Ensoniq Mirage

You definitely need to read the manual thoroughly if you want to understand the Mirage. After a while, entering two digit hex numbers on the display may become second-nature to you.

Definitely not for the faint of heart or the impatient.

8 note polyphony. The "built-in effect" is the warm analog filter that everyone who loves the Mirage raves about. It isn't very easy to use unless you like torturing yourself.

Considering it's a circa mid-80's machine, it is surprisingly versatile so long as you buy a $30 to $50 special version of the OS. But by the time you invest all your money in this thing, you may as well have gotten a decent 12-bit sampler... or save up for a 16-bit sampler with "warm analog filter" effects.

What you sample in doesn't necessarily equal what you sample out. That's why people use this thing... so they can mangle their samples or get "pretty cool approximations" of the original samples. Basic vanilla sampling is easy. Multisampling is a hex nightmare.

The Mirage works best with deep, low sounds. High sounds just sound too thin on it. If you want to jam with a kickass bass, sample in some Moog basses and get ready to rock.

The Mirage has been used everywhere. Check out Stevie Nicks' song, I Can't Wait, for some Mirage sounds. I give the sound capability a 3, that is, a cheap Casio keyboard with a nice analog filter.

Given the age of mine, it is quite reliable.

Ensoniq gave up on this, but there are a lot of fanatical people who have Web pages touting the Mirage's virtues. Who needs Ensoniq?

If it were lost or stolen, I would think "A great burden has been lifted." I would get a K2000RS. Moving floppies in and out of the Mirage is not my idea of fun. Like any sampler, once you learn its intricacies and sample in some sounds, it can be pretty useful.

Rack mount Mirage ver 3.2, I also have the Soundprocess OS (the killer synth OS) from Syntaur. Pretty easy to start sampling and sequencing. I was sequencing original samples within two days.

No FX. Some esoteric expansion capablities from Syntaur (no support
from Ensoniq anymore...this thing was made when Regan was still in office). I happily have the rack version..so no keyboard action.
The sequencer is a joke. Sturdy, neat sound quality, affordable. Great
odd-ball unit. Inspiring sounds on Soundprocess OS and as a sampler it encourages user ingenuity in a good way. It is limited and versatile at the same time.

The Ensoniq sample discs the I recieved with the unit are terrible.
Bad flute and trombone emulations that make toy Casio keyboards from Radio Shack seem cool. Take your own samples. I use my own samples and
Syntaur's Soundprocess Synth OS (with outboard processing) for some good contempoary flavorings for dance music applications.

Very solid construction. My unit is over ten years old with multipule owners and I looks and functions good as new. Wouldn't gig with it because of constant disc changing needs.

Ensoniq gave up it's concern for this unit long ago. Syntaur productions has all sorts of great things for it.

Great unit. Cheap but neato. Great starter sampler... or for a budget studio. I have fun using this thing...but there are much much more sophisticated samplers out there these days.

If you want a sampler that's clean and easy to get around in, this is NOT it! if you want an indestructable quick and dirty chunk of history, this is it! as long as you have the reference card, it's really not too bad. you learn the 4 or 5 numbers/commands very quickly.

it's actually got a mini-"sequencer," and a atari-esq jack for playing pong, or increasing the sequencer capacity. the filter is pretty good, and can save some of the sounds.

with 8 bits, it doesn't hiss, but it's got a lot of dither! :) if you're very carefull, you can still use these things..

i (shamedly) have two of these thing, a rack and a keyboard unit. once i had to replace the floppy drive due to a pepsi-ed disk. these wouldn't die if i set fire to them.

never tried.

as a cheap bulletproof sampler for <$200, why not? make sure it comes with the reference card, or you're screwed.

not easy to program, and looping is a bitch without an editor. but you get used to it fast. And once you do you will be amazed at what this can do. The manual for masos is pretty well written.

The shittiest keyboard I have ever seen is on this thing. Has an expansion port for a sequencer, not that it would be worth it. The on board sequencer is 333 notes. Pretty straight forward, if you spend ten min. with this keyboard you will understand the basics.

for weird, and odd sounds you can't get better than this. very dirty samples that just add to the sound.

very reliable, except for the keys themselves.

It's ten years or more old, what support.
There are a lot of things (sample disks, manuals,disks with different operating sys.) available for the Mirage at
Syntaur Productions
http://www.fatsnake.com/syntaur/
I think Ensoniq sold them the rights to everything.

I would definetly own more than one of these. Up to 16 different samples spread over the whole keyboard through splitting, is to cool with the way this thing sounds.