Ensoniq SD-1/32

i miss this synth and would like to get more into into - i love it - - i have version 4.1 and don't know if there is a later version - someone help please - to let me know - did i miss out

keyboard action i have made up for by using a yamaha weighted to trigger my ensoniq sequencer

effects are fun to mess around with still

found a cool sound once calledpollyps - this is so much fun to use - u gotta hear it - it rocks
sounds like u are hitting a gong and a bass drum and a bass guitar - sweeeeet

every once in a while - the sequencer goes screwy and doubles in speed - its the tempo parameters that screwsd up

if anyone knows how to fix that please help- - - otherwise the synth rocks on gigs

don't know anyone with a sd1 and would love to connect with people that own and love the boardand sounds - - - i have a bunch but could always use more

i'd buy it again - even 13 years after the fact
it started as a vfx but i got the last upgrade to the 32 voice in north america


they called 300 stores across the country


helps to make music


helped make me a great songwriter

need more sounds and info re any people i could chat with fondly about the machine

who's out there
pleasse contact me

I bought the Ensoniq SD-1 in 1992 and have continued to use it until now. It is 2004 and I am currently trying to find another workstation ONLY because the keyboard is getting old and I am waiting for it to die. This keyboard is the BEST keyboard I have ever owned. I am so disappointed that Ensoniq did not keep it together and create more. For all of us that have fell in love with the Ensoniq Sd-1 it is making it very difficult for us to find another sequencer that has all the great features in an easy to use manner. Just bought a Yamaha and it seems like I would have to put more time into learning the machine than being a musician, writing songs. The new workstations focus more on so many features and you spend all your time trying to learn it, instead of writing and recording. The Ensoniq Sd-1 made it so easy to write and record. It's going to be a sad day when it finally dies. I may have to have a formal funeral. LOL! Also, if you look on Ebay the SD-1's sell for $900-1000. Whoever developed and created this keyboard should really get smart and make another keyboard and just add some sampling and a smart media card. They would sell millions.

So many great features but the best thing is I don't need a magnifying glass to read the scree.

10

10! Excellent! I used it for 12 years and still using it and it never broke down once.

Never needed it in 12 years...........

I paid $2500 for it in 1992 and it was worth triple that price!

I have sequencer OS version 4.10, the latest there is I think.
Patch editing is logical and easy once you're accustomed to Ensoniq's
parameter sets, quite similar in principle to the editing of an analog synth,
only with lots more parameters of course. That gorgeous 80 character
LED with the six soft buttons also helps a lot, as it does in sequencing.
In fact, I usually find myself preferring the SD-1's sequencer over Cubase!
No function is ever further away than three button pushes, actually.
The manual is an example of how things should be done, very detailed
and easy to understand.

32 voices are limited by today's standards, but at least the note dropping
in complex sequences works rather subtly and is hardly noticed unless
you really heavily overstress the polyphony. You can also assign a priority
level to each voice in a program, determining how likely it is to be
dropped when the synth runs out of polyphony. The keyboard's quality
is mediocre, a bit too noisy for my taste, but it does have polyphonic
aftertouch, a feature rarely found even in much more recent instruments.
There are no expansion capabilities except a cartridge slot for a couple
of additional patch and performance memories, but then, the board
is an expanded version (polyphony and sequencer memory) of the original
SD-1 already. The MIDI implementation hardly leaves anything to desire,
although it could be 16-part multitimbral instead of 12-part. It serves
well as a master keyboard, controlling internal sounds and several
external MIDI instruments at the same time through the sequencer which, as
I have mentioned, is very easy to use and flexible too.

The string patches are beautiful, particularly the solo strings like
cello and violin. Flutes and woodwinds sound very realistic as well.
Brass and organs are quite good, and so are the grand piano sounds,
the latter I think were outstanding at the time the board was built but
of course they're nowhere near those on newer instruments (not even to
mention Gigastudio) due to the limited sample memory. Many preset patches
can be vastly improved by a few minor tweaks in the editing section.
The really interesting sounds, however, are those Transwave-based
new age type pads and FX which are excellent for film scores and will
knock you off your chair! That synth really shows its extensive
modulation possibilities here. Analog type sounds sound very good
(unusually warm for a digital synth) as long as you can do without filter
resonance, for alas!, it isn't there.
Generally I think the limited 3.5 Meg wave ROM has been used very well;
there are department store keyboards out there today with 8 or even 16
MB and they don't even get close to the professional sound quality of
this board. The effects sound quite good and are very editable though
I wish individual effects could be assigned to each program and that
there were a bit more than just 27 algorithms. All in all, this synth
is good for rock/pop/indie stuff as well as industrial, new age/ambient
and soundtrack work. For techno type stuff, you'll find alternatives more
worthwile. And before I forget: the upright piano sounds (probably original
VFX ones) are REALLY crappy.
crappy.

I remember when I bought it in '95 my dad said: 'An American instrument?
Er...you know these are soldered together by hippies in garages don't you?'
As for my Matrix-1000, I might even subscribe to this - damn buggy thing.;)
BUT - the SD-1, unlike its predecessors, is very solid. I've used it
on gigs and rehearsals and it never failed. In the eight years I've
been owning it I've had to re-initialize it about half a dozen times
(usually when MIDI messages got tangled up), but with everything OK
afterwards. Never needed any servicing. A backup never does any damage,
though, and it's easy with the disk drive which also formats MS-DOS
compatible HD disks to its genuine 800k format by the way.

Nothing to say about this, see above.
As Ensoniq are no more as an independent company (...sob!...)there's
not much to expect. The web site is good though, with downloads for
all the non-current gear.

I have a strong relationship to this keyboard indeed. It was my first
real synthesizer and I chose it after auditioning it against a Roland
XP-50 and a Yamaha W7, which were the current models then but I thought
they sounded weaker and less special. It's certainly one of the best products
Ensoniq have ever released, and if you want a still professional synth
at 500 bucks or less, it's probably the best buy available.

At first this unit was a little difficult to figure out if you've never used one before, but after playing around with it, I found the layout to be quite logical and easy to understand (I'm a guitar player by trade, so the synth thing is totally new to me).

I managed to pick this jewell up in a pawn shop for $50 because it sat there for 3 years, and they wanted it gone! What a steal! After a little exploring, I found that this unit originally was the SD-1 w/21 poly, as the shell indicates (not the newer shell with the red "bar" saying "32 voice". Once the sequencing software was loaded, it told me that the 32 voice was enabled. Also the sequencer shows an available 75,000 note capability, so it has definately been upgraded to meet the sd1/32 specifications. It has a nice 24 track sequencer, that truely is easy to start recording with, and the display is very well layed out. It didn't come with the O.S. disk, but it did have a cartridge with it. I got the O.S. from Syntaur, and it worked perfectly. One key was damaged, so I took the whole unit apart, repaired the broken plastic key, and cleaned 12 years worth of dog hair and dust bunnies off all the circuit boards, etc... Clean as a whistle now, and functioning nicely.

Most instruments sound pretty realistic, but others are very dated. Actually, the trick is to learning how to mimick the way the instrument sounds with modulation, and key pressure, etc... Sure a sax is going to sound bad if you just hit the key, but if you really learn how to make the "expression" of the sound with the mod wheels, pitch bends, etc... you can get a far more realistic result. I think the effects so far sound good, but this being my first, I can't compare them to anything else. The touch response seems pretty good for it's time, but I think on todays standards, it might be a little more accurate, but for what most people would do, it is more than sufficient.

I've heard that this unit is a pretty reliable one, but the predecessors (VFX line) are a little flakey. Since I have had the unit completely apart (down to the screws) I can say that it looks very sturdy, and wouldn't expect many problems with it. Would like to start gigging with it, and that's the main reason for buying it....to eliminate the need for the rest of the band! :-) I'll give it a 9 based upon how it's built.

Never dealt with the company, and I hear that E-MU is trying to push any issues into a deep dark closet so they won't have to deal with them, but for it's age, you'll really need to find a good repair shop anyways. The access to everything seems quite simple, and the way it's put together seems to suggest that even if you need to repair a comonent on a circuit board, it shouldn't be too difficult.

Well, I feel that I counldn't have gotten a better deal with this unit, as the sequencer upgrade alone cost twice what I paid for the whole unit, and I'm not sure what the upgrade cost for the 32 note poly option. I think the demo really lets you know that once you know what you are doing, you can really make some awesome music on this thing, and it doesn't seem to require a degree to figure out how to use it. I think it will remain a permament member of my home studio. Have heard that this board is one of the best that Ensoniq ever built, and from what I've seen and heard from it, I'd believe that in a heartbeat! If anyone has any sound disks, I'd love to get some copies of them to start building my library :-)

I'm using 4.10 OS. Love this machine. I have two, but battery is dead in one and can't find a replacement.
editing presets is a breeze, but patch editing is a bit more complicated, and with the number of patches
available onboard and extra disks, it's not really needed on my end.
manual is superb, includes graphics and step by step instructions.
sequencer led screen is a breeze to use, even for the novice.

32 voice polyphony and the action is great. effects are limited.
the seq. expansion module to 75,000 notes is simple to add and it gives you alot
of room to layer multiple sequences before having to back up.
the disk drive has been very reliable, but it only reads dsdd disks and not the more
popular high density disks.
again, sequencer is terrific and the large screen eliminates alot of searching for particular functions.

i've never had the rig break down at a gig and for a long time used it solely as the only
rack at a gig. since it's now 10 yrs old, i'm waiting for something to go wrong, but on my original
board, it's going strong.

since emu took over ensoniq, i'm being shoved to other repair/parts areas, claiming they
no long have parts, etc.
prior to that, ensoniq was very responsive

i'm still looking for SD1/32 machines for backups and it was more than worth
the paid price. i now own a roland fantom, but prefer sequencing on the sd1.
one of the best machines made.IF ANYONE WANTS TO SELL ONE, CONTACT ME BELOW

I bought this keyboard new in 1992. It came with ROM version 4.02 and sequencer OS version 4.0. I have since upgraded the sequencer OS to 4.10, but don't have any idea what difference it made. This was my first keyboard, so it took me a little while to get up to speed. But once I learned my way around the menu structure, I found it pretty easy. I think the menus are a little more complicated than they need to be, I've owned it for about seven years and still get lost sometimes in areas that I don't use often. I think it would have been better to give it a few more buttons to cut down on the number of menu pages you sometimes have to click through. But the sequencer layout is very nice, and (at least to me) the functions are arranged logically. This was the main reason I purchased this unit, and I have been very pleased. The manual was very intimidating for me as a novice, but after I played around with the keyboard a little and got familliar with things, I went back and found the manual helpful. As far as sound quality goes, I think it ranges from moderate to excellent, depending on the patch you are hearing. Unfortunately, many of the sounds rely on the effects to make them sound decent, and once you drop them into a sequence where all tracks have to share one effect program, things can get ugly. But I use this synth for mostly "new age" type music, and the SD-1 has some very nice patches for this type of stuff. You can visit my web page to hear some of my compositions at http://wavecom.net/~sisson Editing patches is too complicated for me, so I don't know if it makes much of a difference. But I suppose it does because many of the demo sequences that come with the board make use of a lot of "custom" patches, and the demos sound really good.

As with any unit, you can never have too much polyphony, so if you get enough tracks going you will eventually use up all 32 voices and start to drop notes. Each program can use up to six voices, but most only use two or three at a time, so I don't have much of a problem ... or at least the effects of the dropped notes aren't usually too noticeable. The effects are good, except you are limited to 27 set effect combinations (such as flanger + reverb). But at the time this keyboard was new, this setup was pretty good. At least you do get some editing capabilities (for example you can adjust the depth and rate of chorus), but I find the effects programming somewhat confusing. Therefore, when I'm making a sequence, I usually pick the effect setting for the patch that needs it most, then try to bypass certain aspects of it for the other patches. Overall, this works pretty well, although you can't have a nice rich chorus on the bass guitar while still keeping a good distortion for the lead. Expansion capability is pretty minimal. It does have a slot on the top for a cartridge to add some more on-board sounds, but I think these are pretty scarce (I never have seen one). You can also expand the sequencer memory, but I have never found the need for it. The sequencer is very nice. I can't think of any features I wish it had. There are a total of 24 available tracks, which is too much. You'll definitely run out of polyphony before you run out of tracks. Visualising the tracks (the big picture) is a little difficult with the small 2x40 display, so a computer based sequencer program still is better, but as far as on-board sequencers go this is the best I've used. I haven't had much experience with the MIDI capabilities, but what I have used worked well and was easy to set up. This board is too old to have General MIDI, but I get by ;) The keys themselves are your basic synth-action variety, nothing too fancy as far as the feel. The aftertouch is polyphonic (if you are holding down 3 keys, then press harder on 1, only the one you press will respond). It is a nice feature, but I don't think I have ever had the need for it.

I think this keyboard's strongest sounds are the keyboard and piano varieties. However, I think too much of the memory is used up with piano sounds. There are a bunch of them that sound quite simmilar. But I think the piano sounds are better than any other keyboard. I've heard that the MR and ZR boards with the "perfect piano" sound are supposed to be among the best, but I haven't had a chance to audition them. The vocal and string pads are nice, but the synth pads have an annoying "slide up" sound. The pitch starts slightly flat, then slides up to the correct level. I'm sure this could be avoided in the patch programming somewhere, but I've never taken the time to learn how to do it. The sax and guitars are probably the weakest, although there is a 12-string and steel quitar sound that isn't too bad. But I always seem to avoid them because they just don't "work" for me. The drum kits are fairly good, but with the limited effects situation when working in the sequencer, they can be a little too harsh sounding. I sometimes have a hard time finding a snare that isn't too sharp or too dull. The rest of the drum kit sounds are average. I think the board works best for the kind of stuff I do on it... mostly soundtrack type new age or contemporary instrumental. It would do well with pop oriented rock too. The effects are very good sounding, but not too flexible. As I mentioned elsewhere, you are limited to a selection of 27 set combinations. Although most of them work well for the instrument you are playing, it does get a little bad when you start to work on a sequence, where all your tracks have to share ONE of the 27 effect settings. The keyboard velocity is a little too sensitive for me. You can adjust it to 16 different settings, but I usually keep it near the hardest setting. But if you have a lighter touch than me it would be really flexible. The aftertouch, on the other hand, is not sensitive enough for me. I find I have to press much harder than I'd like to get a response. However, I've noticed that the white keys actually FLEX a little which reduces the aftertouch effect! In fact, there is a point where if you press harder, the aftertouch actually DECREASES!! The black keys do not have this problem. There are two "patch select" buttons above the pitch and mod wheels which I find very useful. They give you up to four different combinations of voices for each sound program. This is nice because you can give your sax that extra flourish on certain notes or alter the sound of your current instrument in many different ways on the fly. The sequencer records these patch changes, so you can be very expressive without much overdubbing.

I have heard horror stories about the VFX. And since the SD-1 is a close relative to the VFX, I am suprised that this keyboard is as reliable as it is. This thing is a ROCK! I have had it for seven years and have only had to send it in for a faulty switch in one of the keys (I played it VERY HARD for about a year in a local bar band, and one of the keys became intermittent). Besides that (which was really from my abuse and not a defect) I have had absolutely NO problems with it. The operating system seems very stable. It almost NEVER crashes, in fact about the only time it does is when accessing a defective disk. Depending on what happens, it may lock up and have to be re-booted. Once it reboots you have to reload the sequencer OS. But that really is a problem with the disk, not with the board itself.
It only has three little quirks which bug me:
1) There is a data entry slider next to the up and down buttons for setting values such as tempo, track volume, etc. I use the slider to quickly shoot the value to either its max or min setting, then use the buttons to get the value where I want it. Therefore, the slider is usually either at the very top or very bottom. Sometimes, the board will spontaneously read the position of the slider and plug that in to the currently selected item on the screen. So I can be recording a track at 120 bpm, and it will suddenly change to 250... or to 25! This can be avoided by pushing one of the "tracks" buttons after you start the sequencer so the tempo setting is not currently displayed... but it is an annoying bug.
2) After you turn the board off and back on, the currently selected sound and the currently selected sequence will have their effects setting changed to LARGE HALL REVERB. It's simple to reset the sound, just select another sound, then go back to the one you want and the effects will be right. The same technique will work for sequences too. When you select another sequence, it will ask "save changes?" Just say "no" and then select the original sequence again and the effects will be right. I always make sure I have an empty, blank sequence selected before I shut the board off. Again, it's easy to get around it, but you shouldn't have to.
3) On rare occasions, the board will start to click and pop a little. It almost sounds like a "spark" like there is some sort of static electricity building up somewhere inside. I'm not sure what causes it, but it seems to be before the effects processor, because the effects setting modifies the sound. If you have a reverb setting active, the clicks will have a nice spaceous sound... if you have a chorus, the clicks will have an echoey, underwater sound. It seems to only happen when a reverb or chorus is going. Sometimes, they will only last for a few seconds, sometimes a little longer. It doesn't happen very often, so I haven't been able to learn much about it.
I have used it on a gig without a backup, and I would do it again in a heartbeat. I am extremely happy with it and feel like over the seven years I've owned it, I have definitely got my money's worth.

The only repair I had done to it was done under warranty at the dealer.
I have had no personal service experience with the ENSONIQ company.
The OS update was a free software download from the ENSONIQ website. It's nice that they have file archives like that, even for these "non- current" boards.

If it were lost or stolen, I would try to replace it. I just today ordered a used MR-61 and am awaiting its arrival. But I don't plan on parting with my trusty SD-1 anytime soon. I have a real attachment to this keyboard. When I went shopping seven years ago, I compared it primarily to the KORG O1W/fd. I chose the SD-1 primarily because of its sequencer, but somewhat also becuase of the sounds and ease of use. Several years later, I used an O1W/fd in a college computer music class. Although I liked the larger LCD display as opposed to my SD-1's ALL CAPS flourescent display, I felt they didn't make good use of the space. I also didn't like the sequencer at all, and although the KORG had some nice synth sounds, I felt that my SD-1 was better in almost every other way. I ended up bringing my SD-1 with me to class. About the only things I wish my SD-1 had are more sounds, more polyphony and an MS-DOS compatible disk drive. The main reason I'm getting the MR-61 is to expand my sound capabilities. I'm getting it used through the Internet, so I hope it turns out to be as trustworthy as my SD-1. But even with his new roommate, I'm sure my SD-1 will not be neglected. I find it enhances my musical creativity and helps me make good music quickly and efficiently. I've heard that the MR-61's sequencer was a little buggy at first. I know there have been several software updates, so I hope it's more stable. But even if it isn't, I know I can count on my SD-1 to do the honors. This keyboard was worth every penny I paid. My SD-1 has made me an ENSONIQ fan for life!

Presets:decent editing patches:Easy if you're used to Ensoniq's way of doing things, and not that bad if you're not.A patch editor helps with stuff like envelopes Manual:excellent.Ensoniq manuals are always well done

polyphony:32 voice effects:yes expansion:cartridge slot for patches/patch banks.There is also a disk drive for storing patches,patchbanks,sequences, and songs,as well as external SYS-EX MIDI:channel and poly aftertouch,a very well specified sequencer(for a built-in) and the ability to record SYS-EX from another device

Realism:a mixed bag. I think that could be said for any sample-and-synthesis instrument Type of music:I use it to make techno(I can hear people cringing), but I think it's meant to be used for rock/new age/soundtrack stuff Effects:I think they are OK Responsiveness:Yes it does.The aftertouch helps,as does the numerous modulation routing options In addition,the patch select buttons allow quick sound changes within a patch Velocity/Aftertouch:response is good

Dependability:yes Would I use it with no backup:probably

Bad point:No resonant filters Another bad point:too much waveform memory reserved for piano waves... Wish list:Resonant filters;Cut and Paste on sequencer