Ensoniq VFX-SD Version 2

Mine is the end of line (latest) software version - I bought it pre owned in 1995

Presets are good: Pianos are well catered for as are strings.

The VFX has a somewhat complex architecture that takes some reading up on first but its fairly easy to program as the pages are logically laid out.

The manual is huge but very informative.

Polyphony is fine as long as you dont use 6 oscillators per voice and then start to layer the voices.

FX are good and easy to program

Sequencer is very straight forward to use.

Very unique sounds if you are prepared to program it. The Transwave synthesis method allows you to sweep through a wavetable like a PPG.
Plenty of PCM waveforms to choose from. Nice filters though lacking in resonance. It sounds sort of D50 / DX7 / PPG like, but is much more dirtier than the Japanese machines and a little less wierd than the German ones.

There is a very comprehensive matrix modulation function that lets you warp sounds in a veriety of ways.

I've heard all the reports of the problems with the VFX, but thankfully my end of line model doesnt have any of them thanks to the bugs being fixed by Ensoniq. Ive had no problems with it, though it does get very hot near the heatsink.

Never had any calibration probs and the battery is still OK.

Very sturdy metal casing that can stand being dropped.

I recieved an owners manual from Ensoniq free of charge - great customer service! Pitty they dont exist anymore.

I think the VFX SD II is a great synth and I would hunt another one down if anything happened to mine.

The sounds are very unique.

It would be nice if the filters were resonant.

Easy to use? i have had mine for 12 years or so. There are still a few things I don't know and I still feel like I can find new ways to get interesting sounds out of it. I bought some third party sounds from an independent company and..brought this thing right up to the new millenium, Now reprogram THOSE sounds and here we are!

I use this as a MM-T8 style rugged, dust in your face outback hardware sequencer ready for the road.It just has cool sounds and a floppy drive too. There must have been a lot of variance between the actual units manufactured because despite what I always hear people say..mine works well, takes a beating and quickly recovers from gliches.Reasonable polophony, good fx, can get more sounds if you make them or look for them, good sturdy keyboard. On-board sequencer? If it were a space shuttle I wouldn't be scared to try to drive it, floor it and do loop-d-loops!My ONLY complaint is that sending program data..there aren't enough numbers to drive new moduals that have 1000 sounds or more. This thing only goes up to 127. I wonder if there is some way to fix this?

Takes some effort..but you have to demonstrate your skill level.

No matter what software sequencer I have used..I always come back to this. I do have two just in case though.

haven't called them in a long long time and I hear that ensoniq isn't really around anymore. too bad..I kind of grew up with ensoniq.

I would buy three of these until software sequencers and computers can hit the road, get tossed around, get pounded on and really come up to some real world respectablity. Not just pleasantly sitting your office next to the fish tank.

Compared to the other sample based production synthesizers of the early 90s the unit is fairly easy to use. Many of the sounds are geared more toward "ambient" or "new age" type music due to the flexibility of one patch being comprised of 6 separate voices. Editing the patches is easy once you read the manual and have an idea of how the synthesizer works. I have Unisyn for a patch editor, however in many circumstances I find I can edit the VFX faster without Unisyn. If I were building a sound from scratch however I would definitely use an editor.

I would consider this synthesizer (or the Ensoniq SD) to be one of the most powerful and flexible music production synthesizers in its price range of its time. What other keyboard in 1992 had a 24 track sequencer and saved its data to both floppies and cartridge? In reality I found that I ran out of voices way before using up 24 tracks! The effects were very good compared to other units at that time. The main feature it missed was external pan control.

The best way to judge the expressiveness and sounds is play the demo songs that came with the unit. I wouldn?t choose this unit if you wanted to work only in techno or dance music, as it seems to be more suited for moody, exotic, or new age music.

This is the horrible downfall of the VFX-SD and many other Ensoniq products. If you perform live you had better have at least 1 back up VFX-SD. The unit seems to do much better in a studio environment when its not being moved around so much. It seems Ensoniq would pack very powerful features into their products that were years ahead of the competition and release them too soon without enough testing. There are some common problems specific to the VFX-SD that can be fixed. Symptoms of these problems are reboot messages, calibration errors and parameter stability. If possible try to find a late model VFX such as the VFX-SD Version 2 or the Ensoniq SD which is the final and best of the VFX synthesizers. Anyone who desires more information on fixes or problems should contact http://www.chickensys.com/ I consider myself very lucky that my unit has only been in the shop once.

Ensoniq is almost dead. It is interesting that one of their last products was called the Fizzmo. They were bought out by Emu Creative Labs which already has fine products that didn't need the competition. To my knowledge they don't support any of the older units, however there are companies that do have older parts. Go to www.chickensys.com for a starting point. Garth is very knowledgeable about these wonderful beasts.

It took Korg, Yamaha, and Roland years to make synthesizers equally powerful to what Ensoniq had with their keyboards in the early 90s. Unfortunately the reliability factor was their big downfall.

Would I buy another VFX-SD? Yes if the price was right. I would expect to invest an additinal 150.00 in shop repairs unless the common bugs were already repaired by the prior owner. I have owned this unit for 10 years and have used it on a daily basis. I have lots of other synthesizers, but few new models on the market seem to catch my ear as something really new or different. Today I find myself working more and more with software synthesizers such as Reaktor.