCETER, INSTEAD THEY ARE CALLED FATCLAP AND HANDCLAP AND SO ON, THEREFORE YOU MUST REMEMBER THE NAME OF EVERYSOUND YOU LOOKING FOR AND ALTHOUGH I STILL DONT DO DRUGS, MY MEMORY ISNT THAT!! GOOD)

THIS IS WHERE ENSONIQ FAILS MISERABLY AS WITH ALL ENSONIQS I HAVE EVER OWNED YOU USUALLY HAVE TO HAVE SOME TYPE OF MAJOR OVERHAUL VERY EARLY ON, EI A NEW MOTHERBOARD, OR SOMETHING ALONG THOSE LINES. AND TRUE TO FORM THIS KEYBOARD DIDNT LET ME DOWN, I NOW HAVE KEYS THAT HAVE MAJOR VELOCITY PROBLEMS, AND SOME THAT WORK WHEN THEY WANT TOO (I JUST TRANSPOSE THE KEYBOARD TO GET AROUND IT)MAJOR PAIN!!!! EVERY THREE WEEKS LIKE CLOCKWORK, I HAVE TO OPEN HER UP AND TIGHTEN CONNECTIONS INSIDE, OR I GET A BLANK SREEN STARRING AT ME WHEN I TURN IT ON. AND THIS BOARD HAS ONLY BEEN MOVED ABOUT FOUR TIMES (SMOKE FREE STUDIO)

THEY USUALLY TELL ME TO TAKE IT AND GET IT FIXED WHEN I HAVE PROBLEMS. DUUUUHHHH

The manual is extremely thick and verbose, and often repeats itself, but it is well-organized and thorough, and you seldom need to flip around looking for things. Front panel controls are good. Finding patches is very easy thanks to their SoundFinder system. In particular, jog wheels make it fast and easy to find something, or if you know the name of the sound you can just spell it out with the keys - usually you only need to type in the first few characters to jump to the sound.

You can do some basic patch editing, but you really can't do a great deal of advanced editing from the front panel (the only reason I gave it a 9 instead of a 10), but if you can still get the Unisyn demo version that they gave out with it and own a computer, it's quite nice. (I was able to get the Unisyn demo even though I bought it used by simply contacting Ensoniq.) It is a keyboard specifically designed to work with a computer, so if you don't own one you will lose some functionality.

Very nice features. I can't rave enough about the Idea Pad. It has captured many great ideas for me that otherwise would have been lost. If you're not familiar with the Idea Pad, think of it as a separate little sequencer that is always running in the background recording everything you play. If you've ever found yourself thinking "That sounded really awesome! Now, what exactly did I do?" only to find yourself frustrated because you can't quite seem to get it right, then this feature is a godsend. You can adjust settings, such as how much memory it uses, when it should time out, and so forth, so you do have some control over it. You can send things from the Idea Pad to the sequencer, but I've never had much luck getting the tempo and beats to match up. I don't consider this a major flaw, though, as I see the primary benefit of the Idea Pad is simply that it is simply *there* catching what you play.

Effects are nice and easy to use. Having dedicated chorus and three dedicated reverd busses in addition to the dry and main (called Insert) effect is wonderful, especially if you are used to older synths where you had a choice of one effect or dry. I've never noticed any unusual noises or such while switching effects, either, even when jumping between sequences in the middle of a song.

The sequencer is adequate, but not the best on-board sequencer I've ever used. The drum machine is very cool, especially if you download the Rhythm Builder software, which allows you to build your own drum loops on your computer - but again, you need a computer for that. Despite the fact that the keyboard can save MIDI (.mid) files (very very cool if you own a PC), it can be a bit tricky to get what is happening on the drum machine out to an external sequencer, say the one on your computer. Not to say that it can't be done, but it's not as intuitive as it perhaps should be. If you're interested in this, track down the MR-Web support site. This comes up often, and they present (I think) a workable solution.

Which leads me to my one gripe: the MIDI implementation. It's not as functional and easy to use as it could be, which is why I can't give this piece a 10. I do miss the Patch Select buttons present on other synths. It's a real shame they nixed these on this model.

The sounds on this thing are really very nice. Very crisp and clean. I also bought the Real World and Urban Dance expansion cards, and am very satisfied with them. I do a little bit of everything, from industrial to rock and metal to trite new-agey stuff and always find neat sounds to use. I think the drums sound very good, especially if you go into Unisyn and really play around with the kits. Only the guitars blow, but then I've never heard an Ensoniq keyboard that did have good guitar sounds. That's okay - guitarists are a dime a dozen anyway. ;) Excepting the mentioned guitar sounds, I would buy this again just to have all of these great sounds.

The keyboard is pretty good for a synth action. Not nearly as squishy as some synths I have played. Velocity and aftertouch work very well, and there are settings to help you compensate if you're either a real wimp or really ham-fisted.

I've never had a problem with it, so I'll give it a 10, but then again I use this almost exclusively in my home studio. It has traveled with me on several occasions and it survived a move halfway accross the country, always without fail, but I've never given it a good drop test or anything - unless the movers gave it one and didn't tell me...

I've only had to deal with Ensoniq support once myself, and that was to get the newest OS chips and the Unisyn demo. They were very prompt in responding and very helpful, but that was before they merged/were swallowed by E-mu. My mother owns a VFX-SD and has had pretty good experience with their tech support as well (you need it for that keyboard), but I hear that dealers were having a very hard time getting anything out of them. If that happens to you, just call them directly and you should see results quickly.

I would derinitely buy it again if something happened, and in fact I've thought about buying an MR-Rack or a ZR-76 if I can a good deal on one. Actually, if something happened to this one I would probably buy a ZR-76 (the next generation in the series) if I could find one at a comparable price. I dig the sounds, *love* the idea pad, really like the SoundFinder setup, and very much appreciate the manual.

This is a great keyboard if you own a computer setup with a MIDI interface, and still a good keyboard if you don't. If you are in that group of folks who do not own a computer and have no plans to buy one, I would really check this out first before you buy though, especially if you like to create your own patches, because you might find that Ensoniq assumed that you would use a computer program to do something that you wish could be done from the front panel - but can't. If you are the type who never edits patches and only uses the factory presets, don't worry about what I just said as it won't affect you.

I'm using system OS v2.0. The OS fits in three fat ROM chips, which aren't user-upgradeable. Very stable, no hang-ups or sudden crashes.
The keyboard is VERY, VERY EASY to use. You get a button for almost any function implemented. There's an arsenal of buttons dedicated to the 16 track recorder and the song manager, which make writing new songs a very easy process. Also, you get 3 digital knobs (category, value and mix-expression) plus a dedicated pan analog knob, which helps A LOT to find and modify sounds or parameters. There's a handy HELP button, which works as the "command help" icon on windows programs. Since Ensoniq is now dead, don't expect new OS versions or upgrades, they forgot all they 'old' synths and are only thinking in the fizmo and zr-76 :(

You NEED a computer patch editor, because you can only alter some parameters of the built-in presets = you can't create sounds from scratch. The manual is big, verbose and very complete. It explains almost any parameter, menu or feature available.

Interface: 20x2 big char backlit LCD. Enough for most purposes, except sequencing. No huge menus or scroll pages, because there are about 80 buttons on the keyboard, so you get quickly to the parameter you want to reach. Honestly, nothing can beat the Triton's TouchView...

64-note polyphony. Of course, complex sounds can eat more than one voice per note, but this is the usual matter with synths. The keyboard is semi-weighted and hard to play, but it's good to perform. The MR's sounds can use up to 16 layers (or waveforms) per note, with very flexible parameters and controls, if you can program it.

Built-in FX are presented as six 24-bit effect buses:
* one dry, no FX, bus;
* A 3-way fully programmable stereo reverb bus;
* one programmable chorus bus;
* one insert fx bus, can be take from 40 effect algorithms, including delays, phasers, distortions, eq's, flanger, etc. Often, they are presented as serial combinations of up to 4 effects, like Delay->Distortion->Compressor->Reverb. The ensoniq's scheme of fx offers A LOT of parameters per effect and sounds very professional.
When using a MIDI 16-part sequence (internal or external), all 16 parts share the 6 buses. You can route every part to the bus you want, and there's an option to copy an individual sound from the SoundFinder with its insert fx to the sequencer, so you don't need to re-program the parameters. IMHO, there should be a second insert fx bus, because certain instruments, like distorted guitars, really need the insert bus, leaving the rest of instruments with a chorus or reverb option only.

You can expand the keyboard with up to three expansion boards, like a 24-megabyte piano one or a 20-MB Dance-style option. Also, there's a hard-to-find 4-MB flash ROM option, which lets you upload .wav or .aif samples to the keyboard. Very cool.
All expansions are user-installable.

MIDI implementation is complete but not excellent like Korg or Roland's ones. As a controller, you get aftertouch, programmable mod & pitch wheels, up to 2 dual footswitches and one CV pedal input, all assignable.

You get 4 audio outputs (2 main + 2 aux) which are balanced and electrically ground-isolated. This professional detail aids greatly on studio recordings.

There's a complete drum machine inside the MR. The board is supplied with a variety of realistic styles (you can compose serious songs with them), with 8 variations / 8 fills per rythim. The rithyms are customizable and combinable. The drum machine works very close to the on-board sequencer. You can save your edited patterns in the on-board flash ROM or in RAM. The styles are arranged in categories, and are easy to locate.


Before discussing the sequencer, a briefly paragraph is needed to explain the internal memory organization on the MR:
The MR is shipped with a certain amount of flash ROM, which stores 1 bank of user presets, the system configuration and user drum styles.
Also, there are about 280K of RAM, which isn't battery-backed. That's, at my sight, the big drawback of the keyboard, because the RAM space isn't expandable, and it's shared by the sequencer, the IdeaPad, another user sound bank and another user style bank. You can configure how those elements will share the memory, but the space is limited and you need to save on disk all your work manually, before you power off the gear.

The included sequencer can use up to 213K of internal RAM, enough for about 70000 events. It's very easy to work with, have dedicated buttons for each one of the 16 tracks, and there are a mix and a pan knob to speed up the mixing process. Ensoniq's system of sequencing is something special, you get 3 banks of 8 sequences each (16 track per sequence). Each sequence has its own insert fx. You record your sequences and then chain them to build you song. Because each sequence has its own insert fx, it's easy to make your song with different effects as its play. The board changes the insert fx type between seq

Both MR-61 and MR-76 are shipped with 14 MB of ROM waveforms of reasonable quality. Acoustic instruments are very good, except some non-convincent basses and violin solos. Vocal choir sucks. Pianos, guitars and woodwinds are OK. Not a "pad keyboard": the MR focuses on acoustic and drum sounds. Strings are very good, comparable to Korg ones. Over 700 drum samples, they are professional and convincent. You get TR-808/909, session, jazz, rock... almost every imaginable drum sound. There are some average pads. Easy layer / splitting capabilities. Organs are good. Some brasses sucks.

The gear works well for most musical styles, excepting some extreme resonant or acid styles, due to the lack of a per-voice resonant filter. On board guitars and pianos allows the MR to reach pop & rock styles in a convincent way. If you play Hip-Hop/Rap styles, there are many processed drum sounds to fit those styles, including voices & vinyl fx...

I don't have tested expansions, except for the EXP-4 "Perfect Piano" one, that converts your MR into a ZR...

Unlike Korg, patches aren't FX-dependant. Since ensoniq's filter and volume LFOs are sync-able to system clock, there are many sound effects that don't need the FX processors.

Preset patches don't use the mod wheel or aftertouch in a dramatic way, so some programming is needed.

In the sound output department, the keyboard is very quiet and clean, even at high volume output.

The unit is a 15 Kg TANK. Almost 80% build on metal, the unit is solid and reliable. I can, definitely, depend on it. No backup needed on gigs, at my sight.

I don't have treaten with ensoniq (now R.I.P.) folks, and I think I will not and I want not to do so.

I think i would buy the gear another time. It has enough interesting features to keep my interest.
I'm playing for about 10 years, and passed thru cheapo Casio keybords, to more respectable Korgs and finally reach to this Ensoniq's thing. It's comparable to Roland's XP-50/80 (without arpeggiator) and Korg's N264/364 (remodelled versions of X2/X3), in the sub-tri[ton/nity] range. I think acoustic sounds clearly beat Korg's ones. Korg's pads and choir beats ensoniq and roland ones. MR's drums beats korg's ones but keep in pace with Roland's ones. Also, N264/364 are unexpandable, with only 8 Mb of waveforms, making their sound tighten than Roland or Ensoniq gears.

The IdeaPad is a great feature, you shortly "fall in love" with it. FX are good. Most sounds doesn't need them, in fact, there's not exciters or enhancers on-board. Maybe a better visual interface, for the sequencer, but the keyboard simply rocks!
As an used workstation, is probably the best buy you can do with US$1000. What options do you have on this price range? Maybe new synths like XP30, without sequencer, or the rare Kawai K5000W.
I recommend this gear to any serious composer reading this review.

very easy to use. a child can learn to work it. with its catogorized areas its pretty hard to get lost. manual is pretty cool and easy to read.

very cool sequencer and polyphony rocks. effects are cool and i really enjoy the effects processer!

sounds are killer. i use it in gospel music and its sounds are unmatched. i has gone up against roland's xp series and roland was no match. korg couldn't compete against the mr's pianos and organs!

had some problems with it when i bought it, but took it in and after about a month in the shop it seemed to have been all taken care of.

was told to call in for an upgrade and i left my address but never got the upgrade!

great board and i would recomend it to anyone! anyone that would like to get into sequencing or anyone that just wants killer sounds. i have board players that always ask me to trade them boards. korg and roland owners alike

Sounds Killer, Soundfinder is cool since there are so many patches to choose from. Have a TS and ASR, and the MR is definately cleaner, quieter, more sophisticated, different but good it sounds good in my rig. Drums are unbelievable, it will blow away most if not all drum modules. Can only do basic ASDR editing on board but it comes with a MR unisyn package which is cool if you use a computer. Since there are so many patches and with massive expansion capabilities, not much need for deep programming. Manual is okay, kinda huge but it works. If you've used a Ensoniq synth before it shouldn't be much of a problem. It's different from the TS or ASR but the underlying logic is the same. Within a week you'll be hanging it up because you push the buttons too fast.

64 Voices, enough if you have other stuff but since the MR uses a lot of layers per instrument doing complex stuff with just this would be tough. Effects are seriously cool, Chatter box and Formant Morph rock for lead sounds, the amp sims are good for that LO FI thang, and the bread and butter stuff is as good as an above average dedicated box. Expansions galore, I got the World and Dance ROMS and i'm just drowning in sounds. The expansions are 24 MB!!!!! EACH so it's like using a sampler, hell that's more than an ASR fully loaded, I hope they make a new ASR but anyway. Since they have so much room to work with the expansion sounds sound even better than the presets. There is a Flash Rom board coming out soon so you can load your own wave form as well, should be cool for one shot stuff. Wish it had a SCSI option, and Sequencer Memory expansion though. Sequencer is okay , TS sequencer is better but MR has Idea Pad which is a sequencer that runs as soon as you power up. Everything you do is recorded so it's a great idea catcher, it also has a built in drum machine with some very hip grooves. Highly inspirational and addictive, I can use it to practice with so my drum machine is history, solo/duo giggers will love this.

Ensoniq did away with the Patch Select buttons, and Poly Key pressure which is a real bum trip. Don't know what ya got until it's gone. And of course no ribbon controllers so definately not as happening as K2500 or Trinity, but since I'm a fairly shitty keyboard player i'm not gonna die. If you're into control well there's not much of that here. The sounds though are very well programmed and so there's a lot happening just using velocity. Pianos killer, Rhodes, Organs, Basses plentiful, Drums Phat, and with expansion boards well this thing can do just about any genre with balls. Kabuki theater soundtrack? Well they got ya covered. Again EFX are very usable, and sound quality is very high and what's really cool is for every FX Algo there are a bunch of presets already made so you can start from somewhere close and tweak from there just like TS and ASR.

Well, with the original OS this thing was pretty wacko, but I use a macintosh so i'm used to it. With 1.64 I can work with some confidence in the Sequencer but no cookie yet. Version 2 .0 is supposed to come out soon and hopefully that will solve most of the problems. Mechanically it's totally dependable. I would use it on a gig but I wouldn't use the sequencer just yet.

The folks in Malvern are great, never had a bad experience and I have a lot of Ensoniq Gear. Upgrades and Options are user installable on the MR so that's a big plus. Only thing, if you're the type of person who breaks machines just by looking at em, you should maybe get a friend to do the honors. It's kinda spooky pulling out a EPROM.

Yeah i'd buy it again. It's a serious keyboard, and it's fun to boot. I use it in all kinds of situations, capturing ideas, practicing, jamming, recording, gigging. It's a keyboard that makes you want to make music. Kinda like a MAC makes you want to play with a computer, it has personality . If you get a chance try and pry off one of those wheels on the front panel and you'll know what I mean. As for the cons well the sequencing software is kinda buggy, it's gotten much better but there's still room for improvement. I'd like to see it have at least the same level of power as the TS. I have a bunch of Roland and Korg gear too but that's just for more polyphony and sounds no fun. The MR is what the Korg I3 tried to be. The MR sounds pro, outside of the sequencer is pro, and it's fun, and it makes music. By the way check out Ensoniq's web page if you haven't already Paris is coming, better save your pennies. WWW.ENSONIQ.COM