Who'd have thought so much could come from this little rack unit?

For years, this innocuous little 1U rack module was was the driving force behind everything in my home and gigging setup. It packed one hell of a punch with high quality sounds and a multitimbral MIDI spec that was immensely flexible (particularly when controlling it from an older Ensoniq EPS - the two communicated very well for obvious reasons).

3 Oscillators with ROM, Wavetable and Subtractive synthesis available (or a mixture of any of those between the 3 oscs). 121 sampled waves, single cycle synth waves and 9 of Ensoniq's wonderful Transwaves. The 32 voice polyphony made piano sounds much easier to play realistically without voice stealing - also nice for big. moving pad sounds (which could really sound amazing with judicious use of a Transwave).

By the way, the 121st wave was, by Ensoniq's own admission, a slightly gimmicky thing which randomly sounded a single hit of every wave in the ROM. But, what made this hugely appealing was that you could trim and loop from any point of the sample thereby creating some freaky and ear-opening rhythmic or melodic loops - it was fantastic.

Filter was non-resonant which wasn't a major problem, and that was made up for by having numerous choices of hi pass, low pass each with varied poles. Onboard effects also added a lot to the palette. To be honest, programming was rather arduous on such a tiny display, and if you were going to be programming for any length of time, it really helped to have it at eye level.

I suspect I'd probably get it again if I had the chance. I traded it in when I got a Korg Triton, but there are times even today when I miss those wonderful Transwaves, and that unique "AllWaves" sample.

Great piece of kit

This was my main synth for a long time, much better than everything I had used at that time, sounds massive